7. dubna 2017

2016 13" MacBook Pro w/o TouchBar

I would like to summarize my thoughts about 2016 13" MacBook Pro w/o TouchBar.

I'm MacBook Pro user since 2011 - it's not long time, but even though I had a chance to try different machines:
  • 2011 13" MacBook Pro (my own machine)
  • 2011 15" MacBook Pro (company machine)
  • 2013 13" Retina MacBook Pro (my own machine)
  • 2014 13" Retina MacBook Pro (company machine)
  • 2016 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar (company machine)
Almost every time, switch to newer machine provided was a great experience - faster CPU, Wi-Fi, more RAM, ...

But latest upgrade is more downgrade than anything else. Here is why:
  • No MagSage - as my laptop is NOT desktop replacement, I'm using it in lot of strange positions. In those positions MagSafe safely disconnected from laptop when there was any pressure on it. With USB-C I'm risking port damage...
  • Only 2 USB-C ports - 13" rMBP has 2 Thunderbolt 2.0, HDMI, 2x USB 3 ports... I don't have problem with USB-C, but 2 is not enough (and I know that TouchBar variant of this machine has 4 USB-C, but two ports on right hand side are crippled -- slower)
  • CPU - when maxed out, it's clock is 2.4GHz, not much in comparison with previous one I had - 3GHz... New machine is noticeably slower than previous one...
  • Wi-Fi - there is 802.11ac support, but limited to 867Mbit/s. Again, this is downgrade when compared to previous one - it supported 1300Mbit/s...
  • Keyboard - I have few complains about new keyboard:
    • It's very noisy, cannot work in bed room...
    • Some keys are very hard to press since day 1...
  • Missing optical-out through headphone jack
  • Strange audio
    • Headphones volume - I'm not able to setup comfortable volume when using Apple EarPods, even lowest settings before mute is too loud
    • Speakers - I hate fake speakers grilles. Multiple reviews mentioned that speakers are better than on previous generations, from my perspective only difference is that they are louder.
On other hand, there are some real upgrades:
  • Better & huge Trackpad
  • 512GiB SSD - previous one was 256GiB
For few things, I'm not sure whether it's better or not:
  • Form factor. On one hand, it's smaller and I like it, but on cost of battery performance. I would prefer keep previous FF and improve battery life.
  • New default HiDPI default - 1440x900. Real resolution is 2560x1600, so multiplication factor is 1.77777777... Not ideal in some situations. But on other hand, it provides "more" working space.
Next time, I'll probably get machine from another vendor as Apple obviously forget about some PRO users...