Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro is obviously a big showcase for new member of the Apple Silicon team: the M2 chip. But it’s also a reminder that we can’t take our apple pie and eat it too.
When Apple introduces its remarkably powerful and energy-efficient M2, it’s also preparing the smart and useful (and unfairly defamed touch bar) (opens in a new tab)).
I know, it’s confusing. Apple took its latest silicon and stuffed it into an aged design with its unique Mac touch screen. But it’s all about the laptop, which we explore on our full 13-inch MacBook Pro. (2022), calls “This is the end.” And it is, at least for the Touch Bar.
To understand the big problem that the Touch Bar was when it debuted six years ago, you have to go back to the co-founder and former CEO of Apple, the late Steve Jobs. In 2010, and shortly after Apple introduced the first iPad, Jobs rejected the idea of a touchscreen laptop (opens in a new tab):
“We’ve done tons of user testing on this and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It offers a great demonstration, but after a short period of time, you start to get tired and after a long period “Your arm wants to fall. It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible. The touch surfaces want to be horizontal, so pads,” Jobs said.
Of course, that was a false argument. In a few years, we will see Magic Keyboards that would float the iPad Pro in a more or less vertical plane above the full-size keyboards.
Why is this something?
At first glance, the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 looks like a great Apple laptop for your friendly neighborhood designer. In my benchmark tests, the M2 easily outperformed its M1 predecessor (and an 11th generation Intel Core i7).
Its graphics numbers are impressive, thanks to the default 10-core GPU. The starting price of $ 1,299 gives you 8 GB of unified memory and a 256 GB SSD. It has a magnificent 13.3 LED (2560 x 1600) Retina display and promises 20 hours of battery life. In my tests, it really drinks power (I have to estimate an ARM CPU on a laptop), lasting about 18 hours.
(Image credit: Future)
The problem is that the other system with the new M2 chips is the new $ 1,199 MacBook Air. Like the Pro, it starts with 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. The 13.6-inch screen, however, is slightly larger than the Pro screen. It even includes a higher resolution FaceTime camera (1080p instead of 720p). Instead of stereo speakers, get a four-speaker system.
What you get with your MacBook Pro: an active cooling system, two extra hours of promised battery life, and a 10-core GPU (you can upgrade the Air to 10 cores).
Most importantly, however, the MacBook Air M2 does not include the touch bar. In fact, the new MacBook Air has more in common with the MacBook Pro (14 and 16 inches) running M1 Pro and M1 Max. None of these next-generation MacBooks offer the Touch Bar. And I think it’s safe to assume that future generations will never do that.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
However, while Apple is bringing iPadOS and macOS closer, it has resisted the idea of adding touch to any Mac. Until it introduced the Touch Bar, a thin, horizontal strip of easy-to-handle touchscreen OLED screen that sits just above the main keyboard.
It was a blank slate for Apple and eventually the developer partners to manipulate by application.
For a while, it appeared on several MacBook Pro models, although there were still some sold without it.
I was one of the first fans to write in my review of the first MacBook Pro (there were 13- and 15-inch models back then) to introduce it:
“With the touch bar, Apple is making a near-perfect double take on the world of touch computers (without acknowledging that people would never want to touch their screens).”
Now, however, Apple is doing a different trick, offering a chassis and MacBook Pro technology that will surely be turned off soon in the service of a professional-level platform needed for its SOC M2.
Goodbye fun, old friend
What’s great about the Touch Bar is its innate serendipity. Whenever you seem to repeat the actions offered on the main screen, the Touch Bar also appears with hidden features that are often used. In virtually any text input field, it offers auto-complete (or auto-correct) input options. With Microsoft Word integration, the touch bar shows only the contextual features you really need right now. It is the tape of the office summed up in its necessary essence.
In iMovie, it makes the confusion obvious, showing the word “Split” so you can split a clip in two with a single tap. It also provides instant access to clip volume control. This is useful if you ask me.
Above all, the Touch Bar has always provided clear and visible access to volume, brightness, and Siri controls. On the other hand, it infuriated the traditionalist Pro to replace the function and escape keys. Apple quickly returned the latter to the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019), and it seemed to calm some Pro users.
There were also fun Touch Bar apps like the Piano and a one-lane version of Pac-Man.
Was it always necessary? No, but it was always useful and still is on this MacBook Pro 13 with M2.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Kind regards to the relatives
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Like the Touch Bar, much of this great 13-inch chassis design for the MacBook Pro (solid, responsive, lightweight, and with a great keyboard) is unlikely to reach future generations. The 14- and 16-inch Pro and the MacBook Air M2 are all one-piece, offering a slightly more boxed, though no less lean, view of future MacBooks. All will have larger screens, notches, better audio, and MagSafe charging ports.
While I’m amazed at the incredible M2 performance, I can’t help but consider the 13-inch MacBook Pro as a relic. The final resting place of an appearance, a feeling and the love of Apple with the touch in a MacBook: the touch bar.
Yes, I love the laptop, but it’s hard to recommend a piece of hardware that, aside from the CPU, looks back instead of looking the way.