And this guy. This fucking guy. He says all three, because he prefers the Air with its hot-garbage-even-when-it-was-brand-new screen.
If you want a 13" laptop without a fucking touchbar, then get the 13" one without the fucking touchbar. It's an option that you chose not to get.
Alas, Hacker News seems just as susceptible to the classic "Apple = Bad = Get Upvotes / Karma / Whatever"
I for one really enjoy my 15" MacBook Pro with touchbar and I'm just as productive as ever as a Software Engineer.
It's not a difficult concept people. We get it, you don't like it, we don't need articles years after the release of said touchbar. Don't like it don't buy it, or at least own up to the fact you just want cheap exposure for your article.
I work on a macbook pro, mostly because 'modern' 'everything-must-docker' software development seems to require 16GB ram and an i7 to run anything. But for everything else, whether video or web, I come back to an early 2015 air. I definitely sympathise with the OP.
If you have a MacBook Air and like it, by all means use it. If you're in the market for a new laptop, don't buy a MacBook Air. It's essentially been abandoned by Apple.
I didn't realise how unproductive I was until I switched to something with more resolution. Not to mention that it's TN, which is insulting for the price.
A preference for physical keys costs more than just "giving up" the touch bar.
It's better than a rubber dome keyboard, but that's not saying much honestly.
The only negative thing has been needing to buy/carry an external hub for USB/SD cards (I use it maybe monthly).
I honestly don't know how you (the article author) could have a problem with the touchpad though - it's an improvement in every regard. Quite happy to do away with the mechanical bits there for better reliability, and it's very difficult for me to feel a difference. One of the better parts of the laptop to be sure.
USB-C is fine - with the large caveat of Apple fucked the rollout up horribly - things like not shipping reliable working HDMI<->USB-C adapters at launch date are inexcusable. After those initial pains though, USB-C is amazing for portability - I'm always near a charger now, and my 15W phone chargers I have in every room of the house do fine to either charge it overnight or simply not lose battery life while working.
I can certainly wish there was integrated HDMI and USB-A, but then again I also don't miss those that often after getting a dock for work.
My largest complaints are the regressions in battery size from the 2015 15" rMBP, the keyboard, and the stupid and utterly useless Touchbar I was forced to pay for. That and the corresponding lack of ESC key. I do however love the Touch ID - and won't buy another laptop without something like it.
If the next MBP doesn't come with a physical escape key I plan on seriously attempting to make Linux work again if the hardware is out there to do so.
The amount of computing power people need tends to differ based on the stack they’re working with, but to me a quality screen is a hard requirement
Not a happy camper.
A vim user needs the esc key approximately as often as the Enter key.
For instance, yes many actions are useless or easy to hit accidentally, etc. but you can change what’s on the Touch Bar.
The fact that it “adapts” to the focused app implies that it would do something useful for that app, which is rarely the case. It also seems impossible to customise it to look exactly like it’s physical counterpart all the time for the same reason.
That, and it’s much slower and clumsier for actions like changing volume or skipping a track, which I do dozens of times a day. Can’t wait to exchange for non-touch model (company policy yada yada, probably same problem as OP).
It’s amazing how little movement it takes to catch your eye’s attention (one reason why ads are almost always annoying if they have any catchy color or move in any way, even if they’re not in your face).
Therefore, I don’t want the icons on the keyboard changing how they look. I’m probably not looking at the keyboard, I’m looking at the screen and that just makes me look at the keyboard again.
And sadly, it’s not like you even need a Touch Bar to have dynamic behavior in every application; function keys are already dynamic.
Fwiw, I don't experience anything like what you describe on a 16GB 2017 13" without touchbar.
I gave it to an new employee bought a refurb 2015 MacBook Pro and I am so delighted now.
