When Apple released its revamped MacBook Pro lineup last year, it wasn’t exactly greeted warmly by developers and creative professionals. Amid a flurry of complaints, many in the Mac community were specifically underwhelmed by the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar, and more broadly, by a machine that they were quick to categorize as under-powered and overpriced. Additionally, many lamented a 16GB limit on RAM and the removal of the beloved MagSafe connector.
While most of the criticisms regarding Apple’s new MacBook Pro have seemingly died down over the past few months, designer Brad Frost a few days ago penned an interesting post detailing his own experience with Apple’s flagship notebook. Suffice it to say, Frost’s take on the MacBook Pro is anything but positive.
While Frost does find some things to like about the new MacBook Pro — Touch ID for example — he found the overall user experience to be less than ideal and far below Apple’s traditional standard of excellence. With respect to the ballyhooed Touch Bar, for instance, Frost relays that he has found the feature to be “extremely glitchy” and — arguably more worrisome — rather lacking in utility.
As for other problems he encountered with the machine, Frost writes:
This is the glitchiest computer I’ve ever owned. I don’t know if it’s hardware related, software related, or some combination of the two. As I’m writing this, my audio won’t work. “Internal speakers” doesn’t show up at all as an available Output Device option. Fun! Last night when visiting my family I tried to play my mom an MP4 video from vacation. QuickTime wouldn’t play it. I downloaded VLC and it played just fine. I attended a workshop, and my computer simply wouldn’t start up (!). It just sat there with a black screen and showed no sign of life (they did away with the MagSafe power cord that has a little power charging indicator). Thankfully and bizarrely, after 15 minutes it decided to power on all on its own, without me even touching it.
While any new Mac release is bound to draw a rash of initial criticisms, Frost’s write-up is particularly worth checking out because he writes from the perspective of someone who was actually trying to give Apple the benefit of the doubt.
