Stick this in your head

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar January 23, 2017

I recently replaced my 2012 15″ MacBook Pro with the late 2016 Touch Bar model. I never thought I’d say this about a Mac, but I did it because “I need it for work”. If I only needed it for personal use I’d get a Chromebook for 1/10 the price. But I also do server and web development. A Linux laptop would be fine for that (arguably better in many ways), but since I occasionally do iOS development a Mac is the only choice.

It’s pretty fast and very light. That’s nice. The battery life is not dramatically better or worse than the old model.

I do appreciate the slightly thinner and lighter form factor. When I pick up my old machine it now feels clunky.

I don’t mind the lack of legacy ports. I have one dongle for my USB head set, and that’s it. My phone already has USB C (Nexus 5x).

The worst thing for touch typists is the keyboard. Despite the fancy new butterfly switches, the throw is short and unsatisfying. Nevertheless, I can achieve fairly high typing rates with it (maybe even faster than the old keyboard). It feels like it’s doing some damage to my fingers, though. It’s sort of like typing on wood. Also, it’s loud if you use it in a quiet place like a library.

Tip: Keep your fingernails clipped short. Even slight contact with a nail transmits the blunt “make” of the keys to your joints. (“You’re not clipping them right.”)

After a couple of weeks of using it, I have not found the touch bar to be useful in any application I regularly use. For example, in Safari I always have so many tabs open that the thumbnail pictures are useless.

Not having “real” function keys hasn’t really been as much of an issue as I’d imagined. The Esc key is usually on the bar when you need it, and I remapped Caps Lock for other occasions. When you hold fn you get the function keys on the bar. Really this is no different than the way it was before, only now when it isn’t showing the standard function keys you’ve got dynamic labels and functions. On the down side, the touch bar eats battery and adds cost.