I love my 15” 2017 MBP with a Touch Bar. It’s much easier to mute and slide the volume than my previous MBP. Safari and VScode have Touch Bar features I like. Glad they brought back the esc key.
On previous MBPs you still had to touch the fn key to use F1 etc... I do the same on my newer Mac. Press FN and you get what you need back.
Personally I don’t see why they get all the hate. It’s a little gimmicky but I don’t dislike it. The keyboard was my biggest gripe but Apple replaced it for free in a couple days.
I still have physical f-keys, and every time I use my gf's touchbar macbook, I realize I have to look at the touchbar just to do anything, like modify the volume or change the brightness. I run into this every time I use it when I just want to make quick volume adjustments. And it takes multiple taps to get things done that used to take a single button press. Also, I immediately missed global media playback controls.
It's just a showstopper for a lot of us that it's another screen you have to look at. I don't want my eyes to leave the main screen. It's like if they tried to turn the trackpad into a screen: no matter how much functionality it might have, it's still somewhere I don't want to have to look when I'm using a computer.
I also was amazed at how unused it was. You probably named the only apps that use the touchbar because nothing on her computer did. And if they did, it was just cloned UI of UI that the main screen already had. I think the only useful usecase I've noticed is that the touchbar will show the url of the current video when you fullscreen it, if I want to damn it with faint praise.
When I’m doing work I use 2 external monitors with a keyboard and mouse. All the keys I need to be efficient are right on my full sized keyboard. I have a coworker who refuses to use more than one monitor (either his laptop or laptop closed with a small square monitor) so I guess people don’t like to use them.
For personal use I use it on my lap in a chair or on the couch. The extra time it takes to look down is not a show stopper. Switching tabs is nice in Safari because you get a slight preview and it’s also great for media controls.
Do you work on your MPB and do you use external monitors? What apps do you use the function keys for?
If you think it’s unused then take a look at these 3rd party apps.[1] Pock looks pretty cool.
On previous MBPs you still had to touch the fn key to use F1 etc... I do the same on my newer Mac. Press FN and you get what you need back.
Personally I don’t see why they get all the hate. It’s a little gimmicky but I don’t dislike it. The keyboard was my biggest gripe but Apple replaced it for free in a couple days.