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Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

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41–50 of 108 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#41

I know you say "apart from the obvious 32 GB ram", but I'm gonna say it anyway. On the off chance anyone from Apple reads this, I want to signal boost that as much as I can. It gets in the way daily, and as more places adopt docker (and Mac not having a native docker layer worth using), the RAM limit is stifling . A keyboard nobody complains about again. Better battery life. A return to Magsafe.

Rant to Intel. It’s an Intel limitation, not a specific choice Apple made. If you use LP DDR ram, which all power efficient laptops do (aka not just Apple), you can’t have more than 16gb ram.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#42
post #38

The MacBook Pro should be Apple's tank. It should be able to handle the most arduous, demanding tasks and still go 8-10 hours on its battery. Sorry if that's adds a little more weight, it's a pro machine - if you want something ultraportable, svelte and light then you should get a MacBook Air. As far as ports are concerned USB-C is great, however a USB 3.0 port and an SD card reader would be super handy for a pro mac…

I can definitely echo the “getting used to” the keyboard phase and the trackpad issues. I’ve found it hard to stray from my historic MacBook usage due to the awesome trackpads, until the current one. It’s still a great trackpad (generally), but the false inputs and palm detection are certainly a weak point for the current series and software.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#43
post #19
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remove the touch bar and reintroduce the magnetic power connector - it was such a great thing. And then please make the arrow up and down keys larger - I find myself hitting the wrong key several times every day.

I personally don’t miss MagSafe like I thought I would. I’d rather have charging ports on both sides like the current MBP.

I agree, I never want to see a proprietary apply power adapter ever again, especially given their history of disintegrating within a year or two.

Charge ports on either side fix a real pain point for me - all my workspaces happen to have power on the right hand side.

Also, if you need the safety of magsafe, you can get magnetic-connect usb-C cables, where the usb 'stub' fits into the female port, but connects magnetically to the rest of the cable.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#44
I'm surprised no one has mentioned an OLED screen yet. Lenovo has been making some laptops with them: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/133452/lenovo-th.... Still, Apple ships so many units and has likely locked up so much capacity for the iPhone X that I suspect we're unlikely to see OLED displays in their laptops this year.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#45
post #28

After some research for my next anticipated laptop, a lot of people in the Mac community seem to want a 14" MacBook Pro that combines the portability of the 13" with the power of the 15". Personally, I would like Apple to match the amount of ports in the lower spec MacBooks as there are in higher spec ones; seriously, why do the non-touch bar 13" MacBooks have only two thunderbolt ports while the touch bar model has…

Because each of those Thunderbolt 3 ports adds significant cost. I guess they could’ve added two USB-C ports, but that likely would’ve caused major confusion for customers (the confusion is already bad enough in the USB-C port form factor imho).

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#46

Headphone jack. Escape key. MagSafe charger.

The proprietary chargers were expensive and disintegrate within a couple of years. Also scavenging the office for someone with the right version, and wattage of charger when you left yours at home.

No thanks.

USB-C should become a standard, so they'll be ubiquitous, cheap, etc.

If you need a safe cable you can get magnetically-connected USB-C cables.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#47

These are all obvious fixes. 1. 32+gb ram, don't be stupid 2. 2+ usb-c, plus at least one legacy usb-a 3. hdmi 4. either drop touch bar or make it easily support normal top row buttons

Re: #1

Go rant to Intel. It’s their fault they don’t support LP-DDR4 or DDR4L.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#48
post #40

These are all obvious fixes. 1. 32+gb ram, don't be stupid 2. 2+ usb-c, plus at least one legacy usb-a 3. hdmi 4. either drop touch bar or make it easily support normal top row buttons

HDMI 4 doesn't even exist. What are you talking about?

The 4 is a list entry number. He wants an HDMI port back on the MBP.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

#50
For the MBP as we know it, I'd love to get a 15" model without the Touch Bar / Touch ID. To me, it's a deal breaker. The 13" looks nice, but it's just too small. I'm not sure what to make of the gigant trackpad – not putting it under your palms is just so much more sensible than palm detection. (For the same reason I'm not fond of edge to edge phone displays.) Sad to see MagSafe go, as well as many other connectors. The previous model was pretty great and it's unfortunate it can't be bought (new) anymore with decent graphics.

32GB of RAM is welcome, as well as some more screen estate. I'd now probably get a 17" model if I could, but lacking that, thinner screen edges. If it can be done on the Dell XPS (and the iPhone X), so can it on the MBP.

The MBP doesn't feel all that pro anymore, though. When the MBPr was first released, it truly set itself apart from the MBP at the time. It was an insta-buy and I'm still using it for the lack of better options. Now that the consumer line has caught up, what I'd really like to see is the introduction of a legitimate mobile workstation with similarly sized innovations at a similarly reasonable price. Where is my Xeon with ECC?

Completely in vain, I'll close by stating that a bit of water/dirt-proofing would be great, but I don't expect to ever see that happen.

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