It's funny that I sit here talking about the 2016 MacBook Pro whilst the current M1 MacBooks are out in the wild garnering praise left, right & centre. I do so because the 2016 or TouchBar Macbook Pro has been my daily driver since around 2017. Where Apple takes them next is an interesting topic of discussion.
So where do I start?
2017 was a transitional year for me, it was the same year I founded this company, and to kick start all of that off was the purchase of a new laptop. I'd waited a while for Apple to update their MacBook range, I was still running a 2008 MacBook, preceding the "Pro" moniker, but still aluminium in build. So as you can imagine the excitement for a new Apple laptop knew no bounds.
When it arrived I was amazed at how small the box was, how slim the laptop was itself, how sultry the space grey aluminium finish was; and I immediately fell in love. The TouchBar was new territory, the USB-C ports a sign of the future, my then Google Pixel 1 was already using the same port so it seemed like a match made in heaven, the performance was swift, the storage a little tight, I didn't realise 256GB is still a little small for a long run on a laptop, even with all the cloud storage options available.
But soon enough, dongle life became the norm, my hard drives for backups (time machine etc.) and connecting to my monitor became a scramble to find the right adapters. When I would take the laptop out, carrying a bundle of adapters was annoying so eventually, I found an Aukey all in one travel adapter, which was bearable. I could be patient, the world was still catching up to USB-C. 4 years later the world is still mostly catching up, I've managed to get a few native USB-C wires for my hard drives, and my screen has a USB-C cable. (I still would like a decent desk dock, but maybe that's another topic of discussion)
The part of the MacBook Pro that was the biggest misstep for me is the TouchBar, it took about 3 years for it to be useful, and in which program do I find it useful? Microsoft Office! It was nice having a fancy slider for the volume and brightness, and eventually tapping some emojis or predicted words, but when you use Gmail with its predictive text it's much quicker hitting the tab key. And I'm sure you've heard enough about having no physical escape key already…
The thing is, when everyone else was doing touchscreen laptops, Apple did a TouchBar, and every incremental update we waited with bated breath, but, instead, we got an iPad pro. What we didn't know is, those iPad Pro's were the precursor to move away from Intel's chips and develop their own. So whilst the 2016 MacBook Pro caused a lot of MacBook woes, there was a strategy there.
So where do we go from here? Using a MacBook as a main work device is great when everything is cloud-based and apps are compatible is MacOS, but what about when you need more native Windows applications? From the actual Mac forums I've been reading, as opposed to the fancy (and probably sponsored) reviews, there's a lot of apps that are just not ready for the M1 chip, with one of the biggest developers being Adobe. it seems like there's going to be a few iterations of the M1 chip, and developers getting on board before we see the true potential of the chip.
And how does it fit into being an everyday driver for businesses? Well, there's a sub-par camera to start, and with WFH being the new normal I don't think it's enough to cut it. Also, there's the difficulty of MacOS and its lack of enterprise options compared to Windows. The fingerprint reader is probably one of my favourite features of the TouchBar and it's great for security. The lack of ports for peripherals could be a problem, but I'm sure larger businesses have adequate docks already, for when we're ready to return to office spaces. For the types of businesses that would invest in Macs, mainly the creative industry, these new M1 MacBooks are a great package.
What about hybrid users like myself, that switch between Windows and macOS regularly (and dabble with some casual gaming)? I think I'd be hard-pressed to use an M1 MacBook as my daily driver, at least these current versions. There are a lot of excellent powerful Windows laptops out there, the ubiquitous Dell XPS 13 gets a lot of plaudits. As well as gaming hybrids like the ASUS Zephyrus G14 (that falls over with no webcam) or Razer Blade laptops. All of those choices have upped their game with the designs too, and if Apple can move to the Micro-LED screens with slim bezels there could be another shift back in their favour.
It all comes down to what your individual or business' needs are, but with the M1 chip showing a lot of promise, maybe there's a future where these recent MacBook Woes becoming MacBook, whoas.