The Good and Bad of the New MacBook Pro

As I'm in the unusual (and uncomfortable) position of buying a new computer, I watched the entire Apple presentation yesterday. First time I've ever watched an Apple Event, although of course I've been aware of them. First I need to say in passing that I find corporate events culturally bizarre. It's positively weird to watch corporate types recite scripted bonhomie while acting fake-casual, and the ever-present fealty to the Almighty Corporate Interest plays like a thick layer of gooey treacle over a thin steely core of ruthlessness. But I'll move on.

My first impressions: I liked the idea of the Touch Bar much more than I thought I would. There's a whole category these days of "things that look like gimmicks but actually (surprisingly) aren't," and it's possible the Touch Bar will fit into that category. I was enthused when they got to the Photoshop part of the Touch Bar presentation—it's true that you have to know Photoshop in the first place in order for the Touch Bar to make it quicker and handier to use, and I'm not sure I qualify, but it sure looks like the Touch Bar might indeed actually be a smart implementation of touchscreen technology in a laptop. I sure don't want to have to touch the screen of a laptop all the time, that's for sure. And when the Touch Bar migrates to desktop keyboards it will make even more sense. I'm not attracted to the idea of the Microsoft Surface Studio's whole-screen touchscreen at all.

So the big new feature looks good.

...So now on to the bad, and let me first firmly put the reins on my scorn so that it doesn't wither and blast the landscape in all directions.

The new MacBook Pros don't have SD card slots.

What?!?

Really. Apple's addlepated, brain-dead, counter-productive insistence on design nicety and the tiresome modernist spare-and-clean design aesthetic above user convenience, usability, and plain old functionality has been a consistent if intermittent failing of the brand over many years. I thought it would die with Steve, because I thought it was his self-indulgent idiosyncratic peccadillo. But no. This is possibly the worst instance yet—Jobs' indulgent idiosyncratic peccadillo raised to the level of corporate policy. (I'm getting exercised, so whoa boy.) But one big reason I've liked my last two large-screen iMacs, and definitely a big part of the appeal of my MacBook Air laptop, is that they all have built-in SD card slots—it's been especially convenient not to have to carry card readers when I travel like in the bad old days. And one big reason I haven't replaced my mid-2010 27" iMac is because they relocated the SD card slot to the back, which is exactly where you don't want it to be, and I know myself well enough to know that I would be annoyed anew every single time I had to stand up and crane my neck over the monitor to see the back of the machine just to insert or remove a card. Just like I'm annoyed every single time I have to swap a USB cable on my iMac because Apple thinks it's cool somehow to not give you enough USB ports (you're supposed to buy a Mac Pro if you want enough ports).

Well, I guess I don't have to worry about any of that any more.

Moreover, Apple's stupid design-first mantra is actually back-asswards anyway, because the cleaner the machine, the more your desk, not to mention your luggage, is cluttered with dongles and peripherals and other shit. I can see this working OK for a desktop unit, though, where you can use the USB-C/Thunderbolt port to connect to something that's actually useful for connectivity like a dock, even though that completely defeats the purpose of the alleged simplicity they're going for. But really, when you're on the road, traveling, the last thing you want to do is to have to carry along and keep track of a bunch of different connector cables and dongles. And what if you encounter a situation while traveling that you don't happen to be carrying the proper dongle for? That's another reasons why laptops should have maximal connectivity and why maximal connectivity is good.

I'm not an expert on computers, but as a photographer I see this as a major fail on Apple's part. You might disagree, so go ahead, tell me about that.

Sorry, haven't been very good with those reins. Don't worry, I'll calm down eventually.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards getting one of the just-discontinued MacBook Pros, because they have the features I actually need and use in the situations in which I need a laptop, whereas the new ones don't and would just, yes, continually annoy and irritate me anew every single damn time I travel with my expensive laptop and a camera, which is, by the way Apple, how I travel.

Sheesh to the nth. Apple! Annoyed photoblogger out.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jeff (partial comment): "Blueberries good; Apples bad...."

Dave Kosiur: "Lloyd Chambers agrees with you (and many other commenters), although he is ordering the 15-inch MBP."

Mike replies: I see Lloyd was even more acerbic than I was.

Alan Barnard: "The main reason I would upgrade to a new MacBook Pro is the inclusion of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports. These ports offer many advantages to photographers, including wicked fast data transfer for large RAW and 4K video files, the ability to drive multiple 4K/5K external monitors, and fast charging. Additionally, they are backward-compatible to almost every existing standard. All one needs to do is buy a few new cables; no need for dongles. What's not to love? More info here."

D: "Funny, I just came across this tweet about how Apple's fastest growing product category is adapter dongles."

John Kauk: "I suspect that the average Apple customer's camera is the iPhone, so there's no need for a card slot for the vast majority of them. Since my primary camera uses CF cards, carrying a card reader (or two since the 1DX added CFast) is habit now, so I'm not too worked up about the change. I'm geeky enough to be interested in how the Touch Bar will improve the user experience, and my son needs a newer computer, so I ordered the new MBP and the required adapters. Onward and upward!  ;-)  "

Kostas: "The irony is that if you go and buy a new MacBook Pro and an iPhone now, you cannot connect them (you need to buy an extra cable or adapter), but you can connect the iPhone to a Microsoft Surface."

Kent (partial comment): "Mike said 'shit'...this must be serious."

Richard Howe (partial comment): "Dysfunctional elegance is just another form of ornamentation—and much more annoying than the traditional kind. Somebody should get that message across to Apple."

Comments

[John Krill]

Sure a lot of comments about the SD card slots for the Macs and so here is another one.

PS: I'm a PC user so I may be wrong with some of my conclusions as far a Macs are concerned.

First: I think the SD slot is connected to it's own USB-2 controller. This means slow reads. I ended up getting a SD reader that is USB-3 enabled. This means faster reads.

Second: I only have it plugged into the PC only when I need to read a SD card.

Third: When I need to take the laptop into the field I take along the portable SD reader even though the SD reader in the computer works just fine. Why? Because the portable is much faster.

Forth: The future for cameras is bigger and bigger RAW files so I will always get the fastest SD card reader available and plug it into the fastest USB slot.

Fifth: I use a small (sandwich size) ziplock bag to carry everything I will need in the field, except for the power supply.

That's It. Now I can't wait for tomorrow night and all those trick or treaters.

[Tim]

Doesn't your camera appear as a USB mass-storage device? Preferably even charge over USB as well?

[Paul De Zan]

I made the move from a series of laughably bad Windows laptops to the MacBook in 2009, precisely because Apple had put an SD reader in it. This was seen as atypical Apple behavior by many in the tech press at the time. It took about an hour of use to convince me it was easily the best designed laptop anybody could buy at the time; I converted all of my peers to the Mac over the following year. A nephew is now using that 2009 machine, while I moved on to a late 2012 absolutely-maxed-out-configuration MacBook Pro. It's the best personal computer of any kind I've ever used, although I now think I'd have been just as happy with a cheaper configuration. I can't think of any reasonable justification to get a new machine; I expect to get a few more years (maybe quite a few more) out of mine, easy.

If I had to buy today...oh brother. Aside from iPhones, I have two WiFi-enabled cameras which are capable of transferring files to my Mac, but that's not even close to a practical substitute for an SD reader at this point. That's a huge point against the new MacBooks, but a far more serious problem is the "butterfly keyboard" Apple introduced on the current "MacBook" model last year. It's just awful, not a serious tool for people who type as much as I do. Supposedly the new Macs have a second generation version of the butterfly keyboard that is greatly improved. I sure hope so, because there's no way I'll buy another MacBook Pro without a real keyboard intended for actual typing, not just filling in web forms.

I'm also disappointed that MagSafe is going away. It's always worked very well for me and averted more than a few potential disasters.

[Alan Carmody]

I honestly think Apple has been really struggling to innovate after Steve Jobs passed on.

Like a sorcerer's apprentice, they mimic his moves, but don't quite get it right. Connectors are changed, slots are removed, but unlike in his time, there is nothing superior to take their place. Prices are raised without apology, but the innovative features offered are extremely timid and far from noteworthy.

Steve Jobs had a strong profit sensibility, but functional design came first. Now, new designs with poor function merely serve to justify premium prices.

It's a company with terrifically high quality products, but it really doesn't seem like a great innovative company anymore.

[Adrian Malloch]

Ever since the first Apples appeared, creatives – and especially professional creatives, considered Apple to be working on their behalf. Apple enthusiastically encouraged such belief and the halo-effect ensured that if you were a wannabe seeking coolness by association then you just had to have an Apple product, preferably a MacBook pro. As well, the best LCD monitors were Cinema Displays, Apple's colour management was mostly usable and hardware was optimised to make the most of demanding pro apps like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Fast forward a decade or two and it's clear that Apple is desperately trying to shake off the shackles of all these demanding creative types. Apple's core market now is the consumer and consumers consume what's put in front of them, especially if it's pretty – hence a shiny MacBook Pro screen (Apple's version of rose tinted glasses), clean lines uncluttered by vital ports and a slim form-factor which ensures the CPU will get heat-throttled every time it looks at a raw photo.
And for the record. I wrote this on a MacBook Pro, versions of which I have been using exclusively since the early '90s.
Apple products may be no longer optimised for my purposes but given the alternatives, they are the only realistic option for me.

[Leland Davis]

Another Apple annoyance was their decision to eliminate iPhoto and go to "photos". It eliminated a lot of functionality, such as burning slide shows for example. I had to go to Amazon and purchase an outdated copy of the iPhoto software and reinstall it.

[Dennis Ng]

It is only when you see Surface Studio you know Apple is losing the design even.

[Scott]

Hi Mike

Have a look at this

https://chuqui.com/2016/10/how-apple-could-have-avoided-much-of-the-controversy/

It's a good summary of the event and the dongle issue.

Scott

[Dave K]

I'm not a fan of the MBPs either but I thought it's worth noting that some of the newer cameras, like the Olympus E-M1 Mk II and the Hasselblad X1D, have USB-C output connectors. Considering their speed, I might consider connecting the camera directly to a MBP for transferring images.

[Speed]

Dell is promoting a soon-to-be-released Surface Studio-like device. Announced at an Adobe conference of course.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/2/13500308/dell-just-teased-its-own-surface-studio-pc

[Speed]

This might be a better link for the Dell device ...
https://youtu.be/Y5E_dGW2DFY

[Simon]

Mike, if you spent less money on technology you wouldn't have to earn so much with those pig-ugly Amazon adverts and constant plugging (though I have no qualms with linking to products you're discussing directly, that simply makes sense).

But do you really *need* a new MBP? And how many cameras/phones have you burned through in the last few years to just keep on taking the same kind of photos? Do your wallet a favour and give it a break. ;-)

My wife and I find the idea of trick-or-treating - knocking on strangers' doors and demanding a ransom of toothrot one night a year while teaching "stranger danger" the other 364 or 5 - really rather disturbing.

[Radu]

I read this thread with interest, because I want to upgrade my 2008 aluminium MacBook (not Pro) that I'm still using on a daily basis (I updated the memory to 8GB and put a 60GB SSD in it about 4 years ago and I can still work ok on it).

As I expected, someone (OWC) came out very quickly (5 days from the new MBP launch) with a great solution to most of the complaints about lack of SD reader, full-size USB ports and other connections:

https://eshop.macsales.com/preorder/owc-thunderbolt-3-dock/

It's not cheap, but neither is a new MacBook Pro.

To me, the wider gamut screen and weight reduction are compelling reasons for getting the new model as opposed to the just-discontinued one, together with TouchID quick login and increased productivity via Touch Bar (and I am a heavy keyboard shortcut user). The main question mark is the feel of the (improved, as presented) butterfly keyboard; the one on the new MacBook has too little travel and hence doesn't feel as good.

[Stephen S.]

This seems to me like the most elegant solution:
https://eshop.macsales.com/preorder/owc-thunderbolt-3-dock/