One year ago today, I made one of my best tech purchases ever, which was a brand new 2017 MacBook Pro from Best Buy.
Once again, I was able to save a nice amount of money on the purchase. When I made the purchase, I saved $300 thanks to a one-day sale Best Buy was having that weekend. I guess you could say I was in the right place at the right time.
The purchase was also a belated 23rd birthday and college graduation gift to myself. Needless to say, it was a gift I will always remember.
I am happy that this MacBook Pro did not have the TouchBar on it, as I have never been a fan of it ever since the MacBook Pro with TouchBar was released. I find it to be a gimmicky feature and not one that I have a use for.
Ironically, less than a month after I purchased this MacBook Pro without the TouchBar, Apple discontinued it.
My previous MacBook Pro was a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM and 500GB HDD.
What this MacBook Pro has done for me is that it has allowed me to get more work done and in an efficient amount of time. This is due to the fact that this MacBook Pro has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, as well as an improved Intel i5 processor and graphics card.
With this MacBook Pro, I have gotten even more articles written for Appleosophy, used power apps like Pixelmator Pro and Final Cut Pro, which would not have been thinkable on my old MacBook Pro.
I did use Final Cut Pro a couple of times on my old 2012 MacBook Pro in college and I was pretty much forced to close every other app for it to come close to working normally.
The Retina Display on this MacBook Pro has been great to watch YouTube videos on too.
However, the biggest change for me was getting used to the Butterfly Mechanism keyboard. This is a huge concern if you are a writer like me.
I can report that the keyboard has actually been better than my previous one. My fingers have gotten bigger over the years, so having bigger keys on the keyboard is more efficient for me. The trackpad being bigger has helped as well.
Lastly, the battery life has been great, compared to my previous MacBook Pro, which was pretty bad considering that I had it for five years. It was almost always charging near the end, but that’s what happens when you have a device like that for so long.
All in all, this is still one of the best Apple products I have ever purchased. It lets me do what I need and want to do and then some. I have absolutely no regrets about it.
You can read the review I did on it last year right here.