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In Reply to: RE: Hard to use 'gamer' and 'pro' in the same sentence.... posted by AbeCollins on November 03, 2016 at 19:23:40
The new MacBook Pros have been in the hands of reviewers and a few selected 'fan bois' (Gruber, Marco, etc.) for a while. Also read the first reports of the folks who attended the 'hands-on'. That, plus I understand the MacBook Pro 'ESC' is out.
Better than the super thin MacBook? Yes, but not by much.
I could run Photoshop on my MacBook Air, but I don't.
For me, the new MacBook Pro line represents little more than an upgrade to the MacBook Air which is what I use now so why not be happy? OK, the keyboard sucks but I didn't care much for the old one anyway having learned to type on a manual typewriter half a decade or more ago.
My desktop machine has an old IBM type 'clicky' keyboard with 'inches' of key travel! =:-0
Link to one review (Vlad Savov) is below:
Follow Ups:
The reviewer you linked to seems to like the keyboard. I too learned on a manual typewriter and grew up on the clicky IBM keyboards but try fitting any of those on a laptop! I tend to adapt to whatever keyboard I'm on fairly quickly as many others do.
The entry 13" MacBook Pro that omits the touch bar has the usual 'ESC' key in place. And at Apple's own launch event they stated that it is probably the best choice for those upgrading from the 13" MacBook Air. It is significantly more powerful with a much better display. The MacBook Air display was way past it's prime. No, you probably wouldn't want to run Photoshop on it.
I would miss the SD slot if camera SD cards were still somewhat low capacity and I needed to transfer my photos to my laptop in the field. The reality is, I never fill up my current 32GB SD cards in my cameras. I upload my photos to my laptop (or desktop) at home where I have a multimedia reader hub or just an SD adapter. For many mainstream consumers, their photos from an iPhone get uploaded to iCloud anyway and are immediately and automatically shared among other iDevices or Macs that they own. Fact of the matter is, dedicated cameras have been on the decline for years since smartphones have come on the scene. I guess Pro photographers may need to carry a dongle.... but Pro photographers are used to carrying a bag full of clunky photo-junk anyway. ;-)
Dongle Madness!
But I agree with the reviewer to some extent. Apple has gone all-in on the USB-C/Thunderbolt port (eliminating the rest) forcing us into the future. But hey, they were either the first or one of the first to ditch floppy drives, DVD drives, serial ports, SCSI, and even spinning disk drives. Apple hasn't had a hard disk based laptop for several years. They clearly prefer to move too fast rather than too slowly when it comes to ditching technologies that may be past their prime.
Dedonglify with a multiport Thunderbolt / USB-C hub
The physical 'ESC' key is out on the models with the touch bar because the bar is a fully programmable touch display strip that can show an 'ESC' key, or any other key. Additionally, macOS has the ability to remap the 'ESC' key to a physical hardware button if you wish.
I could run Photoshop on my MacBook Air, but I don't.
You probably wouldn't want to. The Air has the low power (slow) CPU, low-end integrated graphics processor, and an antiquated low resolution display. However, people run Photoshop all the time on MacBook Pros even with a 'lowly' 16GB of RAM.
For me, the new MacBook Pro line represents little more than an upgrade to the MacBook Air.
For you perhaps this is true but there are huge differences between the MacBook Pro line and the MacBook Air. There always has been. The only MacBook Pro model that represents an upgrade to the MacBook Air is the new entry model 13" MacBook Pro without the touch bar.
The Air defined and dominated the light and thin Ultrabook segment before the term was even coined by Intel. The goal included long battery life but back in the day that meant slower but more power efficient processors. Apple will drop the 13" MacBook Air because the entry model 13" MacBook Pro is significantly better and fills in for the old 13" Air. So it wouldn't make much sense for anyone to buy a new MacBook Air today. For ultimate portability there's the 12" MacBook. Between the 12" MacBook and 13" entry MacBook Pro, the 13" MacBook Air will get squeezed out of existence. They completely dropped the 11" MacBook Air.
Yes, there's an ESC key - or any key you want
My wife currently uses a late 2011 13" Air which has served her pretty well for doing basic photo-editing in Photoshop Elements. But she hit the screen with a sharp metal corner and its cracked all the way across. I hooked her up with my old Dell 2407 monitor, but the wifi radio is not great in her studio. So this new machine, which we've been waiting for is going to be perfect. We went down to the Apple store to play with the basic model and found the keyboard fine. The Air was $1400 when new, and this one configured for her with the bar will be just over $2k. It is a lot for what it offers in terms of power, but the industrial design, size and weight are perfect for her and with 3 years of Apple Care, the screen will last at least that long in her dangerous hands... ;-)
My wife is a teacher, so she gets $100 off. That helps and I will probably write it off too. This will be her workhorse for producing her fashion blog and I'm excited to get one on the way. I hesitate to put up her url, since there's really only horny old men left here. Not sure that's what I want to imagine on the other end of her photos.
Good to hear that the keyboard feel is decent. I'll have to test drive one myself next time I'm at the mall Apple store.... which is next to the Tesla car store and the Microsoft retail store. It's interesting that Microsoft is trying to emulate Apple with their retail location in the mall. They opened it almost 2 years ago.My wife is a retired elementary school teacher and we bought her a 13" Retina display MacBook Pro 1 year ago. Her previous Toshiba laptop was at least 6 or 7 years old and very clunky by today's standards.
I'll probably wait until next year to upgrade since I don't NEED a new laptop at the moment. My 2012 13" non-Retina MacBook Pro is working great and it's still in near mint condition as I use it mostly from home with an external Apple bluetooth keyboard and 22" HP display. It doesn't get dirty or bumped around very much. ;-)
If I upgrade I'll probably look to the higher-end 13" model for work. My company won't pay for it but we have a corporate agreement with Apple for employee discounts since Apple uses a lot of our products for their back-end 'enterprise' infrastructure. We get about 6% off on hardware and 10% on Apple Care.
My company will supply us with brand new Dell or Toshiba Windows laptops but I'm such an Apple fanboy (so I've been told) that I'd rather buy my own. In other words, I'd rather pay for the pleasure of using an Apple laptop than take a free one that runs Windows. ;-) Same for several coworkers in my group.
Edits: 11/07/16
As long as you can attach the peripherals needed for computer audio, I don't see a big problem as external SSD's get bigger and cheaper.How long before we see a Thunderbolt Optical drive?
My biggest fear is that Itunes will be reconfigured so that it can only play low-res files. But, then who wants a MacBook Pro IPOD?
Edits: 11/04/16
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