The next MacBook Pro redesign (merged)

[DisraeliGears]

Some of the decisions it looks like Apple is going to make seem crazy, but others I can understand. Considering they're fully committed to USB-C, I get dropping legacy ports, and even MagSafe (even if it's one of the best charging ports I've dealt with). I think most people can even live without the SD Card slot, as a fair amount of photos have been pushed to cloud services and you can use USB-C to export your DSLR Raw photos to your MacBook. But...

Ditching the 3.5mm and HDMI for a "Pro" laptop is absolutely insane. Is getting rid of 3.5 really making the system thinner? If not there is absolutely no reason to ditch it, other than brand unity. On a phone, okay that system is small and the space can be used better. On a 13" laptop (or bigger)? And why is Apple so conscious over thinness? When I pay $1500 or more for something, I'd prefer it to feel substantial rather than flimsy. I'm also not a musician, so I can't comment on the necessity of 3.5mm to their profession, but plenty have made their thoughts known.

On a more personally applicable note, I'll never buy a laptop without HDMI until there is a legit replacement for it. No displays use USB-C, and I still occasionally run into issues with my rMBP not supporting VGA/DVI (my work has a lot of old tech, what can I say). Thankfully in the few years, everyone has settled on HDMI, and just about every display made has HDMI ports. TB, or USB-C->HDMI are not viable alternatives, as I don't want to carry an adaptor with my computer 24/7. Hey Apple, it doesn't matter how thin or light the computer is if I have to carry a bundle of 3 cords everywhere I go so it's compatible with anything else in the world.

Maybe the loss of Steve really has set the company adrift, because it seems like a lot of what Cook is doing is following Steve's mandates from years ago. When we were on the iPhone 3GS, thinness was important. It's not anymore, the damn thing is thin enough. Where is the creative thinking? For example, an iPhone Pro, slightly thicker with better specs, a metal backing like the MBP, and a built in Pico-projector, would be amazingly cool. Instead we're just going to keep getting thinner, lighter, and faster until my phone feels like a stick of double mint gum.

 

[samcow]

SD card usage is pretty uncommon. Same for 3.5mm.

I think I've used my 3.5mm jack once in the last few months. Why is this non standard, poorly designed crap still here after 40+ years?

USB-C and wireless does it better. Time to let go of the past and embrace the future.

I realize saying "poorly designed" is meant as a rhetorical device to boost your argument - however it's plainly absurd. Poorly designed analog output? What does that even mean? It gets audio from (1) an output, over a distance to (2) a speaker. Heavens, how did we ever manage without a (1) data output to (2) a tiny digital to analog converter in the plug of the headphones to (3) the speaker itself. So much better designed, good ****ing lord

 

[cypriot]

Leave the ports and headphone alone. Bring in wireless charging and good cpu power. Aesthetics's has become nearly perfect. Everybody is happy with their devices looks. Yet apple is devoted to aesthetics. I am really curious what's coming.

 

[mashmosher]

If there is no SD slot, no headphone jack, no HDMI, it is NOT a Macbook Pro. Period. They're going to lose pro users in droves if what comes out tomorrow is just USB C and-or Thunderbolt.

I'd even love for at least one regular USB 3 port, as it will be a few years before I end up replacing all my USB drives as well as all the colleagues, partners who regularly pop in a USB key or SD card while we work on something. My 2011 Macbook Pro will continue to be more useful with its SD and USB2 port for a few more years than any laptop with just USB C.
Too many fanboy wannabe-"pros" are posting their glee to see ports disappear. Patience is paper thin-- if these new Macbook Pros are essentially glorified Macbook Airs with USB-C and if there is no Mini update or overdue replacement for the obsolete Mac Pro trashcan by year's end, I know of a whole lot of companies and pro users that are going to plan a full switch to PCs. No reputable PC maker is still selling computers using the dated 2012 - 2013 tech still in the Mac Pro and Mini, so the importance of respecting pro users with this new MacBook Pro is huge.

I see this magic toolbar as a gimmick for non-pro users anyway, esp. if it mainly is added for the Apple Pay button. I could care less if a "pro" app can add custom buttons to the "magic toolbar"; shortcut keys and programmable function keys do the same thing.

 

[tcbegley]

Apple has three macbook lines that are all basically the same at this point, each one is just trying to be as thin and light as possible. Is there really no market for a slightly thicker, more powerful laptop with a good selection of ports and a decent battery?

 

[EnesM]

Apple has three macbook lines that are all basically the same at this point, each one is just trying to be as thin and light as possible. Is there really no market for a slightly thicker, more powerful laptop with a good selection of ports and a decent battery?

Ofcourse there is a market, but they don't seem to care. I'd like my phone to be twice as thick so the battery can last twice as long.

 

[ascender]

So have the ports been confirmed? Have logged on this morning to see uproar about the dropping of ports but the leaked pics yesterday were just the screen and keyboard area.

I can't see any reason why they'd ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack on a laptop as there's no good to come of it. On the phone there's the obvious space saving you get and that non-wired headphones have overtaken wired sales. But in a laptop? There's no way that space saving will give them anything meaningful and most people I know with speakers on their desktop use either USB-A or headphone jack to connect. So this would create a **** storm.

 

[mctrials23]

Ofcourse there is a market, but they don't seem to care. I'd like my phone to be twice as thick so the battery can last twice as long.

I've hear rumours that you can put a battery case on your phone to do this. Why would we want our phones to be fat and heavy just so that they last more than a full days use when hardly anyone needs that and if they do they can just get a battery pack.

Why does everyone talk as if they are every single end user and that they would make a better product than apple. They wouldn't. We would have a **** android clone if most of the people on here got their way. Ooh edge to edge display, no home button, twice the battery size.

The fact people are losing their **** over rumours of port dropping in the next MBP without actually seeing what is released is embarrassing.

 

[Loge]

So have the ports been confirmed? Have logged on this morning to see uproar about the dropping of ports but the leaked pics yesterday were just the screen and keyboard area.

I don't see any new information about the ports; there was just the 13" case leak from months ago which had 4 USB-C plus 3.5mm. Of course the 15" has room for another port or two, but who knows what?

 

[barbarbar]

Here we go again!! jajaaja.

"is not a pro computer if we couldn't work with our diskettes, or Cd-roms, or ..." choose your favourite claim of people about changes that Apple makes in his devices every 4-5 years.

 

[Hyloba]

If there is no headphone jack, I will buy the ipad pro.

 

[Oppenheim]

I realize saying "poorly designed" is meant as a rhetorical device to boost your argument - however it's plainly absurd. Poorly designed analog output? What does that even mean? It gets audio from (1) an output, over a distance to (2) a speaker. Heavens, how did we ever manage without a (1) data output to (2) a tiny digital to analog converter in the plug of the headphones to (3) the speaker itself. So much better designed, good ****ing lord

It's been hacked into the position it's currently in today.

It's only in the last 5 or 10 years have 3.5mm jacks "worked". Even then, they're dodgy at the best of times.

It's a hack. Not a design.

 

[Ericplan]

Years ago I needed an adaptor for my Sennheiser earbuds to work, it was stereo with microphone, but Nokia had a different pin lay-out. The only way to have stereo sound was to use this "dongle". The 3.5 mm jack has several incompatible sorts.

 

[therealseebs]

Here we go again!! jajaaja.

"is not a pro computer if we couldn't work with our diskettes, or Cd-roms, or ..." choose your favourite claim of people about changes that Apple makes in his devices every 4-5 years.

I remember a few revisions back someone telling me that they didn't see a need for Ethernet in the MBP, because "that's really a pro feature". Well, yeah. I would like a machine that had the "pro" feature set, because I miss those. So I'm using a MBP from a year and a half back, and I sorta get by with it. I have to have a thunderbolt dock on it to get missing ports, but I can basically use it given that. But it's a pain. I do still need the optical drive sometimes, so I have to carry around an optical drive I can plug into the mac. I still use the 3.5mm headphone jacks. (Someone was saying those haven't been a real standard for long, but... I have stuff I got in the 1980s that still works with modern headphone jacks, and/or modern headphones using a 3.5mm plug, so.)

And if the machine only has USB-C, then that means I have *no way at all* to hook it up to the existing stuff I need a Mac to work with, like Ethernet (yes, I still care about the performance difference), and my existing audio hardware (which wants a 3.5mm jack or RCA plugs), and my monitor (I run the laptop in clamshell sometimes when docked), and an external backup drive (USB, not C), and so on. So the price of the machine is effectively whatever they're charging for the machine, plus the cost of the dock. Which may not be released until a third-party vendor decides to make one, and that could be months from now.

So, here I am, wanting a higher-end laptop. My 13" Retina MBP from March 2015 doesn't have enough memory to run well even under 10.10, let alone 10.11 or 10.12, but because Apple no longer does or allows memory upgrades on existing computers, I can't upgrade it to make it work better. I could get a 15", but they're very much showing their age now. Or I could get a hypothetical new machine, then wait a few months, then get a third-party hardware hack to give me at least some of the functionality I want.

It's been pretty depressing for me for a few years now, because I really like OS X itself, but Apple's been aggressively moving away from providing machines even a little like what I'm looking for. I am fine with a machine being a bit heavier or thicker; I want a high-end quad core CPU, a decent GPU, and if that means it has to be a bit thicker to support heat sinks, I'm fine with that. I'm sick of having a $900 Windows laptop and a $2,100 Mac laptop, and the Windows laptop has faster CPU, faster GPU, more disk space, native ethernet port and optical drive, more USB ports... and the Mac laptop is "thin", and has a magsafe connector. That's it. That's all it has going for it in hardware feature set. I'm paying $1,200 extra to get less-suitable hardware, because I want to run MacOS X.

Basically, if Apple made a machine that had the pro feature set (more ports, built-in Ethernet, larger display, preferably a matte display, DIMM slots so we could upgrade memory in a couple of years when we need more memory, things like that), I'd be willing to pay significantly more for it, because it'd actually do what I want without all the hacks and compromises being imposed by the laser-sharp focus on making the lightest-weight thing they can possibly make that is technically capable of booting OS X even if it won't run very well.

 

[yegon]

@kbasanti

Wow, your patience is legendary! I had the same model until I replaced it with the late '13 15" rMBP. I had to upgrade for much of the power reasons you describe. Constant beachballs and it ran HOT!

 

[mayuka]

Apple has three macbook lines that are all basically the same at this point, each one is just trying to be as thin and light as possible. Is there really no market for a slightly thicker, more powerful laptop with a good selection of ports and a decent battery?

Microsoft thinks so
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/26/microsoft-surface-book-i7-studio-windows/

However, their Surface Book i7 starts at 2399$ and is considerably thicker (both the display and the base part). They offer more performance and 16 hours battery life, though.

 

[MattZani]

I absolutely fail to see how dropping HDMI will make it no longer a 'pro' machine. Especially when Thunderbolt directly supports HDMI and USB-C support is coming? It's the end for single use ports, they're far too restrictive, give us ports we can use as we like!

 

[dv8r]

It's been hacked into the position it's currently in today.

It's only in the last 5 or 10 years have 3.5mm jacks "worked". Even then, they're dodgy at the best of times.

It's a hack. Not a design.

What are You talking about? My 1985 Sony Walkman had a 3.5mm jack.

 

[dtakias]

Proud owner of a 15" rMBP late 2013 here.

Unfortunately in Tim Cook's Apple aesthetics are important than ergonomics. Be prepared to be stuck with USB-C slots. I doubt the 15" will have significantly different number of ports than the 13".

I am prepared to upgrade but I am also willing to stick with mine for the next few years based on what we see.

 

[rtr1985]

Is the higher end 15" worth the $400 price bump?

 

[geoff5093]

SD card usage is pretty uncommon. Same for 3.5mm.

I think I've used my 3.5mm jack once in the last few months. Why is this non standard, poorly designed crap still here after 40+ years?

USB-C and wireless does it better. Time to let go of the past and embrace the future.

First off, the 3.5mm headphone jack IS a standard. Lots of photographers use the MacBook Pro, and love the SD slot as well. My complaint is what is the desire to remove something without gaining anything? You gain space in an iPhone. In a laptop these things are negligible.

 

[fyun89]

First off, the 3.5mm headphone jack IS a standard. Lots of photographers use the MacBook Pro, and love the SD slot as well. My complaint is what is the desire to remove something without gaining anything? You gain space in an iPhone. In a laptop these things are negligible.

Apple is simply trying to push forward the wireless environment..
Whatever the people's view on it, it is no doubt a forward thinking.. Most DSLRs and point and shoots have WIFI transfer feature and we have plenty of wireless headphones in the market..

Change is costly, which i definitely agree..

 

[lewdvig]

Meh. The new MBP models are stupid. Touchbar < Touchscreen. Radeon Polaris (450? WTF Apple?) < Nvidia Pascal.

I turned my rMBP into an Alienware 13, ThinkPag X260 and Gaming Desktop. Thanks for the resale value apple! Let's chat again in 2 years. My wife has the MB so that doesn't count. I'm down to 2x Apple 6 and an mini server. Those will be gone soon too.
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Apple is simply trying to push forward the wireless environment..
Whatever the people's view on it, it is no doubt a forward thinking.. Most DSLRs and point and shoots have WIFI transfer feature and we have plenty of wireless headphones in the market..

Change is costly, which i definitely agree..

Great. Eliminating things that people and businesses use is not progress though. It's hubris.

Many cameras transfer further compressed versions of files wirelessly. Also, if I were a photog I would be invested in Nikon/Canon/Sony and Adobe. WTF cares what PC I use?

When I, of all people, start ditching Apple then it's time to sell the stock. Trust me.

Apple needs to face the reality: all phones are pretty good in late 2016, that includes the less than exceptional iPhone 7. And Windows vendors and MS in particular, are better at giving PC users what they want and delivering real innovation (as opposed to 'all your ports are gone, **** off and give us your money').

 

[crzdcolombian]

Seriously I am done with Apple just sticking around for the ecosystem with the phone but def not getting a new Macbook with old out dated tec for what they want for it

Mind blown by what was announced today, pricing and what they failed to announce.

 

[lewdvig]

Sorry for the crude language. This is not the resurgent Apple of 2001 to 2015 that I am accustomed too.

I am probably more invested in these products than I should be, but after such a long wait today's stuff really underwhelmed me.