Yesterday, Apple  announced their new line of MacBook Pros. They feature thinner frames, faster processors, better battery life, less (zero) usb ports and a new product Apple calls the Touch Bar. Admittedly not the most clever name for this cool piece of tech, but like most apple product names, it will grow on me. i.e. iPad (Think about how ridiculous that name is).

In simple terms, the Touch Bar is a long, multi-touch surface that adapts to what you’re doing on your MacBook Pro. Using Final Cut? The bar lets you scrub through your timeline for editing. Photoshop has shortcuts, etc, etc. The Touch Bar is sure to make some things we do on MacBooks significantly easier and some things more annoying. Those are the facts. It will be implemented cleverly with 1st party apps, but third part will be hit or miss…in my opinion. But, the Touch Bar isn’t a huge selling point for me. See, I was excited for new MacBook Pros whether or not they had this rumored addition.

I bought my first MacBook Pro in the summer of 2012. Its a 15″ beauty with 250gb of ssd storage and a BEAUTIFUL Retina display. Before this little bundle of magic, I had a Mac Mini (2006) and a 27″ iMac (2010). All great devices, but nothing compared to my MacBook Pro. This device was, and still is, my weapon of choice when it comes to Lightroom editing, Final Cut cutting, web browsing, screenplay writing, podcast recording…you get the picture. I use it for everything. It really is that good of a device. For the sake of me sounding like an Apple fan boy, which I am, let me give you some background on previous notebooks i’ve owned.

My first notebook was made by Lenovo and was provided to me by my college in 2007. In 2009 they gave me a new one which followed me through graduation and into the real world (my job as a janitor at a senior center). After that I dabbled with a few other pc-based notebooks. All were…well, fine. They were just fine. Decent speeds, shitty battery life and even worse multitasking. Notebooks, to me, always had the stigma that this is a portable pc. It’s good to use when you’re on the go, but will never touch the performance of my Mac mini or iMac at home. My MacBook Pro completely destroyed that stigma.

My 2012 MacBook Pro is that good of a device. Even 4 years old, it’s the single best piece of technology i’ve ever bought. It hasn’t slowed down a bit (largely due to the life-changing speeds of the SSD) and the battery life is phenomenal. I’ve since sold all of my desktop computers (the latest being a 2014 Mac Mini) and use the MacBook Pro for all of my computing needs.

Would I recommend a MacBook Pro to a new user? You bet your ass I would, and I have (Shout-out to Sean). Would I upgrade to the new Touch Bar version from my, completely capable, 2012 MacBook Pro?  Probably not. It’s a great new feature, but nothing I NEED right this second.

-Matt

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