But why they think it is? Let's run through the specs and features they released earlier. As to where I usually get my information from, I usually keep updated via Notebookcheck. I'm also basing some of my observations from my experience with my MacBook Pro 13 with an i5 4278U, the one predecessor the new MBP 13s are designed to replace.
TOUCHBAR:
Their main feature is the Touchbar, which is available in the more expensive models of the MacBook 13 as well as the MacBook 15. Now new as they think it is, It's not as new a concept. In fact Razer, integrated touch pads with various functions in their Blade Lineup of Laptops. But this feature alone only jacked up the expensive laptop to be even more expensive. And even the base MBP 13 isn't exactly cheap either.
It's a very gimmicky addition. Although it adds shortcut features to many applications and programs, it's not something that would replace my Touchpad, Keyboard and Mouse. If you're a long time user like myself that have been accustomed to MacBooks since my days in Singapore Polytechnic from 2007, you can always rely on Hotkeys, that practically made stuff like this kinda irrelevant.
Underpowered Graphics:
Now granted the Skylake Iris Graphics for the MBP 13 are a big improvement over the Haswell line. But when it comes to gaming, it's not really super good for Triple A Titles. You can check the Iris 540 and Iris 550 pages with regards to their performance and their metrics speak for themselves.
Polaris Graphics have been kinda underwhelming too. At least for the RX460. Paying so much for a MBP 15 and all you get on a base model 15 that can only output just shy of 1 Teraflop / Second. And it's not exactly miles ahead of Iris Pro Graphics.
With the Base Radeon Pro 450, it has the power similar to an R7 250X / R9 M375X on paper which isn't exactly good for the price you pay for. And knowing AMD at this stage, they may just very well base these Radeons around rebadged Bonaire GPUs for all I know. Recently nVidia has just released the GTX 1050 Ti. The power draw may be high at 75W but it wouldn't have been a problem for them to shrink its TDP down like what they already did on their other GTX 10 series graphics.
Now ever since they released the first MacBook with a Type C USB Port, I've since never liked the design philosophy behind it. With only one port in that, there's one big thing that I hate....
Adapters, Adapters and MORE Adapters!!! UGH!!!!!
Because, this is the only ports they have!
Nothing but USB Type Cs!
Sure, the High Bandwidth from Thunderbolt 3 is nice but not everyone has room for adapters all the freaking time! I can only tolerate as far as needing an adapter for my displays from my Thunderbolt 2 port of my MacBook Haswell 13. But at 35 SGD, even one adapter is expensive! Thankfully, the MBP 2016 line didn't do an IPhone 7 which is ditching the 3.5mm Audio / Headphone jack. That was an extremely weird and bad implementation on the said phone.
But here is a big reason why:
Sure, they advertise these new MacBooks as potentially the most portable laptop in the world. There's a big But to it, thanks to the MBP's heavy reliance on those freaking adapters for the only type of ports they have!
If you need to connect other devices or friends want to back some data out, you need to have so many adapters with you. Now this is not a joke, if you have too many adapters to bring with you, it becomes so unsightly to see so much cable clutter on your desk! Worse still if you've only a small area on your desk to work with. It's just that tedious!
Therefore, you'll lose the whole point of what true portability is, which is supposed to be the name of the game in your MacBook Pro!
I had been so thankful for my Haswell MacBook 13 as my daily driver because it has all the ports that I require including an all important SD Card Slot which has become my main form of Secondary Storage. This all in one combination of I/O means I really don't need to bring anything else with me to school!
COST!
Still having said that, the cost (I wanna emphasize:) even for my Refurb unit is quite hard to swallow at 1.5K SGD when mum bought it. Now the cost is a lot worse.
I really thought, BY NOW, costs of even the most expensive 13-Inch Macs should be WELL below the 2,000 SGD mark, and the most expensive 15-Inch, well below 3,000. I know Apple has been known not to sell at budget prices but for a student who is a powerhouse content creator like myself who needs power on a budget, we just don't have that kind of money to spill, do we?
And if you think about it, for the specs you see? How much less can you find a laptop with similar specs, it's like 30-45% less man! You can easily find laptops like this way cheaper or laptops way more powerful than this for the price of this MBP 13.
And harking back to the cost of the adapters, just to get enough adapters required would very well be like a quarter the cost of the laptop which is incredibly ludicrous! Despite the recent temporary price drops, it's still on the high side.
What they did right though:
It's kinda hard to pin point the areas and specs that Apple had done right for this iteration of the MacBook Pro. And if there were any, it wasn't much at all except retaining a few things as most of the new features implemented I feel are kinda gimmicky, good to have but really not needed. Few things they retained are the awesome Retina 16:10 screen with great brightness and color accuracy. 2560 x 1600 for a 13" and 2880 x 1800 for a 15". And even right now, the resolution can't get much better for a 13". Also retained is the trackpad. My Haswell Trackpad has been good to begin with and has been serving me well, was made better with the larger size. Last thing they did retain is the build quality which you bloody well expect it from Apple given to how expensive and somehow underpowered this laptop is.
BOTTOMLINE:
So has Apple potentially moved backwards? Knowing the company has been a money whore for a while, I would really say so as a matter of factly. Or actually the literal definition would be: Apple is leaving its customers and consumers behind. The new changes implemented made it more unreasonably expensive for their performance per dollar but also for all the thunderbolt adapters and crap.
That's the reason why I never intend to switch from my current MacBook Pro 13, which in itself despite its tiny 128GB SSD, has served me so incredibly well during my time here in LASALLE.
So Apple, please get your shit together ya because if you think about it, sometimes, simplicity is still best.
