MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

[@rorywalters1614]

No you didn’t accidentally hit the power button, USBC MacBooks turns on automatically as soon as you open the lid.

[@KylesVideos]

When the time comes that you need or want a real upgrade to your MacBook I think you'd love a 14" MacBook pro. They're still a little pricy but they're starting to come down. It's a great balance between the 13 and 15 inch screens. Be aware though that they're actually significantly thicker than the 2016s funnily enough. I think they're the first real "pro" laptops apple has made in nearly a decade!

[@GoogleEyes]

Honest to God bro, you must be the most genuine person on YT, you respect everything you get (luv u bro)

[@computer1up]

Wow, it's been a while since I've watched some IMNC! about... 7 years I think? Crazy how times change. Glad to be back!

[@musguelha14]

For the charger, just buy any reputable USB C PD charger from a brand like Anker or Ugreen. Anything that will do 45W is fine and the newer GaN chargers are much smaller and more efficient than these apple power bricks, while being cheaper than even the used ones. You also get two ports on many of them, so you can charge two devices at once.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thanks for the tip!

[@musguelha14]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour Btw, if you have an Ikea nearby, they're going to get a good one in July for £10 (Sjöss 45W). It's already available in the US and Europe and it's gotten good reviews - like AllThingsOnePlace here on YT.

[@rubiigen]

40:00 give or take in about the boot up speed difference. the 2016 has FileVault enabled. When you reach the 'login screen' it isn't really the actual login screen of the OS, its kinda a mini loader that gets your password so it can decrypt your drive. if you enabled filevault on the 2013, it'd do the same

[@colterhyt5523]

Wife? Congrats guys!!🎉

[@s8wc3]

Sending good vibes and chakras and thoughts and prayers to your new macbook's keyboard. May it live a long life

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thank you!

[@djtab314]

I just ordered me a 2017 Macbook pro 13 inch i7 16gb ram 1tb I wondered why apple doesnt put 4 usb c ports but overall great machine.

[@bestvirtualfireplace8584]

Please where did you order?

[@Trylen]

A couple years back I found a macbook pro 2014 (haswell i7) in a recycle bin at work, needed a need battery. One of the scariest repairs I've done. It's good for tinkering on and seems to be the one that apple uses for my authentications for itunes. Earlier this year, I was given a MBP 2017 with an i5 (Kabylake) Half the cores, threads and ram, but It feels like it does more. At work we stopped using anything under 2018 hardware and it's mostly windows based, but that little 2017 i5 is growing on me.

[@jodajackson4489]

Yeah, thanks Jack! Everyone thank Jack, all together now, with feeling 😃 Hip, hip, Hurray !!!

[@ashleycox432]

Great video Tom. I had a 2020 16 inch MBP in this case design. Apple had to give me one after my 2015 Retina battery violently exploded. I loved the 2015 machine and intended to keep it for years but the lithium ions had other ideas. I hated the Touch Bar passionately, the single most stupid design flaw apple has come up with in the history of the Mac. I found myself carrying an external keyboard around in some situations. It was an I7 model with a dedicated GPU (forget the model) and battery life was awful. Got rid of it as soon as I could for an M1 Max not long after they came out and haven't looked back. You make an interesting point about the charger grounding. It's a shame they don't included the extension cable for the charger in the box any more, it's now a £19 accessory. At least MagSafe is back. I'm not a fan of USB C as a physical connector mainly over concerns as to its longevity, but you get used to it. I've converted most of my stuff over including buying a load of decent cables to go directly from legacy connectors to USB C, which is much nicer than having adapters sticking out everywhere.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thanks, Ashley! I can imagine the Touch Bar being an absolute nightmare. Replacing a whole row of keys with something that you can no longer 'feel' without looking at it is just ludicrous. You can't yank off a whole row of keys that people use every day and replace it with a gimmicky screen. I will never, outside of maybe curious collecting years down the line, buy one of those models. Yes I agree, lack of extension cable in the box is not a move I'm a fan of either, but it's so in line with all similar decisions Apple seem to be making lately re included accessories, downsizing etc. The extension cable has been my default since the very beginning, I simply don't use the little plug bit, one for the grounding but mostly because the charger cable is too short for 9 out of 10 real world scenarios in my opinion. I'm really enjoying the M1 minis I use, so deffo looking forward to an Apple Silicon laptop one day. Glad yours is running well.

[@adamrj13]

Have you thought about keeping the 2013 at your work you can can still carry the 2016 when you need it to work but would still have the ports etc for work and then the lighter machine for tracking about with

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

This is a really good and interesting idea, something that I hadn't thought of!

[@greendaykerplunk]

18:00 ive had two of these touchbar ones, when they are new they dont come out remotely easily, but as it wears down, they come out easily

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Is it more of a cable problem, or a port problem?

[@greendaykerplunk]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour i think its a port problem as they wear down, i have a 2016 12" thats really bad for it and the same cable on my 2019 works fine and stays in fine, but really loose on the 2016

[@dtpett]

​@@ItsMyNaturalColour it is a port problem. I have had USB-C ports replaced on my 12-inch MacBook for free under Norwegian consumer protection law (within 5 years of first purchase). The same was the case with a 2018-version, as well as with a 13-inch M1 Air that a friend of mine bought, where I also recommended him do the complaint to get the port replaced. In my experience, these ports aren't very reliable. Especially problematic with external drives when they get particularly loose, as they easily drop connections.

[@Llyrana7]

36:20 - YES YOU CAN UPDATE IT: Opencore 1.5.0 - Have fun…

[@thadrumr]

More specifically it's OpenCore Legacy Patcher I am running it on a 2009 Mac pro on Sonoma and a 2011 Mac Mini running Ventura

[@Realswagoverlord]

Dont forget to note you are likely to run into even more errors with open core.

[@alseeineye]

retina look good but i but its a complete new lid if the screen cracks - chuck the machine away bascally, the glass on them screens is so thin

[@neuzethmusic131]

I actually bought a new Macbook Air M3 recently due to the USB-C port issues I had with my old M1 one. I really wonder why nobody's talking about the problem with the worn out USB-C ports more... to me they are a real failure. As a music producer a have a lot of USB gear I need to get connected to my DAW. It was so frustrating with the USB-C when they became loose with slightest movement of the Macbook. It is vital that for the new M3 MBs the MagSafe port is back (which does a great job holding the connection while charging) and that it "still" has two more Thunderbolt ports available.

[@TalesOfWar]

This is a fundamental issue with USB-C itself, not really anything Apple is doing with theirs. You see it across the board in my experience. Some last longer than others, but they will eventually get so loose things just fall out.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Do you find the newer M3 machine has better quality USB-C ports? I guess it's too early to tell yet but the fact that they can get so worn in what is realistically a short timespan is quite scary. Never experienced this with any other ports.

[@TalesOfWar]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour It's too early to tell yet, but they seem better than some other USB-C ports I've used on non-Apple devices. Some are pretty loose from the get go. I find a lot of people I know complain about them on their phones too so it's a real double edged sword that Apple now use them on the iPhone. Lightning is still way better for this. My mum uses my iPhone 5 still that I got at launch and it's still a solid connection.

[@ClassicGarth]

I used one of these for 5 years. Brand new, the keyboard was already broken. Had to get the keyboard repaired several times, over a period of a couple of years, before they got it right. Really good computer otherwise.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Makes you really wonder how these were ever released when the keyboards were so obviously flawed from the word go.

[@ClassicGarth]

@@ItsMyNaturalColourYes, I was certainly not alone. After the last repair, I think they installed a newer keyboard, at least the modifier keys had different labels than the original.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

@@ClassicGarth I wonder if the one I have has been repaired. Other than less frequently pressed keys sticking, it's been very good. I'm liking the feel of it more and more too.

[@ClassicGarth]

One more thing, I handed it down to a cousin, who used it for a few years and then the logic board failed. Luckily, this is the last Macbook where the SSD can be moved to another identical machine and recovered.

[@ClassicGarth]

I liked these keys a lot when they were working properly. It was no fun when you had some mushy or sticky ones. My original keys were sensitive to heat from the CPU, too, just the keys near the CPU would get sticky when it warmed up!

[@BastianNoffer]

The 2016 design was really strikingly thin, but now with the 2021 designs, which are more similar to the late 2008 design, I prefer the new formfactor. The USB-C Ports on your 2016 seem really a bit loose, because I am able to move my machines quite a bit when tugging on a USB-C Cable. Never had a charger cable just plop out. I am glad that we are back with MagSafe with the current models. This video was a real trip down memory lane, so thank you for that.

[@TalesOfWar]

USB-C ports have a pretty big flaw when it comes to their being loose. Even the better ones you find on Macs etc don't really last the long term. The Lightning port is far more robust in this regard which is one of the reasons Apple stuck with them for so long I imagine.

[@BastianNoffer]

@@TalesOfWar This is true, but it is not really avoidable for connections that are reversible and don't contain any additional alignment or locking mechanism. Lightnings core disadvantage is just the number of available physical connection pins/pads limiting it to USB 2.0 speeds. Thats why it has never caught on outside of Apples ecosystem. I would not be surprised if Apple sticks with it for peripheral charging though. For data USB-C has won the race.

[@TalesOfWar]

@@BastianNoffer Lightning came about because the alternatives on the wider market were... crap. Mini USB sucks, Micro USB more so. Micro USB 3.0 is hardly micro and far less reliable at maintaining a connection than anything else I've ever used that's considered a mainstream "standard" lol. They wanted something solid to transfer power that was omni-directional, nothing existed so they made their own. Then USB-C came about a few years later. We see this with most things Apple have done over the years. They hate relying on a third party for their products because they end up letting them down, so they roll their own. Intel being the most recent obvious example of letting them down.

[@SStarlight9614]

@@TalesOfWar I mean, they helped make USB-C. They really only made lightening to ditch the dock connector, which helped them make their devices thinner and take up less space inside. But also so they could continue to make a small amount of money whenever anyone wants to make accessories for their devices that contain the connector. But that's just my opinion and my feelings just from looking in. But the fact is that apple did help a significant amount in making USB-C.

[@TalesOfWar]

The 14" MacBook Pro's are rather nice. They really do hit that sweet spot of size and convenience. Also, the performance being pretty much the same really says a lot about how little Intel improved over the years until they were forced to, and why Apple ditched them.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Deffo, they look like the perfect machine.

[@benbranca]

My 2016 15" might have been the worst laptop Ive ever owned... I had so many problems with it that I ditched it within a year of getting it. On an M1 MacBook Air now and it is by far the best Mac I've ever owned. I think that if my 2016 was problem free I would have kept using it, though. I liked it when it worked.

[@danielgartin-oh9ik]

Nice, I got my first MacBook recently, a 2017 MacBook Air

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Nice! How's it been so far?

[@danielgartin-oh9ik]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour it’s been great, I have an iPhone and iPad as well as an Apple Watch, I even got a Samsung external SSD to go with it

[@ronsummerill2496]

I have a 2018 MacBook Pro and I really enjoy the Touch Bar. Yes and it has butterfly keys and again not one issue. I am quite surprised you haven’t some form of Apple Watch yet. 😂😂

[@KR1275]

I have a M1 MBP with Touch Bar and I hate it! So glad Apple stopped with it.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

I can only just operate my 40 year old Casio.

[@wisehat_yt]

@@KR1275 i love my Touch Bar! lol

[@ClassicGarth]

If i’m not mistaken the speaker grilles are fake, they aren’t actually holes. 😂

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

If this is the case, that's hilarious 😆

[@tomscott88]

I think that now the m1 is established it makes all of these very difficult to want to use. I had a 2019 16” 32gb 2tb i9 2.4 5500m fully loaded it was 5k and the little m1 air 16gb smashes it in pretty much all respects. It’s the speediness of general tasks. I love the design of the previous gen but they were slow, not reliable, battery was rubbish and then the ports also wearing. One of those, I would much prefer to use a newer Mac. Hate it also when they loose support. You should give open core a go I’ve found it reliable for my 2017 5k iMac. Found it interesting on your opinion of all the newer features I thought you would be excited for them but was surprised to hear how you didn’t think they are worthwhile I think this is also an issue with living in a world 10 years ago. Be interesting if you got a new one how quickly your opinion might change going back to the 2013 if you used a new Apple laptop for a significant time. I’m spoiled I have an m3 max 64gb 14” and these in comparison are just woefully underpowered but I need it for my job so… horses for corses

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thanks for the comment! As mentioned in the video, I run 2 M1 minis regularly, and even though I can definitely feel the difference, I wouldn't say these Intel MacBooks feel difficult to want to use. I guess everyone's different but I'm quite used to swapping between machines with different capabilities. If I exclusively used a new system it would be harder to go back. In terms of not being excited about newer features, I'm not too sure which ones you're referring to from the video but I am still excited and enthusiastic about the new stuff, just not so excited about the stuff that doesn't interest me. USB-C for example is exciting to me, but until I have more USB-C devices, I won't be overly enthusiastic about it.

[@BavarianM]

Get an Apple Silicon Mac as that runs circles compared to those ancient intel machines

[@stephenvalente3296]

Is this the one with the dodgy butterfly keyboard? I've still got a 2015 MBP 15" with a 2Tb SSD that I did myself. Keep debating a new M-series Air, but will probably wait until at least the M4 chip variants appear as they are such a major financial investment these days. Then again, given I rarely buy a new Mac, I get the most from them when I do.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

This is the model prone to the dodgy keyboard, but this one specifically seems great apart from a couple of the less used keys sticking ever so slightly.

[@MacCrafter707]

Yay! Great to see you making videos again

[@catgirl_eva]

Congrats on being gifted the new-to-you computer! It may be 8 years old now, but I'm sure that computer will serve you well for a while. Just out of curiosity, what are you doing for work these days? Last I knew, it was something involving a cinema, but you mentioning an office has me wondering if you've joined us in the corporate hellscape.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thank you! Ah yes, I was talking about our office in the cinema. A small postage stamp of a room that is definitely the most boring room in the building but definitely needs to exist 😂

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice addition to the collection! It’s a cool machine but the common issues are definitely not easy to ignore. Nice to see that your keyboard works well. It’s impressive from an engineering standpoint to see just how thin they made the MacBook Pro. It’s just a shame the thin design caused so many problems. USB-C is cool considering what it’s capable of doing, but the lack of legacy connectors really didn’t help either. Great video!

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thank you!

[@JosephsNostalgicRevolution]

A legend has returned once more! So glad you're back for more nerdy natter. Cheers Tom!

[@cleanycloth]

Totally agree on the reliability front - a couple of years ago I purchased a 2015 4GB/128GB Macbook Air off eBay for my mum to use at university and despite it taking a bit of time to boot and start Office (MS Office for Mac is just a slog), she doesn't care - she loves it and it does everything she needs it to and more. I've been rocking a 16/512 8 core GPU M1 Air since they came out in 2020 and it's been the best machine I have ever owned, hands down. I don't ever want to upgrade it! (although the 15" Airs are mighty tempting...) I've also been spending some time upgrading a 2010 Mac Pro Server and that thing is *excellent* - 14 years old and with an X5680, 64GB RAM, a GTX 680(!) and an SSD it absolutely flies running Monterey no problem. Macs are just incredible, incredible machines.

[@GhastUnity]

I too came from a retina MacBook Pro 15 (dgpu model) and it was basically bulletproof, it’s been used in harsh conditions and even used it outdoors constantly directly under the sun for work and has honestly never let me down. then in 2022 went to a M1 MacBook Pro 13 for about 2 years but then the screen broke for no particular reason but it was still usable although 30% of the screen is not working. Luckily a friend of mine was letting go a 2019 mbp 16 for cheap so that’s I been using for now and the difference between M1 and the old i9 was night and day. The Intel Mac is basically hot all the time and the battery life is appalling but the 16 inch screen is just basically a necessity for me. Hoping to upgrade to a 16 inch apple sillicon Mac soon though. One interesting thing is the 16 intel mbp was basically the same size as a 15 inch retina, similar weight too! I miss glowing apple logo so much though!

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

The glowing Apple logo being taken away was a huge blow. I don't think I'll ever get over it. Wonder if it will ever come back.

[@leeharveydarke]

Great stuff as always Tom, can't wait for the upcoming repair attempt!

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Thank you! Should be out quite soon.

[@greendaykerplunk]

40:00 with that speed test, do you have filevault on the 2016?

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Oh good question, I'm not sure!

[@ericwood3709]

Just get an M1 MacBook Air. I've had one since around release and it's simply the best laptop I've ever used. No stupid butterfly keyboard, very fast and cool, hours and hours of battery life. You know what Apple Silicon is like from your new Mini. Having that in portable form is marvelous, and I find it hard to believe you couldn't afford a used or refurbished one somehow.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

I would love one, but other things to save for. Would take me quite a while in my current situation to save for a new MacBook Pro. These older machines still do me absolutely fine.

[@ericwood3709]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour That is why I suggest an M1, my good man. I wouldn't want to try buying a new one either! By the by, I remember trying out the butterfly keyboard at a retail store once, and yeah, I would not want that even if it didn't have reliability issues. I did not care for that lack of key travel at all.

[@nixlad]

Awesome!

[@michaeltechroom]

Microsoft dump intel sky lake CPU support with windows 11 but some people have found a way getting windows 11 work with older pc hardware

[@ManticJohn]

57:50 That aluminium MacBook you mentioned has been my only Mac up until this year when I upgraded to the m1 air! Big difference in design but I still love my old MacBook.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Great bit of kit!

[@tomscott88]

The early usb c MacBooks 2015 and the 2016 MacBook Pros suffered from the USB C ports wearing which is what your seeing with this one

[@josephnealescratchcards]

nice one

[@alseeineye]

not bought anything new fir a while, but like 1200 quid macbook 10 years like 60 quid a year or whatever - people moan about mac prices, but you cant beat the software so people dont understand basically - i dont really like retina on a laptop, but software you cant beat amd are nice things own and use so you cant beat mac really

[@awesomeguysuncle]

First!!!11!1!1!!!1!11 edit: also isn't this a feature? 3:48

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Oh is it?? Cool! Thanks for letting me know. I had absolutely no idea.

[@whistler1091]

​@@ItsMyNaturalColour yes they are designed so when you open the lid a magnet related gadget turns on the laptop.

[@dark147891]

You talk about dreaded touch bar how would you know if you’ve never owned one? I’ve had my 15 inch 2016 MacBook Pro since day one and I’ve never had a single problem with it. I’m starting to believe you don’t know what you’re talking about anymore.

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Good to hear you find the Touch Bar useful and you haven't had any issues with your 2016. As with any feature, some people will like it, even if a majority dislike it. I've played with it of course. For me, the Touch Bar represents exactly the opposite of what a keyboard is meant to be, and what a keyboard was designed to do. A keyboard needs to be tactile, something you can feel. I learnt to touch type from a very young age, so I can use every key on a keyboard without looking down once. I can keep my eyes on the display whilst using all letters, numbers, modifier keys and function keys. The Touch Bar inhibits this completely, by forcing you to look at it, as there is no tactile feel and the functionality is always changing. This wastes time, and often forces you to move your hand in an unnatural way across the keyboard whereas touch typing keeps your hands in the same position at all times. The functionality is also something that was already available through a keyboard shortcut, or something available on the main display. It's never necessary, because of the millions of macOS users out there that don't have a Touch Bar, there is no exclusive functionality. Existing functions are reskinned as gimmicks to appear new. It's just 'another place' to access the same set of features that are found elsewhere, often in a quicker to locate place. Function keys serve a purpose, and even though they may differ slightly model to model or keyboard to keyboard, they're minor changes that take just a couple of days to retrain muscle memory, the rest of the keyboard layout is unchanged and has been the same for what, decades? Nearly a century? Apple are good at pushing innovation, but they don't always get it right. The Touch Bar clearly wasn't the right choice as it's now been retired. Having said all that, I do recognise that if someone bashes a feature you enjoy, it can be frustrating so I do apologise for going all out on that. You're right, I haven't owned a Touch Bar machine so I probably shouldn't be so vocal about it. In terms of your last statement, I can confidently say that a lot of what I talk about revolves around speculation and curiosity, that's what makes these rambles fun. Anyone can read a spec sheet in a 3 minute video. People come for my opinions and rants, and you're right, I most certainly don't know what I'm talking about lots of the time, which is a lot of what all this is about.

[@danielgartin-oh9ik]

A tiny amount of damage bloody hell my MacBook Air looks better than that

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Compared to some machines I've seen on the road, this is nothing!

[@jjohnson71958]

nice butt.. expensive to repair bro

[@ItsMyNaturalColour]

Hopefully this will stay running for a good while with no issues!

[@jjohnson71958]

@@ItsMyNaturalColour oh their will be issues w macs no offense keep the logic board clean at all times