Apple's 2021 MacBook Pros: MagSafe returns, Touch Bar goes

[HEXUS]

And of course we are going to see the introduction of Apple Silicon in this tier.

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[b0redom]

That goodness they've ditched the OLED bar. I've got a 2016 MBP and I'm yet to see a single compelling use case for it, also for us sysadmin folks, the lack of a physical escape key is absolutely nuts!

[philehidiot]

I rather like the magsafe connectors. I have no trouble with them becoming disconnected when they aren't supposed to.

As for the touch bar. It sounds great in theory as long as there's developer adoption. But, in practice, I've never found touchscreens great for interfaces. Perhaps if and when they develop surfaces which rise up to create a tactile interface which can change, they might be more useful for me. If I have to take my eyes off the ball to use the touchscreen, I'd rather have a separate touchscreen that's larger and items not obscured by my fingers - which I do have.

[will19565]

makes you wonder if they are going with those customizable keys that patent they filed a couple of years ago has been realised

[kalniel]

That goodness they've ditched the OLED bar. I've got a 2016 MBP and I'm yet to see a single compelling use case for it, also for us sysadmin folks, the lack of a physical escape key is absolutely nuts!

They added a physical escape key back in a while ago

[Glyce]

I've been terribly disappointed with Apple on the recent years... Time to go back to Linux on the laptop, on some non-Apple hardware.

Not because of the Magsafe or Touch Bar, its really because they keep failing and as owner of a small company I cant afford to have 3k€ laptops breaking on the first year.

Also, I'm 99% sure Apple is gonna sunset their Intel support very fast to force you into the Apple Silicon ecosystem, and I cant have a company do that to me. Big Sur as been a rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish show with WiFi problems, admin account errors, etc, but apparently it's all good on Apple Silicon.
Yeah... No.... I'm out.

PS: good riddance for the Touch Bar and the USB charger, the Magsafe was actually very good.

[philehidiot]

I've been terribly disappointed with Apple on the recent years... Time to go back to Linux on the laptop, on some non-Apple hardware.

Not because of the Magsafe or Touch Bar, its really because they keep failing and as owner of a small company I cant afford to have 3k€ laptops breaking on the first year.

Also, I'm 99% sure Apple is gonna sunset their Intel support very fast to force you into the Apple Silicon ecosystem, and I cant have a company do that to me. Big Sur as been a rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish show with WiFi problems, admin account errors, etc, but apparently it's all good on Apple Silicon.
Yeah... No.... I'm out.

PS: good riddance for the Touch Bar and the USB charger, the Magsafe was actually very good.

Absolutely agree. I've got an old macbook air that is still working fine in its 10th year. But When I did have a problem, despite being in warranty, Apple wasn't interested. Neither in their store or by email.

A friend had a Macbook Air that he uses for work. He asked my advice on replacement and I strongly advised against Apple. The design and support issues aside, there were strong rumours of transition to a homebrew CPU and I felt the same as you about support. They may have token "support" but it'll be a few security patches here and there.

He ignored me and, not only bought a new Mac but also bought a pro. He does nothing warranting the investment. So far, he has had two major issues within the first couple of years.

I'm amazed my Mac still works and it's really just running out of sheer bloody-mindedness now as they treated me so poorly. Spending over a grand on a laptop like that is asking for way more than just the product. It's about support when it goes wrong and ensuring they keep you up and running. If that support isn't there, what reason do I have to spend so much on a relatively basic machine? Especially one where the bespoke internals mean repairs and so on are at their mercy. I would probably have bought at least one and probably two more laptops from them by now had they not treated me so badly. Now I'm going to carry on using the machine they have declared obselete until she chooches her last.

For a business user, unless I had to use Mac for whatever reason, I'd simply not be able to justify the risk, the expense, etc. I like redundancy and options. If the whole thing goes to hell and I NEED my data, I want to be able to rip out the SSD and get at my data. Just that simple, last resort for almost all disaster scenarios, isn't possible with a mac unless you go through Apple.

[kalniel]

If the whole thing goes to hell and I NEED my data, I want to be able to rip out the SSD and get at my data. Just that simple, last resort for almost all disaster scenarios, isn't possible with a mac unless you go through Apple.

That's precisely why some companies insist on Macs (even though you can achieve the same on Windows etc. through other software).

[philehidiot]

That's precisely why some companies insist on Macs (even though you can achieve the same on Windows etc. through other software).

Hardware encryption on SSDs is a thing, isn't it? However, if you give me a passworded Mac, I can boot into it anyway using a fancy USB doodad. Same with Windows. Then all your base are belong to us. Or something. I'm not very good at this l33t stuff.

Personally, I'd never trust Apple to dictate security policy. Bring in a consultant and get it set up properly with 2FA and so on. Then you get to drop out the HDD/SSD from your laptops, smash it (fun - my garage is covered with bits of HDD platter), replace them with fresh and sell the devices on, reducing the lifetime cost of hardware acquisition.


Awesome "forgot your password" tool for stolen laptops - https://kon-boot.com/

[Core2Extreme]

Other than switching entirely to M1, these all sound like sensible changes. Having used a no escape key MBP at work, it was awful and I'd never buy one for personal use. I never understood why they got rid of MagSafe either. I'd be happy if every laptop had MagSafe.

I think going all M1 in 2021 would be too quick for their corporate accounts and cost them business. They should probably have 6-12 months of offering both in the pro line. Maybe they will be leaving the old ones available, but I bet there are a bunch of people who'd be happy to buy one last x86 Mac laptop with a whole row of function keys.

[[GSV]Trig]

I'm not sure if it was the death of Jobs or some other change but Apple certainly lost their way of late, sure they've had a few nice ideas but as said above, all laptops should have some sort of magsafe charger (Surface connector for instance), never saw the point in the little touch bar thing, but in general I dunno whats going on...

[lumireleon]

"The MacBook Pro's Touch Bar Solves a Non-existent Problem"

[simonpreston]

They added a physical escape key back in a while ago

Oh? I've got a 2019 MBP and it certainly doesn't have one. Which is quite annoying.

[kalniel]

Oh? I've got a 2019 MBP and it certainly doesn't have one. Which is quite annoying.

Maybe it was only 2020 then so not that long ago. Mine has one and I didn't expect work would be buying the latest and greatest!

[simonpreston]

Maybe it was only 2020 then so not that long ago. Mine has one and I didn't expect work would be buying the latest and greatest!

Just had a look back at the 2019 range. Seems the 13 inch MBP (which is what I have) didn't have a physical escape key. Whilst the 16 inch did. To sum up: dunno.

I'm trying to push my current company towards Linux based laptops. All our servers are x86/Ubuntu based, and we're running Vagrant/Virtualbox on MBPs. Moving to ARM based Macbooks isn't a viable option, going forward. Plus, the idea of getting a laptop with a beefier CPU, more RAM, and more storage space, for a similar price is enticing. Though finding something, that supports 2 external displays is a little trickier.

[GravJunk]

It was always a fad to have the touchbar. It's just awkward in everyday use - I'll be glad to see it go.

I only use it to skip youtube ads.