[Meekro]

The 2015 Macbook Pro included an SSD, 2x Thunderbolt 2, 2x USB3, HDMI, and an SD card slot. It had 9 hours of battery life. Are you saying Intel chipsets actually regressed since then? If not, then it seems like Apple is the one who has regressed here.

[AstralStorm]

Apple choose the low voltage CPU, weaker GPU and super slim case at the expense of ports and computational power. Also 9 instead of say 6 hour battery life.

The only thing "Pro" in MacBook Pro is the price. At the same price points you can get Lenovo, Dell or HP workstation class laptops.

[nimish]

As a professional computer toucher, I definitely value battery life because a dead laptop doesn't let me get work done

[coryfklein]

The "Professional" moniker signals improved workload capabilities more than it does mobility/battery life. Essentially, Apple needs to change "MacBook Pro" to "MacBook On-The-Go" and just admit they don't have a Professional device.

When you think of a person with the title "computing professional", is your first thought, "Gee, I bet this guy spends very little time around power outlets"? No. While that may be true in some cases, that is not what the word "professional" means in the English language.

[lloeki]

> Essentially, Apple needs to change "MacBook Pro" to "MacBook On-The-Go" and just admit they don't have a Professional device.

The Verge's review[0] was not far off: it is a MacBook Air replacement... except the Air had insane battery life and that one definitely falls short.

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/2/13490774/apple-macbook-pr...

[nimish]

Professional means that I use it in the context of my profession. For me, the new touch bar pro is fundamentally better than the old for what I do because I need more battery life but I also don't want to pay a weight or size penalty for it. I get paid to get work done with my computer, so in that context I am a professional.

[coryfklein]

Historically the "Pro" in the MacBook line has referred to a device that is optimized for professional computer work. A journalist can certainly _be_ a "professional" and use their computer to get work done without requiring anything beyond a glorified tablet.

The kind of device required for a video rendering, database engineering, software development, or some other _computer_ based profession is inherently different and has stricter requirements on the capability of the device beyond mere portability and being able to pause Spotify with dynamic function keys.

[nimish]

I am a professional software developer / data scientist :)

I definitely agree that video rendering and HPC is not going to go well, but that is not that relevant to even many "pros"

The scope of the professional software world is broad.

[andrewprock]

The battery life on my touch bar pro is horrendous.

[vijay_n]

So do on mine without touch bar

[eecc]

Sorry, but that’s not entirely true. Mobile workstations (say a p15 or p17) can even equip a Xeon but they’re either throttled, have humorously short battery or a grotesque power supply and are still gimped somewhere (USBc, NVMe, GPU).

Apple made a mess of their PB but it’s not entirely their own fault, other vendors can’t offer great alternatives either l

[eecc]

No, not a regression just a gimped progression. Thunderbolt 2 carries 20Gb/s, while version 3 does 40Gb/s and requires 4 PCEe lanes. GPU wants another 4 and so does the SSD for a total of 12. My guess is that in older MBPs Tb would take 2 lanes leaving 2 for the legacy breakout hub, but Tb3 needs all of them to support multi-monitor 4K and imagine the howling if Apple gimped that instead.

I tend to blame Intel for cheaping out - or scrooging - on the PCI lanes... hopefully Ryzen and the Meltdown blunder will make Intel more generous.