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I don't want to discount your experience by any means. And there's no denying that the price is very steep for the new MBP. But, other than price, I'm really satisfied with the new 15" MBP.

In particular, I do actually really appreciate the larger trackpad. But I'm a heavy user of BetterTouchTool and have always regarded the trackpads as one of the main reasons to get a MacBook. I don't even bother with three-finger drag now thanks to the size of the trackpad.

I think the Touch Bar should be considered for what it is: a replacement for static function keys. Apple of course hyped it like they hype everything. But considered realistically in context I consider it a success. I actually do use it some. Some of the simplest things work the best; for instance, I really like the options presented when taking a screenshot. I also enjoy using it for music control, scrubbing through music, and switching between music sources (including YouTube tabs). Nothing revolutionary, but then again, how could it ever be given what it is?

Your note about three-finger dragging puzzles me. I’d thought now that the trackpad is larger, this particular mode of dragging would be more useful. With smaller trackpads I would constantly run out of space to end the drag without lifting my fingers. That’s why I got used to click-and-holding with my thumb and repeatedly swiping with the index finger to complete the motion. What am I missing here?

> What am I missing here?

I don't run out of space anymore. I don't even have to do what you just described (repeatedly swiping with the index finger). I can often just click down with my index finger and drag a window all the way to where I want it without reaching the edge of the trackpad. I could never do this in the past, so I came to rely heavily on repeatedly three-finger-dragging windows around.

I also used to prefer three-finger drag because it was physically hard to click down and hold the click while dragging. But the Force Touch trackpad makes that much, much easier, and it also makes it so that I can always initiate the click anywhere, even at the top of the trackpad.

So it's really the combination of the larger trackpad and the Force Touch design that finally prodded me to stop using three-finger drag.

Thanks for clearing that up. My error was to have only drag operations in mind where letting go mid-way is not an option. So, yes, a dragged window stays where it is. I was thinking about a dragged item and how it bounces back to its original position or ends up in the wrong container if you let go too soon.

Not to rathole on this - but now I'm confused. When I click-drag something on macOS, I can click once, and repeatedly swipe with my index finger, lifting it from the touch pad each time to continue. This is true with every operation I can think of - selecting text, dragging windows, dragging items, etc...

In theory, a three finger-swipe is basically GUI equivalent to a click and drag - so the behaviors should be identical.

Under what scenario have you found them not to be?

You should try the option "Enable Dragging with Drag Lock" in System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options ...

Double-tapping and leaving the finger on the trackpad lets you drag the window or other item until you short-tap again. Drag lock even allows you to lift your finger and continue dragging from a different position on the trackpad.

> The specs are very underwhelming too

I got an HP Spectre x360 (16Gb, 512Gb SSD, I7-7500U), for $999 (open box for $940). Build quality is top notch.

I am a heavy Mac user and I could understand the Apple premium. There was no real competition before, but now that's changed. There are good offerings from Dell, Lenovo, Razer, HP, Asus and many others now.

Where did you get that for $999? I got the exact same build from BestBuy for $1199 and find it for $1099 at HP's site.

BestBuy too. Link follows. At the time of purchase, it was at that price(discounted 400). Sold out quickly. (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touc...)

That points to the i7-6500U version. The I7-7500U is this: www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360/5617202.p?skuId=5617202 and the least I saw on it was $1199

I didn't even notice my mistake until I received the machine. Oh well, USB-C is a nice to have but not mandatory(HP blocks eGPUs anyway). Skylake vs Kaby Lake is a very small difference, except for the graphics.

Except that BestBuy also made a mistake and sent me an I5/8/256 version(silver instead of Ash silver). Which was promptly returned. I've used the refund to buy parts for a desktop ITX PC on Newegg. I'll be using a chromebook or whatever when I can't be bothered to sit at a desk.

The Spectre is a beautiful machine though.

What were you using before? I just upgraded from a late 2008 MBP, and the difference is night and day. Computers only get noticeable better roughly every six years these days, so if you were using last year's model then of course it's going to seem like a ton of money for no real benefit.

From my perspective this thing is at least 2x as fast in real world use, substantially lighter, way better screen and speakers. And the keyboard is awesome and the build quality is outrageously good.

I get that people are upset they can't edit 5K or whatever, but you can get a desktop computer for that for less than half the price. Obviously they will be even better in three years once intel has chips that are appropriate for the MBP that also support LPDDR4, but for now this seems like clearly the best computer on the market and very clearly aligned with where the industry is going in the future.

If you're getting a desktop for half the price to do your real work, why buy the Macbook? How does being better than an eight year old laptop make it clearly the best computer on the market?

Some(most) people just don't need the raw power.

For instance if you are entrepreneur, any computer will have enough power and other things become important. An entrepreneur needs to travel a lot so battery lasting is essential, weight being low is essential, size being small is essential, it just working(software-hardware integration) is essential.

You can't move a desktop easily.

As an entrepreneur and engineer I use Macbooks a lot. Heavyload is done in servers. I used to compile my own gentoos(Linux distros) and built my own desktops and servers from discrete components in the past to get the best bang for the buck. Not anymore.

Macbooks are great computers in overall design, if you are careful enough to avoid first generation designs(that applies to any product from any company). Once they iron all the bugs it just works.

So you don't need a powerful machine, but you're still willing to pay a premium for one because it's small with a big battery? That makes even less sense.

I can't speak about MBP as I have only ever bought Windows machines but I was in the market for a new laptop for my new software dev business (one-man startup at the moment) and I looked at a few: Although I should say that my brother is still using his 2008 17" MBP to this day so they do know how to build them!

My shortlist was the XPS 13, XPS 15, Surface Book and Latitude E7470.

I discounted the XPS firstly for having too many coil whine issues even after 3 generations[1]. In addition, I had read about the key travel being short (1.2mm I think) but it wasn't until I actually tried one in PCWorld that I realised it's horrific to type on for any length of time. Not something I had experienced in the past. The 4k screen is wonderful though.

The Surface Book, while having a nice keyboard and sumptuous screen, has a terrible warranty: 1 year hardware support out of the box and for 3 years it was around £350. Even then, all they would do is send you a second hand replacement and take yours away. I read about some people that had been sent badly scratched replacements even though theirs was perfect. Too risky for a £2000+ machine.

The Latitude e7470 ticked all the boxes: easily expandable, tough, 14" and a screen res of 2560 x 1440. Also, I found one in the outlet store (scratch and dent) for £800 with a 3 year onsite next day warranty: I haven't received it yet but I have a 7 year old one at home that still runs as a Windows Server 2012 R2 machine and apart from having crap battery life, it still runs.

I hope your XPS is ok, it's stunning to look at in the flesh but I didn't want to take the risk that my £2000 machine started whining and to have Dell say "it's by design", and I hated the keyboard, so I stuck with the slightly less glamorous but no less capable Latitude.

[1] - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=xps+coil+whine

Great move. Keep hearing from forums, reddit small issues here and there for this first-gen notebook. Looks like many others are paying premium to Apple to be their beta testers. Really hope Apple release non-touch bar version in parallel for future refresh.

> * The bootcamp experience just sucks (this was my primary reason for returning it). Currently, there's no way to gracefully switch between discreet and integrated gpu, so the battery life is terrible, like two-and-a-half-hour maximum battery life terrible. gpu-switch doesn't work either. In fact, if you use gpu-switch you'll have to rebuild both macOS and Windows as the machine will just hang when you try to boot into either.

Also a problem on previous models. I was working on my own GPU switching solution but gave up due to lack of time and the fact most of my applications work just fine under OS X.

I'd be interested doing the same with Debian or similar Linux though.

What is an ideal Linux distro for programmers using the XPS 15?

Ubuntu/Xubuntu

I checked, but I couldn't find out if Dell still has that Sputnik programme they did a few years back, where you could order one of these with Ubuntu LTS preinstalled. I'm wondering if everything "just works" yet.

They're now called "XPS Developer Edition"

They do indeed still have the Sputnik program running. Barton George (from Dell) still updates his blog[0] with status info[1].

[0] - https://bartongeorge.io/

[1] - https://bartongeorge.io/2016/10/04/the-new-xps-13-developer-...

They do, and with Dell being a private company as well as Dell (the man) being a Linux user (supposedly), it'll probably keep being a thing.

elementaryOS of course! :)

razer blade pro has a different touchpad placement, it's on the right side of the keyboard. I also have some difficulties with the touchpad of my current laptop, I click it all the time.

I need to pick a new laptop for work (dev.) and I'm considering a MBPr 15" from last year or a XPS 15" with an i7, 16GB DRAM and a 256GB SSD.

If you have have heads ups I would like to know. Thnx

depending on your needs 256gb ssd may be cramped.. would do the 512gb if you can... I've filled 256, but haven't had issue with 512.