Ask HN: As a developer why not pick the Macbook Pro 2016 Without Touch Bar?
Especially considering some programmers (like me) want to avoid looking away from the screen while typing.
Some thoughts:
It has a slower CPU. <- Single biggest concern for me. Priced high and quite close to model above. <- Second biggest issue for me. Two Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of four. <- Not a big concern if an adapter can allow expansion to effectively 4 anyway. Butterfly Keyboard <- I tried it in the store, I still prefer the old style keyboard but this one definitely felt better than the one on Macbook. One of the two on display at the store had one button (left bracket) sticking which wasn't a confidence boost (London Regent Street). GPU difference. <- The difference is not enough for me to care personally.
Positives: A possibly longer lasting battery and physical function / escape key, costs less.
I was waiting for these models to be unveiled and was somewhat disappointed by some of the compromises, but I've since looked around and I still don't see anything by the competition I prefer. My main disappointment was that they cannot be upgraded but at this point it's not a surprise. The price was surprising too. Currently I have a Late 2008 Unibody Macbook that I have upgraded to 256 SSD, 8 GB RAM so what I'm lacking is a modern CPU, retina display and decent battery life. As a developer I'm not too desperate to upgrade because I've moved to doing more web development than anything else recently. If I was compiling with Xcode everyday I'd probably be more eager, but I will need to at some point so I'm considering options.