Sometimes, the customers love a product so much that they don’t want to see it change. And sometimes, the customers are right.
The massive multinational companies that build all these products we love aren’t too keen on admitting they made a mistake. But sometimes they admit it in the best possible way: by giving customers the product they wanted all along.
In 2018, Mashable’s Matt Binder wrote about the “death” of the mid-2015 Retina MacBook Pro, calling it “the best laptop ever made.“
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That particular MacBook Pro became known amongst Apple fans as “the one with the ports,” as it came with two USB-C ports, two Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe 2 connector, an HDMI connector, and an SDXC card slot. It was a workhorse for professionals who actually needed all that connectivity, and it had a wonderful keyboard and enough power to satisfy the most demanding user.
The MacBook Pro with the Touch ID was alright, but the people still yearned for the physical keys.
Credit: Apple
Then, Apple changed it all up with the dreaded Touch Bar MacBook Pro. That one came with a Touch Bar instead of function keys, unlocking new features that appeared cool, but weren’t actually very useful. Its Butterfly keyboard was a downgrade, and it only had four Thunderbolt 3 ports, forcing professionals who used (and still do to this day) memory cards and HDMI cables to use dongles to connect their peripherals. It was a thin, elegant, sleek machine, but Apple sacrificed too much functionality to make it so.
The rest is history. After years of user complaints, Apple redesigned the MacBook Pro in 2021, and the 16-inch model in particular was the one professionals wanted. It had a massive display, a wonderful keyboard, physical function keys, and (nearly) the same array of ports as the good, old 2015 Retina MacBook Pro.
So yes, that old workhorse from 2015 was, in a way, the best laptop ever. More than a decade later, the new MacBook Pro models still inherit most of its design and connectivity traits, wireless connection be damned. Chalk this one a victory for everyone.
Credit: Mashable