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10 Things We Want From the New Apple MacBook Pro

OLED touchbar? Meh. Here's what a real MacBook Pro user wants from Apple's new flagship laptop.

 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

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I'm more than ready for the new MacBook Pro. I've used one as my primary work system for a decade, clocking up to 50,000 airline miles a year and covering dozens of trade shows with my late-2011 model. While I also work with an HP Z420 workstation here in the office, I find macOS to be a simple, no-nonsense way to get work done.

To me, the most important aspect of the MacBook Pro is the "pro" part. This laptop should be a no-compromise workhorse for getting your business done on the road. I've been reading the rumors of what may be coming and going with some trepidation. Like many pro-level MacBook users, my biggest concern isn't about what Apple is adding—it's what might be taken away. I just hope Cupertino doesn't forget about its pro users in its constant quixotic quest to make its products as thin as possible. I chose a Pro, not an Air or one of those horrible 12-inch MacBooks, because it gives me the power, the ports, and the keyboard to get all of my work done.

I'm taking seventh-generation Intel Kaby Lake processors and very long battery life for granted, and I don't know what to think about the rumored OLED touchbar. My wish list is mostly stuff that hasn't been rumored and how I hope Apple will pleasantly surprise us at Thursday's event.

1. Full-Stroke Keyboard
The 12-inch MacBook's keyboard (see video below) is an abomination. For those of us who pound little plastic squares all day, that flat, travel-less keyboard is awfully hard on the fingers—it's just one step away from typing on a phone. Older MacBooks have beautifully bouncy keys with just the right amount of throw. Apple needs to make sure that the typing experience is prioritized over making the thinnest laptop possible.

2. 17-Inch Screen Model
MacBook Pros are the choice of creative professionals, and creative professionals tend to have a lot of palettes. When working with multiple streams of 4K video, you're going to want as much real estate as possible, and that means going back to the classic 17-inch option, which we haven't seen since 2009.

3. Don't Kill My Ports
Pro users connect lots of things to their laptops. We store backups and media on external hard drives. We jack into Ethernet networks. We do presentations through displays connected by Thunderbolt adapters. We pop SD cards right into our laptops to upload photos to the Internet. We listen to expensive headphones. Apple needs to recognize that ports are a key part of the pro laptop experience and provide enough of them to connect to the devices we regularly encounter on the road.

Apple MacBook Pro ports

4. Matte/Anti-Glare Screen Option
Glossy screens can get very reflective when you're working outdoors or under florescent lights, and they do odd things to colors. A matte screen option, even for an extra cost, is the best for mobile workers, as opposed to folks who kick back watching YouTube for hours.

5. Edge-to-Edge Display
Apple will want to keep its MacBook Pros as slim and light as possible. The best way to maximize that while offering the biggest screens is to go fully edge-to-edge, with a bezel-less design that makes use of every square millimeter.

6. Wide Color Gamut Display
MacBook Rose GoldApple has been moving all of its products to the new DCI-P3 color gamut, which offers a wider range of colors than the previous setup. Apple iMacs, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and the iPhone 7 models all use DCI-P3. It's time for the pro laptops, where colorful content is created to be consumed on those other devices, to join them.

7. 2TB Storage
4K content with a wide color gamut uses a lot of storage. Fortunately, there are 2TB SSDs now! As Apple will want to go with SSDs for the best possible performance, there's no reason not to offer options up to 2TB. (Yes, there are 4TB SSDs, but they're rare and extraordinarily expensive.)

8. Apple SIM
Laptops with LTE never really took off because few people wanted to yoke their laptop to a monthly service plan. Apple has a brilliant answer in the Apple SIM, which is already in recent iPads. The embedded SIM lets you buy only the network access you need, from a range of global providers. It saved our webcasts at Mobile World Congress last year thanks to provider AlwaysOn Wireless, and it's a great way to get your pro laptop online when Wi-Fi fails.

9. Water Resistance
Pro users often find themselves in cramped spaces, like airline coach class or a conference table. And then there's that glass of water, or, on the airplane, Jack Daniels. Balancing your beverage with your work laptop becomes a lot less scary when the laptop is a little water-resistant. That will help corporate laptops last longer and reduce costs, as well.

10. Four Color Options
Apple fans often don't have just one Apple product. They have iPhones, iPads, and Macs in silver, space gray, gold, and rose gold. Apple's flagship laptops should keep up, matching the color palette in the other Apple products on your desk.

What do you want to see in the new MacBook Pro? Tell is in the comments below.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

  • US and Canadian mobile networks
  • Mobile phones released in the US
  • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
  • Mobile hotspots
  • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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