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The bigger controversy was the MacBook Pro launched a few months later: - Ditching MagSafe - Touch Bar (at first without a dedicated escape key) - Butterfly

The bigger controversy was the MacBook Pro launched a few months later: - Ditching MagSafe - Touch Bar (at first without a dedicated escape key) - Butterfly Keyboard - Uncomfortably hot to the touch - Full-sized left and right arrow keys which made it harder to find without looking - Only USB-C ports Whoever had the reigns when Apple finally reversed these decisions and made the M1 MBP -- this is the best laptop I've ever owned.

moltar 2y ago
> Touch Bar … shivers
- drdaeman 2y ago
  I liked it - particularly the volume and brightness controls, and for convenient hotkey access in apps that I didn't use too often to memorize. But it was extremely badly implemented and then basically abandoned. At the very least, it should've never replaced function keys.
  - 112233 2y ago
    Touchbar is very fun to use, that alone makes it a great feature (thanks to mountains of work done to get amazing integration across system and many apps) It's sad to see all that work going to bin. Did you know that you can get touchbar on ipad that you connect as a second monitor? Excellent way to keep it alive, except, oh, it does not work, unless you drag the window to the ipad first... I mean... Somebody went and designed it to work like that, on purpose... From the security perspective, having some UI that cannot be controlled by apps (a led, a touchbar, whatever) is very important for signalling app privilege levels. oh well
sneak 2y ago
The M1 MBAir I think is better than the M1 MBP in terms of sheer utility and price/performance. Until the new $999 Air that launched this week, the M1 Air was the best laptop ever launched, IMO.
- sgarland 2y ago
  Yes, it was. Previously, I had an XPS 13” that was pretty decent, and then an Intel Air, which was even better. I bought an M1 Air, base model, at launch, and was blown away. For once, a manufacturer wasn’t lying about battery life. What Apple has achieved with their SoC is nothing short of revolutionary. They make the best laptops by any conceivable metric, and it isn’t even close.
kristianp 2y ago
Yeah, I thought the article would be about the touchbar macs. Although if most people hate it, it's not controversial right?
ksec 2y ago
>Apple finally reversed these decisions and made the M1 MBP They didn't. The new keyboard is still not old scissors keyboard with 1.5mm Key travel. If I remember correctly it is 1mm or 1.2mm. And it is still a huge difference for me.
- a1o 2y ago
  Yeah, the keyboard never went back to be as good as it was before.
  - timw4mail 2y ago
    My late 2011 Macbook Pro's keyboard is certainly way nicer than my M1 Air's keyboard.
    - wpm 2y ago
      And even that gen keyboard pales in comparison to the old silver ones from the Al PowerBook and non-unibody MacBook Pros. My 12” G4 PowerBook has the best keyboard of any laptop in my house.
pier25 2y ago
Yeah I agree. The 2016 MBP officially started the Mac Dark Ages which lasted until the M1 was released. The 2015 and 2014 models weren't that great either since they were using old 4th gen Haswell Intel CPUs which ran super hot.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  My 13” 2015 rmbp is my favorite notebook of all time. My dad uses it now. I didn’t find it to run that hot and generally found it to be the best windows laptop (via vm) money could buy at the time.
  - danek_szy 2y ago
    Only the 15 inch 2015 model still had the Haswell CPU, therefore your laptop had a slightly newer processor... That [older] generation was left in the bigger model without the yearly upgrade due to the limited supply / production capacity on Intel's side.
    - 7thpower 2y ago
      Ah, I lucked out then!
  - pier25 2y ago
    I had a 2015 15'' MBP and it ran so hot I simply couldn't use it on my lap. Fans became super noisy even with trivial processes. Ended up selling it. The rest of the computer was great though (display, keyboard, trackpad, ssd).
  - TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
    I wholeheartedly agree. I finally moved to an M2 MBP in 2023. I regard the 2023 the same way I do the 2015. It was a worthy upgrade. My only complaint is that Apple’s keyboards have become significantly less resistant to finger oils and staying on top of cleaning them is much more demanding than it used to be.
- brundolf 2y ago
cehrlich 2y ago
Yeah, I don't think the 12" MacBook was anywhere near the most controversial, because it was always clear that it was a niche product. I had one and loved it. Those who it wasn't right for didn't buy it. The 2016-2019 Pros on the other hand replaced a machine that was universally loved. there were entire podcasts dedicated to complaining about them for four years.
vosper 2y ago
> Whoever had the reigns when Apple finally reversed these decisions and made the M1 MBP They shoulda kept the touchbar and restored the functions keys (including restoring volume controls etc to function keys). That would have been amazing. There was so much opportunity for cool custom functionality with touchbar, but it needs to be dedicated to that, not doing double-duty as physical keys.
w0m 2y ago
I had the last non-butterfly MBP, and work tried to get me to move to a new one for years - i fought to keep mine. Then I switched jobs, got a butterfly MBP and the laptop was honestly one of the worst I've had. After 2 years, I had lost a number of keys (i simply never used the built in keyboard when possible) and the battery started expanding. I couldn't even make it to the normal refresh cycle. Maybe bad luck, but such a POS. Apple phoned it in the generation prior to M1.

moltar 2y ago

> Touch Bar … shivers

drdaeman 2y ago
I liked it - particularly the volume and brightness controls, and for convenient hotkey access in apps that I didn't use too often to memorize. But it was extremely badly implemented and then basically abandoned. At the very least, it should've never replaced function keys.
- 112233 2y ago
  Touchbar is very fun to use, that alone makes it a great feature (thanks to mountains of work done to get amazing integration across system and many apps) It's sad to see all that work going to bin. Did you know that you can get touchbar on ipad that you connect as a second monitor? Excellent way to keep it alive, except, oh, it does not work, unless you drag the window to the ipad first... I mean... Somebody went and designed it to work like that, on purpose... From the security perspective, having some UI that cannot be controlled by apps (a led, a touchbar, whatever) is very important for signalling app privilege levels. oh well

sneak 2y ago

The M1 MBAir I think is better than the M1 MBP in terms of sheer utility and price/performance. Until the new $999 Air that launched this week, the M1 Air was the best laptop ever launched, IMO.

sgarland 2y ago
Yes, it was. Previously, I had an XPS 13” that was pretty decent, and then an Intel Air, which was even better. I bought an M1 Air, base model, at launch, and was blown away. For once, a manufacturer wasn’t lying about battery life. What Apple has achieved with their SoC is nothing short of revolutionary. They make the best laptops by any conceivable metric, and it isn’t even close.

kristianp 2y ago

Yeah, I thought the article would be about the touchbar macs. Although if most people hate it, it's not controversial right?

ksec 2y ago

>Apple finally reversed these decisions and made the M1 MBP They didn't. The new keyboard is still not old scissors keyboard with 1.5mm Key travel. If I remember correctly it is 1mm or 1.2mm. And it is still a huge difference for me.

a1o 2y ago
Yeah, the keyboard never went back to be as good as it was before.
- timw4mail 2y ago
  My late 2011 Macbook Pro's keyboard is certainly way nicer than my M1 Air's keyboard.
  - wpm 2y ago
    And even that gen keyboard pales in comparison to the old silver ones from the Al PowerBook and non-unibody MacBook Pros. My 12” G4 PowerBook has the best keyboard of any laptop in my house.

pier25 2y ago

Yeah I agree. The 2016 MBP officially started the Mac Dark Ages which lasted until the M1 was released. The 2015 and 2014 models weren't that great either since they were using old 4th gen Haswell Intel CPUs which ran super hot.

7thpower 2y ago
My 13” 2015 rmbp is my favorite notebook of all time. My dad uses it now. I didn’t find it to run that hot and generally found it to be the best windows laptop (via vm) money could buy at the time.
- danek_szy 2y ago
  Only the 15 inch 2015 model still had the Haswell CPU, therefore your laptop had a slightly newer processor... That [older] generation was left in the bigger model without the yearly upgrade due to the limited supply / production capacity on Intel's side.
  - 7thpower 2y ago
    Ah, I lucked out then!
- pier25 2y ago
  I had a 2015 15'' MBP and it ran so hot I simply couldn't use it on my lap. Fans became super noisy even with trivial processes. Ended up selling it. The rest of the computer was great though (display, keyboard, trackpad, ssd).
- TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
  I wholeheartedly agree. I finally moved to an M2 MBP in 2023. I regard the 2023 the same way I do the 2015. It was a worthy upgrade. My only complaint is that Apple’s keyboards have become significantly less resistant to finger oils and staying on top of cleaning them is much more demanding than it used to be.
brundolf 2y ago

cehrlich 2y ago

Yeah, I don't think the 12" MacBook was anywhere near the most controversial, because it was always clear that it was a niche product. I had one and loved it. Those who it wasn't right for didn't buy it. The 2016-2019 Pros on the other hand replaced a machine that was universally loved. there were entire podcasts dedicated to complaining about them for four years.

vosper 2y ago

> Whoever had the reigns when Apple finally reversed these decisions and made the M1 MBP They shoulda kept the touchbar and restored the functions keys (including restoring volume controls etc to function keys). That would have been amazing. There was so much opportunity for cool custom functionality with touchbar, but it needs to be dedicated to that, not doing double-duty as physical keys.

w0m 2y ago

I had the last non-butterfly MBP, and work tried to get me to move to a new one for years - i fought to keep mine. Then I switched jobs, got a butterfly MBP and the laptop was honestly one of the worst I've had. After 2 years, I had lost a number of keys (i simply never used the built in keyboard when possible) and the battery started expanding. I couldn't even make it to the normal refresh cycle. Maybe bad luck, but such a POS. Apple phoned it in the generation prior to M1.