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Comment by mbreese | Hacker News Reader

Yes.

The MacBook has one USB-C port, has a smaller 12" screen, and is lighter (2 lbs).

The MacBook Air has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, has a 13" screen, is heavier (2.75 lbs), and has more CPU power than the MacBook.

The MBP w/o touch bar has two Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, a 13" screen, is heavier (3 lbs), and more CPU power than the Air

The MBP w/ touch bar has four Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, a 13" screen and has more CPU power (options) than the MBP w/o touch bar (same weight).

(I intentionally left out the 15" MBP)

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And the MacBook and MacBook Pro w/o touch bar still have the older butterfly keyboard without membrane.

Their line-up is quite a mess. I don't see why they haven't updated the MacBook Pro without touch bar or the MacBook 12". If you want a MacBook Pro without a touch bar, you are basically screwed, unless you can accept a potentially unreliable keyboard.

I don't recall reading of this. (I'm not a Mac guy, but friends...) The current, "lesser" MacBook Pro that retains the function keys, does not share the keyboard technology of the current, trouble-prone (dust, failed keystrokes, etc.) "premium" models having the touch bar?

Nope, they didnt revise the non-touchbar 13" MacBook Pro the last time they bumped the touchbar models. it didnt get updated CPU or the keyboard membrane. I am expecting themt o ditch it, now that the Air is cheaper, newer, and has touchID and a newer keyboard.

The MacBook Pro with function keys does have the trouble prone keyboard design.

The MacBook Pro with touchbar received a slightly updated keyboard that is supposed to fix some of the issues people had with the old one.

Also, as opposed to MBA, MacBook is fanless.

It needs air.

I think we’ve solved the mystery here

I can confirm -- mine was caught in a rainstorm and drowned.

This is a great point that a lot of people seem to miss (or just don't care). I do care because I don't like to worry about dust accumulating internally, noisy/malfunctioning fans, etc.

Additionally regarding the Air vs Pro w/o touch bar:

The Air is 100$ cheaper, and has the TouchId scanner and the newer-gen keyboard.

The Pro has a 15W TDP vs 7W TDP CPU with slightly higher performance, and a TrueTone display with higher brightness.

I would probably pay the 8% extra, but overall those things are very close.

I think the Pro w/o touch bar will probably get dropped sometime soon. I don't think the slightly higher performance of that MBP model will sell enough to warrant the SKU. Especially considering the keyboard differences. If the Touchbar-less MBP didn't warrant a model update with the newer gen keyboard, I could easily see Apple selling through their stock and dropping it.

Totally possible. That again would have the result that they increased all their prices by a whole class, without most people recognizing it. The MacBook Air is then at the level of old 13" Pros, and the Pro is much higher (at the previous Pro+Touchbar level). That approach would match what they did with the new iPhones, where the X also moved the price range for an iPhone by a big amount.

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