Gear

The MacBook Pro is the future of Apple’s ports mess

The new MacBook Pros go back to the future to try and sort Apple’s ports problem. But the issue is bigger than just laptops

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Is Apple having an identity crisis? Case in point: the new MacBook Pros, which unravel several of the biggest design changes Apple has made in its laptops since 2015. The OLED Touch Bar, the clearest differentiating factor in high-end MacBook hardware, is gone. Classic function keys sit in its place. MagSafe has returned. It’s a charge cable with a magnetised connector that loses its grip when you snag the cable. It stops the laptop comes crashing to the floor and is therefore both essential and excellent. 

Plus, after dealing a major blow to the wired headphone market, Apple now decides to offer a 3.5mm headphone jack with better support for high-impedance cabled headphones. And, most important of all, connections are back. The MacBook Pro 16 and Pro 14 are the first new Apple laptops since 2015 that have connectors other than USB-C. They have a full-size SDXC card slot. They have a full-size HDMI. It seems to be an HDMI 2.0 connector rather than an HDMI 2.1, fit to hook up a 4K TV with a 60Hz refresh rate, but we’ll take it all the same.

This is not the first of Apple’s laptop backtracks either. In 2019, it made the Magic Keyboard, first introduced in the MacBook Pro 16 and added to the 13-inch version in 2020. This replaced the contentious, wafer-thin, failure-prone Butterfly keyboard that started the noxious trend of keys with barely any tactile feedback. 

Apple introduced these new MacBook Pro 14 and 16 laptops with call-backs to the iPod click wheel, the iMac G3’s start-up sound and other things sure to induce nostalgic reverie in long-term Apple fans. But it could just as well have started with CEO Tim Cook tapping a mic in front of a black background, coughing quietly and reading an apology letter to all the once-committed pro users of MacBook laptops.

We recently talked to the creative director of a design firm, which has over the years gradually migrated to using Windows PCs because the specific appeals of Macs have waned. Windows PCs can be just as good, and are generally cheaper.

These laptops have features specially aimed at different kinds of creative professionals, who once might have only considered a MacBook. There’s the higher-power headphone jack for audio producers (granted, most will use an outboard audio interface). The SD card slot is a must-have for photographers (even if some have moved onto using CFExpress cards). And the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 probably have the best all-round displays ever put into a laptop, just as Apple claims. These are going to be an excellent screens for video editing, even in HDR, particularly if colour calibration is massaged with a colorimeter. 

Apple always says it cares about its “pro” users. This is the first time in years it has really rung true. 

However, it raises big questions about the wider connector strategy in Apple devices. That’s right, we’re going to talk more about connectors. It’s usually a boring topic, but not this time. It has now become momentous, political and, frankly, something of a shambles. And there’s no sign of iPhones going down the practical route like the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 by switching to USB-C.

The entire iPhone 13 family, announced just a month ago, continues to use a Lightning port. This connector is almost a decade old. While it may not look that old yet, the technology it uses certainly does. 

Lightning is a USB 2.0 connector. That means its max data transfer rate is just 480Mbps, or 60MB/s. The only way to get faster transfers out of Lightning is to use Apple’s slightly clunky and expensive £39 Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter with an iPad Pro 12.9 (1st, 2nd gen) or iPad Pro 10.5. They have special USB 3.0 host hardware to make up for Lightning’s ancient credentials. 

But iPhones? They’re still stuck in 2012. For comparison, the MacBook Pro’s Thunderbolt 4.0 has 40Gbps bandwidth (5000MB/s), 83 times faster than Lightning. 

Of course, most of us have barely noticed. Who still uses iTunes regularly in 2021? However, the problem is becoming more apparent by the year. 

The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max support ProRes video, which trades the small file sizes of H.264 and H.265 video for much more efficient handling in editing programmes like Final Cut Pro. But, as far as we can tell, you’re going to be left moving those files from your phone to your 7400MB/s MacBook SSD at something south of 60MB/s. 

Apple has given us supposedly “pro” video features but they are supported by a hobbled framework. It’s like selling a £3,500 full-frame camera with an official tripod that can be blown over in a stiff breeze.

Apple’s Lightning connector needs to be retired. Even the EU wants it to go. In September 2021 the European Commission announced a plan to mandate the use of USB-C in phones, cameras, headphones, speakers and handheld games consoles. Apple said such rules could stifle innovation rather than encouraging it.

However, Apple has already shown it knows the value of USB-C. It puts this very connector in the all of the latest iPad Pros and the iPad Mini. And it’s in all MacBooks, of course, because to put Lightning in them would be beyond a joke. Even in 1999, MacBooks had connectors faster than Lightning, as they used the 800Mb/s Firewire 800.

There’s no sign Apple has plans for a next-generation Lightning port, and the current one is hopelessly outdated. Everyone knows it is. So why is it still here? Licensing. 

Apple charges a $4 fee for each Lightning accessory produced. It can charge this because Lightning is a proprietary technology. That $4 is the added cost to become an Apple licensed product, via the MFi Program. This means that Lightning cable you bought from Poundland is not properly certified, which is why you may find such cheap cables stop working. This form of licensing isn’t very consumer-friendly but it is profitable.

One rumour that lingers like a nasty smell is the “portless” iPhone. This means future iPhones may only charge wirelessly, and only transfer data wirelessly. No Lightning or USB-C. 

Guess what? This lets Apple continue to rake in extra cash off accessories thanks to MagSafe. It’s another Apple-owned standard, used in the latest iPhones for wireless charging. While you can use a standard Qi charging pad to recharge iPhones, only a MagSafe one offers the fastest possible charging rate. 

Apple’s MagSafe charger can output up to 15W power to your phone. Even Belkin, which appears to have one of the strongest relationships with Apple among accessory makers, can only deliver 7.5W with its “compatible” charging pads. This is why Belkin makes so many dual-pad docks — it can then advertise them as 15W, even if the charge power is spread over two charge points. 

Once Apple fully licenses out the MagSafe technology, assuming it does at some point, you can expect it to make a few bucks off every purchase. And the cycle starts all over again. 

There are two possible futures ahead of us, and much of it rests on how successful the EU Commission is at strong-arming Apple into using USB-C. If a “port-free” device becomes a get-out clause, the consumer is (at least mildly) screwed. 

This would see Apple mobile devices split into strata. You’d have Pro series gadgets with USB-C, and others with no charging port at all. If there’s no major change to Apple’s lines, and this all happens fairly quickly, this could include the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 mini and the entry-level iPad. 

Let’s just hope it doesn’t also include the MacBook Air, although companies like Huawei and OnePlus have already shown laptop-like wireless charging speeds are perfectly possible. The OnePlus 9 Pro support 50W wireless charging. Apple just needs to catch up. Maybe it already has behind closed doors. How do you like the sound of a MacBook you can’t even plug a mouse into?

This is a day to celebrate Apple finally taking notice of pro laptop users. The years of selling hugely expensive laptops with outdated Intel chipsets are over. But a future of a two-class Apple line-up looms large, and we don’t much like the look of it. 

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This article was originally published by WIRED UK