New MacBook Pro Thoughts

What do you guys think of the all-new MacBook Pros (with and without the touchbar and touch id). Please include your thoughts of the connectivity as far as the ports go, too. Thanks! There is a major issue in that you cannot connect your brand-spankin-new iPhone 7 / Plus to your $2000 MacBook Pro without a dongle! This is insane. In addition, they are contradicting themselves through removing the headphone jack on the iPhone, and then a couple months later, keeping it on the MacBook. Like what? Finally, there is not a lightning port on the New MacBooks, meaning that you cannot connect your new lightning headphones that came in the box with your iPhone 7 to your new MacBook Pro? You would have to have a lightning to headphone jack dongle for that, not the headphone jack to lightning one that is included in the box! What are you doing Apple?!?! Do their iPhone and Mac teams never talk to one another, and that is why there are so many conflicts within their own product lineup.

Disclaimer: Yes, I do realize that Apple is likely to ditch Lightning in favor of USB-C for the 10th anniversary iPhone, but for the time being, come on Apple. Also, no LPDDR4 ram or 32GB of it. What the heck. No SD Card slot either, when they say they like things that are thin and light.

Apple has fallen off its high throne of innovation. Now it seems like it struggles to survive in the market. I’m not even the slightest bit impressed by their new products.

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Exactly. They try to say that this is the future and that they have courage, when really all they are doing is ditching ports that everyone uses and loves in their daily lives. I dislike their over obsession with thin and light, especially when they are sacrificing battery life and power for it. Ugh, Apple.

I stop at expensive. Don’t read further.

Not iSheep.

As far as specs, I think it’s solid. The Touch Bar is a gimmick, although a nice touch. The keyboard is yucky.

Now to the part everyone raves about. I actually support Apple’s move in forcing USB Type-C. I think USB Type-C is the new industry standard, and the only way people will adapt is by being forced. Here’s where Apple went wrong: removing the SD card reader (because that’s not a peripheral… USB Type-C can power all peripherals [aka monitors, external hard drives, etc]). They should have left that. In addition, they shouldn’t have been greedy and included a USB Type-C to USB adapter in the box.

Overall, I think it’s still a decent laptop, but Apple showed serious greed on major levels. I think it’s a negative direction for Apple, and if they’re not careful, they will suffer in their sales.

Just see the price, and stop there.

I’m typing this on a 2016 13" MacBook Pro without a touchbar that I purchased a couple days ago from the refurb store for $1269. I’m perfectly comfortable paying that price, and the major limitation I have is the lack of aftermarket chargers. I am almost 100% using odrive to manage my various cloud services, and rarely plug anything in except the power cord. At my MBA program, I used to be the person to plug in my computer to the HDMI port and display my screen, but I’ve offloaded that to others now.

I moved from a 2014 3.0 GHz 13" Macbook Pro (I gave it to my daughter for college) and I feel like this computer is just as good overall. I enjoy the keyboard and the new large touchpad, as well as the improved speaker placement. I took a look around at other ~3 pound laptops, and most were similarly priced, but without a Retina screen. A Dell XPS 13" is $1350 with half the storage, and it’s not as maintenance free as a Macbook.

Not sure if that answers your question? The charger situation does get under my skin, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

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Thanks, man!!

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