After the announcement of the MacBook Pro with additional display in the direction of Apple showered with critical comments about the lack of connectors, touch panels, a huge touchpad, and even a lack of productivity. But after the device fell into the hands of the users, opinion was divided: some indeed found many shortcomings in the new product, while others agreed with the decisions of Apple (of course there were many people who initially thought this product was good).
Edition Meduza received from Apple to test the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch panel Bar and gave the device four employees. After a month they told about their impressions from the top of the laptop.
Technical Director Sultan Suleymanov praised the display, performance and sound environment “Proshka”. However, he felt the uncomfortable touch panel touch Bar. It duplicates some features open applications and “allows more convenient to work only with Emoji”:
“The first day the new MacBook, wanted to throw out the window. Primarily because of the Esc, which is moved on the Touch Bar is touch. It’s not even that it slid half a centimeter to the right it is no problem, because the pad is left too touch and too “clicks” on the Esc.
The main problem is about the taps on the Esc (besides recoil). I found that the left hand always rests on the left side of the keyboard so that your thumb can quickly click on Cmd, and the rest on Q, W, 1, 2, 3, and Esc. And if mechanical keys can easily sustain the weight of your fingers, then touch Esc doesn’t work: I many times interrupted loading pages in the browser and close the chats in telegram, not knowing what was happening”.
Keyboard in MacBook Pro is also changed due to the butterfly mechanism the key travel was noticeably less (not that in previous models it was huge). To “butterfly” quickly become accustomed and do not feel discomfort. But you can experience around — keystroke sound significantly louder than before.
With the battery in the new MacBook Pro is something strange going on. As usual Apple promises up to ten hours of surfing the web or watching video from a single charge… My tests much further from the laboratory, they were held in the framework of the normal working day — but the result is depressing. 10-15 tabs open in Google Chrome, customers of the telegram and Twitter, a few minutes of work in photo and video editors, video calls, screen brightness around 70-80% — with these settings a fully charged battery drained to 5% in three and a half or four hours.
But it is worth noting that this is a very powerful portable computer with a spectacular screen, loud speakers, fast sensor of the fingerprint and the most convenient operating system. In addition, Apple is already trying to fix some of the shortcomings: the adapter company for a few months sells at a discount; those who hate Touch Bar offer a version of laptop with a physical row of buttons (though this model is slightly worse than the others); those who still took the model with the Touch Bar, will help third-party solutions; and the operating time from the battery could last with patches of the operating system”.
Sergey Surganov among the advantages of the new MacBook Pro called a brilliant display, a slim body and a comfortable keyboard. The main disadvantages of steel panel Touch Bar, massive trackpad and the lack of connectors.
“Touch Bar is a complete failure. I actively use almost all keys of the upper row, which they removed. To properly use the Esc (and I use them constantly in all programs), had to reconfigure its function key CapsLock; this can be used, but why? What to do when you work for others or other people’s computers? To Esc on Touch Bar difficult to get used to — it has no recoil, it is not quite in the corner, sometimes press accidentally.
There is no possibility to quickly change the volume level, because you have to look at the TouchBar, aim, hold your finger, and gently lead so you don’t accidentally go deaf with headphones.
If you’re listening to music in iTunes and include the video in Safari, you can’t stop the music via the TouchBar, you have to manually go in iTunes and there to press the pause button.
Touch Bar may sleep and must be awakened. More or less useful TouchBar in Safari, but it duplicates information from the main screen. But I’m looking at the screen, why would I want to watch still and Touch the Bar?”
Musician Pavel Borisov advantages described as “absolutely stunning display”, low weight for 15-inch laptop and high performance. But the main disadvantages was the battery life when using Chrome.
“Maybe it’s a matter of habit, but the keyboard with short stroke makes me do more typos, and the huge touchpad is stopping — it is impossible to print a lot and not hurt his fingers. Any benefits from the large size of the touchpad, as well as Force Touch technology, I discovered. Touch panel instead of the function keys rather disappointed: without looking it is impossible to press the correct button, and I actively use almost all the function keys on a MacBook and almost not look at the keyboard when working.”
Technical specialist Samat Galimov satisfied with the convenient keyboard makes typing easier, battery (“it seems, holds a little longer than before”) and slim case. But the main drawback of MacBook Pro called the huge touchpad, the loud sound of the keyboard and Touch Bar do not allow you to adjust the sound of “not looking”, and the lack of Magsafe connector.
