Talk me out of buying the stupid M2 13” MacBook Pro w/Touch Bar

Hardware Reviews
1

I need a new laptop, because, heavens to Betsy, I’m about to start teaching face-to-face corporate training sessions after 2.5 years in Zoom. I’m replacing a beloved 2015 MacBook Pro.

In thinking about it, and this is silly, I know, my TOP PRIORITY is a built-in HDMI port. No dongle town for me. I want to show up at a new-to-me corporate training room, plug in their cable, and have it all just work.

I’ll probably skimp on SSD size and go for 16MB RAM. The main thing this machine will need to do is absolutely reliably deliver Keynote presentations.

I’ll note that I have a nice M1 12.9” iPad Pro, but I worry that there will be scenarios where it won’t work at a corporate site plugged into a projector or large screen.

All ideas are most welcome.

2

If a HDMI port is your top priority, you’re going to have to go with a 14/16 MacBook Pro. The 13" MBP doesn’t have a HDMI port.

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3

I’m crying now. I made an assumption that isn’t true. Thank you and you talked me out of the stupid 13” Pro.

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4

It’s not a stupid computer, but it doesn’t meet your key criteria. The stigma attached to that model is as undeserved as picking on ‘that strange kid’ at school.

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5

I generally share your opinion of having dongles. However, if get a quality one there should be zero issues. I use one every day with my M1 Air with no issues connecting ethernet and HDMI.

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6

I held back because of the negative press but was due for an upgrade at work. I need a Pro vs. Air. Because I use with an external monitor, the Touch Bar is not an issue. I think I would use the Touch Bar on my Intel at home if it weren’t for the monitor but it’s really a non-issue.

7

Good to hear. I’m probably going to get an M2 Air.

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8

Take an M2 MBA and use a flush port extender with HDMI from Hypershop or on Amazon. Will work, gives you all the connectivity needed and the machine is good to travel with.

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9

Thanks for the Hypershop recommendation, those flush mount docks look much better than dongletown.

10

My “stupid” M1 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has a feature I wish I’d known about since I got it (in fact since I had the 2016 model).

I recently discovered the now-poorly-named Better Touch Tool (BTT). I looked at it years ago and decided I didn’t need mouse and trackpad hacks. It now runs my Stream Deck and… puts useful information in my Touch Bar that doesn’t need to clutter up my menu bar and is just as actionable (if not more — bigger touch target). It displays my battery percentage and time, my weather station data (and tapping it opens the web page for it), and a button to eject all drives and that’s barely half full.

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