5 ms·

> the worst the Mac has ever been Which one was that?

pavlov 4y ago
The 2016 MacBook Pro was a turd. The butterfly keyboard would inevitably break. I went through several of these laptops. To add insult to the injury, this model's unique innovations were "Touch Bar" and "no ports"... I've been buying Macs since 2000, and the 2016 MBP is definitely the worst Mac I ever had. It was enough to drive me to purchase a Surface Book as an alternative.
- hardlianotion 4y ago
  The 16" Macbook pro I bought in 2019 has been a source of constant irritation to me - unexpected fan thrashing, overheating, the usual stuff - and the performance and low cost of the new M1-based MacBooks has done nothing to improve my mood.
  - xbar 4y ago
    I don't blame you. That "pinnacle" of hardware design is an Apple poop-bomb. I have one with 32GB that was provided by my employer. It is bad. I hate using it. The keyboard on it is bad, the performance is bad, and the glitchiness is deeply frustrating. I loved my 2015 Macbook Pro 15" that it replaced and wondered why I thought it would be any better. My M1 Macbook Pro 16 is a joy to me.
    - jamiepenney 4y ago
      I put an order in for a 14" one last night to replace my 2019 MBP, this makes me feel better about the price.
  - Pelam 4y ago
    Try customizing the fan curves to spin up at lower temps. Not much more noise over all if at all, but much more responsiveness.
  - unicornporn 4y ago
    > The 16" Macbook pro I bought in 2019 has been a source of constant irritation to me This. Worst Mac I've ever had to use.
  - AOsborn 4y ago
    Same situation with mine. Even had to have the battery replaced after showing errors, after a whole ordeal to have it covered under warranty. I suspect this was related to the constant overheating.
  - wildrhythms 4y ago
    I have one of these for work (employer-provided) and it is the worst machine I have ever used. The touchbar is useless. It's heavy and bulky as hell. Just watching a Youtube video or opening a page with some gifs causes the fan to spin up and sound like a jet engine. The dual fan situation was supposed to improve cooling, but it only made it LOUDER. Incredibly embarrassing to be in a quiet meeting room and accidentally open a slide deck with a gif for 2 minutes and have the machine ramp up its fans to maximum speed. Why?? Meanwhile on my M1 Air I can have the same content open + some Twitch stream + 3D map view open with no fan, no sound at all, and it runs great.
- wombat-man 4y ago
  I refuse to buy a touchbar mac although some have been issued to me by employers. I remember when they came out they raised the price of the MBP for this "feature" that just kinda sucked. Ended up leaving my MBP closed 95% of the time and using a separate keyboard.
  - wildrhythms 4y ago
    This is why I bought a M1 Air instead of a Pro when it first launched. I don't know how some people can stand the touchbar. "But it can do so much!" Isn't the point of touch typing to never look at the keyboard? It never made sense to me.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  In addition they made the battery smaller despite the CPU not really getting any more efficient so it got less battery life unless literally all you were doing was watching iTunes movies.
- SenHeng 4y ago
  I'm grateful for the 'no ports' move. It really helped jump start moving everything on to USB-C. Yes, the implementation details are still being worked out. particularly how the mass manufacturers can cut cost while still the most wanted subset of supported features.
  - solarkraft 4y ago
    > Yes, the implementation details are still being worked out We're about 7 years into USB-C and I still had to do a ton of searching to find a dongle that does HDMI at 60 Hz, USB-A and charging (how crazy to want all that, right?!). I also had to buy a shady (AFAIK it violates the spec) extension cable to build a dock setup ("real" docks are in the hundreds of Euros). It cost me about 40€ to get back features I used to get for free and has reliability issues. USB-C is a blessing for charging, but I'm a bit disappointed by the ecosystem for the rest.
- lloeki 4y ago
  Oh my, the 2018 one I have is a terrible piece of junk, notably the USB subsystem (overheats on one side, prone to interference, regularly resets which kills and connects to some device, may it be mouse, keyboard, or external display) and although I liked the touch of the butterfly keyboard, the arrow keys still trip me up (and of course the reliability) > "Touch Bar" The default touch bar UI is terrible, except for a few special cases (e.g Logic Pro / GarageBand sliders/knobs). I did see and try some hacks to customise it but they were quite brittle so I dropped off that train, but it kind of proved to me that there was something to it that could have been really great were it fully programmable for real, and that the actual execution was extremely subpar. > "no ports" If by "no ports" you mean USB-C only, I am really enjoying the 4x C port machines, and would rather not go back to mixed ports unless forced to. USB-A/B sockets just need to die.
  - unilynx 4y ago
    > except for a few special cases (e.g Logic Pro / GarageBand sliders/knobs). yeah that .. I enjoy it for quickly setting/sliding brightness and volume. And you can add a screenshot button to it which does not break focus so it allows me to screenshot things the keyboard cmd+shift+3/4 UI can't (ie context menus)
- waynesonfire 4y ago
  Sheesh, did you skip the MBP 2015? That's the best one they ever made, even to this day. I've been using MBP 2015 since then and just recently "upgraded" to M1. The MBP 2015 is still a better machine, better screen and keyboard. I can type waayy faster on the 2015 with less errors and the screen is better on the eye strain. The whites on the M1 are BRIGHT. I don't need a flash light shining at my face. Turning down the "brightness" doesn't address the problem. That just makes the whole screen darker or but the whites are still as bright. I'm still learning the laptop, maybe there is a contrast setting. Oh, and the trackpad on the 2015 doesn't feel like sandpaper. On the M1, the tip of my finger is numb most of the day. Anyway, for such a fanboi and you skipped the best MBP. Bummer for you. I can't imagine going from 2015 to 2016 and being satisfied with that. I'd have returned it the same day.
  - whynaut 4y ago
    You'll definitely want to enable warmer colors
    - waynesonfire 4y ago
      I use that. Been toying with night mode, color filters, and even flux. It's still too extreme, though it helps with the whites the other colors look atrocious. I have just about identical settings on both models and comparing the two laptops side-by-side, the 2015 looks much better. I still have "vivid" colors but the whites are more grey. Must be a screen thing, some new IPS technology. I don't know. It's terrible.
      - appletrotter 4y ago
        I feel like you might be noticing HDR. HDR supersedes your brightness settings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAsAuBtmps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAsAuBtmps
  - 0_____0 4y ago
    I'm not really that picky about era of MBP, honestly I'd be happy with any of them save for the era with the bad keyboards. But the 2015 vintage was certainly a good one. I have a late-2015 rMBP as my daily driver. I'm only now starting to run up against its limitations. USB-C, better 4K support, form factor, battery life, overall speed are things I'm looking forward to when I finally upgrade.
- butterisgood 4y ago
  Hmm I did exactly the same thing. Apple refreshed my whole laptop after a keyboard break, and I have the Surface to my wife. I think we are both going to get these M2 MBAs next.
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  I am not generally an Apple user, but I had a 2012 MacBook pro for work for a few years, and it seemed pretty nice. I can't remember any complaints. That's while I was working at Google, though, so all I used it for was a web browser and SSH terminal.
jclardy 4y ago
Butterfly keyboard era. I have one as a work machine that sits around until I need VPN access. The keyboard is miserable, and the fans spin up when I open Slack. In contrast, my 14" M1 Pro is the best laptop I've ever used. Fans are inaudible, incredible performance, incredible keyboard/trackpad, battery is not a worry.
deepGem 4y ago
15”/13” MBPro with the Touch Bar and that horrendous keyboard.
iamben 4y ago
The last Intel Air (early 2020) is the worst Mac I've ever owned by an absolute mile. The fan is permanently on - it's like working on a hairdryer.
- horsawlarway 4y ago
  Honestly - Pretty much every laptop Apple released from 2018 to 2021 was a complete turd. I have the 16 inch 2019 model (issued by work, I don't buy apple products) and it's... just not a good machine. It gets amazingly hot, the fans run ALL the time, the usb-c ports are flakey at best (frequently stop working after a suspend/resume cycle, or if you unplug while the machine is closed). It's got a shitty touch bar instead of function keys (although at least it reverted to a real esc-key, the touchbar only esc was literally a joke). It has frequent rendering glitches and artifacts. The battery life is bad (basically a given for how much power this thing is dumping right into my lap as heat). ---- Before the M line, I was about to go have a real fight with our IT department to get me issued literally anything other than another Mac. The last couple of models they've put out in the intel line are just genuinely bad machines, across both the pro and air lines.
  - iamben 4y ago
    Ugh, I forgot about the battery. I'm lucky if I get a couple of hours out of it. Horrible thing.
    - jamiepenney 4y ago
      90 minutes max for me. Awful machine.
      - iamben 4y ago
        I spent months complaining to them about this laptop. I had an Air for 5 years(!) before this and it was a wonderful machine. For 2k I'd expected a decent machine - but I hate everything about it. Obviously Apple didn't care in the slightest.
      - 4y ago
vishnugupta 4y ago
The one they launched with Touch Bar. By far the worst keyboard I have come across, almost useless Touch Bar, no ports.
- Jyaif 4y ago
  For me the Touch Bar wasn't just useless, it was actively annoying.
rodgerd 4y ago
Any of the 90s Performa models where processors were routinely crippled by having half-width memory buses on them.

The 2016 MacBook Pro was a turd. The butterfly keyboard would inevitably break. I went through several of these laptops. To add insult to the injury, this model's unique innovations were "Touch Bar" and "no ports"... I've been buying Macs since 2000, and the 2016 MBP is definitely the worst Mac I ever had. It was enough to drive me to purchase a Surface Book as an alternative.

hardlianotion 4y ago
The 16" Macbook pro I bought in 2019 has been a source of constant irritation to me - unexpected fan thrashing, overheating, the usual stuff - and the performance and low cost of the new M1-based MacBooks has done nothing to improve my mood.
- xbar 4y ago
  I don't blame you. That "pinnacle" of hardware design is an Apple poop-bomb. I have one with 32GB that was provided by my employer. It is bad. I hate using it. The keyboard on it is bad, the performance is bad, and the glitchiness is deeply frustrating. I loved my 2015 Macbook Pro 15" that it replaced and wondered why I thought it would be any better. My M1 Macbook Pro 16 is a joy to me.
  - jamiepenney 4y ago
    I put an order in for a 14" one last night to replace my 2019 MBP, this makes me feel better about the price.
- Pelam 4y ago
  Try customizing the fan curves to spin up at lower temps. Not much more noise over all if at all, but much more responsiveness.
- unicornporn 4y ago
  > The 16" Macbook pro I bought in 2019 has been a source of constant irritation to me This. Worst Mac I've ever had to use.
- AOsborn 4y ago
  Same situation with mine. Even had to have the battery replaced after showing errors, after a whole ordeal to have it covered under warranty. I suspect this was related to the constant overheating.
- wildrhythms 4y ago
  I have one of these for work (employer-provided) and it is the worst machine I have ever used. The touchbar is useless. It's heavy and bulky as hell. Just watching a Youtube video or opening a page with some gifs causes the fan to spin up and sound like a jet engine. The dual fan situation was supposed to improve cooling, but it only made it LOUDER. Incredibly embarrassing to be in a quiet meeting room and accidentally open a slide deck with a gif for 2 minutes and have the machine ramp up its fans to maximum speed. Why?? Meanwhile on my M1 Air I can have the same content open + some Twitch stream + 3D map view open with no fan, no sound at all, and it runs great.
wombat-man 4y ago
I refuse to buy a touchbar mac although some have been issued to me by employers. I remember when they came out they raised the price of the MBP for this "feature" that just kinda sucked. Ended up leaving my MBP closed 95% of the time and using a separate keyboard.
- wildrhythms 4y ago
  This is why I bought a M1 Air instead of a Pro when it first launched. I don't know how some people can stand the touchbar. "But it can do so much!" Isn't the point of touch typing to never look at the keyboard? It never made sense to me.
kalleboo 4y ago
In addition they made the battery smaller despite the CPU not really getting any more efficient so it got less battery life unless literally all you were doing was watching iTunes movies.
SenHeng 4y ago
I'm grateful for the 'no ports' move. It really helped jump start moving everything on to USB-C. Yes, the implementation details are still being worked out. particularly how the mass manufacturers can cut cost while still the most wanted subset of supported features.
- solarkraft 4y ago
  > Yes, the implementation details are still being worked out We're about 7 years into USB-C and I still had to do a ton of searching to find a dongle that does HDMI at 60 Hz, USB-A and charging (how crazy to want all that, right?!). I also had to buy a shady (AFAIK it violates the spec) extension cable to build a dock setup ("real" docks are in the hundreds of Euros). It cost me about 40€ to get back features I used to get for free and has reliability issues. USB-C is a blessing for charging, but I'm a bit disappointed by the ecosystem for the rest.
lloeki 4y ago
Oh my, the 2018 one I have is a terrible piece of junk, notably the USB subsystem (overheats on one side, prone to interference, regularly resets which kills and connects to some device, may it be mouse, keyboard, or external display) and although I liked the touch of the butterfly keyboard, the arrow keys still trip me up (and of course the reliability) > "Touch Bar" The default touch bar UI is terrible, except for a few special cases (e.g Logic Pro / GarageBand sliders/knobs). I did see and try some hacks to customise it but they were quite brittle so I dropped off that train, but it kind of proved to me that there was something to it that could have been really great were it fully programmable for real, and that the actual execution was extremely subpar. > "no ports" If by "no ports" you mean USB-C only, I am really enjoying the 4x C port machines, and would rather not go back to mixed ports unless forced to. USB-A/B sockets just need to die.
- unilynx 4y ago
  > except for a few special cases (e.g Logic Pro / GarageBand sliders/knobs). yeah that .. I enjoy it for quickly setting/sliding brightness and volume. And you can add a screenshot button to it which does not break focus so it allows me to screenshot things the keyboard cmd+shift+3/4 UI can't (ie context menus)
waynesonfire 4y ago
Sheesh, did you skip the MBP 2015? That's the best one they ever made, even to this day. I've been using MBP 2015 since then and just recently "upgraded" to M1. The MBP 2015 is still a better machine, better screen and keyboard. I can type waayy faster on the 2015 with less errors and the screen is better on the eye strain. The whites on the M1 are BRIGHT. I don't need a flash light shining at my face. Turning down the "brightness" doesn't address the problem. That just makes the whole screen darker or but the whites are still as bright. I'm still learning the laptop, maybe there is a contrast setting. Oh, and the trackpad on the 2015 doesn't feel like sandpaper. On the M1, the tip of my finger is numb most of the day. Anyway, for such a fanboi and you skipped the best MBP. Bummer for you. I can't imagine going from 2015 to 2016 and being satisfied with that. I'd have returned it the same day.
- whynaut 4y ago
  You'll definitely want to enable warmer colors
  - waynesonfire 4y ago
    I use that. Been toying with night mode, color filters, and even flux. It's still too extreme, though it helps with the whites the other colors look atrocious. I have just about identical settings on both models and comparing the two laptops side-by-side, the 2015 looks much better. I still have "vivid" colors but the whites are more grey. Must be a screen thing, some new IPS technology. I don't know. It's terrible.
    - appletrotter 4y ago
      I feel like you might be noticing HDR. HDR supersedes your brightness settings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAsAuBtmps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAsAuBtmps
- 0_____0 4y ago
  I'm not really that picky about era of MBP, honestly I'd be happy with any of them save for the era with the bad keyboards. But the 2015 vintage was certainly a good one. I have a late-2015 rMBP as my daily driver. I'm only now starting to run up against its limitations. USB-C, better 4K support, form factor, battery life, overall speed are things I'm looking forward to when I finally upgrade.
butterisgood 4y ago
Hmm I did exactly the same thing. Apple refreshed my whole laptop after a keyboard break, and I have the Surface to my wife. I think we are both going to get these M2 MBAs next.
sgtnoodle 4y ago
I am not generally an Apple user, but I had a 2012 MacBook pro for work for a few years, and it seemed pretty nice. I can't remember any complaints. That's while I was working at Google, though, so all I used it for was a web browser and SSH terminal.

jclardy 4y ago

Butterfly keyboard era. I have one as a work machine that sits around until I need VPN access. The keyboard is miserable, and the fans spin up when I open Slack. In contrast, my 14" M1 Pro is the best laptop I've ever used. Fans are inaudible, incredible performance, incredible keyboard/trackpad, battery is not a worry.

deepGem 4y ago

15”/13” MBPro with the Touch Bar and that horrendous keyboard.

iamben 4y ago

The last Intel Air (early 2020) is the worst Mac I've ever owned by an absolute mile. The fan is permanently on - it's like working on a hairdryer.

horsawlarway 4y ago
Honestly - Pretty much every laptop Apple released from 2018 to 2021 was a complete turd. I have the 16 inch 2019 model (issued by work, I don't buy apple products) and it's... just not a good machine. It gets amazingly hot, the fans run ALL the time, the usb-c ports are flakey at best (frequently stop working after a suspend/resume cycle, or if you unplug while the machine is closed). It's got a shitty touch bar instead of function keys (although at least it reverted to a real esc-key, the touchbar only esc was literally a joke). It has frequent rendering glitches and artifacts. The battery life is bad (basically a given for how much power this thing is dumping right into my lap as heat). ---- Before the M line, I was about to go have a real fight with our IT department to get me issued literally anything other than another Mac. The last couple of models they've put out in the intel line are just genuinely bad machines, across both the pro and air lines.
- iamben 4y ago
  Ugh, I forgot about the battery. I'm lucky if I get a couple of hours out of it. Horrible thing.
  - jamiepenney 4y ago
    90 minutes max for me. Awful machine.
    - iamben 4y ago
      I spent months complaining to them about this laptop. I had an Air for 5 years(!) before this and it was a wonderful machine. For 2k I'd expected a decent machine - but I hate everything about it. Obviously Apple didn't care in the slightest.
    - 4y ago

vishnugupta 4y ago

The one they launched with Touch Bar. By far the worst keyboard I have come across, almost useless Touch Bar, no ports.

Jyaif 4y ago
For me the Touch Bar wasn't just useless, it was actively annoying.

rodgerd 4y ago

Any of the 90s Performa models where processors were routinely crippled by having half-width memory buses on them.