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Reading this, it feels like the MacBook Pro of 2015 is finally getting an upgrade. Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. Great to hear a co

Reading this, it feels like the MacBook Pro of 2015 is finally getting an upgrade. Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. Great to hear a couple iterations ago they restored the keyboard. Now with dropping the touch bar and bringing back mag safe. My 2015 daily driver might see retirement.

BossingAround 6y ago
> Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. I'd view it differently. It took them 5 years for customers to be happy to see nothing more than the most regular and boring update while paying even higher premium on it than before. In other words, because it took them so long to deliver a regular spec update, customers are now happy to pay higher margin prices.
data_ders 6y ago
not to mention the butterfly keyboard has also been retired!
- sparkling 6y ago
  While i do like the typing feel very much, the mechanism is unreliable. Every few weeks i get some random key stuck where i will need to press it really hard to engage. So far all stuck keys loosen up after 1-2 days, but it is very annoying.
m4tthumphrey 6y ago
Exactly what I was thinking. I have been seriously dreading the day my 2015 Pro finally gives up on me. This news couldn't have come at a better time, I just hope it's true!
- simonmales 6y ago
  In the last couple of weeks I have that worry too. Did a little research regarding replacing the disk. A more performant drive costs around $120 USD. And the steps too replace it do not seem to tricky.
runawaybottle 6y ago
Yeah, plus more ports. Touchbar was interesting, but not a killer feature. Sounds like the upgrade devs were looking for.
- Hamuko 6y ago
  The thing about Touch Bar is that you can't really integrate it as part of your workflow if you ever dock your computer and use an external keyboard.
  - runawaybottle 6y ago
    The touchbar is a whole bunch of tech they manufacture that seems to add little value. I expect it to cut cost and complexity in the most obvious way (literally just shave off 65 dollars from the laptop, regain some space if possible). Make the function keys super small and increase track pad size, or add more vents. Another rumor: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/29/apple-researching-keyboards-with-displays-on-keys/amp/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/29/apple-researching-keybo... ^ This might be the first iteration setting up for the end state of what will be the long term vision. Exciting, love seeing them grind out the little (but ambitious) improvements on what most companies would consider ‘perfect as is’ product. ——- For Apple at this point, I think, getting people to buy a 1100 MacBook + AirMax headphones is better than trying to get them buy not-so-obvious high end $1600 laptop.
    - jrockway 6y ago
      Always felt like a bit of marketing to me. Nobody would buy the laptops if they said "this thing is 10x slower than a random desktop cobbled together from parts purchased on Ebay, and gets hot enough to burn your lap when you use it as a laptop", so they kind of had no choice but to add some sort of whizbang wowie zowie add-on to stand out from PC laptops (that also used the same slow and inefficient CPUs). Now that their laptops are as fast as desktops and use very little power, they can sell them on computing power alone, meaning they don't need to inflate the BOM with gizmos and gadgets. One less thing to break. Good riddance, I say.
- 6y ago
ksec 6y ago
>Great to hear a couple iterations ago they restored the keyboard. Magic Keyboard was only introduced in mid 2020. And they are still not as good as MBP 2015 in terms of typing experience. Magic Keyboard Key Travel - 1mm MacBook 2015 Key Travel - 1.3mm Key Spacing as well. They are tiny in Magic Keyboard Layout and it is harder to "sense" the keys apart. >Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. TrackPad, being too large in Post 2015 models causing much higher false positives ( touching the trackpad and moving the cursor ) On the Good side at least they are listening.
- simonmales 6y ago
  Ah, I thought the whole bringing back of the Scissor mechanism had brought the glory back. Reminds me of a blog post (via HN of course) that discussed how Apple is hurting itself by being obsessed with making devices smaller (Ugh, can't find the link). A friend was grilling his boss who was fan boying over a particular iPhone release. Where the device was 10% thinner. In the real world it was a 1mm difference.
  - yoz-y 6y ago
    1mm for a phone is quite a bit though. Pursuing thinness (and thus lightness) makes a lot of sense for a device you lug everywhere with you.
    - toomanybeersies 6y ago
      Except that they make them thin at the expense of sturdiness, so everybody needs to get a case for their iPhone to avoid breaking the thing if they drop it more than a couple of feet.
      - yoz-y 6y ago
        Hm, I was under the impression that the sturdiness was mostly tied to materials, mainly usage of glass instead of plastic. A lighter phone should at least in theory be less breakable. Bendiness is another thing though.
kilroy123 6y ago
I've been waiting for this and I hope you're right. Typing from a late 2015 model MacBook Pro
ourcat 6y ago
My Mid-2015 Macbook Pro is the last best machine they made. They were like hen's teeth when I bought mine second-hand. Daily workhorse.

BossingAround 6y ago

> Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. I'd view it differently. It took them 5 years for customers to be happy to see nothing more than the most regular and boring update while paying even higher premium on it than before. In other words, because it took them so long to deliver a regular spec update, customers are now happy to pay higher margin prices.

data_ders 6y ago

not to mention the butterfly keyboard has also been retired!

sparkling 6y ago
While i do like the typing feel very much, the mechanism is unreliable. Every few weeks i get some random key stuck where i will need to press it really hard to engage. So far all stuck keys loosen up after 1-2 days, but it is very annoying.

m4tthumphrey 6y ago

Exactly what I was thinking. I have been seriously dreading the day my 2015 Pro finally gives up on me. This news couldn't have come at a better time, I just hope it's true!

simonmales 6y ago
In the last couple of weeks I have that worry too. Did a little research regarding replacing the disk. A more performant drive costs around $120 USD. And the steps too replace it do not seem to tricky.

runawaybottle 6y ago

Yeah, plus more ports. Touchbar was interesting, but not a killer feature. Sounds like the upgrade devs were looking for.

Hamuko 6y ago
The thing about Touch Bar is that you can't really integrate it as part of your workflow if you ever dock your computer and use an external keyboard.
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  The touchbar is a whole bunch of tech they manufacture that seems to add little value. I expect it to cut cost and complexity in the most obvious way (literally just shave off 65 dollars from the laptop, regain some space if possible). Make the function keys super small and increase track pad size, or add more vents. Another rumor: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/29/apple-researching-keyboards-with-displays-on-keys/amp/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/29/apple-researching-keybo... ^ This might be the first iteration setting up for the end state of what will be the long term vision. Exciting, love seeing them grind out the little (but ambitious) improvements on what most companies would consider ‘perfect as is’ product. ——- For Apple at this point, I think, getting people to buy a 1100 MacBook + AirMax headphones is better than trying to get them buy not-so-obvious high end $1600 laptop.
  - jrockway 6y ago
    Always felt like a bit of marketing to me. Nobody would buy the laptops if they said "this thing is 10x slower than a random desktop cobbled together from parts purchased on Ebay, and gets hot enough to burn your lap when you use it as a laptop", so they kind of had no choice but to add some sort of whizbang wowie zowie add-on to stand out from PC laptops (that also used the same slow and inefficient CPUs). Now that their laptops are as fast as desktops and use very little power, they can sell them on computing power alone, meaning they don't need to inflate the BOM with gizmos and gadgets. One less thing to break. Good riddance, I say.
6y ago

ksec 6y ago

>Great to hear a couple iterations ago they restored the keyboard. Magic Keyboard was only introduced in mid 2020. And they are still not as good as MBP 2015 in terms of typing experience. Magic Keyboard Key Travel - 1mm MacBook 2015 Key Travel - 1.3mm Key Spacing as well. They are tiny in Magic Keyboard Layout and it is harder to "sense" the keys apart. >Took them 5 years to go back and restore the old school. TrackPad, being too large in Post 2015 models causing much higher false positives ( touching the trackpad and moving the cursor ) On the Good side at least they are listening.

simonmales 6y ago
Ah, I thought the whole bringing back of the Scissor mechanism had brought the glory back. Reminds me of a blog post (via HN of course) that discussed how Apple is hurting itself by being obsessed with making devices smaller (Ugh, can't find the link). A friend was grilling his boss who was fan boying over a particular iPhone release. Where the device was 10% thinner. In the real world it was a 1mm difference.
- yoz-y 6y ago
  1mm for a phone is quite a bit though. Pursuing thinness (and thus lightness) makes a lot of sense for a device you lug everywhere with you.
  - toomanybeersies 6y ago
    Except that they make them thin at the expense of sturdiness, so everybody needs to get a case for their iPhone to avoid breaking the thing if they drop it more than a couple of feet.
    - yoz-y 6y ago
      Hm, I was under the impression that the sturdiness was mostly tied to materials, mainly usage of glass instead of plastic. A lighter phone should at least in theory be less breakable. Bendiness is another thing though.

kilroy123 6y ago

I've been waiting for this and I hope you're right. Typing from a late 2015 model MacBook Pro

ourcat 6y ago

My Mid-2015 Macbook Pro is the last best machine they made. They were like hen's teeth when I bought mine second-hand. Daily workhorse.