16-inch MacBook Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#291

Post by jobvandervoort » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

insta_anon wrote: post #242

Can someone explain to me how Apple can justify only including a 720p FaceTime HD camera into the "the world’s best pro notebook"? The last iPhone that had this FaceTime camera was the 6S, released in 2015. Since the iPhone 7 (2016) the phones have had at least a 1080p FaceTime camera. Given that FaceTime / Skype calls are such a common use case and rarely anyones uses external webcams anymore, why doesn't Apple use…

It makes no sense. I use a $100 Logitech Webcam and _regularly_ get comments about how sharp and clear the video is, using Zoom.

There's value in a better camera, even in laptops.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#292

Post by criddell » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

charleshan wrote: post #184

Don't forget that the Touch Bar costs an additional $400 for consumers. The 2015 model was the best MacBook Pro. Perhaps the best laptop yet.

It always seemed backwards that the touch bar is a pro feature. Aren't pros the group that learn all the keyboard commands? The touch bar seems like it would be most useful to non-pro users.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#293

Post by dharma1 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

faizshah wrote: post #237

alvern wrote: post #59

So the top of the line specs get you: * 2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz * 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory * AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory * 8TB SSD storage for $6099USD. I wonder how it will handle the thermals.

What is the state of deep learning on AMD? Is this GPU usable with pytorch?

Pretty bad. There is pytorch for rocm (AMD's CUDA emulation) but I don't think anyone actually uses it.

https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/pytorch/issues

I don't think you'll be doing much local ML work on this laptop

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#294

Post by debaserab2 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

mstade wrote: post #251

ses1984 wrote: post #80

"I'm so glad this model has a touchbar" "I would buy a dell xps but only if it had a touchbar" things no one ever said.

I initially found the touchbar to mostly be a gimmick, new for the sake of being new and not really bringing anything useful to the table. A couple of years later and I'm a convert. If I had to buy a new MBP today I would definitely make sure it has a touchbar. It turns out app makers have found some nifty uses for it, like the ability to quickly mute/unmute when in conference calls, quickly changing volume/brightnes…

Literally everything you've cited as a QoL improvement exist on most (if not all) laptops with physical F-keys.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#295

Post by jmull » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

I loved the marketing copy in the "New Magic Keyboard" section...

Wow! A physical escape key?!? A scissor mechanism?!? Will the innovation ever cease?!!?!

But more seriously, kudos to them for the full 180 fix.

(Well, I know some hate the existence of the Touch Bar, but I think it has very interesting potential which perhaps could be realized with its major fatal flaw finally fixed.)

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#296

Post by jacques_chester » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #30

chinhodado wrote: post #3

> Featuring a new Magic Keyboard with a redesigned scissor mechanism and 1mm travel for a more satisfying key feel, the 16-inch MacBook Pro delivers the best typing experience ever in a Mac notebook. Feels like they claim "best typing experience" every time they release a new laptop.

Don't the claim the best everything everytime they release a new anything?

> Ladies and Gentleman, for the 17th year in a row, the future of robotics has arrived.

https://comb.io/8ajSgE

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#297

Post by DennisP » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

I wish it had one USB-A. I plug in a mechanical keyboard, and when a job provided the previous macbook pro, I managed to lose or break a dongle about once a month.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#298

Post by bluedino » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

merb wrote: post #199

charleshan wrote: post #184

Don't forget that the Touch Bar costs an additional $400 for consumers. The 2015 model was the best MacBook Pro. Perhaps the best laptop yet.

btw. the 16" model is cheaper than the 15" from the year before (in the base configuration they are equal, if you add additional ssd space or so, the 16" model comes out cheaper). not that it matters much, since the 15" pro late 2013 model was cheaper than both.

To be fair you could get the 15" for $2099 from various resellers

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#299

Post by dpicco » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

It's a small detail, but I'm disappointed that they didn't make the screen edges curved as they have done with iPhone, Watch, etc. That little touch made it so much more organic/human - the square screen edges just look dated in comparison to that design improvement in their other devices.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#300

Post by samatman » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

barrowclift wrote: post #72

Genuinely curious, why did so many developers ask for the return of the physical Escape key when you could easily re-map it to caps lock? Before this was an officially supported option, I always hated having to do big hand-shimmies every time I needed to press the escape key, which is quite often for programs like vim!

I have caps lock mapped to backspace, and the delete key deletes forward.

I also have press-and-release option/alt for esc, but sometimes get lazy and try to hit the tiny touchbar icon for esc.

A physical escape key will be nice to have, and inverted T arrows will be really nice to have.

I wish they'd added haptic feedback to the rest of the touchbar, but I'll take it.