Linked: “MacBook Pro? No”

via Shahid Kamal:

Let me count the way my latest MacBook Pro is not suitable for professional use, but before I do that, you should know that I’ve been buying and recommending Macs since 2001. I’ve spent a fortune on them. I love them, but I only like my latest MacBook Pro (a 2016 model with the Radeon Pro 460). I write this with a heavy heart and a malfunctioning keyboard. This is a story about unrequited hardware love.

I have more to add to his post but reading his I’m reminded of how crazy I am to be eyeing one of these. My late-2013 MacBook Pro is beginning to show its age. Not int he scratches and heavily used ports or the creaking unibody from years of toting it around but in the speed of it. The new SSDs are easily twice as fast, the new GPU 30% faster and a modest 10% speed bump between my Core i7 2.6Ghz model and the latest best of the best. TouchID would be nice to have as well. 

In every other way, I don’t think the “pro” is appropriate. It’s a full size consumer MacBook. Here is the steps back I’ll take by giving Apple $3,000+ of my dollars and selling my current machine for around $1200:

  • No Magsafe
  • No SD port
  • No ethernet (I still use a dongle every day to get ethernet on my notebook)
  • No USB-A
  • Less battery life
  • Losing physical buttons on the top of the keyboard
  • a keyboard that has proven to be inadequate for a professional use case
  • No charge indicator on the power supply
  • I’ll need to buy a Thunderbolt 3 dock for home & work

If the machine was significantly faster with more RAM, I’d be more excited but at this point, I’m not looking forward to my current computer dying suddenly and being forced to upgrade. 

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