Hacker News Reader

Comment by brandonmenc | Hacker News Reader

I got a MBP this last refresh. I'm a programmer.

Touch Bar is a nice incremental advance. Not having a physical ESC key is not as bothersome as I expected. In fact, I don't notice it at all. Disclaimer: I don't use vi.

I like the media control modes, and am looking forward to content creation apps (ex: Ableton) making use of it.

I'd be sad if it were taken away, but it wouldn't prevent me from getting work done. It's a nice-to-have extra.

Also, the new keyboard is fantastic. I love the keys, and my external keyboard is now a buzzkill and I can't wait for Apple to refresh the Magic Keyboard with the new switches.

I have never accidentally hit the touch bar.

View on HN

Are you able to use the arrow keys? From what I've heard, most people have a problem with them.

I think I could get used the keyboard overall, but the arrow keys (with full-height left/right keys) were a complete no-go. There's so little space between each key I found it impossible to position my hand over the arrows properly.

I was completely ready to buy a new MBP but those arrow keys put an immediate end to that thought.

No problem at all with the arrow keys - only took a couple hours to get used to. I also was unsure about them on first sight, but all is well. Haven't played games with them, though.

That's my only major complaint.

I've had this laptop for 9 months and I still hit the wrong keys every other time. It's very frustrating.

I've been using it for a month and I often hit the up arrow when I want to press down. It's strange as I have used SP3 keyboard for a while now before where the up and down arrow keys are half sized without issues. I think I'll get used to it and don't think it's a deal breaker

I can echo almost all of these sentiments. (I also bought a MBP this last refresh, and am also a programmer.)

I was a little worried about not having a physical esc key, but it's been totally fine. I don't even notice it's gone, and I use the escape key a lot. That said, I don't love the Touch Bar, but for the most part it's fine. I still don't think to use it most of the time, but am slowly starting to remember it's there. (I use an older MBP at work, so I only use my TouchBar MPB on weekends.)

I also agree that the new keyboard is great. I don't love the oversized trackpad, but I think my main issue is going back and forth between the new one and the one on my 2014 MBP.

Completely agree.

There are still times when the brightness or volume slider gets stuck on screen and have to wait a while for it to reset. Thought it would be fixed in the refresh

One thing which annoys me is the empty space to the left of the esc key in the touch bar.

You can quickly switch to another app (or desktop) to “fix” that issue.

The space left to the esc key can also be touched right? I just use my capslock as esc key, I like it even more that way than in the default position.

The Magic Keyboard does have the new switches, or at least the first generation butterfly switches that the first generation MacBook had. Also, there is more key travel on the Magic Keyboard than on the MacBook or the MacBook Pro.

The shorter key travel is what I like, so I'll probably hold out for a further refresh.

Who the hell uses Esc for Vi(m)? On modern keyboards Esc is too far from home row. Ctrl-[ is much better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com