The new MacBook Pro looks and feels so good it's unreal (with video at source)

The Verge ^ | October 27, 2016, 4:37PM | By Dieter Bahn

[Swordmaker]

The new MacBook Pro is here — literally available for preorder today — and I’ve just tried it. The best thing I can say about is simple: everything about it looks and feels so good I almost didn’t believe it.

We’ll start with the marquee feature, the Touch Bar. What you might not have gathered from the keynote is that it has a matte finish, which makes the buttons on it somehow feel a little more physical. It’s bright, but not so bright that it distracts — it seems to be about on par with the brightness of the backlit keyboard.

THE TOUCH BAR LOOKS REALLY GOOD, THE SCREEN LOOKS INCREDIBLE

I have questions about whether or not all these changing function buttons will be comprehensible, but in my brief time with them they all made sense to me. There’s no haptic feedback on them, unfortunately, but obviously they all worked perfectly. That included quickly applying filters in Photos and sorting emails in Mail.

I also rearranged buttons (you can find the option in a menu) and it worked, well, as advertised. What’s neat about dragging buttons down from the screen to the Touch Bar is that you can keep moving them with the mouse on the second screen.

[FrdmLvr]

I have been using my iPad exclusively and never use my MacBook Pro anymore since my charger frayed. I'm NOT buying another one!!!😡 I absolutely love my iPad but miss the keyboard. I hate this pecking and looking at the keys when I type. This new MacBook might be in my future-a good compromise with its lightness and real keyboard. Maybe next spring when I'm fat with cash.

[FrdmLvr]

Give me thinness and lightness over the lighted apple any day!

[FrdmLvr]

Give me thinness and lightness over the lighted apple any day!

[FrdmLvr]

Give me thinness and lightness over the lighted apple any day!

[Defiant]

I know. It says I will have to wait 3-4 weeks.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Both the ESC key and the full set of Function Keys still exist as virtual keys accessed by pressing the Function Key (hey, who'da thought that the Function Key would bring up Function Keys?) Press the Function Key and the Touch Bar turns into the full set of Function Keys with the ESC key in its normal location on the left.

A virtual key. I'll give it a try when the new MacBooks hit the Apple stores, but I'd rather just have a real Escape key without having to remap another physical key. It's hard to understand why Apple chose to get rid of the Escape key - they know many of their users use Bash with 'set -o vi' as well as vi itself.

[Swordmaker]

Only people who own Tesla’s could afford this.
$1,499 to $4,299. It must be the cost of the 2TB SSD.

You get this with so many Windows laptops today for under $1,000, heck under $700.

That's part of it. Those $700 - $1000 PCs with large capacity SSD drives don't have the drives that are in these MacBook Pros. These are PCIe high speed SSDs. The Dell price for a 512GB high performance is $525! The 1TB version is $775! Dell doesn't offer a 2TB, but Apple does for a $1200 upgrade price over the default 512GB.

To get to the $4299 price, requires upgrading the processor to a 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, which the Dell did not offer on the model I was configuring. That model only allowed upgrading to the lowest i7 on the MacBook.

[Swordmaker]

Give me thinness and lightness over the lighted apple any day!

I found that with my 2 pound MacBook. Wonderfully light.

[arl295]

Too bad the company hates America

[zeugma]

Interesting thread. My mother in law is looking at upgrading. Looks like I'll be checking out the apple store soon. I'm still a 'build your own' linux guy, but you gotta love Mac hardware.

this thread sure attracted a lot of trolls.

[ctdonath2]

“Sure you can buy a hamburger for $1. But then you’d have to eat it.”

[Yaelle]

I need a laptop. I want this one now. Wish I had $2k sitting around.

[cynwoody]

Press the Function Key and the Touch Bar turns into the full set of Function Keys with the ESC key in its normal location on the left.

Fail!

AUG is a vi user. Your workaround is an additional keystroke, but vi is all about keystroke efficiency!

Merely touching the mouse (or its surrogate) is something vi enables its users to avoid (a feature, not a bug). Having to invoke a mode change through a soft function key keyboard first in order to access a basic control key is a deal-breaker.

That said, when not traveling, I use a Bluetooth keyboard (and a 30" external monitor) with my MBP. So, if ESC still works from the BT keyboard, I'm probably happy.

[PreciousLiberty]

“Does it self ignite?”

You’ve confused Apple with Samsung. ;-)

[PreciousLiberty]

“I need a real Escape key.”

Pressing control plus “left square bracket” is also Escape. I often use that as well as control+i for Tab. It involves less hand movement. Escape in particular is quite a reach.

[Swordmaker]

That said, when not traveling, I use a Bluetooth keyboard (and a 30" external monitor) with my MBP. So, if ESC still works from the BT keyboard, I'm probably happy.

It does. Also, once you've pressed the Function Key, the Function Keys don't go away. They'll stay until you select another application or re-press the Function Key. There is no additional keystroke required if the Function keys are already available.

[moose07]

Have you considered a Bluetooth Keyboard?
They are available with a case to fit the iPad into, so forming a mini notebook. Have been using this for the last three years.
Stress free mobile computing. :)

[minnesota_bound]

Plus the Surface Pro has many issues.

[Not gonna take it anymore]

You can buy a keyboard for your iPad or you can use Siri. I use Siri for this forum when I post from my iPhone or iPad and I also use Siri for text messages.

I was using a keyboard on my iPad for a very short time, but I find that Siri mostly does fine.

That little microphone is a very cool feature on the iPhone and iPad.

[jalisco555]

Only people who own Tesla’s could afford this. $1,499 to $4,299. It must be the cost of the 2TB SSD.

"The best is always the cheapest"- old Singer Sewing Machine slogan.