Predominantly, one of the biggest reasons for the widened disapproval for the new MacBook Pro was the lack, or rather the removal of all ‘essential’ ports from the laptop in favor of the new, versatile USB-C port. The ports that were removed include: USB-A, HDMI, SD-card slot, ethernet, thunderbolt 2, and the beloved mag-safe charger. While the loss of these ports appear rather harsh, it actually makes more sense to remove them rather than to have them. Because while having dongles seems ludicrous, it’s not as cumbersome as it is being portrayed as. Simple solutions like this, remove the need to carry 6 different dongles and help you save more than $75. And of course, this is only for your legacy devices. Three months from now, we’ll have more options for USB-C devices that are not only much faster, but also cheaper. In the near future, all devices will have USB-C, making all other ports virtually redundant. Apple has been very well known for removing outdated technologies, whether it be floppy disks, optical drives, headphone jacks, or now USB-A. Apple has always pushed for the future, and honestly, the removal of these ports shouldn’t be such a big surprise for people. Without Apple pushing for USB-C, the adoption for USB-C and other future technologies would be abysmally slow. Personally, I can’t remember the last time I used my ethernet port, or a USB-A port. All my data transfers are wireless, either being transferring through cloud services or using AirDrop between my iPhone, iPad and Mac.

As far as the lack of SD-card slot is concerned, this opinion article actually makes some pretty valid points. SD-card slots are now a very cumbersome form of storage that haven’t seen many great developments over the past years. Futhermore, one cannot predict that the future of camera storage is SD cards. With the increasing video and picture resolutions, soon a new form of faster, more reliable storage maybe needed. A future where cameras ship with built-in flash storage and automatic cloud syncing doesn’t seem too far away.

The Touch Bar

Although many are calling the new touchbar a gimmick, it’s obviously too soon to judge whether or not this is truly the case. Some of the arguments I’ve read around the internet that are calling the touchbar a gimmick are along the lines of things like: “No video editor scrolls through the timeline like that!” or “No DJ wants to use a strip of touch screen to mix his music.” Obviously, I personally don’t mix music or edit massive videos, but as a learning graphic designer and light video editor, I see potential in the touchbar. Just like the gestures on a trackpad, or the extra buttons on a mouse, all it comes down to is getting use to something. While the touchbar may seem intrusive when thinking about it, using it in actual life and for extended periods of time, the touchbar actually has potential of becoming a essential part of a professional’s workflow. Additionally, the real magic of the touchbar lies behind the software. There is so much untapped (no pun intended) potential with the touchbar that apple can make use of through software updates in the future. With each new next iteration of MacOS, Apple can take the concept of the touchbar to a whole new level.

Hardware

The hardware choices in the new MacBook Pros are yet another controversy. While I personally despise the butterfly keyboard, I love the force touch trackpad and while I don’t know what the enlarged surface area is really for, I imagine that there’s no downside to it. Although I can’t personally justify the hardware choices in the new MacBook Pro and would’ve loved better graphics (something like the new Nvidia 10-series), I will leave this point here. Whatever hardware choices Apple made, it is either due to hardware restrictions, or for the improved battery life and efficiency. Because let’s face it — if you’re animating the next Pixar movie, you aren’t doing it on the subway ride back home. If you’re a true professional, you’re probably working on a high-powered, non-portable workstation that is actually capable of processing your demands. Which makes the MacBook Pro a portable solution to power users who don’t need extraordinary raw-performance but a comparative high-end performance and a longer battery life. While more RAM, more teraflops of graphics processing and faster processors are nice, they strain and hog battery power making the MacBook Pro a poor portable machine. Thus defeating the idea of having a laptop in the first place.

Price

A fully spec’ed out 15 inch MacBook Pro costs $4,299

One of the last things I want to touch upon is the increased prices of the new MacBook Pros. While some parts of the world are affected by higher prices due to their economical conditions, prices otherwise are still higher. Again, while there is no real reason I can personally justify the increased prices (and I sure as hell don’t want MacBooks to be more expensive than they already are). But theoretically, manufacturing the new MacBook Pros would cost Apple more than the previous generations. Think about the addtional costs of the OLED display, the TouchID button (along with the sapphire coating), the secure enclave chip, the enlarged trackpad glass, and the higher cost of the USB-C ports themselves. Again, while this doesn’t warrant the higher prices, this is a factor to consider.

There’s not much I can talk about in the conclusion than iterate the fact that all the points I mention in the post are purely my opinions. Because there are so many angry apple customers (and Windows fans quietly giggling somewhere), I thought I would write a piece that evaluates the new MacBook Pro from a more neutral, future-bound perspective and just offers the “other” side of the story.

On a completely different note, this was my first blog post (and my first post on Medium)! I’d love some honest feedback!