5 Ways Apple Can Improve The MacBook In 2019

Michael Grothaus 11/01/2019 – 2:48pm

Apple's laptops are the best, but priced way too high.

Go into virtually any coffee shop in any major city in the country and you’ll see a sea of Apple logos staring back at you across the cedar woods tabletops. Seriously, every single time I’m in a coffee shop, 90% of the laptops in it are MacBooks.

But that’s understandable. After all, Apple’s MacBooks–all three lines–are some of the best laptops on the market. Their industrial design is second to none and even better, they run macOS, the most secure, user-friendly, and stable desktop OS out there.

But that’s not to say Apple’s MacBooks couldn’t do with some improvement. And I’m not talking processor spec bumps either. Here are the five major ways Apple can improve its entire MacBook lineup in 2019.

Lower The Prices

Look, this is probably the single-best thing Apple can do to its MacBook in 2019. And I’m talking about all types of MacBooks: the simple MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro. The very cheapest MacBook Apple offers is the original MacBook Air–a four-year-old laptop the company still sells for £949.

No, that’s not a joke. Almost a grand for a four-year-old laptop without a high-res screen.

Apple’s new Retina display MacBook Air, on the other hand, starts at £1199. Again, way too expensive. Then the regular MacBook starts at £1249 as does the 13in MacBook Pro. The 15in MacBook Pro begins at a staggering £2349 and goes all the way up to £6524 if you want all the bells and whistles!

But even the base model 15in laptop Apple offers–again, at £2349–is just insanely too much for a 15in laptop. But if you want a 15in Apple laptop, that’s the minimum you will pay. It’s insane.

Simplify The Lineup

Apple’s lineup is also very confusing–and they could make it easier for customers to pick a model if they simplified things. As it stands now, Apple offers the following:

• The 12in MacBook
• The original 13in MacBook Air
• The new 13in MacBook Air
• The 13in MacBook Pro
• The 15in MacBook Pro

And all of those models come in different internal configurations too.

The 12in MacBook is the most baffling line out of all of them as its a 12in screen, yet costs £50 more than the new 13in MacBook Air with Retina display. Ugh.

Add Touch ID As Standard And Face ID For Pro Models

A few years ago Apple started adding Touch ID to its MacBook Pros, and last year the company added Touch ID to its new MacBook Air. But in 2019, Apple should add Touch ID as standard to all MacBooks it sells.

Further, the Pro models should get the newer, more convenient, and more secure Face ID IN ADDITION to Touch ID.

Make 512GB Storage The Entry-Level Option

Remember those entry-level prices for the base model MacBooks I mentioned above? Those prices are for models that only start with 128GB or 256GB of hard drive space! If you want larger SSDs you’ll need to pay hundreds more!

And no one, NO ONE who owns a laptop can get away with a 128GB hard drive in 2019. Hell, most phones have more storage than that.

Apple needs to, at the very minimum, make 256GB storage standard on all its devices–if not 512GB. 1TB and 2TB options should be the next level up–and at reasonable price bumps.

Bring Back The Old Keyboard And Ditch The Touch Bar

You may have heard, but people HATE the new butterfly keyboards found on the MacBook, the new MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro. Apple only makes one laptop–the original MacBook Air–with its beloved keyboard anymore. But again, if you want to get that old Air, you’re stuck with years-old specs and a screen that was cutting edge in 1999.

Apple needs to ditch its new butterfly keyboards and return to the old comfortable keyboards of its 2015 MacBook lineup.

Oh, and speaking of keyboards, the MacBook Pro, since 2016, has featured the Touch Bar instead of a traditional row of F-keys. The Touch Bar is, well, pretty much useless. It’s hard to use and nothing more than a shiny gimmick. Pros don’t use it, regular users don’t use it. We all miss the F-keys. Ditch the Touch Bar in 2019, Apple.