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I have the MacBook Pro 2017 edition and this is by far the worst upgrade I've experienced for such a high-end, luxury item. It's all USB-C. Virtually nobody el

I have the MacBook Pro 2017 edition and this is by far the worst upgrade I've experienced for such a high-end, luxury item. It's all USB-C. Virtually nobody else supports USB-C, not even Apple. Oh, you want HDMI? €100 please. I also have an iPhone 8 which is on the Lightning connector. The audio jack is gone and guess what, there's no Lightning connector on the MacBook, so you'll need 2 pairs of headsets or an adapter. The glowing logo is gone. And the Touch Bar is a clusterfuck. In an ironic touch, the default Touch Bar setup shows the Siri button at all times. I guess if you have multiple clusterfucks you make them link to one another. I still have the 2015 at home. I think that was the best MacBook Pro made thus far and looking at the differences I'm now contemplating a move to a Linux laptop — not the same polish, but it won't be this expensive either and I won't feel bad about supporting a company that's getting increasingly hostile towards work laptops and touch typists.

primitur 9y ago
I'm with you. I had a 2017 15" Macbook Pro for work reasons, and just gave it back. I was not sorry. My list of reasons: worst keyboard on Macbook, since like ever. Useless touchbar that just annoyed me more than anything else - was never useful. USB-C is great, but guess how many times I've had to leap across the room because there's no more magsafe and smash my self into the floor in order to avoid the laptop doing it, hmmkkay.. bit of a devolution, I reckon. I'm very happy with my 2015 MBP though, and will just push it through this particular iteration of upgrades for another year or so.. that is, assuming the thermal paste survives, lol, curse you Apple!
IshKebab 9y ago
> Oh, you want HDMI? €100 please. More like €25: https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-USB-HDMI-Adapter-Thunderbolt-Black/dp/B017VOBQ2S https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-USB-HDMI-Adapter-Thund...
- morsch 9y ago
  That one only does 4k at 30 Hz (acceptable to some, not relevant if you're connecting a FHD display). But others -- even cheaper ones, in fact -- seem to do 4k at 60Hz (HDMI 2.0). Apple really should be including an HDMI 2.0 adapter with every USB-C only laptop. Instead they're selling an HDMI 1.4 adapter for $69. Kind of insulting. Not that other manufacturers are better. Dell's new XPS 13 is USB-C only and I'm sure there's no adapter in the box. They sell a "mini-dock" which includes Ethernet and VGA (!) in addition to HDMI (indeterminate version) for $59.
hellofunk 9y ago
> I still have the 2015 at home. I think that was the best MacBook Pro made thus far I recently purchased a new non-touch-bar MacBook Pro and I find it to be the best machine I've ever owned -- super reliable, fast, all the ports, incredible 12 hour battery life, even with all day coding in either Java or C++, the magsafe adapter, and all quite reasonably priced too. I hope Apple considers keeping these in their lineup.
- gondo 9y ago
  i was thinking about doing the same until i read this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761389
  - hellofunk 9y ago
    I don't know how many fans mine has but it's never been too hot, certainly never something I thought was unacceptable. If you are doing multithreaded machine learning or some long running intensive tasks across all cores (which few applications do but developers often do), then the fan does kick in and you can hear it. Not really been a problem for me though.
OskarS 9y ago
I feel like USB-C is on the rise. Nintendo Switch uses it and there's a whole bunch of new android phones starting to use come with it. I bet in a year or two, most new devices (e-book readers, phones, tablets) are going to be USB-C, probably with Apple (ironically) being the only exception. It's neat to be able to charge my Switch from my MacBook charger and vice versa (though the Switch charger barely charges the MacBook) I don't mind so much being part of the forefront here. It's a pain to dongle, but that's the price of progress, dammit!
- Gregordinary 9y ago
  Careful with the USB-C on the Switch as its current implementation is not compliant. (Still agree its adoption is on the rise). https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/2CUPZ5yVTRT https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/2CUPZ5yV... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803
  - codefined 9y ago
    This seems to be one of the problems with USB-C implementations, barely any of them seem truly compliant? I remember this comment from a week ago[0]: > In watching the evolution of USB-C over the last few years, it seems like it's extremely hard to implement correctly with the huge number of modes, alternate modes, and power delivery in the spec. > When you connect two USB-C devices today, you have almost no idea what is actually going to happen, which device is the master, and which way power will flow. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803
briandear 9y ago
> so you'll need 2 pairs of headsets or an adapter AirPods.
Shivetya 9y ago
Please note I am not excusing their practice, their inter connection between products from a hardware perspective is damn low at this point and seems to indicate poor coordination. that out of the way, their airpods work well across all Apple products I own. used for output only their battery life is good for most of my work between get up and walk around sessions. they have been sufficient for me to nearly stop using corded headsets. with regards to touch bar and their keyboards. I end up with replacement keyboards for my desktops as I want separate volume/mute and screen brightness controls.

primitur 9y ago

I'm with you. I had a 2017 15" Macbook Pro for work reasons, and just gave it back. I was not sorry. My list of reasons: worst keyboard on Macbook, since like ever. Useless touchbar that just annoyed me more than anything else - was never useful. USB-C is great, but guess how many times I've had to leap across the room because there's no more magsafe and smash my self into the floor in order to avoid the laptop doing it, hmmkkay.. bit of a devolution, I reckon. I'm very happy with my 2015 MBP though, and will just push it through this particular iteration of upgrades for another year or so.. that is, assuming the thermal paste survives, lol, curse you Apple!

IshKebab 9y ago

> Oh, you want HDMI? €100 please. More like €25: https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-USB-HDMI-Adapter-Thunderbolt-Black/dp/B017VOBQ2S https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-USB-HDMI-Adapter-Thund...

morsch 9y ago
That one only does 4k at 30 Hz (acceptable to some, not relevant if you're connecting a FHD display). But others -- even cheaper ones, in fact -- seem to do 4k at 60Hz (HDMI 2.0). Apple really should be including an HDMI 2.0 adapter with every USB-C only laptop. Instead they're selling an HDMI 1.4 adapter for $69. Kind of insulting. Not that other manufacturers are better. Dell's new XPS 13 is USB-C only and I'm sure there's no adapter in the box. They sell a "mini-dock" which includes Ethernet and VGA (!) in addition to HDMI (indeterminate version) for $59.

hellofunk 9y ago

> I still have the 2015 at home. I think that was the best MacBook Pro made thus far I recently purchased a new non-touch-bar MacBook Pro and I find it to be the best machine I've ever owned -- super reliable, fast, all the ports, incredible 12 hour battery life, even with all day coding in either Java or C++, the magsafe adapter, and all quite reasonably priced too. I hope Apple considers keeping these in their lineup.

gondo 9y ago
i was thinking about doing the same until i read this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761389
- hellofunk 9y ago
  I don't know how many fans mine has but it's never been too hot, certainly never something I thought was unacceptable. If you are doing multithreaded machine learning or some long running intensive tasks across all cores (which few applications do but developers often do), then the fan does kick in and you can hear it. Not really been a problem for me though.

OskarS 9y ago

I feel like USB-C is on the rise. Nintendo Switch uses it and there's a whole bunch of new android phones starting to use come with it. I bet in a year or two, most new devices (e-book readers, phones, tablets) are going to be USB-C, probably with Apple (ironically) being the only exception. It's neat to be able to charge my Switch from my MacBook charger and vice versa (though the Switch charger barely charges the MacBook) I don't mind so much being part of the forefront here. It's a pain to dongle, but that's the price of progress, dammit!

Gregordinary 9y ago
Careful with the USB-C on the Switch as its current implementation is not compliant. (Still agree its adoption is on the rise). https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/2CUPZ5yVTRT https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/2CUPZ5yV... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803
- codefined 9y ago
  This seems to be one of the problems with USB-C implementations, barely any of them seem truly compliant? I remember this comment from a week ago[0]: > In watching the evolution of USB-C over the last few years, it seems like it's extremely hard to implement correctly with the huge number of modes, alternate modes, and power delivery in the spec. > When you connect two USB-C devices today, you have almost no idea what is actually going to happen, which device is the master, and which way power will flow. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803

briandear 9y ago

> so you'll need 2 pairs of headsets or an adapter AirPods.

Shivetya 9y ago

Please note I am not excusing their practice, their inter connection between products from a hardware perspective is damn low at this point and seems to indicate poor coordination. that out of the way, their airpods work well across all Apple products I own. used for output only their battery life is good for most of my work between get up and walk around sessions. they have been sufficient for me to nearly stop using corded headsets. with regards to touch bar and their keyboards. I end up with replacement keyboards for my desktops as I want separate volume/mute and screen brightness controls.