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Ask HN: What do you want to see most in the next iteration of the Macbook Pro?

29 points by ng-user ↗ HN
Apart from the obvious 32GB ram, what else would you like to see in the next generation Macbook Pro?

I think it will be the first Macbook Pro I purchase and I really hope it lives up to expectations.

I really like the idea of Touch ID, I hope it's not replaced with Face ID. High Sierra should be interesting too.

Anyway, what would you personally like to see in the next Macbook Pro?

107 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 167 ms ] thread
shardinator
Finder app that actually finds stuff
overcast
Path Finder is our only hope.
CharlesW
> Finder app that actually finds stuff

I find stuff with Finder. Mind elaborating? (Now I'm paranoid that I'm finding wrong…)

mtw
Nvidia graphic cards
billconan
External gpu support for Nvidia

https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphic...

Boot camp dual boot option for Linux

Official command line package manager

kogir
You can already dual boot Linux. Just hold alt when turning on the computer and select the installation media, set it up to boot with EFI, and use the same alt trick to select your Linux partition on boot.
billconan
I have done this myself too. but it's kinda hacky.

For example, linux might not recognize 3 finger gestures. I also don't recall how it handled the apple/command keys. There might need to be some better driver support.

clra
This will sound trite, but I'm completely serious. The number one thing I want to see in the next MacBook Pro is the abandonment of the Touch Bar. Make it a row on the keyboard again.

I didn't think that the Touch Bar was useful when I first saw it, and now, six months later, I haven't found one more reason that I'd want ever want it. I don't want haptic feedback or any other kind of improvement. Apple made a mistake and should own up to it. Just throw it out.

Aside from that, I'd love to see a little better battery life and would have no problem whatsoever trading away a few more millimeters of thinness if I could get it. The MBP is thinner than I need already.

johns
Agreed. But please keep the Touch ID button.
_of
Remove the touch bar and reintroduce the magnetic power connector - it was such a great thing. And then please make the arrow up and down keys larger - I find myself hitting the wrong key several times every day.
johns
I personally don’t miss MagSafe like I thought I would. I’d rather have charging ports on both sides like the current MBP.
jacknews
I agree, I never want to see a proprietary apply power adapter ever again, especially given their history of disintegrating within a year or two.

Charge ports on either side fix a real pain point for me - all my workspaces happen to have power on the right hand side.

Also, if you need the safety of magsafe, you can get magnetic-connect usb-C cables, where the usb 'stub' fits into the female port, but connects magnetically to the rest of the cable.

ajeet_dhaliwal
Yes - this is my only gripe with the keyboard, the up and down keys are terrible. It's a shame when things are fine and just get made worse in the new version.
kylec
I would prefer Face ID, actually
thijsvandien
Not looking off as much as it does and not on the power button, though.
Alex3917
The Touch Bar isn't that bad in and of itself. What is annoying is that there is no way to get rid of the Siri icon. Unless they're giving them away for free, you shouldn't have to constantly see advertising for their shitty search engine.
johns
You can remove Siri in preferences.
Alex3917
Oh nice, I'm assuming that's new, everything I read when it first came out said there was no way to get rid of it.
Bud
Not new.
kogir
I also hate the touch bar, but far worse is how they ruined all the other keys with the new, super loud low travel design.

I want the keyboard from my 2013 model back. It was nearly perfect.

jsjohnst
While I agree the Touchbar is a crappy gimmick (albeit I don’t hate it, I think it’s a useless feature), I have to disagree on the keyboard. I hate typing on my personal 2015 MBP keyboard now and have to use an Apple Magic Keyboard 2 with it.
dawnerd
Whenever the laptop gets hot (always) the keys will feel a lot different and often not even click.
b3b0p
I think my favorite MacBook Pro keyboard was the one on the Aluminum PowerBook. The 12 inch Aluminum PowerBook is my favorite Apple product of all time. It was perfect to me in every way.
thinkythought
I have a 2012 and a 2009 here. The keys on the previous to retina generation feel way better than the original retina, and the keys on the new one are way crappier than that. The retina was decent, the old(1st gen black chicklet keys) one was awesome.

I always feel like a curmudgeon saying this but they really screwed this up. And i say that as someone who's completely fine with the newer thinkpad keyboards even.

crispinb
Before seeing your post, and at the risk of possibly garnering snark-downvotes, I was going to write "a real keyboard".

Much as I find OS X (OK macOS if we must) the best balanced OS for my purposes, and am attached to so much of the great software it has available, I'm never going to have imposed on me a keyboard I can't touch type on.

Assuming Apple remains stubborn on the fake function keys, my current ageing MBPro will absolutely be my last.

smegel
I can see the value in having programmable buttons...but why they put that bar there instead of little OLED screens on all the Function keys amazes me.
stephenr
Because a touch screen can support inputs other than just keydown/keyup?
smegel
Well I'm sure every bad decision ever made had some kind of rationale that made sense to someone at the time.
pfg
Having used a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar for about 10 months now, I'll have to agree that it didn't really improve my UX in any meaningful way. I have tried various customization tools, but I don't find myself using it for anything other than controlling playback, display brightness and volume, and the old function keys did that just fine. In fact, they were easier to hit correctly most of the time.

I don't hate the Touch Bar - it didn't really make things worse for me, but that's not really a good enough reason to keep it around. TouchID has saved me a lot of time spent entering my passphrase, so that's been great, but I imagine that can easily be replaced with FaceID in a future release, which would have the nice side-effect of solving the lack of biometric authentication on the iMac.

ajeet_dhaliwal
I bought the version without Touch Bar because I hated it so much (after trying one at the store) and desperately need a new Macbook Pro to replace my old 8 year old one. So I agree even though I won't be buying another computer for a few years. I do like the new keyboard though. Shame about it having worse specs but it's more than enough for my dev needs.

Apple's continuing with the bizarre / bad design decisions, the latest iPhone X has an ugly notch in the screen, unfortunately there's no way to avoid that if you want the latest iPhone.

matt_oriordan
I ended up buying a second hand MacBook Pro instead of a new one because Apple have stupidly for some reason decided that if you want a more powerful configuration, you have to have a shitty touch bar. It makes no sense, a touch bar and a high spec are orthogonal.
itake
Water resistance. It would help with cleaning and spills.
aeroevan
Coreboot and better Linux support.

I can dream, right?

nether
nvidia gpu for ML training
zmmmmm
32GB RAM - absolute must

Standard, full size HDMI - main factor making me hang onto my current one now is actually this!

graeme
More ports. The new version only has four, and one is for power. My 2015 model has power, two thunderbolt, two usb, hdmi, sd card, audio in. I use all of them most days.

I'd also want an option with the higher travel keyboard and function keys. I use those frequently. I tried the lower travel keyboard on a macbook, and it hurt my arms.

stephenr
The whole point of USB-C is that a single port can do multiple things at once. What four devices are you plugging in that none of them can also supply charge?
graeme
Sorry, missed replying to this earlier:

  *Audiobox and powered USB Hub, into the two USB Ports
  *Often an ethernet cable with adaptor into the thunderbolt port
  *Magsafe adaptor
  * HDMI cable to external monitor
  * Line in audio for speakers
  * SD Card into SD card slot
  * The USB Hub has: lightning cable for ios device, external keyboard, wacom tablet, usb mouse
I haven't yet familiarized myself USB C. Would they solve this issue? I think I would need a lot more hubs, since I count 9-10 connections on a typical day.
quantumhobbit
Headphone jack. Escape key. MagSafe charger.
jacknews
The proprietary chargers were expensive and disintegrate within a couple of years. Also scavenging the office for someone with the right version, and wattage of charger when you left yours at home.

No thanks.

USB-C should become a standard, so they'll be ubiquitous, cheap, etc.

If you need a safe cable you can get magnetically-connected USB-C cables.

apple4ever
No they didn't. I have MagSafe chargers nearly a decade old, and they work fine still.

Magnetically connected USB-C cables are a poor solution. A dedicated port for power is still the best option.

chrisparton1991
The MBP still has a headphone jack, as far as I'm aware.
trizic
Quadcore with HT 13inch. With Intel 8th generation CPUs, i5 and i7 will become quadcore. Now the question is will Apple use i3 or older generation CPUs for the 13inch or give the 13inch quadcore+ht like the current 15inch.
thinkythought
I would honestly switch back to a 13 if i could get a real quad core in it. All my work is purely CPU stuff, so all the GPU does is cook my legs and waste battery(and some apps that absolutely have no business switching on the dGPU still do, even years in, and the tray apps that let you restrict this are long since broken... grrr)

I'm still plugging away on a 2012 rMBP, so i'm a prime customer to pitch this hypothetical quad 13in model too. I like the size! I don't need the big screen! I would bite even if this was a BTO or higher end model!

NotSammyHagar
These are all obvious fixes. 1. 32+gb ram, don't be stupid 2. 2+ usb-c, plus at least one legacy usb-a 3. hdmi 4. either drop touch bar or make it easily support normal top row buttons
Bud
HDMI 4 doesn't even exist. What are you talking about?
jsjohnst
The 4 is a list entry number. He wants an HDMI port back on the MBP.
jsjohnst
Re: #1

Go rant to Intel. It’s their fault they don’t support LP-DDR4 or DDR4L.

NotSammyHagar
on the ram limitation, other laptops have more than 16 gig, like the lenovo laptops my company uses for ubuntu dev with 32 gig. so apple could make other choices. these other laptops work just fine.
aphextron
17 inch >4k retina display (>300PPI) with GTX1070m or better.
DanHulton
I know you say "apart from the obvious 32 GB ram", but I'm gonna say it anyway. On the off chance anyone from Apple reads this, I want to signal boost that as much as I can. It gets in the way daily, and as more places adopt docker (and Mac not having a native docker layer worth using), the RAM limit is stifling.

A keyboard nobody complains about again.

Better battery life.

A return to Magsafe.

jlgaddis
Indeed, RAM. I have a two-year-old MBP that has 16 GB. I have an almost five-year-old ThinkPad that has had 32 GB since the day I got it. My workstation has 128 GB.

Actually, I should just sell the MBP. I've probably used it two or three times -- and for maybe two hours altogether -- in the last year or so.

milkytron
Just out of curiosity, what do you do with all that RAM?
Bud
It is not, and was never Apple's choice to limit the MB Pro to 16 GB.

Educate yourself:

https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/

smt88
"Educate yourself" is not a constructive way to disagree with someone.

Also, it's absurd to suggest that Apple could do absolutely nothing about this Intel limitation if they wanted to.

I'm sure it would cost them more time/energy than they'd be willing to spend on the MB Pro, but that's been the problem for Pro users for a while, hasn't it? Apple doesn't care as much about it as its users do.

apple4ever
Yes it was. They could have chosen a different CPU, with less battery life. That should have been an option.
jsjohnst
Rant to Intel. It’s an Intel limitation, not a specific choice Apple made. If you use LP DDR ram, which all power efficient laptops do (aka not just Apple), you can’t have more than 16gb ram.
twobyfour
Or they could go with a slightly higher powered chipset in the already insanely thin and lightweight form factor of last year's MBPs to leave space for a bigger battery.
smt88
Two questions:

1) What are you doing that requires 32 GB RAM? I assume it's for work -- what kind of products are you building?

2) Is a cloud desktop not an optional? I have a few friends who connect to powerful cloud machines from Chromebooks and Airs, and they seem to love it.

6nf
Some devs these days are using VMs extensively to develop on different projects and environments, and those devs need more RAM.

Cloud desktop works iff you have a good internet connection at the time

faramarz
Touch screen? I don't have any complaints.

actually, easier way of switching between screen resolutions. I find night time with my contact on, the highest resolution on my 15" is very hard to navigate and read; I'd like instant resolution switch-ups or downs

QML
After some research for my next anticipated laptop, a lot of people in the Mac community seem to want a 14" MacBook Pro that combines the portability of the 13" with the power of the 15". Personally, I would like Apple to match the amount of ports in the lower spec MacBooks as there are in higher spec ones; seriously, why do the non-touch bar 13" MacBooks have only two thunderbolt ports while the touch bar model has four!?
Bud
Because those ports are not free, and neither is the internal real estate that they consume.
jsjohnst
Because each of those Thunderbolt 3 ports adds significant cost. I guess they could’ve added two USB-C ports, but that likely would’ve caused major confusion for customers (the confusion is already bad enough in the USB-C port form factor imho).
locusm
The 2013 MBP was perfect, regret selling it when thinking the new 16 model would be reasonably priced.
jbl
I'd really like to see the inverted-T cursor block back... I can almost live with the low-travel keyboard and actually kind of like the Touch Bar (especially with iTerm2 support now).

The arrow keys, however, I just can't get used to.

taylodl
The MacBook Pro should be Apple's tank. It should be able to handle the most arduous, demanding tasks and still go 8-10 hours on its battery. Sorry if that's adds a little more weight, it's a pro machine - if you want something ultraportable, svelte and light then you should get a MacBook Air.

As far as ports are concerned USB-C is great, however a USB 3.0 port and an SD card reader would be super handy for a pro machine. Seriously, people are making a living using these machines and it needs to be a little more convenient to transfer data using different media which happen to be extremely common.

I've found the new keyboard usable once you get the hang of it, though I prefer the older keyboards with a little more travel. The trackpad though - it needs to be shrunk back down in size. It registers too many false inputs and its really annoying especially since the trackpad is hands-down one of the best features of the entire MacBook product line.

nerdwaller
I can definitely echo the “getting used to” the keyboard phase and the trackpad issues. I’ve found it hard to stray from my historic MacBook usage due to the awesome trackpads, until the current one. It’s still a great trackpad (generally), but the false inputs and palm detection are certainly a weak point for the current series and software.
ajeet_dhaliwal
people are making a living using these machines

I think that cuts to the heart of the matter. They have forgotten who the customers are. Everything is designed for sleekness and entertainment.

synicalx
As everyone else has said - ditch the Touch Bar, double the RAM.

Also, crazy suggestion but I think it's a much better solution than jumping on board the bizarre "everything needs a touchscreen and 48 hinges" bandwagon; make the trackpad even bigger AND also make it something comparable to a Wacom tablet - stylus and all.

Jayakumark
Lower end i5 model starting at $999

Higher end model with Option to have OLED display with almost no bezel design kind of like iPhone X

thijsvandien
For the MBP as we know it, I'd love to get a 15" model without the Touch Bar / Touch ID. To me, it's a deal breaker. The 13" looks nice, but it's just too small. I'm not sure what to make of the gigant trackpad – not putting it under your palms is just so much more sensible than palm detection. (For the same reason I'm not fond of edge to edge phone displays.) Sad to see MagSafe go, as well as many other connectors. The previous model was pretty great and it's unfortunate it can't be bought (new) anymore with decent graphics.

32GB of RAM is welcome, as well as some more screen estate. I'd now probably get a 17" model if I could, but lacking that, thinner screen edges. If it can be done on the Dell XPS (and the iPhone X), so can it on the MBP.

The MBP doesn't feel all that pro anymore, though. When the MBPr was first released, it truly set itself apart from the MBP at the time. It was an insta-buy and I'm still using it for the lack of better options. Now that the consumer line has caught up, what I'd really like to see is the introduction of a legitimate mobile workstation with similarly sized innovations at a similarly reasonable price. Where is my Xeon with ECC?

Completely in vain, I'll close by stating that a bit of water/dirt-proofing would be great, but I don't expect to ever see that happen.

grzm
What are the last two laptops you've owned? When are you planning to replace your current laptop? What will the next one be if the next MBP includes Touch Bar and Touch ID? If not a Mac, what OS will you run?
thijsvandien
This MBPr 2012 made me move back from MBA + iMac to just a laptop. Before that, MBP. Right now I'm trying to find a lightly used MBP 2015 with R9 and ~2 years of AppleCare left, to buy myself some time to either migrate away from Apple or be positively surprised with a new product that convinces me to stick with them longer. Been a Mac user for well over 10 years now, so the final decision won't be taken lightly.

I keep a list of candidates to try, including the Dell Precision 5520 and some Lenovo models. Still I'm bitter about it. As far as I can tell, nothing else I can buy at this moment will match the build quality I've come accustomed to. The user experience of (now) macOS is steadily declining too, but not to the point yet that Linux looks like an improvement. I'd fancy BSD more, but that limits the hardware options even further.

aklemm
Touch and stylus! I want to be able to touch the screen I do real work on. Then my tablet can be consume/entertain only.