Experiences and feelings about the Touch Bar MacBook Pros of 2017

portable device woes...

a brief history

In this multi year quest of becoming a mobile office powerhouse, I've stumbled, but not fallen, into some big pebbles again.

I had sold my 2015 15 inch MBP with the dedicated graphics card earlier this year and subsequently didn't have any laptop from work either.

I have had an iMac at home since last fall and had the ambition of having a desktop at home and an iPad pro on the go and thus no need for a laptop. Mind you, my laptop is the device I have the hardest time separating from.

So there I was having made my bed; I settled on at least giving this "experiment" two weeks. Can't remember that I even made it through the first week. But then the insecurity really crept in: I had been thinking about getting a new MBP for almost two years, but managed to curb my needs mostly due to the negative experiences people had had with the Touch Bar MBPs. And then timing: new MBPs to be announced maybe in June? Can't I just suck it up for a couple of months and get a new laptop in a couple of months?

I'm just not super enthusiastic of spending 3000+ USD for a machine that serves the same function as my previous one I paid 2000 USD for. And now only perhaps for a couple of months, until the new ones would be announced? Sheesh. Now I have an amazingly difficult time adjusting to smaller screens after having used a bigger screen. A 13 inch MBP wasn't even in question for me. (Oddly enough though, I've now twice opted for the smaller iPad pro over the bigger one, went with the 38mm watch instead of the 42mm watch, and have had no qualms with my iPhone X compared to my previous iPhone 7 Plus.

trying on new ideas - iPad as laptop replacement

So thus far I have tried settling with the 12.9 iPad pro, switched to the less costly 15 inch touch bar macbook, switched to the 13 inch one, and now the more powerful 15 inch MBP. I've always kept a 500gb SSD, tried to make due with 250gb now with the first two of these new ones, had to accept that I pretty much have to have 500gb unless I can spend a whole lotta time thinking about file management. Also proved to myself again that working on a 13 inch laptop for more than a few hours is just not for me.

Oh and this seemingly tiny thing I can't get over with: keyboard layout. My brain is stuck on not accepting anything else but a US (ANSI..?) keyboard layout!Where I am, getting that keyboard is an extra custom order that'll take 2 weeks for delivery. Gahhh. There again I felt I have to try to work with what I have and go with the "stock" Scandinavian keyboard layout. I mean I can work that keyboard for a couple of months right?? Mmmm. Even ordered those keyboard covers that will give me the visual impression of having a UK keyboard. Actually two of them: one took four weeks to arrive and had to pay extra customs charges. One from Amazon. And I've had a key mapping setup going on with Karabiner Elements to account for my occasional need to use umlauts.

settling for now with this...

I feel like I'm doing too much! Cause now, while workable, I'm still a little tight about paying much money for something that I'm a little weary of using, with the thought in the back of my mind that I might hop on the new wave of macbooks this summer, should such specimens be made available to the public. Really, I find typing and maneuvering on and around the silicone keyboard cover feels a little.. blehh. Not the nicest of kinesthetic experiences.

Which leads me to this and I want to try to end on perhaps a surprisingly positive note: I actually quite enjoy typing on that "new" keyboard! Sans silicone keyboard cover that is. After the smart keyboard for the iPad pro, the most pleasant typing experience I've had. And I do also like the Touch Bar a lot! E.g having a key there for quickly switching between input language is quite delightful and much nicer than having to think about which non-Launchbar, non-Spotlight key command I had assigned to that shortcut before (often cmd-option-space for me). I can see some cool future use cases for the Touch Bar, so far it's been beneficial for me in assigning some Smart Controls in Logic Pro X for quick access.

Lastly, with the 2017 15 inch models I've finally for the first time possibly ever been able to use duet Display and not lose my mind because of connection, jitter or lag issues between the app, MBP and iPad. I really wanted to be able to make due with a bigger iPad on the go and iMac at home. And while I did do some of that and certainly obviously many do it successfully, it still feels somewhat like prepping to make sure that I'll be able to jump through any of the inevitable hoops that are bound to show up when working on iOS. Seems now like I might be returning this latest MBP to Apple while ordering a new similar model with my desired keyboard layout, and having to go a week or so without a laptop while waiting for my order to be delivered. Oh joy the wonderful amount of hours I'll keep on spending setting up a new computer again soon. Ugh and haha.

Also apparently I have just now become a long form writer as I surely didn't plan on writing a 1000 word Facebook post to a group of people lol. And I'm sure I left out some details i was dying to bring up, but alas, time.