How about this apple. "macbook util". The pro line can keep the thin delicate stuff. Give me the 2015 case, screen, keyboard, and magsafe, with some new internals and a usb-c. I'd happily hand over my money.
Hacker News has been whinging about this Apple dilemma for years. I'm sorry to say that I just don't think there will ever be the golden age of MacBooks again. The "Pro" ideas coming from Cupertino are gimmicky at best for developers, and we will be stuck working on various Linux machines and leave the MBP problems to designers. The hacker-type software engineer is not Apple's target market for the MBP, and I think even before it was likely coincidence.
If you look at the pro target even in this post, the majority of Mac "pro" use cases being displayed here are creative in nature. Devs generally aren't spending their days editing video or sitting in Maya and they are targeting those markets - people who need power but don't wrench into their OS internals or open a debugger when something goes wrong. Those customers are also a lot less flighty as long as their creative tools work.
As for me, I stopped complaining and wishing for a pony, accepted that the MacBook is dead, and moved to a ThinkPad for daily use. My 2015 MBP will stick around when I need macOS, but it's best to start converting my workflow to a different platform where I see a future for development work.
But their requirements aren't much different to developers in terms of the machines. They need reliability most of all - a MacBook failing in a production location you've had to shift kit to or have performers at can be a huge concern. Dongle life makes everything harder for no benefit. They still need to type sometimes, even spaces or the letter 'e'! MacOS's development on emerging creative technologies like HDR is not exactly setting the world on fire.
I can assure you, there are a lot of creative professionals in outright dismay at the state of Apple's current laptop line.
The prices for the high-performance models are almost as high as Apple and the power bricks are actually bricks.
I'm the biggest critic of modern Apple notebooks there is, but I can't fault the quality of the MacBook Pro displays. They are, and have been for a long time, the best displays on notebooks.
The T490 does 100% Adobe RGB? I'm impressed. Seems like Lenovo has been really listening to people complain about the horrendous gamut ThinkPads have been afflicted with for some time.
Speaker quality is a lottery with every model, and none of them are as good as the 2013+ MacBook Pro. Coil whine and electrical noise is almost a given from either the machine itself or Lenovo's chargers. The quality of the audio output on the machine is almost certainly not as good as that on the MacBook Pro.
Oh, and I can all but guarantee that the battery in a MacBook Pro will have better longevity than that of the ThinkPad.
You also have to pay almost MacBook Pro prices to get decent specs out of the Lenovo machines.
Yes, the keyboards have high failure rate. But I mean Apple is not known for its conservative design. If I compare my new MacBook Air with most other laptops, especially old ones, those look like teleported from 30 years ago. The new keyboard is far better to type on and my latent RSI highly appreciates less motion necessary - slow SSH sessions punish me with double types but there are solutions, maybe Mosh (mobile shell) works.
People should also consider that progress means regress in some way. Most technologies advertised on HN have some serious flaws compared to the old school alternatives. But who seriously wants to go back to 90s computing?
I'm quite happy with the new laptop, it's perfect for development, it can be used anywhere, it can be charged with my phone charger (!) and the case is made of iPad Pro scrap, I couldn't be happier.
Loads of ultra-portable PC laptops are perfect for development, can be used anywhere whatever that means, and charge with USB type-C making them compatible with a proper universal power standard.
Progress is not regress. Regress is regress, progress is progress. I'm sorry for saying this but it sounds like you're only convincing yourself that black is white in order to justify your purchase to yourself.
On a more positive note, Mosh was a game changer for me, integrate it into your toolchain, you won't be disappointed.
> Progress is not regress. Regress is regress, progress is progress.
When I switched from Windows to Linux on the Desktop it was progress in terms of stability but regress in terms of application and driver support. macOS is for me better application and driver support but the choice of hardware is more limited. After all it's not just the laptop you buy but all the components, the components' abilities/driver support, the cases. I think the perfect computer only exists in the product owner's mind ;)
I would like to imagine there's space in the market for a "pro" model that would feel markedly worse for the average consumer, and shouldn't be mistakable in its name for something that would serve them better.
"Pro" means professional. The vast majority of working professionals, in the vast majority of professional fields, run Office, a mail client, a browser, and maybe a line-of-business app. Professionals regularly attend meetings, and like to be able to carry their laptop around without breaking their backs.
The needs of professionals are generally largely in line with the needs of the average consumer.
You can come up with 'professional' jobs that need more horsepower (people like traders who want to run 6 monitors, and software devs (although personally I don't understand why software devs really need more horsepower)) but those are most definitely the exception.
When i build test and lint the smallish piece of software i work on it can take quite a while. More horsepower means quick turn around cycle from "make change see result". Also sometimes i am running multiple VM or containers.
It really helps some developers out.
</dreamsequence>
I've been using this machine for 6 months now, and as an iOS dev I'm locked in. But I don't love it, even if they thought I was gonna.
Consider the large touch pad a gift from Apple in this regard :-)...
If you look at the anatomy of the wrist you’ll see the problem. It’s worse for woman who have been pregnant (the lining sells for some reason and stays that way)
there is no technical reason (that i know of) stopping apple from selling a 15 inch laptop as thin as the macbook air (and still even get a low-clocked 4 core cpu in there)... i for one would buy that up in a heartbeat
for those that really need power, they can have a much thicker 6 or 8 or higher core cpu + discrete gpu and it would be fine (for that target) i would imagine...
but maybe apples marketing dept knows more than i do (not being sarcastic)
Sign me up.
Take my money!