Live data from Hacker News

16-inch MacBook Pro

apple.com

771–780 of 1001 posts

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#771
post #77

For others who might be wondering, this replaces the 15-inch MacBook Pro. There's a small increase in size (15 vs 16): - Thickness: 1.55cm to 1.62cm (+0.7mm, +4.5%) - Width: 34.93cm to 35.79cm (+0.86cm, +2.5%) - Depth: 24.07cm to 24.59cm (+0.52cm, +2.2%) - Weight: 1.83kg to 2.0kg (+170gr, +9.3%) The display alone is ~1.3cm wider (and ~0.7cm higher), so there was a small reduction in bezel sizes, allowing the screen t…

I have a question for you Mac users. Assuming that you don't treat the machine badly, no extra care (e.g. never open up to do maintenance), and have to carry it around half of the time. How long do you think a Macbook would last in average? For the Lenovo I'm using I'd say about 5 years because I break things so easily...it's reaching retirement.

I have a 2015 rMBP (base model 15") that used to bike commute to work with me every day for 2 years. Now it's just used daily around the house and is still 100% as good as the day I bought it. I'm glad I worked out a way to keep the laptop from that company.

I'm at a different job now and have a 2018 MBP (usb-c only, 15" base model), less than a year old, that is used on a daily car commute (much gentler than the old bike commute) and the keyboard is giving me lots of grief. I will happily turn this one back into the company.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#772
So Apple made a decent MacBook Pro again. Good. But they still haven't made things right for the lemon they sold me. My keyboard is still not working, even after I handed it in for repair twice. Now I'm expected to shell out a few more grand just to have a working f key, and Apple is not even willing to acknowledge that they for years sold faulty products to gullible idiots like me.

Would it really hurt their octibajillion dollar valuation too much to just make things right for the customers who got shafted by their broken keyboard design?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#773
post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

Things change, deal with it. I've swapped USB cables to USB-C cables. Only USB drives, which i rarely use anymore require an adapter. Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to: - Run a display - Charge my laptop - Charge a phone - Connect a drive I can even use a single port to both charge the laptop and run a screen with multiple USB devices attached to it. I now need to daisy chain converters to use my PS/2 mouse on my M…

> Things change, deal with it

Things do change, but change for the sake of change isn't a good thing.

Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to: - Run a display With a dongle

- Charge my laptop Did you need 4 ports to do this? How is this better than a magsafe connector?

- Charge a phone Existing USB ports do this fine, and most charger cables have USB-A on one end. USB-C-USB-C cables are extremely limited in their use and are more expensive.

- Connect a drive Again, no advantage over USB-A

Apple has "solved" non-existent problems and in exchange they've created a whole new slew of problems. Why should I have to replace all my existing cables to work with a computer? It's because Apple is designing for slim cases above all else. (So slim and delicate that resting my hand on the case while typing causes random keypresses).

I broke an early macbook screen by tripping over the charging cable. When they made the switch to magsafe cables it was to explicitly prevent this very common occurrence. They traded trip-proof laptops for the ability to plug your charger into 4 different ports. What possible advantage could that offer?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#774
Big plus to regain the Escape key.

Hopefully the new keyboard is reliable.

The Touch Bar is forgettable and a row of physical function keys would be an improvement. I don't know any "pro" user who likes the Touch Bar or who wants to look down at the keys when typing or interact with a microscopic touch screen.

Still puzzled by the lack of ports for a pro laptop. It's 16" with a huge body, not particularly thin or light, and they couldn't add two USB-A, SD slot, HDMI? The age of a dozen dongles continues.

64GB RAM option is a big plus, though the prices are 2x-3x market.

Presumably the SSD is still soldered onboard, which basically makes these unrepairable and disposable premium priced laptops.

Overall far better than what it replaced, but still missing some key features from the 2015 MBP line which remains the best Mac laptop ever made.

Will be interesting to see if they ditch the 13" and move to a 14" with similar specs.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#775
post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

Things change, deal with it. I've swapped USB cables to USB-C cables. Only USB drives, which i rarely use anymore require an adapter. Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to: - Run a display - Charge my laptop - Charge a phone - Connect a drive I can even use a single port to both charge the laptop and run a screen with multiple USB devices attached to it. I now need to daisy chain converters to use my PS/2 mouse on my M…

> Things change, deal with it

That argument can be used to explain away any problem.

4 usb ports are massively redundant. Even if someone loves usb-C having a usb-A port will add a lot of usability without compromising on anything else.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#776
post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

I can easily plug any USB device into my MacBook with a cable. I cannot however plug a firewire, thunderbolt or HDMI cable into a USB-A port. Yes I need to purchase different cables, but they are relatively cheap compared to something like a laptop docking station that I might need otherwise.

> I cannot however plug a firewire, thunderbolt or HDMI cable into a USB-A port.

I tried to plug my firewire into my USB-C port and it didn't work. Help!

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#777
post #136

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

When it comes to function keys, you either use them lots or rarely and for the former, yes - a physical key is prefered by far. However I see the advantages in other situations with the touchbar, however it would be great if the users had a choice. How hard would it be to have the touchbar in a modular design form that was user changeable and they could fit a row of keys instead? However, there is always the option o…

Heck, I wonder why they don't have BOTH function keys AND a touch bar. It looks like they could shrink the oversized touchpad slightly to recover enough space. Is it because the cost would be too high? Is it because it would ruin their design? Or is there some other reason?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#778
post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things change, deal with it. I've swapped USB cables to USB-C cables. Only USB drives, which i rarely use anymore require an adapter. Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to: - Run a display - Charge my laptop - Charge a phone - Connect a drive I can even use a single port to both charge the laptop and run a screen with multiple USB devices attached to it. I now need to daisy chain converters to use my PS/2 mouse on my M…

You can also use one USB-C to both charge your Macbook and drive a powerful 4k monitor plus a few extra USB-A ports on the back of the monitor. Being able to come to work and plug in a single cord and have it drive my mechanical keyboard, headphone amp, monitor, and power is pretty amazing IMO.

>>Being able to come to work and plug in a single cord and have it drive my mechanical keyboard, headphone amp, monitor, and power is pretty amazing IMO.

Just imagine having a dock, and not needing to plug any cords :-)

Also, like most things Apple removed (I'm looking at you, 3.5mm), how has the removal enabled your use case?

To put it other way: you could have everything you outlined even if they had magsafe + USB-A

but with removal of those things, we can't have things we want/need/desire, for no appreciable gain to you.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#779
post #770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It turns out that people who buy laptops -- a mobile-ish form factor differentiated from a tablet by its keyboard -- might really really care about keyboards as the main interface between user and device. I'd concluded that Apple didn't really think much of laptops anymore, and had simply moved on to caring more about other form factors: it seemed a logical conclusion if one assumed that people at Apple were in fact…

The paradoxical thing with recent Apple laptop keyboards is that their Magic Keyboard 2 is pretty darn good. I haven't bought any Apple products for more than a decade, but I keep recommending and buying their Magic Keyboard 2 for Linux workstations. It has a very good mechanical feel, and it reduces latency perhaps due to shallow action point and/or firmware tweaks [1]. Also, it's really easy to source ANSI layouts…

Which model is the "Magic Keyboard 2"? I don't see any keyboard products in the apple store with a "2"

Is it one or both of these?

- https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MRMH2LL/A/magic-keyboard-...

- https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLA22LL/A/magic-keyboard-...

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#780
post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

> It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB.

Where do you see that?

Post reply on HN