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gardener123

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar?

8 years ago

The only thing I hate more than buying a new swimsuit is buying a new computer. I like my trusty old MacBookPro but the battery is gone and the storage is full. It's ancient. So it's time. Bleh.

I'm going for mac laptop with the biggest screen for my tired eyes. But how do you like the touchbar? Some reviews say don't get it because if it goes, the whole laptop goes with it.

I'd rather be shoe shopping ;)

Thanks for any insight!

Comments (21)

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    God I HATED THIS THING.

    I bought the 15 inch MacBook Pro with Touchpad. I opted to buy it brand new off eBay with 3 year warranty b/c I thought I was going to love it and didn't care there were no returns. I sold it on eBay a month later at a $300 loss.

    I have every Apple product that exists and I am devoted to Apple computers and have been since the days of those old Blueberry iBooks. This computer was so, so horrible. The keyboard was incredibly uncomfortable to type on to the point where I dreaded trying.

    Oh, and because of the stupid touchbar and the way the position of the keyboard was adjusted because of it, it forced my wrists to rest very uncomfortably along the front edges of the computer so it cut into my wrists whenever I was trying to type.

    And the d*mn touchbar, I kept brushing it w/ my fingers and it would do weird crap like refresh my screen in the middle of me looking at something on a website. I never once actually used the touch bar. It was just a hugely annoying, pointless hindrance.

    I have the 13 MacBook Pro with no touch bar now and I am much happier. But the keyboard is still not as nice as my old-school 15 inch Macbook Pro or older 13 inch Macbook air. And I miss the bigger computer. But at least it's not horrible.

    If you are thinking about buying this abomination of a computer, I urge you strongly to go to an Apple store and stand there and try to type out at least a page of text and see if you can tolerate it and if your hands don't brush the touch bar like mine did and your wrists don't get uncomfortable and the keys don't feel squished together, awkwardly arranged and hard to press.

    gardener123 thanked beaglesdoitbetter
  • 8 years ago

    I will be checking for the responses you get! I have been putting off my purchase for a while now because I am worried about that touch bar.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    I'm typing this on one two weeks old. I like it a lot.

    gardener123 thanked Joseph Corlett, LLC
  • 8 years ago

    I like it but I also bought a wireless mouse just because I am old school about some things. Especially when I start working on something like a spreadsheet or PowerPoint.

    gardener123 thanked OutsidePlaying
  • PRO
    8 years ago

    It took me two weeks to drop the Mac wireless mouse and break the glass. It still functions with the tape over it and after a few more drops.

    gardener123 thanked Joseph Corlett, LLC
  • 8 years ago

    I had to get a new Mac last year. Didn't care for the Touch Bar (for me it seemed gimmicky) or the larger track pad since I use a Logitech wireless mouse. And there was the lack of connectivity. No SD card slot which means I would have needed an adapter. I was happy to find a 2015 MacBook Pro. Next time I'll have no choice but to go with what's new, but for now I'm content.

    gardener123 thanked User
  • 8 years ago

    Had the same dilemma and asked around too. I decided I didn't need the touch bar since I'd hardly use. Do love the new pro, this coming off an air. Annoyed that connections and power cords are all different and need adapters now. Apple is pretty sneaky that way!


    gardener123 thanked Babs Fla
  • 8 years ago

    I researched and tried the MacBook with the touch bar and thought it was a pain to use. Bought a 15” MacBook Pro instead. We've had almost every Apple product since the Apple ll +, but this was a non-starter.

    gardener123 thanked blubird
  • 8 years ago

    I was between MacBook and the Air. I ended up getting the Air because of the ports and the fact that it took an SD card so I could take photos off my camera and load them easily.

    gardener123 thanked 1929Spanish-GW
  • 8 years ago

    Bleh..... such a hassle, no? So glad I posted here.

    I didn't realize there was 15" macbook pro without the touchbar, like blubird's. You really have to scroll down far to find it. There is no model name or number, but is this the one you have?

    15-inch MacBook Pro - Silver

    Add To Favorites

    • 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
    • 16GB of 1600MHz memory
    • I'm thinking about keeping the basis processor but upgrading the storage to 512 GB or 1TB.
    • How much storage did you get? This looks like it still has ports.
  • 8 years ago

    Beagles, do you see it? It's so annoying. I can only find it in compare.

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/results/?product1=macbook-air-13&product2=macbook-pro-2015-15

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Yea, I found it now (I deleted my comment) Thanks!

    They really make it difficult to find, which is stupid because I would have bought it! (Now I have my 13 inch, which is fine, and I don't know if I need another one enough to pay $2K for it when I just got this one a few months ago).

    As to storage, I used to pay to upgrade but now I bought a Seagate personal cloud drive which I prefer b/c I got a ton of storage, I can set auto backups to it, and it also allows me to store movies and music and stuff I can access wirelessly on my phone, iPad and my SmartTV.

    The personal cloud is really easy to set up, so I would go that route instead of spending extra $ on upgrading the mac storage IMO.

    Edited to add, here is the Seagate: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Personal-Storage-Device-STCR3000101/dp/B00PZZZMQC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521658569&sr=8-3&keywords=seagate+personal+cloud+3tb+nas It's $126 for 3 TB

    gardener123 thanked beaglesdoitbetter
  • 8 years ago

    This is the 15" MacBook Pro I bought last May. It would still be my choice today if available.


    SP719

    gardener123 thanked User
  • 8 years ago

    Thanks Cindy. I THINK that's the one I'm looking at. Why aren't there model numbers? I would never have found it if it weren't for this post. How much storage did you get? With planned obsolesce, I feel like I'll need a new laptop before I get to 1TB...

  • 8 years ago

    beagles, your comment only just popped up. Strange because I got an email confirmation but then nothing here. I completely agree with you. I posted here because after spending too much time on the Apple site, I thought the touch bar was my only option. It's shocking to me that this is the best Apple can do.

    Thanks so much for the info on the storage. It's pretty cool that you can access it from anywhere. Have you had any problems with it?

  • 8 years ago

    Also, not to hijack gardener, but for a super non-techie here (I know just enough to be dangerous,) beagles, or anyone, is the Seagate easy to use? I do note you said it's easy to set up. I have an Air from 2014 with nothing wrong with it but I will be maxing out storage sometime soon so I need a backup.

    gardener123 thanked leela4
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    The Seagate was very easy to use. By set up, I basically mean I had to plug it into my router and create a user name and password, create an account for my mother-in-law so she could watch movies from her house that I store on my device, and create non-public folders on the Seagate to store my movies and music in.

    If you want to be able to access your movies and music on it from your phone or something, you'll also have to download the Seagate app onto your phone or iPad.

    It is called a network attached storage (NAS) but it's a NAS for non-techy people who don't want to configure network permissions and stuff like that. It is really nice to have it and I especially enjoy that my Apple TV recognizes it automatically because it's got some kind of special thing that communicates with Smart TVs so you can effortlessly access the movies and music on it.

    Here is a review and longer description of how it works for those who might be interested: https://www.pcmag.com/review/359110/seagate-personal-cloud-3tb 

    gardener123 thanked beaglesdoitbetter
  • 8 years ago

    beagles, not to sound daft, but where do you get movies from that you store on the Seagate? Because Amazon, netflix etc...wouldn't you just access your movies from those sites/apps?



  • 8 years ago

    I have a lot of old DVD's I copied onto the computer. And occasionally, I will buy a new DVD and make a digital copy of it.

    gardener123 thanked beaglesdoitbetter
  • 8 years ago

    beagles, thanks for the info and links.

    gardener123 thanked leela4