A Touching Ending and Return
Farewell, TouchBar — Welcome back MagSafe?
Joyous Day! Not one, but two reports now point to the end of the Touch Bar for forthcoming MacBook Pros. First, here’s Juli Clover summarizing a note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo obtained by MacRumors:
According to Kuo, Apple is developing two models in 14 and 16-inch size options. The new MacBook Pro machines will feature a flat-edged design, which Kuo describes as “similar to the iPhone 12” with no curves like current models. It will be the most significant design update to the MacBook Pro in the last five years.
There will be no OLED Touch Bar included, with Apple instead returning to physical function keys. Kuo says the MagSafe charging connector design will be restored, though it’s not quite clear what that means as Apple has transitioned to USB-C. The refreshed MacBook Pro models will have additional ports, and Kuo says that Most people may not need to purchase dongles to supplement the available ports on the new machines. Since 2016, Apple’s MacBook Pro models have been limited to USB-C ports with no other ports available.
Both the Touch Bar and MagSafe element was quickly corroborated by Mark Gurman for Bloomberg — though he notes: “The new Macs will look similar to the current versions, albeit with minor design changes.” Still, you could see a world in which the design is more similar to the iPhone 12, and yet doesn’t look that much different. I’m mainly curious if they’ll be thinner and lighter, or if Apple’s opts to keep some bulk for the insane battery life the M1 chips are getting in the old shells.
Anyway, the far more interesting bits are around Touch Bar and MagSafe. If the former really is going away — a feature I’ve disliked from the get-go — it will be a pretty big admission that it was a failure. A design flourish born out of “whether or not you could, not stopping to think if you should”. I do agree that some developers stumbled into some interesting use cases eventually, but certainly not enough to necessitate the whole bar — nor the feature at all for most people. Maybe they can do a ‘Touch Button’ going forward? A single customizable button? Right next to the Touch ID button — the only good part to come out of the bar…
I’m more torn on MagSafe. Like seemingly everyone, I loved it and miss it but I also love the convenience of needing one USB-C charger for many devices — including the iPad Pro. Of course, Apple still has not brought USB-C to the iPhone — and it’s looking increasingly like they never will, instead going straight to wireless-only charging. And new devices like the AirPods Max use Lightning too. So perhaps the intention is just to offer USB-C as an I/O standard, but stop using it for power in the few devices where they do?¹
I almost wish they’d make a compromise here and offer some sort of MagSafe USB-C accessory — a tiny dongle which plugs into a USB-C port and allows for a MagSafe power connection. As a bonus, that would bring MagSafe trip protection to all sorts of USB-C devices! But presumably this wouldn’t fulfill the faster charging rate that Gurman notes.
Mainly, since Apple is clearly feeling nostalgic, I want them to bring back the glowing Apple logos on the back of MacBooks — something they seem to want to do themselves if you just look at all their recent marketing!
¹ Though we’ll see what they do with the iPads Pro going forward. On one hand, there’s only the one port so seemingly both power/peripherals need to run through it. On the other, there is the Smart Connector, which routes power through things like the Magic Keyboard…
