This might be the start of a new series of posts that pay tribute to hardware that may be obsolete today but was state-of-the-art when introduced.
This first post delivers a honorary mention of the long awaited but already hated Macbook Pro of 2019 which came in 16" for the first time.
This model was one of the last ones shipped with the touch bar, a feature that was discussed controversial. Personally I never used it and I wished for the function keys instead.
Though the display not being a fancy Liquid Retina this holds up to a clear 3k resolution with a respectable 500 nits. The size of 16" adds to a comfortable work area that you like to use.
That trackpad is massive and one of a kind around laptops still today.
The built-in SSD still holds up to the ones from today at speeds around 2.5 GB/s - this is 6 years old now. The 96Wh battery was the biggest to be certified for commercial flights - and it's also mandatory since the Intel chip consumes so much power.
The only thing beside the overall performance of this machine compared to the current generations of MBP processors is the fans. These are annoying as fuck, spinning at a 100% all the time you use this machine - and even beyond usage. The 6 cores plus the dedicated AMD radeon GPU produce so much heat that I could warm my room with it. Terrible architecture.
The keyboard was the first after the disastrous butterfly keyboard and was very welcome. Also the dedicated ESC key is a nice touch. Touch ID also works like a charm. The speakers on this machine are spectacular like the other 16" MBP currently on sale. This model is still being supported to run the latest macOS Tahoe.
There is currently only one problem with it besides the fan noise: the price in the aftermarket. Rebuy lists this machine (32GB, 1TB, AMD GPU) for about 600 EUR - you can almost get a silent, more efficient and powerful MBA 13". This makes this machine obsolete in the aftermarket if you ask me. Very sad, since the overall design was peak Apple at its time.