Was hopeful, as wanted to upgrade, but now disappointed. Pretty much the same old thing, just faster. Will likely sit this product model out. Certainly NOT interested in the product at current feature/cost price points. Am even considering switching.
I do care about weight, but the extremist focus on thinness is misguided. Anyone with basic engineering knows that, all other things being equal, a thinner case is going to bend more easily. That is exactly the idea behind the shape of a structural "I" beam. Would rather have my laptop a bit thicker and less fragile.
Maybe if Apple made it a bit thicker, they could include more reliable, better keyboards? Or maybe an Ethernet jack?
Frankly, I'd take the trade-off of a few mm thicker for better keyboards and built-in ethernet (maybe 10G;-) Not remotely a fan of a gazillion dongles. Maybe in an Air or iPad, but not in a Pro.
Would appreciate the addition of a USB-A type jack. Still have to plug in stuff with USB-A connectors. Again, not a big dongle/adapter fan.
Note: INVZI has a 9-in-1 100W GaN Charger Docking Station Hub, which isn't a terrible work-around for this problem. But it is a bit large, and still a work-around.
A high end MacBook Pro is very expensive. A "loaded" 16" unit can price out to $7,349.00 USD. And thats without the extra software. If one is going to pay that kind of $$$$$, they probably want something that is repairable, maintainable, and upgradable. There was once a time when Apple products were far more repairable, maintainable and upgradable than most Windoze Pee Cees. But current models are not remotely any of those things!!
By the way, of that $7,349.00 price, the extra charge for adding the 8TB of SSD storage is $2,200.00. Go to your favorite search engine, find and price 8TB of storage on the retail market. You will discover just how hefty the "Apple Tax" is. It's even worse when you realize Apple undoubtably buys memory at super high volume discounted wholesale pricing. So Apple probably doesn't pay nearly what you do.
Since memory is now soldered in, any memory problems, even if it is just a single bad bit, are very expensive to repair. Instead of just replacing a memory stick/module, in many cases you now have to replace the complete mother board. Sometime the cost is so high, that you might as well replace the entire computer.
It would be really nice if macOS supported something similar to the Linux BadRAM feature which allows the OS to avoid actually using known bad memory. It would be also be nice if one could just swap out a memory stick, for a new, good one. It would be even nicer, if one Apple supported industry standard replaceable memory modules AND mapping out bad memory.
Free Advice: As soon as you get a new Mac test its memory. If bad, return it immediately for a different unit. Test the memory again just before the warranty expires. Let Apple pay the expensive repair bill for their bad choice, so you don't have to. MemTest86 used to be great for this. However, I don't think MemTest86 is compatible with Apple's very latest products, but it claims to x86 (32/64-bit) or ARM64 based hardware including Windows, and Linux. But not sure if that includes Apple. Otherwise, the free version should be great, unless you want to test multiple units.
I do care about weight, but the extremist focus on thinness is misguided. Anyone with basic engineering knows that, all other things being equal, a thinner case is going to bend more easily. That is exactly the idea behind the shape of a structural "I" beam. Would rather have my laptop a bit thicker and less fragile.
Maybe if Apple made it a bit thicker, they could include more reliable, better keyboards? Or maybe an Ethernet jack?
Frankly, I'd take the trade-off of a few mm thicker for better keyboards and built-in ethernet (maybe 10G;-) Not remotely a fan of a gazillion dongles. Maybe in an Air or iPad, but not in a Pro.
Would appreciate the addition of a USB-A type jack. Still have to plug in stuff with USB-A connectors. Again, not a big dongle/adapter fan.
Note: INVZI has a 9-in-1 100W GaN Charger Docking Station Hub, which isn't a terrible work-around for this problem. But it is a bit large, and still a work-around.
A high end MacBook Pro is very expensive. A "loaded" 16" unit can price out to $7,349.00 USD. And thats without the extra software. If one is going to pay that kind of $$$$$, they probably want something that is repairable, maintainable, and upgradable. There was once a time when Apple products were far more repairable, maintainable and upgradable than most Windoze Pee Cees. But current models are not remotely any of those things!!
By the way, of that $7,349.00 price, the extra charge for adding the 8TB of SSD storage is $2,200.00. Go to your favorite search engine, find and price 8TB of storage on the retail market. You will discover just how hefty the "Apple Tax" is. It's even worse when you realize Apple undoubtably buys memory at super high volume discounted wholesale pricing. So Apple probably doesn't pay nearly what you do.
Since memory is now soldered in, any memory problems, even if it is just a single bad bit, are very expensive to repair. Instead of just replacing a memory stick/module, in many cases you now have to replace the complete mother board. Sometime the cost is so high, that you might as well replace the entire computer.
It would be really nice if macOS supported something similar to the Linux BadRAM feature which allows the OS to avoid actually using known bad memory. It would be also be nice if one could just swap out a memory stick, for a new, good one. It would be even nicer, if one Apple supported industry standard replaceable memory modules AND mapping out bad memory.
Free Advice: As soon as you get a new Mac test its memory. If bad, return it immediately for a different unit. Test the memory again just before the warranty expires. Let Apple pay the expensive repair bill for their bad choice, so you don't have to. MemTest86 used to be great for this. However, I don't think MemTest86 is compatible with Apple's very latest products, but it claims to x86 (32/64-bit) or ARM64 based hardware including Windows, and Linux. But not sure if that includes Apple. Otherwise, the free version should be great, unless you want to test multiple units.
