[suresk]

My personal laptop is a 2012 15" Retina MBP, and my work one is a new 15" with the TouchBar. This is, by far, the longest I've kept a laptop and I'm sorta dreading having to replace it (it is having some reliability/battery issues lately) for pretty much the reasons the author described - they match my experience with the new MBPs.

Admittedly, a lot of the things come down to personal preference. I've met a lot of people who like the new keyboard (I slightly prefer the old one, but I hate hate hate the arrow key configuration on the new ones), use the TouchBar a lot (100% useless and annoying for me), and enjoy the extra space on the new touchpad (I really dislike how big it is - I accidentally click a lot).

The really worrying thing, though, is how unreliable the new keyboards are, and how difficult they are to replace. Repairability is pretty terrible with Apple. I'm not holding my breath for Apple to change any of the design decisions they've made with the MBP lately, but hopefully they can at least address reliability issues with the keyboard.

Given all that, plus how unreliable OS X has been for me lately, it is tempting to consider non-Apple alternatives, but it is hard to say if any of them are actually going to be any better. Either way, I don't feel the same about them now as I have from the early 2000s until 2012.

[usaphp]

“but I hate hate hate the arrow key configuration on the new ones)”

Not sure why they removed empty space on top of left and right arrows, but this change had the biggest affect on my performance while writing code, I used that blank space to navigate my way around the keyboard, now it’s gone I keep pressing wrong keys. They did the same on the new magic keyboard as well, I hate the guts of it.

[Corrado]

Yes, the new MBP keyboard has the same arrow key layout as the new Apple wireless keyboard, and I despise it. My fingers are constantly trying, and failing, to find the proper arrow key to press and I end up having to look at the keyboard. The only hope is that they change it back in the next version (along with removing the ridiculous TouchBar), but I'm not holding my breath.

[majewsky]

hjkl forever

[cs02rm0]

Likewise, I'm sitting on a late 2013 13" retina model.

It has 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. I just don't know why I'd pay more for an apparently worse keyboard and little else, even though it's just a business expense. So I haven't, because neither do I know where else to go.

[lloeki]

> This is, by far, the longest I've kept a laptop and I'm sorta dreading having to replace it (it is having some reliability/battery issues lately) for pretty much the reasons the author described - they match my experience with the new MBPs.

I tried hard to like the new MacBook Pro. But I could not justify the cost. Now way I went with the TB one, so I configured a FK one that was maxed out, because it costs so much money that I have to at least plan for the future. So, it's over 3k€; no way I can justify that kind of money for something that has documented issues and limitations in such key areas and in the end doesn't feel like an improvement over my late 2013 one which I got for exactly half that price tag. So I just swapped my 256GB SSD for a 1TB one, and while the lid was popped realigned the screen that was slightly offset due to a fall. It's the entry level i5, with 8GB of RAM, and battery is at 487 cycles yet 93% wear ratio, and the thing performs brilliantly. Now it's as good as new. I plan to keep it a while and with things starting to feel strange on the macOS front maybe in a few years if I feel like the OS lets me down I'll probably move to Linux (I wish it were FreeBSD but hardware compatibility just isn't there).

But for now, upgrading just didn't make sense, it just feels like a regression from 2013 hardware.