You'll be first in line for a folding monitor. Or perhaps a roll out one ... they have those already - thin film TVs ... sadly though, the timings wrong - we could have wrapped up a Mac Pro 6,1 dust bin inside a rolled up thin film monitor. Obviously, a widescreen one of course.
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MBP 14" 16" major disappointment
- Thread starter geejay9876
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You'll be first in line for a folding monitor. Or perhaps a roll out one ... they have those already - thin film TVs ... sadly though, the timings wrong - we could have wrapped up a Mac Pro 6,1 dust bin inside a rolled up thin film monitor. Obviously, a widescreen one of course.
Yeah, a laptop with screen that can be seamlessly rolled out into an ultrawide setup when open is quite a nice idea!
Under 30 messages, complaining like there is no tomorrow. Looks we have another millennial with in overinflated sense of entitlement thinking he knows everything!
And please don't tell him as he might get offended!
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Ah hah. I was much wilder than you. I had twin floppies. 80286. A 20 MB hard drive. Green and black screen. Lotus 123 and Wordperfect. Dot matrix printer.
I couldn't afford a Fat Mac, despite the Uni discount. But I sure wanted one.
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Someone coming from a 15" model would experience it as a 20% weight gain. That's quite a bit.
I'm accepting that weight gain as the price of getting some other things I want, but I do find the extra weight to be a valid concern. It was the one thing that kept me from placing an order immediately.
I hauled around a heavier and thicker Unibody MBPs for years without complaining, but I've since come to appreciate how effortless it is to carry around a light laptop. The M1x's are not heavy by historical standards, but an .8lb increase is just enough weight that I can no longer toss it in my pack without considering if I want it enough to haul it around all day.
I hadn’t looked up the most recent 15-inch, but yeah, it does appear that model was quite a bit lighter. I have a 2015 15-inch, which is 4.5 lbs, and a 2019 16-inch, which is 4.3 lbs, so I never experienced the 2016-2019 15-inch that were around 4.0 lbs.
I looked up the battery specs for each and it appears the 2016-2019 15-inch were lighter simply because they had much smaller batteries than other years:
2015 15-inch: 99.5 Wh, 4.5 lbs
2016-2017 15-inch: 76 Wh, 4.0 lbs
2018-2019 15-inch: 83.6 Wh, 4.0 lbs
2019 16-inch: 100 Wh, 4.3 lbs
2021 16-inch: 100 Wh, 4.7 lbs
One solution is buying a better bag. A 10 kg load should be pretty much nothing in a decent backpack, because you are not carrying the weight on your shoulders.
I think where you're coming from really influences how you feel about that extra weight. There seems to be more than a few people who were sitting on M1 Airs in wait of a 14" MBP who've reversed course and are now like, "on second thought, I'll stick to my Air."
The tapered design made the notebook feel and appear much thinner than it actually was while giving it a floating look when on flat surfaces. It was a very sleek design that obviously came with some physical limitations.
I think the M1 Pro/Max designs are overcorrections from where Ive was going. I'd love to see what a meet in the middle approach could look like.
I do love the feel of the new keyboard, and the speakers are impressive.
The tapering is more than an optical illusion; the tapered sides probably up to an inch into the center mean it has less volume than a box with the same dimension. Think of the MBP as a chunk of bare metal, the new 14" & 16" only mills off 1/16" of all corners and sides, where the retina to touch bar era MBPs tapering took off slices of 1" here and there.
Therefore in practical terms, despite the (3D xyz, box) dimension profile being similar, the new MBPs are harder to be handled, and being thicker on the side also means sleeve type bags including backpack laptop compartments need more room or flex to fit it.
Therefore in practical terms, despite the (3D xyz, box) dimension profile being similar, the new MBPs are harder to be handled, and being thicker on the side also means sleeve type bags including backpack laptop compartments need more room or flex to fit it.
I think there is now a wide gap in Apple's range for a large screen consumer level laptop.
A 15 inch or 16 inch M2 based MacBook Air would suit many people whose work could use a bigger screen, but which doesn't demand the size, weight, battery life and cost penalty of getting a Pro/Max level CPU and screen.
I say this as someone who falls into that category - a bit of mobile office work, light photo editing, music making, movie watching are all much nicer on a screen bigger than 13 inches, but really don't need the Pro level frills.
The outgoing 15 inch (and to a lesser extent 16 inch) models could sort of do double duty for this segment as they were quite thin and light. The new Pros better meet the needs of Pros but in doing so are less desirable for the average user.
My 'dream' specs of a larger MBA:
- M2 chip
- 15 inch mini LED display (probably slightly less colour accurate and less bright on HDR to keep costs down)
- 2 x USB-C / audio jack only
- Light and thin
- Ultra long battery life
- 2x2 WiFI 6 (by this point the MBP will probably have moved to 3x3)
- Magsafe
- Smaller trackpad / half-height function keys
So nothing fancy, just a bigger Air!
A 15 inch or 16 inch M2 based MacBook Air would suit many people whose work could use a bigger screen, but which doesn't demand the size, weight, battery life and cost penalty of getting a Pro/Max level CPU and screen.
I say this as someone who falls into that category - a bit of mobile office work, light photo editing, music making, movie watching are all much nicer on a screen bigger than 13 inches, but really don't need the Pro level frills.
The outgoing 15 inch (and to a lesser extent 16 inch) models could sort of do double duty for this segment as they were quite thin and light. The new Pros better meet the needs of Pros but in doing so are less desirable for the average user.
My 'dream' specs of a larger MBA:
- M2 chip
- 15 inch mini LED display (probably slightly less colour accurate and less bright on HDR to keep costs down)
- 2 x USB-C / audio jack only
- Light and thin
- Ultra long battery life
- 2x2 WiFI 6 (by this point the MBP will probably have moved to 3x3)
- Magsafe
- Smaller trackpad / half-height function keys
So nothing fancy, just a bigger Air!
Yep. Im simply not interested in a laptop which has its fans roaring under mild load just because the design made some huge compromises; I’ve had my fill of that with the tapered Intels. I can see past the tapered illusion and appreciate the benefits of the new design. Besides, I’m going to be looking at that luscious new screen instead of the laptop’s sides. Something else to consider when comparing weights is that I don't need to bring the power brick with you in the same way I did with the tapered Intels.
Im not considering an Air, even a larger one, because it would throttle while using a digital Lego program I run a lot. I compared render times between the 13” M1A and 13”M1P and there was a pretty significant difference with the Air tapping out pretty early in the render.
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Nope. The 2021 16” sux for travel. It’s thicker, bulkier and heavier than the 2019 16” which was thicker and heavier than the 2016 16”.
I travel each week and was hoping to replace my 2019 16” Frypan Pro. But the 2021 16” literally didn’t fit in the sleeve for laptops that is built in to my bag!
So I bought the 14” instead. I’m pretty happy with it. Twice the speed of the Intel i9, smaller and lighter. All the things that laptops should be.
The 16” has gone beyond being a portable solution IMO.
I beg to differ. I have been travelling some 1000 days over the last 8 years all around the world with a 15" 2013 rMBP. That machine was slightly thicker and only 120 grams lighter than my new 16". I never had a problem with it and next to the rMBP I was carrying camera gear, drone, cables, etc. Never a problem.
As long as you put your gear in a well balanced and good quality backpack then a 16" is easy to carry around. Forget shoulder bags though. They are the pits for your shoulders and back as they pull asymmetrically on your body.
In this case having an MBA for travel is not much different from having a 13" iPad with Magic Keyboard for travel.
Hence the 14” is the one for you. I have no problem travelling with the 16” which fits my old sleeves. Seems that most people have a solution from Apple which works.
Chancha's comment about the tapering of the 2016 design is true - the taper does make it easier to slide into slim shoulder bags etc. It's been my experience too. The worth of that slight convenience is more valuable to some than to others.
I think that Apple did loose an opportunity with the old design. The could have left a large battery in it - 99 watts, put in a 15" mini LCD screen, and an M1 processor, and left the rest alone. No fast charge magnetic charge port, the same old 4 x type C ports, no photo slot, just leave it at that. If I was Apple, I would have dropped one USB-C slot and put in a old type 2 USB slot - but the excuse back then in 2016 was that the case was too thin for the old USB port. I guess it would still be too thin for an old USB slot, bit I've always missed the old USB slot.
So .... have a super long battery life 15" computer, that looks thin. And for many, the m1 is plenty fast enough.
Apple's range would then provide: 13" M1, 14" Pro/Max thicker very powerful expensive, 15" M1 long battery life slim more mobile but not Pro orientated, 16.2" full bottle.
I think that Apple did loose an opportunity with the old design. The could have left a large battery in it - 99 watts, put in a 15" mini LCD screen, and an M1 processor, and left the rest alone. No fast charge magnetic charge port, the same old 4 x type C ports, no photo slot, just leave it at that. If I was Apple, I would have dropped one USB-C slot and put in a old type 2 USB slot - but the excuse back then in 2016 was that the case was too thin for the old USB port. I guess it would still be too thin for an old USB slot, bit I've always missed the old USB slot.
So .... have a super long battery life 15" computer, that looks thin. And for many, the m1 is plenty fast enough.
Apple's range would then provide: 13" M1, 14" Pro/Max thicker very powerful expensive, 15" M1 long battery life slim more mobile but not Pro orientated, 16.2" full bottle.
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I wouldn't have to. On a train, bus or plane I would be pulling out a 12.9" iPad with a Magic Keyboard. Much better for cramped spaces and you can get one with LTE or 5G.
