I’ve already said that Apple’s newest MacBook Pro is very good. The display is incredible, and the fact that it is noticeably lighter is maybe the best thing they’ve done to their flagship laptop in a while. I also like the Dynamic Island more and more instead of the notch.
In fact, that might be the thing I notice the most when I pull out my MacBook Air, which is not at all what I expected, considering the difference in the two displays is basically the difference between flying a kite and riding in the second seat of an F14 Tomcat. They are not the same in any meaningful way.
But there was one thing I may have gotten wrong. The more I use the MacBook Pro with PROLED Display, the more I can’t get over the feeling that the touchscreen is actually… brilliant in a very Apple way. At a minimum, it’s a lot more important than I gave it credit for.
When I wrote my review last week, I said it was mostly insignificant to the experience of using the MacBook Pro. Specifically, I said you could use it for years without ever touching the display at all. And I still think that’s true. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised something about how Apple approached adding a new way to interact with your laptop.
Look, one of the things Apple is so good at is that things just work the way you think they should. It’s one of the very best things about using an iPhone or Mac.
Want to drag a file from your MacBook Air to your iPad right next to it? Just drag it off the edge of the screen, and it shows up on the iPad. Drag a file to an app on the dock, and it just opens in that app. Or, drag a Safari tab out of the tab bar, and it turns into its own window.
I’m not saying that you can’t do some of these things on Windows or Android. It just makes sense that other companies would copy some of Apple’s best ideas. The difference is that Apple seems to think through how people might try to interact with their devices and account for it. Usually, if you think an interaction should work, it will.
All of that seems obvious, and that’s the point. Here’s what I mean:
For a generation of people, using a computer means being able to touch it. That probably seems foreign to those of us who have been using them since long before we carried around screens in our pockets, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And, for those people, the obvious thing is that you should be able to touch your screen.
And so, now, you can. If you think that reaching up to touch your screen should scroll a window, it does. Or, maybe you think that tapping the red stoplight icon should close the window. It does. If you think that tapping on an email in a list should preview that email, it does.
I don’t think most people will want to touch their laptop, and – for that matter – I don’t think they should. The idea of fingerprints all over a laptop screen is a level of disgust I don’t even want to think about.
There are plenty of things I almost never do on a Mac, but that I’m glad Apple was thoughtful enough to consider. And, to be clear, I don’t even think touch is the best way to interact with this laptop. But Apple understands that there are people who expect to be able to reach up and touch their screen, and now they can. When they do, it’ll behave exactly as they expect. And I think that’s genius. – Inc./Tribune News Service
