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jglovier/macbook-pro-2016-thoughts.md

Last active March 27, 2017 16:07
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Thoughts on using my 2016 Macbook Pro since November 2016.
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macbook-pro-2016-thoughts.md

Likes

  • TouchBar is pretty pretty neat, and has the potential to be really useful (although so far in practice I've not really gotten much out of it that I didn't just wish I had the normal keys for, except maybe the emoji toolbar).
    • there's some fun novel stuff like a NyanCat touch bar app that adds an extra point for nerdy cool factor
  • The thing is really REALLY thin and light. Noticably so over my previous 2013 13" MBP Retina
  • The screen is much brighter than my previous model, and has slightly better/more accurate native color
  • The speakers are much louder than my previous model (about on par with my iPad Pro speakers, which are fantastic and quite loud)
  • Processing power def feels a bit snappier. I wasn't too unhappy with my previous model, but so far this one feels a bit quicker, although it could be the placebo effect since I have no objective data to back that up. UPDATE 3/27 while the processing still feels snappier at times, it really seems like the computer significantly slows down a lot faster/easier than my old one (i.e. with a lot of stuff running); however, when it's not doing a lot of stuff, it does feel really fast still.
  • The larger touchpad is

Neutral

  • Thinner keys take a bit of getting used to. The finger travel feels much different. I've been mistyping workds a bunch because of finger placement and muscle memory adjustment. But I do kina like them being even thinner, at least the idea of it.

Dislikes

  • The keyboard is significantly louder than my previous 2013 model.
  • Up/down arrow key are harder to hit because they are smaller. I hit the shift key instead of the up arrow a lot. Hitting down to cmd+down to end of document takes more time and concentration now because down arrow is a smaller target now (although I suspect this will be easier over time as I get used to the new size).
  • TouchBar UI only allows 4 traditional alt-function buttons to display be default, which means many of the common alt-functions I use (volume up/down, brightness up/down) require an extra touch just to get to now, and the expand button is unencessarily small.
  • Battery life is not an improvement over my previous 2013 MBP Retina, and might even be worse.
  • Lack of Magsafe, USB, HDMI, and Flash memory card ports is quite unfortunate.
  • All of the dongles required to go from USB-C to basically anything else I own, including my iPhone 7 (lolwat).
  • I can't charge my iPhone 7 or use internet from my iPhone 7 without a Lightning to USB-C adapter (did I mention ALL OF THE DONGLES already?)
  • Believe it or not, the escape button is actually a different experience which cause me to have to pause to feel for it, rather than the former generation's physical button which I could strike automatically every time

Straight up fails

  • The touch bar UI is actually pretty glitchy. Often it will completely not show parts of the buttons (pics)
  • Three finger touch and drag with right hand doesn't work about 3/4 of the time. Although strangely enough it works for my left hand nearly 100% of the time, so I often use the left hand as a workaround (though less efficient). UPDATE: I've found a couple workarounds. Turns out if I tap more intentionaly with all three fingers, it seems to work more consistently. Or, when I turn off two finger touch for the context menu, the three finger touch and drag seems to work correctly 100% of the time.
  • Integration with my Apple Thunderbolt Display is terrible. It requires a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter to even work, and worst of all you can't even charge it from the Thunderbolt display because it has no MagSafe or MagSafe adapter (like you could get for Thunderbolt 1 displays with Thunderbolt 2 macs)
  • The new power adapter is really frustrating in that it doesn't come with an extension cable, and doesn't have the arms to wrap the cable around, which leads to cord frustration
  • I've had the machine crash a decent amount lately, and it seems primarily related to plugging it into my new LG thunderbolt 3 display, but only when I have the laptop shut and am just using the display for the screen. In that use case, consistently every time I unplug from the monitor and open the Macbook, it becomes unreponsive at the login screen and eventually restarts itself.
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