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- Butterfly keyboards are prone to failure and not at all future-proof.
- Touch Bars were very laggy, served no actual purpose, and replaced the very vital physical Function row.
- No useful ports, no MagSafe, shorter battery life, and thermally throttled performance meant that these MacBook Pros also suffered from poor resale value.
God, oh God. Where should I start?
Let’s begin with how everyone sees Apple’s MacBook Pros as the epitome of style, sleekness, professionalism integrated within a seriously powerful package.
Apple’s entire range of Macs has seen a tremendous boost in popularity ever since the introduction of Apple Silicon, which has propelled the MacBook Pro to a league of its own.
However, the MacBook Pro didn’t always enjoy such exclusive support.
2016-2018 MacBook Pros: All About The Form Factor
A certain portion of the blame can be attributed to Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer of Apple.
Ive was wildly celebrated for some of the most beloved designs ever, including the original iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
However, Ive was also known for prioritizing the form factor of his designs over their functionality, which one might argue was their primary point of existence.
The same happened with the 2016 MacBook Pro. Let me explain.
Butterfly Keyboard
Thanks to the 2016 MBP’s smaller dimensions, Apple invented a Butterfly mechanism instead of sticking with the traditional scissor-style mechanism, which the Cupertino-based company claimed would be much quieter and ‘stable’.
Nevertheless, these Butterfly keyboards were prone to failure, and even a speck of dirt could cause the fragile mechanism to malfunction, thanks to Jony Ive’s design, this meant that the whole machine would have to be disassembled in order to repair or replace the faulty Butterfly keyboards.
As such, the Butterfly keyboard never managed to succeed, until Apple phased it out in favor of the good old scissor-style Magic Keyboard for the 2019 16” MacBook Pro.
Form Factor, Battery Life, and I/O Connectivity
As compared to the outgoing 2015 15” MacBook Pro, the 2016 15” MacBook Pro is 2% shorter, 3% narrower, 10% lighter, and 14% thinner, and a 24% smaller battery.
This meant that the 2016 MacBook Pro would definitely have worse battery life and inherently struggle with sustained performance because of thermal throttling issues.
Also, due to the smaller dimensions, Apple chose to forgo every single port and opt for just two USB Type-C connectors in the 13” variant and four Type-C ports in the 15” variant.
To make matters worse, even MagSafe didn’t make the cut. Welcome to the dongle life.
Touch Bar
Ah, yes. The Touch Bar. That thin OLED strip which was responsible for the elimination of the Function row was fantasized about, at first, but later on, it established itself as nothing more than a gimmick.
Often laggy and prone to hanging meant that it made using the 2016, 2017, and 2018 MacBook Pros a real headache.
Even worse, the Touch Bar had Apple’s Touch ID integrated into it, which meant it was responsible for unlocking your MacBook Pro. As such, if it ever froze at such a time, good luck with unlocking your Mac.
Annoyingly, it replaced the physical Function row, which is crucial for professional coders and developers, i.e., the target audience for which the MacBook Pro is manufactured.
Thermal Throttling
As hinted above, the 2016, 2017, and 2018 MacBook Pro’s tighter packaging meant there was less room for heat dissipation, which essentially meant your MBP’s fans would routinely hit full speed, making an annoying whine in the process.
Nevertheless, what was truly more annoying was that despite the fans running at full speed, these MacBook Pros would still undergo thermal throttling of the worst kind, performing far below their advertised clock speed.
2016-2018 MacBook Pros: How Did Apple React?
Aside from trying to better the Butterfly keyboards I mentioned above, Apple also introduced a replacement support program for users who suffered from defective Butterfly keyboards (for a period of 4 years from the date of purchase).
Apple also tried to fix the thermal throttling issues with a software update, however, to this day, people still recommend you buy the Core i7 variant of the 2018 MacBook Pro over the Core i9 since it might actually perform better thanks to lower heat output, which is just plain embarrassing for Apple.
Exorbitant pricing schemes, no real ‘pro’ ports, poor battery life, the elimination of MagSafe, a mushy keyboard that felt cheap underneath your fingers, I can go on and on, but this parody ad really sums my opinion up.
2016-2018 MacBook Pros: Skip Them
This is a no-brainer for anyone, honestly.
Just stay away from the 13” and 15” variants of the 2016, 2017, 2018, and even 2019 MacBook Pros, no matter how cheap you might be finding them.
My advice? If you’re on a tight budget and really want a MacBook Pro, go for the 15” versions of the 2013-2015 MBPs, you can’t go wrong with those. Their decent power is insanely reliable, and they are very affordable.
If you’ve got some cash on hand and want the best Intel MacBook Pro ever, spring for the 2019 16″ MacBook Pro with your eyes closed.
Chapter closed.
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[Wiki Editor]
Ali Rashid Khan is an avid gamer, hardware enthusiast, photographer, and devoted litterateur with a period of experience spanning more than 14 years. Sporting a specialization with regards to the latest tech in flagship phones, gaming laptops, and top-of-the-line PCs, Ali is known for consistently presenting the most detailed objective perspective on all types of gaming products, ranging from the Best Motherboards, CPU Coolers, RAM kits, GPUs, and PSUs amongst numerous other peripherals. When he’s not busy writing, you’ll find Ali meddling with mechanical keyboards, indulging in vehicular racing, or professionally competing worldwide with fellow mind-sport athletes in Scrabble at an international level. Currently speaking, Ali has completed his A-Level GCEs with plans to go into either Allopathic Medicine or Business Studies, or who knows, perhaps a full-time dedicated technological journalist.
Get In Touch: alirashid@tech4gamers.com
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