I work every mean solar day on a $ii,600 MacBook Pro. And the fact of the matter is that I like this MacBook less than I liked whatsoever of my previous MacBooks, all the way back to my first one in 2005.

That's because, beginning in 2016, Apple killed some of its most dear features in its MacBooks—features that went back a decade or longer. But with today's announcements of new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, what's old is new again. Apple has rewound Pro's industrial design to its 2015 (and earlier) designs.

It would exist easy to focus on Apple tree's about-face every bit hypocritical or backtracking. But the truth is that Apple fabricated a difficult decision here: It threw out a lot of newer ideas to prioritize what I'd argue is timeless UX.

Magsafe

Let's brainstorm with the assassination of the Magsafe power connector. No ane complained about the Magsafe since it was first debuted in 2006. Information technology solved an important problem: If you tripped over your laptop's string, your laptop would stay put on your desk-bound, rather than wing onto the ground. Every bit an added bonus, Magsafe fabricated it easier to plug in your laptop. The old Macbook Pro actually sucked the wire out of your hand, and positioned it perfectly in the charging port.

[Photo: Apple]

In 2016, Apple swapped Magsafe for a USB-C port to carry the power. On paper, this might accept seemed similar a smart decision. Magsafe was patented and proprietary. Meanwhile, USB-C was universal. In theory, the USB-C MacBook Pro could be supported by a whole ecosystem of charging cables and batteries. And while that proved true, Magsafe is a hands-on-ears superior approach to charging. USB-C can pull your laptop off a table. USB-C requires you to line the plug upward and jam it in with the correct amount of strength. Simply put: Every single time I plug in my MacBook feels worse than information technology used to, so information technology's bully to see Magsafe dorsum in more than than but iPhones.

The keyboard

Apple has been under fire since 2015 when it phased out its classic pair of scissors-switch keyboard for its butterfly keyboard blueprint. These differences aren't much to exist seen; they refer to the specific mechanisms that allow your keyboard keys to be pressed and pop back.

[Photo: Apple]

The butterfly immune for a keyboard that was twoscore% flatter than previous keyboards. But these thin keyboards were prone to failure (keys only stopped working, which required the keyboard to be replaced, or for someone to just supersede their laptop entirely). As a result, Apple slowly reverted back to its old scissors-keyboard mechanisms in 2019 and 2020 while facing a class-action lawsuit.

Simply the new MacBook Pro does something else that's important: It brought back its physical line of F keys (the "part" keys that brighten your screen or do other specialized tasks), abandoning the Touch Bar. As Apple explained during the event, these keys "bring back the familiar tactile feel of physical keys that users love." Every bit we noted in 2016, when Apple first introduced the Bear on Bar, that was exactly the problem with the blueprint. The greatest advantage of laptops over tablets or phones is their physical buttons that you can operate with muscle memory, and Apple tree swapped those out with a strip of buttons you had to await at to use.

At present, much like USB-C charging, the Touch Bar did attempt to solve a greater blueprint trouble: How do you customize a laptop'due south interface for each app with the same fluidity we accept in our phones? But bottom line, Apple's solution simply wasn't it. And frankly, I'm not sure that problem was all that problematic to begin with. Yes, it's tricky to learn keyboard shortcuts. Even so, it's even trickier to master a keyboard when the keys are constantly moving on you lot. Even if in that location is something useful on the Touch Bar, my eyes are always on my computer screen. I can't think of a unmarried app where I thought, "Thank goodness I have this Touch Bar!" It was a technological solution to a design problem, which fabricated it experience remarkably united nations-Apple in the first place.

Apple recycling Apple

This isn't the starting time fourth dimension Apple tree has recycled its ideas. The iPhone 12 and thirteen feature a blocky, metal-wrapped chassis that's basically a rehashed iPhone iv. Notwithstanding, I see that determination as seasonal, a manner to bring back an old fashion after the right amount of time has passed to make the old feel new again.

With the MacBook Pro, Apple tree is going retro in the name of user experience. Apple tree is pruning dorsum its ain pattern, finding the essence of what made its laptops so easy to use and lovable—even if these ideas are more than than a decade old.

[Photo: Apple]

Nosotros view some objects—certain chairs, sunglasses, buildings, and cars—as classic designs; things that are so perfectly articulated that they demand no further fix. It's rare that nosotros say the same about electronics, because microprocessors compress smaller and process faster every twelvemonth. Newer gadgets tend to be smaller, lighter, and simply role better than former ones equally a outcome of circuit board-level improvements and ever-evolving code.

[Photograph: Apple]

Simply perhaps information technology's time that nosotros induct the MacBook Pro into the rare air of perfectly designed products. Apple tin can proceed speeding up its processors, improving its cameras, and swapping out materials for greener alternatives. It tin tweak the screen-to-example ratio, squeeze in a larger battery, or adapt the curves of its silhouette year to year.

However, at its cadre, this aluminum-bodied keyboard with a screen, coupled with a handy power cablevision, meets all of our fundamental ergonomic needs with restrained elegance. The new MacBook Pro is non attempting to practise a thing that it cannot do perfectly. And in that way, yes, it's a lot similar that old MacBook Pro, the one you bought somewhere between 2008 and 2015, that many of united states notwithstanding dearest.