Let’s note for the record that I have - thus far - uphold my pledge to not buy the AirPods Pro.
So trust me when I say this: I am not buying the new 16-inch Macbook Pro that Apple announced yesterday. Not that I don’t want to, because let’s face it who amongst us techies wouldn’t want the latest and greatest from Apple - or any other company. My personal obstacle preventing me from buying the 16-inch Mac laptop is that I am currently typing this on a 2019 edition 15-inch Macbook Pro, which I had just bought a few months ago. It would be highly reckless to get the new 16-inch unit and then have to figure out some way to offload this still very fresh 15-inch, for presumably a considerable loss of the original $2,300 I paid.
Don’t let the Porsche fool you: I can’t make cavalier money moves like that.
At least internally the 16-inch Macbook Pro is largely the same as the now discontinued 15-inch version: it retains 9th-generation Intel processors, though graphic power gets a slight bump thanks to updated chips from AMD. You can now spec memory up to 64 gigabytes and hard-drive space up to 8 terabytes, which is quite insane on both counts. A videographer can literally import and edit 8K content right on the laptop, with no need for external Thunderbolt storage. Apple isn’t messing around with the ‘Pro’ designation, though you’ll just have to ignore the fact the webcam is still has a paltry 720P resolution. I guess Apple thinks professionals aren’t frequent users of video conferencing.
The biggest point of contention with the current era of Apple laptops is the wildly unreliable ‘butterfly’ keyboard, and in response Apple has finally switched back to the ‘scissor’ mechanism in the 16-inch Macbook Pro. If you like typing on the latest magic keyboards that comes bundled with iMacs (I don’t) then Apple says you’re going to enjoy a similar experience on the 16-inch laptop. This change is a mix for me, because I absolutely love the tactile feel of the butterfly mechanism, though I can understand the frustration of users from the standpoint that no matter how great it feels to type, a keyboard is utterly useless if it malfunctions frequently. I clean the deck of my 15-inch Macbook Pro religiously to hopefully avoid the fate many owners have succumbed to.
The one feature I am truly jealous of in the new 16-inch Macbook Pro - not the physical escape key or the massively better sounding speakers - is the return of the ‘inverse-T’ arrow key layout. For as much as I love the butterfly keyboard, the placement the arrow keys is the worse ergonomic design Apple has ever produced. The full-height left and right keys make it frustratingly impossible to use the arrow grid by touch alone. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve mistakenly hit the shift key thinking it was the up arrow. Future owners of the 16-inch Macbook Pro are a lucky bunch indeed.
Sadly I’ve still got a few more years yet with the 15-inch Macbook Pro. God willing the butterfly keyboard doesn’t fail on me.
The great design mistake.