Ask HN: Is the Touch Bar preventing you from buying the 13in MacBook Pro?
And if so, what alternatives are you looking at?
14 comments
I thought they got rid of that. I bought a 14" 2022 and it doesn't have one.
It's not pleasant but not a dealbreaker either. Worse is workflow in the OS and the keyboard. I'd stick to Windows if possible but the M1 was too good to turn down.
It's not pleasant but not a dealbreaker either. Worse is workflow in the OS and the keyboard. I'd stick to Windows if possible but the M1 was too good to turn down.
The 13" MBP seems to only exist to fill in a gap in price points until they can get the 14" down in price. The fact that it kept the old body style tells us it's not going to stick around. That's what would prevent me from getting it. Plus, the 14" has MagSafe, HDMI, an SD card reader, a better keyboard, and a better screen.
I actually didn't mind the touchbar that much.
I actually didn't mind the touchbar that much.
I think they have kept the Touch Bar in the 13", as well as the old design, for the small minority of people that like the Touch Bar and/or don't like the more squared look of the new laptops.
Otherwise, especially with the advent of the M2 Macbook Air, I don't see a logical reason why one would want to buy the 13" Pro laptop.
Otherwise, especially with the advent of the M2 Macbook Air, I don't see a logical reason why one would want to buy the 13" Pro laptop.
The M2 Air seems to have a considerably more comfortable design, which would be my main goal if I’m not buying a 14 or 16-inch Pro. Besides that, the Touch Bar has given me so much pain over the years. My 2018 Pro had parts of the Touch Bar OLED unit black out permanently even on a replacement model.
No, Apples ethics towards e-waste, planned obsolescence in its designs and anti-workers rights behaviour in a corporate level tends to hang heavier on my decision to not buy a 13 inch MacBook Pro than the presence of a touchbar does.
Tbh didn't even know it had one.
Tbh didn't even know it had one.
What do you use for a laptop?
There's some beastly new laptops that recently came out, with Intel gen 12 and Nvidia 3000 series GPUs, the price is around 1300-1700 USD range. The power usage is higher than MacBook but if you use it plugged in for programming (and gaming) it's really the best thing for most people.
Reviews seem to say battery life ranges from 4 to 10 hours depending on the configuration. This gen is way thinner than previous also. Refresh rate is 120-300hz. Anyway I've not personally used it but I'll be trying them out in the store soon.
Reviews seem to say battery life ranges from 4 to 10 hours depending on the configuration. This gen is way thinner than previous also. Refresh rate is 120-300hz. Anyway I've not personally used it but I'll be trying them out in the store soon.
The unintuitive mousepad is preventing me. To this day, i still dont know how to left click.
Tap to click >
However you have to explicitly enable. Best left click experience on a laptop IMO
However you have to explicitly enable. Best left click experience on a laptop IMO
It baffles me that tap to click is not on by default, even on many Linux DEs. Touchpads are pretty damn unusable for me without it.
Nope, ARM's the main limiting factor for me.
I have had a chance to play alot with 16” M1 Max and it is a fine machine.
But because of the ARM, it is not suitable for me.
Emulation for x64 is not fast enough when compared to my old machine and ARM ecosystem is not complete enough. Need to wait a bit more.