Another approach to designing professional laptops

Yesterday I read one of the best reviews of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro, written by Brendan Nystedt for Wired. It’s a detailed, balanced review: the author, in my opinion, has managed to explain very well what’s good about it, as well as to point out what’s not so great about it. The tone of the article, in particular, feels neutral; and that’s good in my book. Too many times I’ve read reviews that revolved around an originating opinion (e.g. I think this device is bad, I don’t like it at all) and I could easily read the author’s distaste for the device between the lines, and any possible redeeming quality of such device was simply overwhelmed by the negative bias as a result. (The same, of course, is true when the author of the review has an overwhelmingly positive opinion on a device, accessory, etc.).

Nystedt and I seem to come from a similar place: I, too, have used Macs for quite a long time, and between the models in my collection, and others I have used but not owned, I’ve had my hands on at least twenty different Apple laptops, from the recent MacBook Pros, and going back as far as 1991. It’s natural that his review started resonating with me since the very first paragraphs:

However, the more recent MacBooks I’ve used have been a mixed bag. Not only are Apple’s last couple MacBook iterations unrepairable and non-upgradeable, but I find that the computing experience has been compromised in some key areas. Apple’s laptops used to be so competitive that I’d recommend them just for use with Windows. But then PC manufacturers started upping their game, and since late 2016, it’s been extremely hard to recommend the Pros. How did we get to this place?

If you’ve been reading this blog and/or followed me on Twitter for a while, you know I have a profound dislike for the redesigned keyboard with the butterfly mechanism, introduced in 2015 with the 12-inch MacBook, then extended to the MacBook Pro line. Nystedt is of the same opinion, and I really like the way he expresses it in these bits I’ve excerpted:

Personally, I feel that in swapping the Pro keyboard for the shallow butterfly-style version, Apple severely damaged its MacBook Pro line.

[…]

These new 2018 MacBook Pros have a similar butterfly keyboard mechanism. The choice is bound to be similarly controversial, even though Apple’s touting its improved switch design. […] But, for me, this is still a sub-par keyboard. I shouldn’t have to “get used to” a keyboard on a multi-thousand-dollar computer, and it shouldn’t make my hands hurt doing what it was designed to do. The older keyboards were better, and Mac users deserve a better typing experience for what they’re paying.

Other examples of what I feel are spot-on observations come from the Dongle Chaos section of the review:

People in hell want ice water, and creative pros in dongle hell want USB‑A and an SD card reader. The ability to plug any device into any port, in any orientation is one thing. But diminished utility is another. For my day-to-day routine, fishing a USB‑A to USB‑C adapter out of my backpack just so I can occasionally authenticate using my YubiKey is vexing. I can only imagine what it’s like for working professionals to have to juggle adapters for hard drives, external displays, SD card readers, and other requisite peripherals. […]

Does USB‑C simplify the MacBook Pro? Yes. But it can put the burden on the user, something a truly elegant solution should never do.

In the Price and Compromises section, there’s another gem:

It used to be that when you bought a MacBook Pro, you got the best hardware around, along with the best operating system. Increasingly, these MacBooks feel like they beat up on the Mac faithful for favoring that ecosystem.

In his conclusion, Nystedt writes:

Apple’s made a lot of noise lately about taking the needs of pros seriously. But I’ve used this finished product for a while and have to wonder about that. Because, if you let creative professionals design the 2018 MacBook Pro, I think it’d look a whole lot different than it does right now. I think it would be more modular, have a higher-res screen, a normal keyboard without a superfluous Touch Bar, and a wider array of useful ports.

Exactly.

And this is the part when my article takes an unexpected turn — I’d like to talk a bit about one of my secondary laptops. A Windows PC. A Lenovo ThinkPad T400 from 2008.

I’ve always liked the ThinkPad line of notebooks originally introduced by IBM in 1992, then passed on to Lenovo when the company acquired IBM’s PC business (and the ThinkPad brand) in 2005. ThinkPads were designed for businessmen, and prioritised durability, dependability, and upgradability — although their austere, angular look was really distinctive as well.

The reason I want to share a few observations on my T400 is because one of the first things that struck me when I started using it (and the T61 before it) is that it feels like a laptop made by professionals for professionals. I’ll leave my experience with Windows 8.1 and 10 for another article and I’ll just focus on the hardware and the design for now.

It’s a diametrically opposite approach to Apple’s pro laptops: pretty much everything in this machine (and in many other ThinkPad models produced over the years) is repairable or upgradable. By removing just a few screws you have quick access to the RAM slots. The optical drive is removable (it’s located in what’s called a Serial Ultrabay Slim) and can be easily swapped for a more feature-rich drive: if your ThinkPad came with just a CD-ROM drive, you could easily replace it with a CD/DVD burner, and even a Blu-Ray burner. For a laptop that came out ten years ago!

You want to change the hard drive? You remove one screw, then pull out the drive sitting in its caddy, and you can very easily swap it for a bigger, faster hard drive, or for an SSD. You want a battery that lasts longer? Just get a bigger, compatible one, and replace the one you’re using. The battery attaches externally on the back and bottom of the case. You don’t need to open panels or remove the bottom case to access it. Just like on the older PowerBooks and MacBooks.

With a little bit of effort and patience, you can even upgrade the ThinkPad’s display. Even the main CPU is not soldered on the motherboard. You have to do your homework to find what specific types of Intel chips you can use to make your ThinkPad faster, but it can be done, and I’ve seen many geeks upgrade their ThinkPads to a point that 7–8 year-old machines have better performance than current consumer laptops.

Also, the keyboard on this T400 — and even more the one on the T61 — is a joy to type on. And a trivial affair to replace in case it breaks.

And what about ports? It has a generous assortment of connections. Even compared with a MacBook or MacBook Pro from 2008, this laptop offers a bit more versatility. My model has:

Three USB 2.0 ports

Network: Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, Wireless 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, and a SIM card slot for cellular connectivity

VGA video out

A PCMCIA slot and what I think is an ExpressCard/54 slot

A FireWire 400 port

Separate microphone and headphones jacks

Integrated fingerprint reader

Not really a port, but it also has a physical switch to turn off all wireless connections

All this in a package that is clearly thicker than a current MacBook Pro, but slightly thinner than a MacBook Pro of the same age. Also, I don’t find the overall volume to be particularly bulky. Here’s a photo of my ThinkPad T400 and my 12-inch PowerBook G4 (The T400 has a widescreen 14-inch display):

The ThinkPad weighs around 2.3 kg, so it’s about 200 grams heavier than the PowerBook. It easily fits in a backpack where I usually struggle to put my 2009 15-inch MacBook Pro or my 15-inch Titanium PowerBook G4s. Despite being a modular machine, the T400 doesn’t feel creaky and it doesn’t feel as if you’re carrying around an assembly of parts. Nothing rattles, and the display assembly remains well secured to the rest of the laptop via two latches.

Performance-wise, it’s a solid machine for a 2008 notebook. My model has a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD graphics card, 4 GB of RAM (upgradable to 8 GB), and a 200 GB hard drive. My 2009 MacBook Pro is faster (though it has the advantage of 8 GB of RAM and an SSD as startup disk), but the ThinkPad T400 feels snappier than a 2008 MacBook.

But the performance of this specific machine doesn’t matter for the purpose of what I’m writing here. What matters is that I’ve learnt to appreciate this kind of design approach for what is supposed to be a professional laptop. Which is more or less the same approach Apple used to have before the MacBook Air, or maybe more specifically before the retina MacBook Pros.

Sure, ThinkPads have been getting less modular and less serviceable with time, and it’s a pity. But this design remains, in my opinion, the most suitable for professionals. Lots of I/O versatility, and easily swappable components, especially in case of an emergency. You could travel with a spare hard drive or SSD, and if the one in your laptop stops working, you just remove a screw and make the swap in just a couple of minutes. A RAM stick fails, you change it. A soldered SSD or RAM chip fails? Good luck getting back to work right away. You purchased a MacBook Pro with 512 GB of internal storage and now you need more? The quickest solution is to rely on an external drive, but you’ll always have to bring it with you, and perhaps with the appropriate dongle. Otherwise you’ll have to bring it to an Apple Store for an upgrade and, I guess, leave it there for a few days — something that’s difficult to stomach for a certain kind of professional who needs constant access to their machine and contents.

Some days I imagine a MacBook Pro that marries Apple’s excellent use of materials and design cleanness with the modularity of this type of ThinkPad. With a design that, in places, is unafraid of exposing removable panels and accessible screws; that doesn’t compromise an entire keyboard — or the full potential of a high-performing 6‑core CPU — to shave 1.5 mm off the chassis’ thickness.

Wishful thinking. I wonder what’s the next step, though. Virtual keyboards with haptic feedback? Even fewer ports (due to insufficient device thickness)? Impenetrable hardware? Wireless charging for laptops? If this is Apple’s direction in hardware design, I worry things are going to become more and more aseptic and not always functional. Integration between hardware and software also means that both should remain user-friendly, no?