Macbook Pro (2016)

[Durzel]

K12beano said:

Durzel said:

tim0409 said:

It will be interesting to see what they do with the MacBook (Air) 13 if anything?

It sounds like they just put it to sleep?

I didn't quite get that. Is it sleeping with the fishes?

The Air is no more, replaced by the MacBook Pro (because it's thinner)

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W00DY said:

UK prices are going to be brutal.

15" MBP is $2399 base.. with Brexit I will assume that's at least £2399.. and that's with a 256GB SSD

[Durzel]

I pulled the trigger on the top spec one. I need to lie down.

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craigjm said:

Durzel said:

I pulled the trigger on the top spec one. I need to lie down.

4 grand? are you clinically insane?

Alas yes. Although I regretted the purchase immediately and cancelled it to reorder the 1TB version. Still eye wateringly expensive (£3200+ with HE discount), but I need a new laptop.

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leglessAlex said:

Out of interest, why? Not being snarky, genuinely curious

Was it a case of you can afford it and you want it so why not, or is there some software that won't run on Windows that you have to use?

I mean, I have to admit I'm not sure I can name a Windows based machine that has the same combination of battery life, looks, performance and of course none of them use OSX but it just seems like £3,200 just isn't 'worth' it my any measure.

Without being gauche it's mainly that I "can afford it and I want it so why not". Am curious to see how the touch panel pans out, I shouldn't be too inconvenienced by the lack of ports.

I certainly don't think it's "worth" £3200 but if I want a current gen MBP what choice do I have?

I also think that Apple really dropped the ball with the event - they didn't announce anything of substance that hadn't already been leaked, and I don't buy that the touch panel is the be all and end all of everything (the "DJ" doing his "set" on it looked ridiculous)

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leglessAlex said:

Sounds fair, I can't (and wouldn't!) disagree with any of that. As you say, it's what you have to spend if you want a powerful OSX laptop and so there's not really any alternative.

Interestingly I just priced up the same spec without the student discount and it's £3,700+. Completely absurd.

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Craikeybaby said:

As has been mentioned, the 12" Macbook is available at the old price from other outlets, although I'd advise being quick, before they put their prices up to match Apple.

I never used the headphone jack on my last MBP. It's rather bizarre that the device that is far more likely to get used with headphones has no port, and the one that isn't - does. Different design departments I guess.

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thebraketester said:

4-5 weeks lead time. WTF?

I wouldn't read too much into that. Apple does tend to inflate those times on newly released products, it's a shrewd sales tactic.

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Why did they remove the flip out arms?

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SD is a perfectly functional and practical format. Just because it is old that doesn't mean it's obsolete.

I can somewhat get Apple pushing USB-C (though the lack of it on the iPhone feels like a bizarre misstep), but I'm yet to be convinced of a viable replacement for SD. WiFi transfers certainly isn't it, with support being patchy and transfers ridiculously slow by comparison. I don't even think USB is practical as it ties up the camera during the transfer. I'm not even remotely a professional photographer but I imagine many of them carry a number of SD cards and switch them out as needed to carry on shooting, perhaps even to get an assistant to download, all while the camera remains in action.

Suggesting direct cable connections, or even WiFi, shows a staggering lack of understanding of the practicality of how this port would have been used.

Edited by Durzel on Sunday 6th November 20:10

[Durzel]

craig1912 said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned but it might be important to some

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/15/macbook-pro-to...

Disappointing, but not altogether unsurprising. Ended up going for a 1TB one as a halfway house between usable storage and insane pricing (relatively speaking of course).

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GCH said:

I had an opportunity to extensively try out all three new models this afternoon.

snip

Thanks for that.

I've got a new one on order (arriving early next week) and keyboard feel is one of my big worries. I'm not a diehard Apple fan but figured they wouldn't really mess something up really badly, and I needed a replacement MBP for my one that was stolen last year.

I get the feeling with the Touch bar, as I did when it was announced, that it is riding the line between potentially being removed completely in the future, or simply incorporated into a fully touch screen. Apple have had somewhat of a Midas touch under Jobs, but have been mostly incremental under Cook - and I wonder if this MBP might be the tipping point in Apple's hubris - very expensive, above average but not stellar hardware specs (this has always been the case though) combined with a lot of things removed in the name of progress..

Unlike removing the floppy drive and DVD drive USB itself - as a storage and communications medium - isn't going anywhere. Who is to say that we will necessarily settle on USB-C? I guess the hope would be that the port itself would stay the same, so would therefore be backwards compatible.

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Mr Whippy said:

In a way I can see where Apple are going. Get everyone over to the new port asap. They've just done it a bit too suddenly even for their own fenced in customer base!

I don't actually see the dongles as a massive deal, if one were to take the "this is the future" vision as gospel. The problem, I think, comes from the fact that they did so many other things at the same time that are were also extremely polarising too.

Removing the SD card slot, leaving the headphone port (undermining their whole iPhone 7 "courage" spiele), adding a Touch Bar which feels a bit like a vanity project, chasing thinness and lightness at the expense of practical features like increased battery life, etc. And to top it all of they are charging a significant premium over the outgoing model, and that's not just to us poor Brexit Brits.

I've bought a new MBP (I needed one) but I can recognise that it feels very much like a first generation of a new era of MacBook Pros. I would not be surprised to see a refresh within a year that adds the SD card slot back, shrinks the trackpad slightly to accommodate a larger Touch Bar, etc.

Edited by Durzel on Monday 21st November 15:56

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BalhamBadger said:

So has anybody actually got one yet?

Got my fully loaded (bar 1TB SSD) 15" one a couple of weeks ago now. I'm happy with it, the keyboard wasn't as jarring as I feared it would be. All in all pleased with the purchase.

The big down sides however were the exorbitant price, and to be honest I've found the Touch bar to be a bit of a gimmick so far. I find myself going out of my way to press buttons on it, rather than it being an organic user experience. Am hoping that will change though - 3rd party app support seems non existent.

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Matt.. said:

My thoughts on the touchbar are that for 90% of users the function keys are a waste of space. The only keys most people ever use are the volume and brightness shortcuts. These are replicated on the touchbar, and the touchbar gives more functionality. I see it as an interesting change and hope it evolves as developers build for it. We're in a world now where touchscreens are the norm, and function keys are a strange archaic concept to many.

Are you saying they're archaic because Apple has put that thought in your head?

Maybe that's a little harsh, but I wonder how many people were thinking this prior to Apple's keynote, and how many people think it now - purely on the strength on what is arguably a heavily commercially driven decision.

I think you can make an argument that the function keys were under utilised, but they were (and still are) at the top of the keyboard, an area that is not a natural place for constant usage. Apple are trying to change that paradigm, whilst still leaving the Touch bar in place of where the Function keys would go. In putting the Touch bar there, and adding all kinds of new traditionally non-Function key features there, you're asking the operator to look down from the screen to use a part of the keyboard that is not organically part of the flow, if that makes sense.

I have a new tbMBP and so far I've found myself using the Touch bar arbitrarily, rather than intuitively. It doesn't feel like one of Apple's historical "you didn't know you needed this until you've experienced it". I fully expect support to improve as time goes on, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it were moved somewhere else (eg OLED Trackpad?), or removed entirely - though I seriously doubt this will happen due to Apple's hubris.

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dmsims said:

Why is the battery life so poor ?

The battery is smaller, the Touch bar uses battery power. I don't imagine it's a pretty big mystery.