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by the_hoser 3443 days ago
I can't remember where, but I read an interesting piece pleading with apple to bring the 17" macbook pro back. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. The extra headroom for the keyboard means they can easily cozy the touch bar in above the normal function keys. The extra chassis means they can put a bigger battery in there. The extra screen size would be... well it would be awesome.

But that's all a bunch of dreamy tech fluff. Apple has it's sights set squarely on a customer that most certainly isn't using the product for professional purposes.
2 comments
vectorpush 3443 days ago
Yeah, 17" is pretty much a prerequisite for me as far as laptops go. I was in the market for a laptop a few years back and considered the MBP but I ended up going with the 17" Asus Zenbook and have been very pleased with it. I'll admit that the MBP has a bit better build quality, but I'd say the Zenbook is 90% there but much cheaper, much better specs, and of course I got my 17" display.

It was only later I discovered that the newer MBPs don't play nicely with Linux, so I dodged a bullet there.

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the_hoser 3443 days ago
The problem that I have with most 17" laptops is the stupid number pad. It forces me to type with my hands off-center from the screen, and it drives me insane. The old 17" macbook pro was basically the only one to do it right.
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vectorpush 3443 days ago
Yeah, I'm not a numpad user myself, but I never really noticed the hands off-center issue, my brain seems to adapt without much distraction.
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the_hoser 3443 days ago
It's not my brain that's the problem. It's my shoulders. I tend to want to view the screen dead-on, so I'm typing with my hands shifted a few inches to the left. For a few minutes that's no big deal. Get into a 3-hour coding bender and my shoulders are killing me once I unfold.
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JBiserkov 3443 days ago
Which model is the 17" ZenBook? A quick search came back empty.
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philliphaydon 3443 days ago
There's enough room to have the function keys and touch bar now... the way they should have done it to begin with.
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bnj 3443 days ago
My bet is that they were worried that no one would find a use for the touch bar if it didn't replace an existing function
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