
On the road with the 13-inch MacBook Pro - grzm
https://sixcolors.com/post/2016/11/review-traveling-with-the-13-inch-macbook-pro/
======
crazygringo
I bought the same model last weekend, and am very happy with it. Of course, it
replaced my old 13" MacBook Air, not a Pro.

I was worried about the keyboard but have grown to love it (I couldn't stand
the MacBook one, but this is much better). And the P3 Retina display is
gorgeous. The colors and brightness are truly stunning, and the audio is
surprisingly clear and "present".

Still, I miss MagSafe. It was metallic and elegant and had the perfect little
charging light. This plug is white and plastic and cheap-looking and no
light... it's a shame.

I mean, I get standardizing on USB-C only for peripherals, but I don't get it
for power. You've always got to carry the power brick anyways, so the
connector doesn't have to be standard -- or do we expect that someday USB-C
charging cables will be so ubiquitous you don't need to take it with you?

~~~
ghostly_s
>Still, I miss MagSafe. It was metallic and elegant and had the perfect little
charging light. This plug is white and plastic and cheap-looking and no
light... it's a shame.

I think part of this transition is Apple subtly suggesting that people don't
need to have their laptops plugged in as a default any longer. The Magsafe is
so easy to attach, most people I know have one in their usual work spot and
just snap it on every time they sit down there, even if it's just for 10
minutes to check email. The comparative inconvenience of the USB connector
means they will likely be a little more intentional about plugging it in...but
the incredible battery life of these devices now means you really don't need
to. There's no need to snake a power cable to your table at the coffee shop
when your laptop gets 10+ hours of battery life. You don't even need to plug
it in on your desk at home, or working in your bed, on the couch...if you're
just plugging it in on a side table when you close it up for the night now,
the whole tripping hazard becomes a pretty moot point.

Edit: ah, I see jakobegger has beat me to this comment below ;)

~~~
adl
So removing MagSafe is a feature? Laptops have diferent power profiles when
they are plugged in than on battery.

Again, this: "You don't need to plug in your laptop all the time" works for
the regular MacBook, but we are talking about the 'Pro' line here, MagSafe
should be standard.

~~~
grzm
I don't read him as arguing that removing MagSafe is a feature. Just that the
tradeoff is more understandable now given battery life than it would have been
earlier. It's definitely fair to disagree with the tradeoff. I'm pretty
ambivalent about it, myself. I'd like to see something like the Griffin
BreakSafe supplied by Apple.

------
pyrophane
> I find the lack of response in the keys unpleasant, but I can still type at
> full speed and accuracy when I use it.

I'm not worried about losing speed, I'm worried about developing hand and
wrist pain over time, which seems, at least for me, to be an issue with using
low travel keyboards. Maybe I just need to learn to type with a lighter touch.

~~~
grzm
I've been fortunate enough not to have any type of chronic RSI pain associated
with typing. Am I reading you correctly that your pain is due to striking the
keys and slamming into the keyboard when the key bottoms out?

~~~
kctess5
That has been my experience. I have noticed that my mechanical keyboard is
much gentler and less likely to induce RSI relate pain because I almost never
have hard impacts due to bottoming the keys out. On my MacBook (2013 15" rMBP)
it's a different story.

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cherry_su
For what it's worth, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports (this
one) gets a hair over 16 hours of battery life in Ars' Wifi Browsing Test.
Unfortunately, this benchmark did not contain a measurement for the 13"
MacBook Air, its spiritual predecessor. The old 13" Pro got 14 hours.

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/11/review-
cheapest-2016-ma...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/11/review-
cheapest-2016-macbook-pro-is-good-but-its-missing-all-the-cool-stuff/4/)

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roryisok
> trains zipping through the Irish countryside.

Calling bullshit on his performance claims. None of our trains ever "zip"
here.

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akamaka
This is a questionable review, bordering on dishonest.

It makes no mention that the new machines provide almost no performance
improvement over last year's models, despite the significant price hike:
[http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/apples-newest-macbook-
pro...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/apples-newest-macbook-pro-slightly-
faster-previous-models/)

Edit: If the folks downvoting me would like to dispute the benchmarks, please
feel free to contribute some new data to the conversation.

~~~
grzm
I get the impression from the review that the reviewer is reporting his
experience with using the MacBook under real-world conditions. He's not
performing benchmarks. Whether or not there's a performance improvement
wouldn't really need to be included in that, would it? Indeed, he specifically
mentions that he didn't have the opportunity to perform speed tests:

 _" Being on the road, I haven’t been able to do methodical speed or battery
tests, but I can say that the battery life on this laptop seems to be a lot
more than on the MacBook Air. It also handled some more intense work—editing
multi-track audio in Logic Pro and removing noise from audio with iZotope RX
5—with aplomb. Some of that may be the result of the faster SSD in this model,
but some of it is at least the responsibility of the processor."_

Do you get the impression that he's trying to hide something? Do you have
other criticisms besides this point?

~~~
akamaka
It's hard to tell if he's ignorant or deceptive, but he claims some of the
speed-up is from the processor. Real benchmarks show otherwise.

It certainly feels like he's trying to promote the product rather than give an
objective review. It's fine for him to have his opinion, but I just want to
point out that this is not a trustworthy review.

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Keyframe
If they had somehow packed what was in 15" model into a 13" model, then it
would be a great machine. This, it's not appealing to me the way it is.

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kayoone
He is listing the size of the new MBP vs the 13" Macbook Air as a pro, but in
fact even the previous MBP had a slightly smaller footprint than the 13" Air,
this is even smaller though. The Air is in fact a pretty large 13" laptop in
terms of footprint.

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Ultra_64
Those are the most elongated escape keys I've ever seen!

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godzillabrennus
It seems appropriate given the reviews to start calling these new machines the
MacBook Pro Air as it seems that it's Apples goal to increase prices and
reduce functionality to fit into a smaller frame.

~~~
lexicality
Macbook Prair?

------
wineisfine
There is very little information in this post.

The only question I had after reading this was: how does one become become a
blogger that gets a Macbook Pro from Apple to review?

~~~
geoffpado
The blogger in question, Jason Snell, used to be editorial director of
Macworld, an extremely popular Mac magazine going back long before Apple's
current successful period:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Snell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Snell)

