Today marks the fifth anniversary of the 2015 MacBook Pro. In the five long years since then, Apple has struggled to replicate its success, delivering a series of laptops that excelled in some ways but fell woefully short in others.
Only the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro appealed to everyone, but it’s expensive and too big for most people. After so many years of hit-and-miss products, the 2015 model was the last truly great 13-inch MacBook Pro we ever got.
With the anniversary prompting us to take a wistful look back, we thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on what the 2015 MacBook Pro 13 did so well — and what future models can learn from it.
A laptop that lasts
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
They say you don’t know how much you’ve got until it’s gone, and nowhere is that more evident than with the 2015 MacBook Pro. It had a fantastic keyboard, vibrant display, plenty of ports, and a great trackpad, all combined with Apple’s build quality and impressive performance under the hood. It was the quintessential Apple laptop.
These weren’t groundbreaking features at the time, but we loved them anyway. The keyboard was one of the most comfortable you’ll find on a laptop, offering plenty of travel and excellent backlighting. The Retina display was sharp, beautiful and color accurate, and the trackpad was far ahead of its rivals, and deservedly considered the main attractions of the MacBook Pro.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
But most importantly, the 2015 MacBook Pro was a “durability” laptop. The latest MacBook Pro to come with MagSafe, the popular magnetic power connector. It was the last to come with ports like USB-A, HDMI and a full-sized SD card slot. It was the last to feature the Magic Keyboard until its glorious return late last year, and the last to come with physical function keys.
It marked the starting point before Apple left its comfort zone and ventured into unknown territory with the 2016 MacBook Pro.
When Apple decides to go in a different direction, there are no half measures. It doesn’t creep and crawl towards a new horizon, it slams on the pedal and lifts it up. Experienced Mac users will well remember how the company ditched the floppy disks, Ethernet ports and CD drives of yesteryear.
In 2016, that feeling became all too familiar.
One step forward, two steps back
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A problem with a headlong leap into the future? People are left behind. Most notably with the 2016 MacBook Pro, it was anyone who frequently used USB-A devices with their laptop.
Admittedly, people said the same thing when Apple ditched the floppy disk. And admittedly, Apple’s move has pulled the computer industry into the USB-C future. But a floppy drive can only accept one type of input. The USB-A port works with a huge range of different products, from mice to flash drives to external storage, all of which would now need adapters. The inconvenience was huge, although USB-C was more attractive on paper due to its reversible nature and support for super-fast Thunderbolt 3.
Even the legendary Apple logo on the lid has lost its shine.
However, it was about more than the ports themselves. The redesign changed almost everything that was known about the older design. There was a new Force Touch trackpad and the entire Function row was replaced by the Touch Bar. Even the legendary Apple logo on the lid has lost its shine.
The most noticeable changes in the 2016 model — the Touch Bar and new keyboard — were jarring and distinctly different from what came before. The Touch Bar was fine, but he still hasn’t discovered that one-killer use or fully convinced us of its utility. The butterfly keyboard, meanwhile, has drawn harsh criticism, with shallow travel and a nasty penchant for sticky keys. The changes only served to highlight what was sacrificed from the 2015 model.
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The butterfly switch keyboard would end up being the one damaging mistake Apple couldn’t pull off. Something that every MacBook user took for granted – a keyboard that was quiet, durable and comfortable to use – no longer existed in the world of the MacBook Pro. Apple has tried unsuccessfully to tweak and fine-tune the butterfly keyboard; the keys may have been bigger and more stable, but they weren’t nearly as reliable.
This hits at the heart of what made the 2015 MacBook Pro so great: All of its features were right, whether they were brand new or improvements on past inclusions. It was, for example, the first MacBook Pro to come with a Force Touch trackpad, but this innovation felt natural and frictionless to use.
Combine that with a divisive, glitch-prone butterfly keyboard and you have a recipe for disaster. During past transitions, Apple eased the pain by giving people a device that might not have the features they were used to, but made up for it with new and exciting replacements or a brilliant user experience.
With the 2016 MacBook Pro, we got neither.
Legacy of the 2015 MacBook Pro
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Apple was never going to go all the way back to the MacBook Pro of 2015. It’s not a company that ever completely reverses itself, and even small policy reversals are incredibly rare. But when faced with the problems of the butterfly keyboard, the legacy of the 2015 version was inevitable: Apple had to bring back the Magic Keyboard.
Despite the name, the Magic Keyboard in the MacBook Pro 16 isn’t the same as the one in the 2015 MacBook Pro. Instead, it’s more of an evolution that combines everything that was great about the old-school Magic Keyboard with the stability gains made by the butterfly keyboard. Finally, it’s an extension of the 2015 keyboard legacy, updated for the modern MacBook Pro.
We won’t have to wait much longer for another great 13-inch laptop from Apple.
We mentioned earlier that the MacBook Pro 16 is the first time Apple has managed to return to the heights of the 2015 MacBook Pro in the years since its debut. Still, there’s hope that we won’t have to wait much longer for another great 13-inch laptop from Apple.
Apple is rumored to be planning a spring event where it will unveil a full range of products, including a 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro 16 (or a replacement with a 14-inch display). Like its bigger brother, it is rumored to come with thin bezels, a modernized Magic Keyboard and a redesigned thermal architecture to enable better performance. It’s exactly what we’ve been clamoring for since the 16-inch model made its long-awaited debut.
After seeing the fanfare that greeted the MacBook Pro 16, Apple would be foolish not to carry over its progress to its less professional laptop. If this becomes a reality, it would make 2020 an incredible year for Mac fans. The long wait for a successor to the 2015 MacBook Pro 13 may finally be over.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn