Apple’s leading laptop finally catches up – and then some
OUR EARLY VERDICT
To say the new MacBook Pro is a massive improvement over the previous model would be an understatement. It’s more portable and more powerful, not to mention more enjoyable to use. But it’s tough to justify the premium for that Touch Bar, no matter how cool it is.
FOR
- Super-thin and light
- Touch Bar smartly designed
- Loads of USB-C ports
- Huge trackpad
AGAINST
- Touch Bar needs more app support
- Direct light washes out Touch Bar display
It’s finally here: the new-and-improved MacBook Pro, and it seems to have closed the gap between the Pro line and the competition – and them some.
But the MacBook Pro has done so in ways that matter perhaps even more than gigahertz and pixels. This is now Apple’s most usable laptop yet. Sure, it’s thinner, lighter and more powerful, but the improved keyboard and trackpad set Apple apart in an even bigger way.
And that’s before we even get to the Touch Bar (though its mileage may vary).
MacBook Pro price and release date
The spankin’ new MacBook Pro is available for pre-order right now. As for when you’ll get it should you pre-order, that’s another story.
The 13-inch version, with standard function keys and two fewer USB-C ports, will ship the day you pre-order it.
However, if you want one of the fancy Touch Bar versions, that won’t begin shipping until two to three weeks from now.
Here’s how much the MacBook Pro costs to start, broken down by version:
- 13-inch MacBook Pro (no Touch Bar): $1,499/£1,449/AU$2,199
- 13-inch MacBook Pro (Touch Bar): $1,799/£1,749/AU$2,699
- 15-inch MacBook Pro: $2,399/£2,349/AU$2,999
Now, let’s get into what’s new about the refreshed MacBook Pro, and what it feels like to use. Spoiler: it’s better – way better.
Latest developments
Touch Bar and all, the newest MacBook Pro is up and running for early adopters, though improvement efforts are still in full force. Thanks to the recent outpour of Kaby Lake support from its competitors, Apple is under pressure to prescribe this year’s MacBook Pro with the same treatment, purportedly with 32GB of RAM capacity to boot.
Meanwhile, Mac sales as a whole are enduring their lowest point in the last five years. Although Apple previously staked a claim that the new MacBook Pro was the firm’s best-selling ever, that triumph doesn’t appear to have worked in the favor of its market share. Asus, on the other hand, has reaped the benefits of Apple’s shortcomings by replacing it on the charts.
Still, don’t expect Apple to give up so easily, as the Cupertino company’s small battery life fix for the MacBook Pro managed to sway Consumer Reports. The update supposedly reduces the storing of local data performed by Safari. However, for those MacBooks still impeded by this widespread hindrance, Apple recommends simply adjusting your screen brightness.
Design and feel
At first glance, not much has changed about the MacBook Pro’s design. The profile or silhouette generally remains unchanged, save for finally (sadly) losing the illuminated Apple logo on its lid in favor of chrome.
Take a closer look though and you’ll see that nearly everything has changed. The 13-inch and 15-inch versions of the new MacBook Pro are 17% and 14% thinner than their predecessors, respectively – to the tune of a 14.9mm-thin 13-incher and a 15.5mm-thin 15-incher.
Naturally, with a thinner chassis comes lighter weight. The 13-inch version weighs just three pounds (1.37kg), nearly half a pound lighter than the previous version, while the 15-inch model hits the scale at four pounds (1.83kg), also shaving off nearly half a pound).
While Apple wouldn’t let you forget it, that makes the 13-inch MacBook Pro now thinner and lighter than the latest (and likely last) MacBook Air – and picking up the device, you can definitely tell.
As for the keyboard, Apple claims its second-generation butterfly hinges vastly improve the typing experience from that on the 12-inch MacBook. Having recently taken the latest 12-inch MacBook for a test drive, we can attest to these improvements.
Travel is deeper, and feedback upon releasing your fingers from a key is punchier. Frankly, this is what the first iteration of the new MacBook keyboard should have been – of course, that’s easy to say.
The Force Touch trackpad has also been hugely improved. For one, the thing is damn enormous – twice as spacious as that on the previous model. This is the kind of trackpad we’ve wanted for a long time on MacBooks, and we finally have it. Plus, activating Force Touch functions, like word lookups, requires much less, well, force than before.
The Touch Bar, and how it works
Now, talking about how the new MacBook Pro feels to use brings us to the tiny elephant in the room: the Touch Bar with Touch ID. It’s a Retina (read: OLED) touch display underneath a matte surface, and that’s key: it means way less smudging on a screen you’re supposed to be touching all the time.
And if you’re wondering how this little screen performs under direct light, the answer is – like any matte screen – not very well. But it’s not as if the screen’s content is indiscernible under such conditions – there’s just a blatant difference between its look under direct and indirect light.
As you’d expect from Apple, the way the Touch Bar works is stupid simple. For one, in general use, the Touch Bar just replicates the media-first functions you’re used to from previous MacBooks.
But, when you enter an app supported by the Touch Bar directly – like most Apple-made apps and some third parties, like Adobe Photoshop – you’re presented with an app-specific icon toward the left of the Touch Bar. Pressing this summons a series of app-specific functions.
For instance, when using Messages, this icon renders as a smiley face, offering you the breadth of emojis you’re familiar with on your iPhone. It even remembers your most-used emojis if you’re using Messages on connected iOS devices via the same Apple ID.
Opening the Maps app introduces a directional arrow icon, which when pressed presents a series of specific commands, like walking, public transit and driving directions, or specific types of locations of interest to home in on.
The Touch Bar supports 10-point multitouch as well as gestures, though we doubt there will be any applications of the tool requiring all 10 of your digits – assuming you could fit them all on there.
All told, the Touch Bar works as seamlessly as you’d expect from the company: Apple wrote the playbook on touch devices, practically.
Regardless, that still doesn’t make the Touch Bar hugely useful – we’re having a hard time seeing anything that the Touch Bar can do vastly better or more easily than the MacBook Pro’s much-improved keyboard and trackpad. Even before the improvements, weren’t they just fine? (Well, except for DJing: this thing is going to be a record-scratcher’s dream.)
What’s inside
Powering the entire range of MacBook Pro models, including the one sans Touch Bar and with just two USB-C ports, are 6th-generation (or Skylake) Intel processors – not the brand new Kaby Lake chips. (The 13-inch models offer dual-core i5 or i7, while the 15-inch model offers quad-core versions of those chips.)
You may be wondering why Apple hasn’t equipped its larger MacBook Pro with Kaby Lake. The short answer, which was confirmed by an Apple employee who spoke to Gizmodo, is that no quad-core Kaby Lake processor is currently available. The Skylake chip that features may not be latest-gen, but it’s the fastest quad-core chip available.
Backing that up is Intel integrated graphics on the 13-inch models. Meanwhile the 15-inch version offers AMD Radeon Pro 450 graphics with 2GB of video RAM to start (you can also upgrade to the Radeon Pro 460 chip with double the video RAM).
As for storage, all models start with 256GB of solid-state storage, upgradeable to 1TB in the 13-inch versions and up to a massive 2TB in the 15-inch version. Apple claims all of these drives are markedly faster than those in previous MacBook Pros – we’ll have to test that claim in our full review.
One the memory front, the 13-inch models start with 8GB of RAM, upgradeable to 16GB. The 15-incher comes with a maximum of 16GB, a decision that was explained by Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller in an emailed response to a MacRumors reader who queried the absence of a 32GB option.
“To put more than 16GB of fast RAM into a notebook design at this time would require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn’t be efficient enough for a notebook,” Schiller noted.
All of this sits behind Apple’s Retina display that, save for a 67% increase in brightness and the same boost in contrast, remains the same resolution. So, that’s 2560 x 1600 on the 13-incher, and 2800 x 1800 on the 15-inch model. Regardless, the screen looks as gorgeous as ever, and media professionals will appreciate the wider color gamut.
The connectivity on offer amounts to four USB-C ports with Thunderbolt and charging, while 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 round out the package. Of course, none of this saves you from having to buy at least one adapter – especially if you’re an iPhone user who likes to hard-wire.
Early verdict
There’s no doubt that this is the best MacBook Pro ever made. It’s thinner, lighter and more powerful, and has improved inputs on top of a brand new one, the Touch Bar. If you’re in the market for a laptop upgrade, you just found one of the most worthy options around.
But we’re having trouble reconciling the Touch Bar with the premium it commands over the version with standard function keys and half the USB-C ports.
It costs another 300 bucks to get an insanely cool feature that, frankly, you might not even use. (Compound that with being asked to pay $400 more for the new entry-level MacBook Pro than before – ouch.)
All told, though, this is the long-overdue MacBook Pro refresh we’ve been waiting for. The MacBook Pro was lagging behind the competition for a while there, but now it’s caught up, and in some respects – beyond simply ‘more power’ – it’s surpassed its rivals. To find out by how much, you’ll have to wait for our full review.
Sourse: techradar.com
Top Brands
The OS 10.12.2 update did not cure the bug that obstructed graphical performance in certain MacBook Pro models. After hours on the phone with Senior Apple Advisors and having returned my first Mac Book Pro to Best Buy for the second MBP the same graphic bug that others were complaining about was present. The second MBP was returned to Apple Engineering and I received a third MBP from Apple. The third MBP had the same continuing graphic problem and Apple sent me the fourth MBP. Well, the fourth MBP continues with the shaky graphic problem and now I have sent Apple a demand for my money back.
Replaced aging MBPro with 2016 MBPro sans Touchbar. Decided to put the $300 into 16Gb memory and 512Gb SSD.
This is a nice machine, lightweight, nice screen, fast drive, acts like a iPad (almost instant on).
The Multiport adapter has USB-C (for power only, frees up other port) HDMI and USB (that I use to connect a 7-port USB hub.
No buyers remorse here.
that emoji touch bar…….zzz………sorry Mr. Jobs….:(
It’s time for me to get a new Mac. But I am so much in doubt what to buy. 13″ or 15″. In my work I do UI/UX sometimes heavy PSD work in Photoshop. Usually has about 8 programmes open at a time.
Is the 13″ good enough? I really like the size of the 13″. But then again, the bigger 15″ fully equipped is a monster machine or?
I have a iMac to use for additional display at work and home.
Any advice for a graphic designer on web and print?
So i’ve been reviewing the order of events here since launch and now realise that 1. MPB last launch 2015 no significant update for many years 2. 2016 MBP with prev gen cpu launch and price across all laptops goes up significantly. 3. Anyone who wants a Pro machine or built in ports will prefer the spec of the older 2015 model. 4. Apple get to shift all of the old stock MBP and at a higher inflated price. 5. Anyone buying a 2016 model is faced with a heap of upgrades and a bunch of cables and hubs. 6. Whilst the 2016 model is smaller most people perch their laptop on a stand at home/office and use a separate keyboard / and larger screen – the wifi keyboards will now need a cable or hub to work and the touch bar version wont much use as the laptop sits to far back on the desk to continually be reaching across to.7. So the only reason for buying Apple anymore is the OS which is great but its difficult to digest doing this with old tech or over priced tech. 8. or to say look at me I used have 2 grand in my pocket.
Great article! It has in depth details about the specifications about the new Macbook Pro, and gives insight on both the positives and negatives. This new touch bar should add a whole new look on the Macbook Pro and should attract more customers hopefully. This information is very helpful and provides full knowledge for anyone that is considering to buy a Macbook Pro and needs some information about it.
How hard are you sucking Apples dongle shaped cock, Techradar? This is a worthless excuse for a laptop update and you fucking know it. And that price? Jesus…
It’s a re-branded MacBook Air. As Forbes said, it’s a Pro MacBook Air. It isn’t a MacBook Pro. The people who wanted an upgrade to *that* lineage were betrayed.
“Massive improvement” in the deletion of USEFUL stuff:
1. Removal of MagSafe
2. SD Card support
3. HDMI port
4. Soldered RAM and SSD
5. Unlabeled USB Type C ports
There’s nothing “Pro” about this upgrade. Apple apparently doesn’t give a shit about its users and will create “change” just for the sake of change. And it’s backwards change at that.
Apple can’t sit there and say they’re innovators and limit their laptops to 16gb. That is a joke.
I feel exactly the opposite than the reviewer. The new Macbook Pro laptops are nice and great laptops, but they clearly aren’t targeted at the “Pro” audience.
There was a time when the Powerbook and Macbook Pro differentiated its self from the iBooks and Macbooks by not only having more power and a nicer build, but put functionality before form. The Pros had expansion card slots, a sizeable variety of different ports, and some limited upgradability, like with the RAM, SSD/HD, and optical drive (or second SATA drive). They also had a decent dedicated GPU (graphics card).
Instead, these have all been continually traded away for aesthetics and thinness. The strip above the keyboard is neat, but wasn’t really anything people felt was missing. It also removed the function keys, which have been useful for decades.
The processing power is just marginally better and the convenience and flexibility of the MBP is worse. It makes sense if Apple wants to push minimalism and new features to the Macbook and Macbook Air lines, but the Pro should be more conservative on its major changes and focus on a large array of features and power over aesthetics. I think most professionals and power users would rather have this then having a laptop that’s a bit more slimmer and requires a large connection of dongles and adapters. The Pro should be like the high-end workstation and gaming laptops in the PC world. People who feel it’s excessive or too bulky can get the Macbook or Macbook Air instead.
Fanboy says what?
Such a fanboy “article”. Apple is getting hammered left and right for the dongle hell and underpowered/overpriced laptops they introduced. Are you in Apple’s pocket?
I’ve had my late 2011 17 MBP for about 5 years now. At the time it was a amazing laptop, and the fact it still works great today despite hours of daily use shows the quality.
However there’s no way I can justify upgrading to this new MBP, are they kidding, not a single standard USB port despite the fact that nearly ever single piece of hardware still uses it. In fact not a single other port apart from USB-C. They even got rid of mag safe which was amazing.
Why would I pay such a large amount for a laptop labelled ‘pro’ and then have to buy adaptors and just to get basic bits of hardware to integrate?
I can’t believe its not even mentioned as a Con in the summary. So much for impartial reviews.
This new Macbook Pro is a joke. 32GB should definitely be an option, instead some ridiculous touch strip inconveniently placed on top. Price is way beyond acceptable. As a software dev I care less about the weight but more about usefulness and practicality. I need my USBs, HDMI and ESC key. As well it would be nice to get the touchscreen.
https://www.youtube.com/shared…
Although I have been waiting for several years to buy a new MacBook Pro this video perfectly sums up why this can’t be called a Pro device! I ended up selling my Air and buying the MacBook as that isn’t my main portable work computer so can live in USB C land! I’m still sticking with my self upgraded none retina display 2012 13 MacBoook with 16GB 512SSD (that I can change at anytime) and it even has RJ45! I need cables for thunderbolt or monitor and power…that’s it as rest all built in! For this thing I’d be in same boat as this video!
30 yr Mac user here (Plus, then SE/30, then PB 170,…, currently iMac 5K and MBP mid-2012). After seeing this pathetic Twiggytop I started spec’ing Linux laptops. ElementaryOS (a Ubuntu variety skinned to look like Mac OS) even looks a bit familiar.
Additional pros: Comes in two colors!
Additional cons: Lack of USB ports, lack of Thunderbolt/DisplayPorts, lack of MagSafe port, lack of HDMI port, lack of SD card slot. Significantly higher cost for iterative improvements to power. 13″ models are still dual core and integrated graphics only. Apple logo on the back of the screen no longer glows.
Looks good but way too expensive for me. I started with the first iteration unibody mbp in 2009, used it every day for 5 years then sold it for 2/3 what i paid for it, now that was value. Now using a second hand pimped up 2011 mbp and it will have to do for a while now, unless the previous gen retinas drop to silly money.
This Macbook Plus is great, but what about a new Macbook Pro for professionals ? Something with ports and pro stuffs, where music artists could for instance plug a USB Rode microphone, or photographers directly plug their SD card in the computer…… That would be great….
Wouldn’t wish this laptop on anybody, due to the lack of USB ports alone. Gimmicky touch bar instead of physical ESC and Fn keys, ridiculous price just add insult to injury. Shame, I used to like Apple laptops.
Apl caught below the Surface.
I want to put a challenge to Tim Cook: Make a MacBookPro that is thicker, and heavier but has, besides USB-C ports, a regular USB port, an ethernet port, a video monitor out port, a SD reader, AND a super drive in it, upgradeable 32 GB RAM option, upgradeable storage drive and all the other specs, possibly leaving off the function bar, and pit it in sales against the MBP you are about to release. For the $5000 I’ll need to spend, I’d buy the second one with no questions asked.
I want a MBP where every single key is a mini OLED screen. It would look über cool when powered off. That would float my boat. Wouldn’t mind one of these new ones, if the price wasn’t extortionate. Needs more ports though, it’s supposed to be aimed at professionals.
Did you also complain when Apple ditched the floppy drive and CD-ROM drive? We buy Apple because they are (1) the most secure ie, peace of mind from hackers (Windows has improved, Android major fail), (2) most reliable (highest customer satisfaction) and (3) highest resale value (we sell old ones on eBay for a premium compared to what old Windows machines fetch).
You will always pay more for newer tech. We opted out of getting Touchbar MBPros, didn’t see the value, put the $ in more memory, larger SSD.
Um, I wouldn’t go THAT far. Although I do want to see a REAL MacBook Pro, a REAL iMac upgrade and a REAL MacPro upgrade. But playing with digital recording and Affinity Photo and Designer and Photoshop, I can really see how that touch bar will be very handy. Maybe not as nice as a full touch screen. I think Surface Pro has the right idea there. The iPad and the MacBook Air may need to merge. But pro Software developer, Apple developers and any content creator or person who needs to run a lot of virtualization really needs, and wants some serious computing, design and recording professional level hardware.
What have you achieved, fanboy? Finished that novel that you keep working on while at Starbucks?
And developers have overwhelmingly said they don’t want anything to do with it.
Got the last 17″ MBP they did back in 2011. Over its time I’ve put in an SSD, more RAM and its served me well, 5 years of daily use.
Next upgrade is going to have to be to a Windows system, because Apple seem to have lost contact with the real world when it comes to building a professional system.
I have owned Mac’s and love them. Right now I am using a mid 2014 rMBP i5 with SSD hard drive. The last time I owned a windows machine was in um 2002? DOS is like a Rubick’s Cube to me but not in a fun way. UNIX-Like OS’s like macOS/OS X and Linux make more sense to me personally. With all of that being said I am looking for a new portable workstation; and as of right now the Dell Precision 15 7000 (7510) series. I’m not sure whats going on with Apple these days but they are gearing their products less and less towards super users and more and more towards children, college kids, and very old people. I am still using my MacBook pro now with macOS only due to the fact they don’t ciphen literally every piece of data and send it to apple like ms does, but now they do. So my last bastion of hope was maybe the 5k 27″ iMac with i7, 16GB ram, and 2TB Fusion / 512GB SSD drive… unfortunately the more and more I look at a PC like that Dell with more overall power under the hood then the iMac and being extremely customizable the decision is looking easier and easier. God I wish I could stay but it’s not worth it anymore. Switching everything over at the office to make the products work etc.. used to be worthwhile now its.. just well… EXPENSIVE. sigh. i never thought i would say that.
Apple better knock the socks off the developer / pro content creator community by next October, or I think a key constituency of Apple will bail. The competition is getting too good. Not good enough for people who have spent a lot in Mac OS X compatible software and know and love the Apple paradigm to bail just yet though, mostly, AFAICT. My Late 2012 iMac is getting long in the tooth. If I don’t have some super excellent desktop system from Apple to upgrade to by next Fall, I may go with the competition, as much as an act of rebellion as pragmatism.
I think Apple knows that the majority of laptop users, even most professionals don’t need sd cards, very powerful gpu cards etc. The percentage of creative professionals who use a laptop is small compared to the rest. The rest just wants an ultra portable capable computer. And for the sake of profit Apple seems to have just those in mind when creating the new mac.
Have you tried working in this wireless world yet? I got a set of beats free with my iPad Pro. If you want you MacBook/iPad and headphones to not last a working day then go for it! Even at low power Bluetooth uses loads more power then just the headphone jack and without spending over £250 most Bluetooth headphones last max 6 hours and definitely don’t sound as good as my Bowers and Wilkins P3. It is nice for a quick coffee shop work session then just connect to phone mind.
You’re making assumptions based on no data. I expect we’ll see these changes in new keyboards over the course of the next year. Until then, most people will still be using their older hardware and NOT using external keyboards on their laptops.
Dude, the Nokia Communicator was called a smartphone, in 1996 – that’s 11 years before the iPhone. And so was the HTC Wallaby (MDA). Smart phones are not defined by the capacitive touchscreen (which by the way the LG Prada had 6 months before the first iPhone), but by their functionality (email, web browser etc.).
Absolutely false, Rann. I suggest you look at the market for USB before the iMac came out and how it exploded onto the market with all kinds of peripheral devices AFTER the iMac came out–most of them in colorful housings at first to go with the iMac’s brightly-colored cases compared to the staid, boring, old, Beige Boxes.
“No body does that as all those key functions moved to GUI. This toolbar is a gimmick.”
It keeps your fingers off the screen so you can pay attention to what you’re really doing.
“It keeps your fingers off the screen so you can pay attention to what you’re really doing.”
You are looking at your screen, not at your keyboard. You would have to take your focus away from the screen and look at the keyboard then look back at the screen. If you had something that required this action over and over again this would be very unproductive.
If you placed the UI elements at the bottom, its about the same distance as the touch bar but facing your and at focus.
… And lose screen real estate in the process.
I suggest you view the keynote where they had a professional DJ using it right on stage.
You might want to have a look at this article as well https://www.cnet.com/news/appl…
I did and it was awful. That was not DJing in any fashion other than sliding the tone shape of cheap sounds in this case.
If you say so. Personally, I don’t agree. Besides, there are a lot more capabilities accessible with the bar than just, shall we say, “sliding the tone shape.” It is a far more effective analog to digital tool than anything else currently available with the possible exception of the 15-year-old technology of Microsoft’s “Dial” which has to be physically placed on the screen to use it.
“It is a far more effective analog to digital tool than anything else
currently available with the possible exception of the 15-year-old
technology of Microsoft’s “Dial” which has to be physically placed on
the screen to use it.”
I don’t think you fully understand what the dial can do. It will function with any Windows 10 PC without putting it on the screen. But with a Pixel Sense screen, the screen under the dial reacts and displays… whatever you want it to.
And as MS said, the dial is just the first of many of these type of elements they will be making that performs this interaction. And Pixel Sense is a foundational technology. Frankly I can see the Surface Desk coming in a few years where you set your phone on it and can swipe information, display the screen, etc and control it from the desk. Apple has nothing like this.
I would suggest trying the MacBook Pro before you pan it; most software still tends to run faster on Macs than Windows boxes unless you’re willing to pay for the really high-end stuff at $8K-$10K.
I would also argue that if you’re not willing to work CAD, development or art on a MacBook Pro, they why the HECK would you want to on a Surface Book? The argument is illogical.
you can edit beyond HD resolution on a MBP? If so you sir are amazing!
iPhone was not the first touchscreen smartphone, that was the LG Prada phone, announced 6 months before the iPhone was.
I think you better check this one out further. Apple caught every other phone manufacturer by surprise and turned the industry on its head with this release. Otherwise LG would have made those waves not Apple.
Rick Chapman
They are right. I used to work selling phones. I had the LG Prada and then the iPhone 2G. LG was first touch screen. Arguably the Nokia communicator as per the Matrix but certainly the N95 was the first proper smartphone. What iPhone did was use these innovations in a single form factor. I loved my 2G but it was pretty limited at the time. Had to have an app even to send MMS and was only 2G. The genius was basically combining iPod and phone together. A fact that seems lost on the 7 minus the headphone jack!
Apple has just taken wireless to the next step. Most people using headphones/earphones today are buying Bluetooth anyway. I understand this isn’t the music connoisseurs solution, nor is it the cheap solution, but this is the solution that makes the most sense based on Apple’s market demographic.
Rick Chapman
I LOVE my Bose Q 35’s.. and they are Bluetooth noise canceling over ear headphones. I use them with my iPhone 6S+ and rMBP mid 2014. Like I said I am more of a pro user in a previous post so my next purchase is going to be a Dell Precision 15 7000 series 7510… the new MBP’s just don’t have the specs I need. Mac changed their business model .. being great died with Mr. Jobs IMO.
gotta ask, where do you get these stats that most people are buying bluetooth headphones? I don’t know anyone that buys wireless headphones as they just use the ones that came with there phone, and yes I know my evidence is anecdotal, but so is yours.
I understand that you think that my thoughts about Bluetooth are anecdotal. But my thoughts come from the fact that many of the people that I know, being military, are buying Bluetooth headphones/earphones because they can use them for multiple functions, including going to the gym, while travelling and for use with their phones. The transition from one to the next makes great sense. For those that have no need for wireless, I can see the cost of wireless tech being inhibiting.
Rick Chapman
Your friends happen to buy a lot of bluetooth headphones, and as you stated, being in the military may be the reason… My friends, on the other hand, don’t. The fact is that your thoughts are anecdotal, as are mine. This means that you can’t assert that MOST people are buying bluetooth anyway. You can say that most of your friends do, but that is a statistically insignificant number.
Most of these people aren’t my friends; I don’t even know them, but they are still spending their money on convenience.
Rick Chapman
Sorry, you lost me there. If you don’t know them how do you know what they buy?
I see them wearing them while doing sports at the military sports plex.
Rick Chapman
I think Eds point was pretty much around the ‘Apple’ sales model… ie. ‘iSheep’ or ‘Fanboys’ will accept any old cr@p we tell them!! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/…
So reading between the lines, he has a point! IF the afore mentioned ‘Fanboys’ said ‘no thank you apple!’ then we’d see real ingenuity and innovation.
have to agree, but the last model missed the target too… I sold my last macbook pro within 12 months of owning it as it wasn’t up to the jobs.
And here I am, buying a standalone trackpad for my desktop PC…
Maybe you’re right, but I don’t think I’m in any position to judge, I haven’t used it yet…
My work makes me go places where I can’t just plug things into a power outlet and have them work. I know all too well the advantages of Bluetooth. As much as I don’t use a laptop, I can see where people would need one and not having to charge your laptop while using it is huge benefit as well. If you have many things plugged into your laptop, it has a tremendous drain on your battery. These are all reasons why I would rather go the route of Bluetooth peripherals and not wired.
Rick Chapman
Bluetooth uses more power then most wired devices!
Low power Bluetooth uses less power than running headphones/earphones attached. Yes it may use more than a mouse….but who needs one with a trackpad; also if you’re needing to run a hard-drive on phantom power you’ll drain your battery huge on your laptop. Just thinking if you were using a bluetooth hub for a stick or a card; you will only need to use it briefly. I can only imagine what else you might use that is so low powered that Bluetooth uses more power.
Rick Chapman
In a two second search everything I’ve read says that isn’t the case although Bluetooth is closing the gap but all you have to do is turn on Bluetooth on your phone or MacBook and you can see it uses more power. On top on this there are points where I transfer 150GB of VMs via thunderbolt. Good luck doing that via Bluetooth!
Richard, you are correct that your device will use more power when running Bluetooth than without. However, pushing powerful magnets in your earphone/headphones requires lots of juice; just because they are small doesn’t mean they don’t draw a lot of current. The other reason for Apple going this way has to do with peoples comfort and the experience they get using their device. Most people want their devices to work and no cables at all if they can help it. Too many times Apple has done this…forgone another cable to simplify the whole experience; the only things to make this simpler now is batteries lasting so long that sleep mode would be any time your headphones/earphones are not on/in your ears.
Rick Chapman