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I upgraded from a late 2015 to a 2018 earlier this fall. I don’t really miss anything, especially not the weight or the keyboard. The touchbar has never been
by eksemplar 8y ago
I upgraded from a late 2015 to a 2018 earlier this fall.
I don’t really miss anything, especially not the weight or the keyboard.
The touchbar has never been of use to me though. It doesn’t annoy me much, but the user design for changing volume requires more clicks than the non touchbar, so it’s obviously terrible design.
I don’t miss any of the ports, I thought I would, but it’s not like there was an Ethernet port so I still needed a dongle for the 2015 version.
There’s certainly room for improvement, but the 512gb 13” version isn’t crazy expensive for what you’re getting compared to other laptops, at least not in my country.
- simonbarker87 8y agoTap hold and slide for volume and brightness. It’s faster than the old keys.
- eksemplar 8y agoIt’s terrible compared to the old way. You click the sound icon, then the slide opens up, then you can either slide it or click one of the two icons. It’s probably quicker to change the volume from one to ten this way, but 99% of my use cases for changing volume is for one or two steps, for which the slider absolutely sucks. It’s some of the worst design I’ve ever seen for volume control, and the old system is some of the best.
- efrafa 8y agoYou can just tap and slide at once. (Without releasing your finger) Its actually faster than with old buttons.
- eksemplar 8y agoHow is tapping and sliding easier than pressing a button once?
- yakshaving_jgt 8y agoAnything is possible in the Reality Distortion Field.
- saagarjha 8y agoYou don't need to lift your finger, which takes time. Just shift your finger left/right a little bit.
- eksemplar 8y agoBut that’s not faster. The old way: click, you’re done. The new way: click, hold finger, slide, and you’re done. Like I said, it’s faster to go from 1 to 10, but 99% of the times I use it, I’m just changing the volume by 1. Hell, it’s easier for my brain to just click 10 times than to watch where the damn slider is too.
- saagarjha 8y agoAh, you're comparing it to the old hardware keys. I see your point.
- jpb0104 8y agoAnother alternative is to simply flick the touch bar button.
- kayoone 8y agoyou don't need to click and wait though, just tap and without lifting your finger immediately slide to adjust. If anything it's a super minor annoyance imo.
- askafriend 8y agoI don't think you're quite understanding the trick the parent comment is trying to tell you. You press your finger on the sound icon, and just start sliding without waiting. It's one fluid gestural motion. Try it out. It takes the same effort as tapping a physical button but gives you more fine grained control. Yes, it's something new and different from the way you're used to, but give it a chance.
- lostgame 8y agoSliding still does not a simple tap, with tactile feedback, equate. I'm aware I can do this. It still drives me nuts - and I have to agree with eksemplar when I think it is simply a serious step backwards in design and should be an option, not forced like the 2018 models.
- bluedino 8y agoThe lack of tactile feedback is huge. Take a MacBook with the function keys, and one with the touchbar. Then adjust the brightness or volume on both at the same time and the hand that operates the touchbar gets “lost” so easily
- coin 8y agoStill more work than quickly tapping once or twice. With the slider I have to carefully slide to get the exact amount, all without any tactical feedback.
- 4ad 8y agoTactile feedback? What for? You have visual and audio feedback. After all, you are trying to set volume or brightness to a specific level...
- _asummers 8y agoThat interaction is not at all obvious. I've used the 2017 since they came out and have been tapping then lifting my finger every time to drag the slider.
- nicolashahn 8y agoThe keyboard is the part I dislike the most on the 2017, although I heard they made it better on the 2018. Loud, no travel, requires more force to actuate, more difficult to touch type reliably because I can barely feel the edges of the keys. I definitely hate the touchbar, for the same reason. I just want the buttons I need to be there when I need them. Changing volume or screen brightness just takes that much longer and I have no tactile feedback, so I actually have to look at the keyboard instead of relying on muscle memory. I mostly don't care about the ports, but I'd still rather not have to use dongles if I don't have to. Would it have been that hard to add one or two USB 3.0 ports? No, but then how would they sell $80 dongles?
- eksemplar 8y agoI think the keyboard is down to preference, I prefer the new one. It does seem silly not to include a dongle in the box though. I mean, I’m buying apple because I want my tech to just work, and now my mouse or magic keyboard can’t connect and charge? The only real port annoyance I have though, is the damn headphone jack. :p I mean, I can’t connect my iPhone XS headphones to my MacBook Pro...
- saagarjha 8y agoI'm not saying that a USB adapter wouldn't be useful, but for your specific use case (which is pretty rare: using an external keyboard and mouse with your laptop) you shouldn't need an adapter at all. You should be able to connect to both through Bluetooth.
- huehehue 8y ago> You should be able to connect to both through Bluetooth. Did I miss the news about charging devices over bluetooth?
- saagarjha 8y agoYou don't need to charge your keyboard and mouse from your computer; I'm assuming you have a USB-A power brick from your phone, tablet, etc. already that you can use to charge your stuff.
- spullara 8y agoYou touch and drag to change volume. Not sure how that could possibly be more clicks?
- dylan604 8y agoDepends on which OS you have. The touch bar behaves differently in Mojave than it did in Sierra. The mode I used in Sierra is no longer available in the Mojave, and I've had to re-learn the touch bar. First thing up, remove the damned Siri button so I don't accidentally hit it when reaching for the delete button.
- jonathankoren 8y agoHas anyone used Siri on the desktop? I tried once to set a timer with it, and it said it couldn’t. WTF Siri? You have a clock. And then I never used it again.
- jamie_ca 8y agoI _can't_. "Hey Siri" picks up faster on my phone, and when the mac hears the acknowledgement chirp it shuts that down.
- lostgame 8y agoHa! Did they seriously not come across this in testing? Blows my mind.
- dwaite 8y agoI'm not sure what you mean; Siri only activating on a single device at a time is absolutely a core design goal.
- jonathankoren 8y agoYou can always click the circle I’m the upper right.
- woolvalley 8y agoI'm fine with using the keyboard. I'm not fine how the keyboard fails all the time still and how unrepairable it is for an easy to break part. Apple is moving more and more away from acura into mercedes car territory.
- dillondoyle 8y agoI actually made the same comment about the volume touch bar when it came out... Another hidden Apple os interaction: if you have it set to slider you can just hit it and move your finger without lifting even if not 'hover' the slide area. Or you can change to the old mute, quite, loud buttons in settings