Apple Macbook Pro review: Premium engineering that lacks basic connectivity options

Apple's new Macbook Pro gives and takes away at the same time. While the new Touch Bar, TouchID fingerprint and the inclusion of Siri are nice touches, gone is the MagSafe power adaptor, the SD card slot and the standard USB ports.

The new MacBook Pro laptop computer. The entry-level 13-inch version starts at Dh5,999. David Paul Morris / Bloomberg

Apple’s new Macbook Pro is both a wonderful and frustrating laptop.

It combines incredible design, great performance, and interesting new features with a really annoying lack of basic connectivity options.

There’s so much to like about Apple’s latest: its metallic body, in space grey or silver, is premium engineering at its finest. The upgraded Retina Display astonishes once again, with noticeable upgrades in contrast and brightness.

Then there’s the new Touch Bar, replacing the function keys at the top of the keyboard with a touch screen that offers an array of controls tailored to the website or programme you’re using. It’s a feature that has a lot of potential but, for now, falls into the “quite nifty” rather than “game-changing” category.

The TouchID fingerprint reader, although hardly a novelty for a laptop, is also a nice new feature, as is the inclusion of Siri.

Sounds good so far? Unfortunately Apple has decided to take, as well as give. It has equipped its high-end professional laptop with four Thunderbolt/USB-C connection ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. And that’s it.

Gone for good is the MagSafe power adaptor, the SD card slot beloved by photographers and the standard USB ports that most of us are still using. Which means you’ll need to spend money on connecting dongles. Lots of them.

Want to plug in a USB drive or external hard-drive? Dongle. Import photos via SD card? Dongle. VGA or HDMI connection to an external display? Dongle.

That’s not an issue for the casual laptop user whose needs are limited. For the professional creatives who’ve come to rely on their Macbook Pros over the year, it’s an unnecessary headache.

So, what to make of Apple’s latest? It’s like a high-end (and very expensive) Swiss Army knife that has decided for you that you don’t actually need a cutting tool. If, or when, USB-C/Thunderbolt becomes the norm, it will be a great pro laptop. Until that point, you can’t escape the feeling that Apple’s loyal professional fan base might be tempted to think the once unthinkable and look for alternatives.

q&a: creative classes need more

John Everington expands on what Apple’s latest Macbook Pro has to offer:

So how much does the new Macbook Pro cost?

The entry-level 13-inch version starts at Dh5,999, with just two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports. The most basic model with Touch ID and Touch Bar will cost you Dh7,199. And if you want a high-end 15-inch Macbook Pro with all the bells and whistles, be prepared to part with Dh11,099.

Blimey, so not cheap then. What about the dongles?

There’s quite a selection available, from a simple Dh39 USB-C to USB adaptor to a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (offering HDMI, USB and USB-C charging) going for Dh199.

Is physical connectivity really such a big deal? I don’t use my USB ports much, and have never used the SD card reader on my old Macbook Pro.

It’s a fair point to make that most of us are using physical connections less. But there’s a class of creative professionals who rely on physical ports to transfer massive amounts of data. For those who don’t, they may want to consider the (slightly) cheaper Macbook from earlier this year, which starts at just Dh5,199.

What about you journalists? You’re not really creative professionals, are you?

Those of us who write for a living aren’t as affected as much, it’s true. That being said, the inability to connect the Macbook Pro to my larger external monitor at home without a dongle was pretty annoying on what’s supposed to be a professional laptop.

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