No Refreshed Macbook Pros in 2018? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

According to this article, no!​

 

[dpippel]

Not surprising.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Not surprising.

The only reason I am surprised is due to all the negativity surrounding the 2017 Pro models -- one of which I own.

I mean, you can't order more than 16GB of memory in these laptops. Apple consumers didn't like the keyboard.

I thought for sure Apple would make good on some of the shortcomings.

 

[dpippel]

I think that Apple is just being Apple. While they may eventually offer a 32GB model (even though they insist that because of system architecture and OS improvements you do not need more than 16GB), I don't think they'll change the keyboard anytime soon. Fine with me. I'm used to it.

I own an almost maxed-out 15" 2017 MacBook Pro and love it. While the keyboard is a completely subjective issue, the connectivity criticisms are unwarranted AFAIAC. I have a $30 adapter that plugs into two of the Thunderbolt 3 ports on one side of the laptop that gives me a Thunderbolt 3 passthrough, a USB-C port, full size SD and MicroSD readers, and two USB 3 ports. It's a non-issue for me. I've also had no problems with palm rejection on the trackpad. Works like a charm.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Doug,

The 16GB limitation is catching up with me. But then again, I have two dozen pieces of monitoring software running at startup.

The keyboard is not an issue for me. I like it.

What exactly is palm rejection? I ask because with this oversized trackpad I am always having typing and other issues because part of my hand is resting on the trackpad itself. I have to learn to keep my hands off of it.

 

[dpippel]

Palm rejection is the technology in macOS that's supposed to prevent what you're experiencing Ron. It helps the trackpad differentiate between legitimate finger gestures and your palm touching it while typing. Because people have differently sized hands and different styles of typing on the keyboard, it can be tricky to implement properly. When the 2016 redesign was first introduced Apple had a lot of issues with palm rejection, but it has improved significantly over time. I rarely have any issues, and am sorry to hear that you do. I know it can be very frustrating.

 

[Sam Posten]

Remember that the 16GB limitation is NOT Apple's fault. It's Intel's. The chips that apple uses for this line cannot physically attach to more than 16gb due to the chip design. To use chips that DO requires an entirely different thermal profile.

I think you are craaaazy if you think Apple won't provide sufficient reason to like the 2018 MBPs without a form factor change, but what do I know....

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Palm rejection is the technology in macOS that's supposed to prevent what you're experiencing Ron. It helps the trackpad differentiate between legitimate finger gestures and your palm touching it while typing. Because people have differently sized hands and different styles of typing on the keyboard, it can be tricky to implement properly. When the 2016 redesign was first introduced Apple had a lot of issues with palm rejection, but it has improved significantly over time. I rarely have any issues, and am sorry to hear that you do. I know it can be very frustrating.

Thanks for the explanation, Doug.

It's not a constant problem, but the palm presence on the trackpad can be an issue at times.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I mean, you can't order more than 16GB of memory in these laptops. Apple consumers didn't like the keyboard.

I thought for sure Apple would make good on some of the shortcomings.

Let's suppose that the rumor article is correct that Apple will not make major design updates to the chassis in 2016. The same article said that Apple could update the internals to, e.g., use new CPUs and have up to 32 GB of RAM.

 

[DaveF]

Remember that the 16GB limitation is NOT Apple's fault. It's Intel's. The chips that apple uses for this line cannot physically attach to more than 16gb due to the chip design. To use chips that DO requires an entirely different thermal profile.

It’s Apple’s fault for choosing to make “pro” laptops with chipsets that don’t support “pro” needs.

It’s Apple’s fault for becoming so ossified in their design thinking that they can’t cope with practical thermal constraints to build a pro laptop. Something that everyone else, such as Lenovo, manages to do.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

It’s Apple’s fault for choosing to make “pro” laptops with chipsets that don’t support “pro” needs.

It’s Apple’s fault for becoming so ossified in their design thinking that they can’t cope with practical thermal constraints to build a pro laptop. Something that everyone else, such as Lenovo, manages to do.

I agree. If other companies can do it, why of all companies can Apple NOT?

 

[Sam Posten]

https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/

All about the battery use. What do you value? Apple's Values might not match yours. Apple's definition of Pro might not match yours, but they aren't making these decisions based on bad data.

 

[DaveF]

Apple may have specific, profit-motivated goals that motivate low-memory laptops. And so to say "it's Intel's fault" is to elide the root cause. It's Apple's fault: they intentionally chose to make a computer that cannot support more than 16GB and chose to exclude pro users who need 32GB or more from their laptop line.

 

[DaveF]

More problematic: the loss of the Escape key. I've got a friend who's a mid-career, high-skill "cloud" programmer. He wrote a rant on Facebook about the new MBP's new keyboard and loss of Escape key. He gave up, returned it, and stayed with his older MBP.

I don't have a dog in the fight; I don't use a laptop these days. But the frustrations from the blogosphere I'm seeing confirmed in real life.

 

[dpippel]

The Escape key is right there on the Touchbar. I can see how that might affect some people's workflow, but it hasn't been lost.

 

[Thomas Newton]

The Escape key is right there on the Touchbar. I can see how that might affect some people's workflow, but it hasn't been lost.

I imagine that the issue is that for Emacs users, ESC is touch-typed quite often, so the change from a physical key to a virtual one might be unwelcome.

 

[DaveF]

The Escape key is right there on the Touchbar. I can see how that might affect some people's workflow, but it hasn't been lost.

Not a physical key. Not in the same location as the physical key. By many accounts, this is very disruptive to years of muscle memory and subsequent workflow.

 

[dpippel]

Which is why I qualified my comment. However, things change and evolve. I'm not saying that I agree with Apple's design choice here, but sometimes we must make accommodations and move on.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Seems like the tide may be turning​

 

[dpippel]

Interesting article, but as it mentions, the 2017 MacBook Pro with TouchBar models already feature an Apple co-processor. This report makes it sound like they're going to move that technology down the food chain to the non-TouchBar MacBook Pros and maybe the MacBook line.

 

[DaveF]

I look forward to an iMac with faceid!