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Just to offer a somewhat contrarian opinion: I'm a professional developer who is very excited about these new MacBook Pros. I routinely run multiple VMs, Vim i

Just to offer a somewhat contrarian opinion: I'm a professional developer who is very excited about these new MacBook Pros. I routinely run multiple VMs, Vim is my primary text editor, and I picked up a DSLR this year and have been getting into photography as a hobby. After some initial skepticism and consideration, I'm mostly happy with the design tradeoffs that they made. Of course I'll have to use one for a while to know for sure. The price increase is obviously unwelcome, but it isn't new as far as their laptop redesigns go and I expect the price will fall back to "normal" over the next year or two.

addicted 10y ago
What are you actually excited about over the previous model as opposed to "don't have a problem with"? Im genuinely curious. This is not meant to be a rhetorical question.
- johnthedebs 10y ago
  I'm excited about the potential of the Touchbar and I feel like a lot of the criticism towards it is unfair. Eg, "I'm a touch-typist and therefore don't want to look down at my keyboard". I almost always look down when using the current function keys despite being a very proficient touch-typist so I don't think this argument holds as much weight as people give it. I'm excited about the reductions in size and weight. I carry my laptop to/from work with me every day (45min NYC commute) and I often have it with me other places because I'm on-call. Other people may not care about size and weight reductions, but I do. I'm excited about the improvements to the screen, the sound system, the trackpad, the graphics performance, and the SSD performance. Granted, the internal upgrades were overdue and nothing stellar, but improvements are improvements. I'm excited about the future potential of the ports. This is inconvenient in the short term, but I like the idea of simplifying down to one type of port. The fact that one port can provide power, external audio, video, USB, etc means I can have a proper dock setup for my machine when I get home or get to work. As it is now, I have several things to plug in or unplug and it's kind of annoying. I'm not even bothered by the removal of MagSafe, as a lot of people seem to be (understandably). I almost never have my laptop plugged into power while susceptible to the cord being tripped because it's normally docked at my desk. I like that I can plug power into either side, bc it means I'm able to have an external display on either side. And when it's not docked, the battery life is mostly good enough that I don't need to think much about plugging it in and worrying about the cord being tripped. In other words, it's becoming a lot more like a phone in terms of usage patterns than previous generations of MacBooks.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    > I'm excited about the reductions in size and weight. I carry my laptop to/from work with me every day (45min NYC commute) and I often have it with me other places because I'm on-call. Other people may not care about size and weight reductions, but I do. Same commute, same city, and I've never really had a problem with laptop weight and size. I stick it in my backpack, with other stuff that ends up weighing probably 3x what the laptop itself does.
    - johnthedebs 10y ago
      That's reasonable, it sounds like we just have different priorities. I like to keep my backpack light bc I feel it in my shoulders by the end of the day and every bit makes a difference. I also find smaller/lighter laptops more pleasant to use when I'm not at my desk. I tend to unplug and carry it someplace else when thinking through problems or when I want a change of scenery.

addicted 10y ago

What are you actually excited about over the previous model as opposed to "don't have a problem with"? Im genuinely curious. This is not meant to be a rhetorical question.

johnthedebs 10y ago
I'm excited about the potential of the Touchbar and I feel like a lot of the criticism towards it is unfair. Eg, "I'm a touch-typist and therefore don't want to look down at my keyboard". I almost always look down when using the current function keys despite being a very proficient touch-typist so I don't think this argument holds as much weight as people give it. I'm excited about the reductions in size and weight. I carry my laptop to/from work with me every day (45min NYC commute) and I often have it with me other places because I'm on-call. Other people may not care about size and weight reductions, but I do. I'm excited about the improvements to the screen, the sound system, the trackpad, the graphics performance, and the SSD performance. Granted, the internal upgrades were overdue and nothing stellar, but improvements are improvements. I'm excited about the future potential of the ports. This is inconvenient in the short term, but I like the idea of simplifying down to one type of port. The fact that one port can provide power, external audio, video, USB, etc means I can have a proper dock setup for my machine when I get home or get to work. As it is now, I have several things to plug in or unplug and it's kind of annoying. I'm not even bothered by the removal of MagSafe, as a lot of people seem to be (understandably). I almost never have my laptop plugged into power while susceptible to the cord being tripped because it's normally docked at my desk. I like that I can plug power into either side, bc it means I'm able to have an external display on either side. And when it's not docked, the battery life is mostly good enough that I don't need to think much about plugging it in and worrying about the cord being tripped. In other words, it's becoming a lot more like a phone in terms of usage patterns than previous generations of MacBooks.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  > I'm excited about the reductions in size and weight. I carry my laptop to/from work with me every day (45min NYC commute) and I often have it with me other places because I'm on-call. Other people may not care about size and weight reductions, but I do. Same commute, same city, and I've never really had a problem with laptop weight and size. I stick it in my backpack, with other stuff that ends up weighing probably 3x what the laptop itself does.
  - johnthedebs 10y ago
    That's reasonable, it sounds like we just have different priorities. I like to keep my backpack light bc I feel it in my shoulders by the end of the day and every bit makes a difference. I also find smaller/lighter laptops more pleasant to use when I'm not at my desk. I tend to unplug and carry it someplace else when thinking through problems or when I want a change of scenery.