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Comment by friedman23 | Hacker News Reader

I'm a power user and I'm really surprised you looked at this release as "just" fixing the keyboard. I'm more excited about this release than any other macbook release in the past 3 years. Increased base hd size, new graphics card with performance that stomps the previous model, more available RAM, the largest battery legally possible on a laptop, and a larger screen in the same form factor as the previous 15 inch model. There are actually no downsides to this laptop except the touch bar.

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The keyboard is the “only” thing that matters for someone that bought a computer about a year ago, so yeah.

64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD are great, that’s why I have a desktop computer with those specs for half the price. I love big screens too, which is why I have an actual big monitor on my desktop, not “big considering the form factor it’s in”. Getting those specs on the MacBook Pro puts you into the $6K territory, so I don’t think for most people that’s actually a difference. The absolute upper bound has increased, but what I get for the price I just paid about a year ago isn’t that much different.

Meanwhile, my laptop is for mobility and not where I boil the ocean. Sure, I’ve wanted 32GB on my 13 inch for years, still waiting though.

Look, I get that there exists a market for super high end laptops, but there is arguably a much larger market for, like, mobile laptops that can type correctly. It’s annoying that I have to get pushed into the ultra niche high end laptop market, with specs that I specifically don’t even care that much about (I have no use for a better graphics card, especially an AMD graphics card that ensures I can’t use it for ML), just to get a keyboard that puts one e on the screen when I hit the e key once.

Not everyone uses a desktop–I do all of my work out of a laptop, for example. It's not strange to want a powerful one, and comparing it to something completely different is not useful.

I agree! That's why my point was that if you compare the new 16 inch to the previous 15 inch, at the same starting price points -- they aren't all that different. The difference does indeed grow quite large as you reach exorbitant price points.

The old 15.4 inch at $2699.00 (vs. 16 inch at $2399) was also 512GB, 16GB RAM, and 2.6GHz. This is absolutely a modest perf bump -- however it really sucks if you feel like you have to pay this price again for nearly identical specs to really just get the new keyboard. Yes, if you were really hoping for amazing... laptop speakers, then paying full price again may make a lot of sense. But the reality is that for most people (those not spending $6K), this computer is not that much different from the one that already exists, except for the keyboard actually working. My response was for the comment stating surprise that I "just" saw this as a keyboard fix. I stand by my position that this is absolutely the case at most of the reasonable (common?) price points.

There are probably a lot of people who can and do pay for upgraded machines, and for them 64 GB of RAM or an 8 TB SSD might be reasonable. (OK, I'm not so sure about the 8 TB storage tier…but there are probably a number of people who'd like the higher capacities.)

My company is talking configurations for all next summer's upgrades... top i9 8-core, top 5500/8G GPU, 64GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Someone may up their storage, but I'm mostly insanely happy about the GPU and RAM.

I’m very happy about the 8tb. itunes media has proper bitrates (looking at you google with your “4k”) so having your entire media library with you is a nice benefit as well as having some room to grow. i’m currently sitting on about 2.5tb of media and ~500gb of user data. buying a 4tb would max me out in a few months after buying more movies / shows.

Sure, but if you want seriously powerful hardware, you're simply not getting that in a laptop form factor. A desktop workstation can have power budgets upward of 10x what these can use.

you bought a machine a year ago, so why not wait until they inevitably release it in the macbook line and buy one of those. this is your ultraportable “trashbook” line you’re looking for.

> largest battery legally possible on a laptop

What do you mean by "legally possible on a laptop"? My current machine (some rugged mobile power house) got 120Wh and I really don't wanna get arrested. Please enlighten me.

In the last discussion this was mentioned relative to air flight

It's not allowed to take more than 100wh in carry-on flight luggage (in some countries).

US airlines might choose to approve 160 Wh batteries: https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/resources/media/Airline_...

Never had any problems traveling with it, even to the (supposedly super restrictive) US.

no way tsa checks

is saline solution exempt from tsa fluid limitations or is it bottles that say saline solution

Ask a high school dropout!

The one time they do, you will either be abandoning your $3000 laptop or missing your $3000 flight. Better to follow the rules. Not because the rules are intrinsically good, but because not following them can be a big waste of time.

Just shipping the product can be an issue if you use FedEx or similar. I don't think they allow >100wh, and even under this is a pain. Understandably, because they already have had a few crashes likely caused by battery fire.

There are actually no downsides to this laptop except the touch bar <that have been realized at this time>.

FTFY. No Gen 1 Apple product has been without it's flaws. Some just take time to make themselves known.

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