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Mac... nificent

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2012
943
498
It’s a bit confusing because they have always sold two versions of the 13” model. One has only two ports, and is basically a MacBook Air, and the other has four ports and it’s more powerful. They updated the two port version last year with M1, but the “more powerful” 13” with four ports has not been updated yet.
Why is that confusing? They simply haven't updated the higher-end models yet. That should happen by the end of the year.
 

CheesePuff

macrumors 65816
Sep 3, 2008
1,456
1,578
Southwest Florida, USA
Why is that confusing? They simply haven't updated the higher-end models yet. That should happen by the end of the year.
It's confusing because to the normal user they have no way to tell how or why its a truly different machine. Besides the 2 additional TB ports, it also has more advanced cooling, better speakers and mic (although that may no longer be true with the M1 2020 refresh of the 2-port 13") and more.
 

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
Why is that confusing? They simply haven't updated the higher-end models yet. That should happen by the end of the year.
It was confusing pre-M1. I’m not specifically talking about the update cycle, just the existence of the product itself

It’s confusing because the 2-port MBP is really more like a MacBook Air inside the body of a pro. Whereas the 4-port is actually a pro-level machine. You and I know the differences, and may be the type of people that will understand specs and apples general lineup, but the average consumer may not be aware of the differences and not have the knowledge to decifer why one is way better than the other.

Apple should eventually discontinue the two port MacBook Pro, or call it something else. It’s dumb we have to specify two port verse four port when talking about them.
 
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NotTooLate

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2020
444
891
It was confusing pre-M1. I’m not specifically talking about the update cycle, just the existence of the product itself

It’s confusing because the 2-port MBP is really more like a MacBook Air inside the body of a pro. Whereas the 4-port is actually a pro-level machine. You and I know the differences, and may be the type of people that will understand specs and apples general lineup, but the average consumer may not be aware of the differences and not have the knowledge to decifer why one is way better than the other.

Apple should eventually discontinue the two port MacBook Pro, or call it something else. It’s dumb we have to specify two port verse four port when talking about them.
If you are "average consumer" , you should buy via budget mostly , if you want to read specs , then you should understand what you are reading , If you are a consumer that just walks into a store to buy a computer with no prior knowledge on what you are getting (i.e basic market research on what you are going to guy) , then it doesn't really matter.

They have different CPU`s and GPU`s , if you don't understand that when buying a computer not sure anything Apple does will help that consumer picking a computer , as they will probably by via budget.
We call them 4 ports / 2 ports to easily distinguish between them , not sure you need a new SKU name for the 2 port machine (assuming they want to keep selling this machine).
 
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Mac... nificent

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2012
943
498
Apple should eventually discontinue the two port MacBook Pro, or call it something else.
No, that would be even more confusing for most consumers. The entry level MBP (2 port) is simply a basic MBP. The 4 port is their higher level MBP. Think of it this way; do you want a cheese pizza, or one with all the toppings? Nothing confusing about it. And in regards to the comment about "the 2-port MBP is really more like a MacBook Air inside the body of a pro" that simply is not true. The MBP has better cooling, a brighter screen, better battery life, and the Touchbar.
 

Maconplasma

Cancelled
Sep 15, 2020
2,489
2,215
Oh please when they had all models as Intel, you would think the only difference was the Thunderbolt ports. Everything else (additional fans, battery size, speakers/mic) were kept hidden and only seen in a tear down.
That goes the same for Dell and Lenovo. They don't explain about fan differences, battery size and especially any mention of speaker differences. In fact you can hardly tell the difference of their laptops in each category on their website just by looks alone. You can't expect a company to do overkill on explaining differences like those when it just further confuses a customer. Most people want to know how much Ram it comes with, how long the battery lasts (which Apple has always mentioned) and if it will run their software. Only techies care about the insides and that's a minority crowd.
 

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
No, that would be even more confusing for most consumers. The entry level MBP (2 port) is simply a basic MBP. The 4 port is their higher level MBP. Think of it this way; do you want a cheese pizza, or one with all the toppings? Nothing confusing about it. And in regards to the comment about "the 2-port MBP is really more like a MacBook Air inside the body of a pro" that simply is not true. The MBP has better cooling, a brighter screen, better battery life, and the Touchbar.
If you are "average consumer" , you should buy via budget mostly , if you want to read specs , then you should understand what you are reading , If you are a consumer that just walks into a store to buy a computer with no prior knowledge on what you are getting (i.e basic market research on what you are going to guy) , then it doesn't really matter.

They have different CPU`s and GPU`s , if you don't understand that when buying a computer not sure anything Apple does will help that consumer picking a computer , as they will probably by via budget.
We call them 4 ports / 2 ports to easily distinguish between them , not sure you need a new SKU name for the 2 port machine (assuming they want to keep selling this machine).

We all here get that. My point is that the way they have it right now, the name is clunky. There didn’t used to be a 2 port vs 4 port version. Apple added that recently, and it has caused a lot of confusion in the consumer world. I personally have seen this with the recent update to M1. So many people still to this day don’t get how the M1 13” MBP is not the higher-end 13” pro machine, which is why it shares the same cpu as the MacBook Air. That very confusion shows how their lineup is clunky in this specific area. They need a better way of differentiating the two without naming them two-port or four-port. If they decide to, they could at least say M1 MacBook Pro, and M1X MacBook Pro to show some sort of linear progression.
 

iPadified

macrumors 68020
Apr 25, 2017
2,014
2,257
Riddle with failures and inconsistencies, vendor lock-ins, cables spaghetti and generally ugly. I get irritated by only reading about it. What happened to high speed near field wireless?

No invite yesterday and we need our regular dose of Apple-new-devices-that-we-not-always-need. Please a spring event to cheer us up.

Looked at Geekbench yesterday and it seem that a 12 core M chip could hit 10000 which is near a 14 core iMac Pro. No wonder the iMac Pro disappeared.
 

zerofour

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2011
71
24
UK
I'm just hoping for something in Spring because my 2013 iMac is increasingly creaking to the point of stumbling and staggering at times. I'd be in the market for a 16" MBP and the larger iMac (whatever that size is)!
 
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