 Every Apple product gets covered to death. And for the most part by people who are more intimately familiar with Mac OS. So take this video for what it is. I'll look at the Dongle Book Pro 2016, but from the perspective of a long time Windows user who isn't expecting to switch platforms anytime soon. So my MacBook Pro 2016 took so long to arrive because I hastily cancelled my order for a top spec 13 inch when I realized its best Core i7 CPU was a dual core with hyper threading. What? So my 15 inch then rocks a Core i7 6920HQ hyper threaded quad core, 16 gigs of dual channel low power DDR3 memory, a Radeon Pro 460 discrete graphics card with 4 gigs of memory, and a wicked fast 1 terabyte NVMe SSD. For which I paid, or at least dbrand paid, thanks bros, a cool $3,500 US dollars. So what else do I get for their money? Well a 2880 by 1880 wide gamut display with a blinding peak brightness of 500 nits. It's absolutely stunning. A surprise to no one by the way. Some not overly loud but very competent speakers, a 5500 milliamp hour battery, a touch bar above the completely redesigned keyboard, a gigantic trackpad, a cooling system that gets a little shouty under heavy load, but whose ability to intake air from the sides even when sitting on something like a bed sheet is definitely appreciated, and a highly controversial I.O. configuration that includes a single headphone microphone combo jack and four Thunderbolt 3 ports. Let's start though with some spec discussion. Is the MacBook Pro 2016 overpriced for the hardware that you get? If you mean by that is Apple's markup over their cost from their suppliers higher than the typical PC OEM, then yes. Looking at something like Dell's XPS 15, a similarly positioned PC, the Pro 2016 doesn't look very competitive raw spec for spec. The Radeon Pro 460 comes very close to a last gen 960M. The top end model CPU ends up throttling down to nearly the same speed as the lower spec 6700HQ on the Dell under an intensive mixed CPU GPU load, and it costs nearly a thousand dollars more for the same capacity SSD. But, assuming that the professional work you're doing doesn't require more than 16 gigs of RAM, or above a mid-tier AMD GPU, and you prefer Mac OS, then it'll more than fulfill your needs. It's not like it's not a fast machine, without unique and attractive features like the noticeably bigger screen, thanks to its more square aspect ratio. It's just expensive, which you should probably be used to by now. And I.O. is, depending on whether you're forward thinking, or whether you want your shiny new machine to work with all the stuff you've already got in your pockets, arguably vastly superior. Intel's Thunderbolt 3 has some huge real world user benefits, not the least of which is the massive 40 gigabit throughput enabled on each of the four ports on the MacBook Pro 2016. That is to say, if you're willing to invest in the costly, but incredibly versatile external devices, ranging from professional audio and video equipment, to wicked fast storage, and even external PCI Express enclosures, that could be used to add devices like, Red Rocket X accelerators, or video cards. In theory. More on that later. Because there are still more benefits. Each port is also capable of 10 gigabit USB 3.1 Gen 2, HDMI, and DisplayPort using relatively inexpensive passive dongles. And they carry power two ways to boot. Hooking up the MacBook Pro to my LG 38UC99 is a treat and a half. Charging, USB hub, and DisplayPort for its 3880x1600 resolution at 75Hz, all in one cable? That feels like the future. But Apple's decision isn't without its issues. The absence of MagSafe for power aside, the biggest problem with Thunderbolt is how confusing it is for consumers. Thunderbolt 3 uses a reversible USB Type-C connector, which can also be found on pure USB 3 devices, or even USB 2 devices. And Thunderbolt 2 used a mini DisplayPort connector, even though they are not the same standard at all. Look at all these one-star reviews for a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter from people who are upset that they can't run their mini DisplayPort monitor. They don't realize that Thunderbolt only outputs to a DisplayPort monitor if it's daisy-chained through an actual Thunderbolt device first. And I don't blame them. They needed this adapter. And then maybe this one. Ugh. Making matters worse, Apple has intentionally locked out Thunderbolt 3 devices using Texas Instruments first generation TPS65982 USB-C and power delivery controller from macOS. So everything that I'm aware of today, including my Razer Core and Akitio external storage box, you plug it in and nothing. No error message. Nothing. I mean, I don't honestly expect that to come up a whole lot, since most people will never need more than the I.O. expansion of a handy little dongle like this one from Juiced Systems that I picked up to add Ethernet and SD reading capabilities to my blade. But it does mean that until second generation TPS65983-based Thunderbolt 3 devices arrive, you'll be using all of your ports in USB mode unless you want to run Windows, where funnily enough, both of those devices work just fine. But that's not a great experience for a variety of reasons. Bootcamp is super easy to use, but almost none of the MacBook Pro 2016's strongest points translate well to the Windows experience. Touch ID is the bee's pajamas, as the kids are saying. Almost as good as Windows Hello for sign-in and better for paying for stuff. Doesn't work in Windows. The display is still good, so there's that, but the touch bar just works as a typical F-row without any of the very cool and shockingly intuitive contextual controls that make everything from watching media to interacting with the calculator application much easier. And the trackpad sucks plenty in Windows if viewed in a vacuum. I mean, who would need to right-click and drag anyway, right? But is especially offensive compared to how amazing it is in macOS. In my first couple of weeks with this device, I went from feeling like it must have been built so large as an accessibility feature for old people to understanding why Mac people are always saying that they rarely feel the need to use the mouse. The acceleration curve is perfect, gestures become second nature in minutes, and the palm rejection, which I was really worried about when I saw how big it was, is outstanding. Though I can't say the same of the keyboard. I don't hate it as much as I did initially, and I never hated it for the same reasons as some others. I don't find the noise annoying. But while I did grow more comfortable with it as time went on, I never truly got up to speed. Even if it's not something that I can easily measure using a typing test, which I did attempt to do. It's like the short travel is fine for burst typing, maybe even better, making it optimal for tweets or SMS replies. Getting text messages on the computer with continuity is amazing, by the way. I was using an iPhone 7 during my review period, and like, ah, the Apple ecosystem, it does work well together. Tooling around with slow-mo footage in Final Cut Pro X is almost as great as its admittedly lightning fast project exports. But back to the keyboard. I never got comfortable enough with it that I felt like I wanted to work on a longer writing project. And typing suggestions in the touch bar won't help anyone but the most egregious hunt-and-peckers. Which is exactly what allowed me to come to peace with this product. I'm not going to repeat what everyone else is saying. This laptop isn't pro. Because Apple's probably sitting at their headquarters down in Cupertino going, Duh, nothing we make is designed for pros. How many actually bloody pro creative professionals are even out there? And as for programmers, no escape key? I mean, who cares? You were probably hacking Linux onto a Chromebook anyway. Apple has redefined the conventional product tiers in a way that, apparently, given that these things are selling like hotcakes, makes sense to people. Mainstream now means browsing Facebook, not having a hundred printers and crap connected. And pro now means you want peripherals and some more performance. Or in the case of the 13-inch, you don't even really need the horses. You just want to feel like one of the cool kids. And spending more money to adjust your volume or scrub through a YouTube video faster is going to get you there. And as for anyone beyond that, the true power users, well, those guys are going to customize and hack the crap out of it to get the experience they want anyway. At least they will if they can afford one. And they're willing to put up with the well-managed during standby and under light loads, but less than advertised battery life. dbrand specifically requested that I turn around the laptop for the integration part of the video so you could admire the marble finish. But they didn't say anything about me leaving it like that, so I'm going with, now you can't see anything. Ha ha. Anyway, dbrand is your source for awesome vinyl skins. They've got skins for laptops, phones, tablets, consoles, controllers, and more. They use only high quality, authentic, true textured 3M vinyl on every product, and they feature unrivaled precision. Yes, my friends, if you are willing to spend the time, you can get a perfect fit with a dbrand skin. It looks great and protects against incidental dings and scratches in their customer service robots, are easy to deal with, and wonderful. Did I mention that they ship worldwide? Well, they do, so you can check them out at the video description and make your device look fantastic today. Not today, but soon, because it ships to you. So thanks for watching, guys. Like, dislike, leave a comment, subscribe, check out where to buy the stuff we featured at the Amazon link in the video description. While you're down there, we've also got a link to our merch store where you can buy cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next, so maybe check out our latest video over on Channel Superfun.