Using Your Laptop to Edit with the Screen Open: A Surprisingly Helpful Touch Bar

When editing on your laptop with the screen open, I found the touch bar to be surprisingly helpful. There's a lot to like about the MacBook Pro, and the touch bar is definitely one of its highlights. The touch bar allows for quick access to various functions and tools, making it easier to edit without having to navigate through menus or use the keyboard. It also provides a convenient way to switch between different editing modes or adjust settings with just a few taps.

Battery Life: Not Outstanding, But Still Impressive

I was disappointed to find that my MacBook Pro's battery life wasn't outstanding, but I think it still holds up well for most users. The touch bar certainly helps extend the battery life by allowing me to quickly access and switch between functions without having to use the keyboard or mouse. Additionally, the new screen on the MacBook Pro looks really nice, with a resolution that hasn't changed but boasts a wider color gamut and thinner bezels. The screen is also less reflective outdoors, making it easier to edit in natural light.

Build Quality: A Standout Feature of the MacBook Pro

I was blown away by the build quality of the MacBook Pro. It's definitely one of the best-made laptops I've ever tested, with a level of craftsmanship that rivals even the most premium devices from Apple. The only drawback is the small gap between the screen and the body, which can be a minor annoyance but doesn't detract significantly from the overall experience.

Glass Trackpad: Smooth Scrolling Experience

I was pleasantly surprised by the glass trackpad on the MacBook Pro, particularly when it came to scrolling. It's incredibly smooth and responsive, making it perfect for quickly navigating through long documents or web pages. I also appreciated how well multi-touch gestures worked on this laptop, allowing me to easily zoom in and out of images or navigate through menus.

The Hinge: A Cool Factor vs. Stability

One aspect that caught my attention was the hinge design on the MacBook Pro. While it's undeniably cool and adds a unique touch to the device, I couldn't help but feel that it could be a bit more stable in certain situations. When holding the laptop to watch videos or use the touch bar, the hinge seemed to flex slightly, which might cause some users to worry about the device's stability.

Should You Need a Touchscreen and Touch Bar?

For me, having a touchscreen wasn't absolutely necessary for editing on this laptop, but I did appreciate the flexibility it provided when needed. If you're not familiar with touchscreen OSes like Windows 10, it may seem daunting at first, but once you get used to it, it can be incredibly useful. The touch bar is where Apple really shines in its approach to gesture-based interfaces.

Using Touch to Enhance Video Editing

One of the most surprising benefits I discovered was using the touch bar to scrub through videos while watching YouTube. It's simple yet effective, allowing me to quickly find a specific time frame or section within the video without having to click through menus or use the mouse. This feature alone is worth considering for anyone who frequently watches and edits videos.

Ting: A Killer Service for Data Throttling

Finally, I wanted to mention Ting, a service that offers affordable data plans starting at just $10 per gigabyte. While I'm not using this myself, I was impressed by the promise of flexible pricing and the 25 bucks toward your first device as an incentive. If you're looking to save money on your mobile data bill or want to make a gift for someone else, Ting is definitely worth checking out.

More Coverage Coming!

We'll be diving deeper into the MacBook Pro and Surface Book in our next article, covering topics such as their performance differences and exclusive features. We also want to hear from you! What do you want to see covered in our upcoming coverage? Let us know by commenting below, and we'll do our best to deliver it for you because we love this stuff!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is comfy here I feel good and this is the face of a man recovering from a super bad flu but I'm here talking about surface book and the MacBook Pro because I love this stuff and I want to talk about technology with you so you couldn't guess it topic is videos all about your questions on the updated surface book with performance base and the new MacBook Pro with touch bar of which we went on more coverage coming up let's go ahead and jump right into the question so as a touch bar really useful for editing if you edit right now in Premiere Pro the note because nobody hasn't done anything with it but if you edit in Final Cut surprisingly useful you can change audio levels in track you can scrub actually found myself using it a lot but the caveat is if you dock your computer like I usually do whenever I do some editing then the touch bar is not that useful for me but if you use your laptop to edit with the screen open the touch bar is surprisingly helpful there's a lot to like about the MacBook Pro I think the touch bar certainly is a highlight I would love to say battery life is outstanding but mine has has not been but I think aside from the touch bar the new screen looks really nice resolution hasn't changed the color gamut way better I like to do thinner bezels the screen is really nice outdoors as well it's way less reflective so screen and touch bar so you get two for two for the price of one oh man build quality these are probably some of the two best made laptops that I have ever tested I think if I'm relying solely on build quality I think I'm gonna give it to the MacBook Pro but probably for a backhanded reason because it doesn't have to have gaps where the screen will pop off which is a benefit of the surface book so I don't want a knock knock it for having that I have to pick one though I think the Apple MacBook Pro really has build quality down pat so Windows and I think rightfully so got kind of a bad reputation for not really smooth scrolling especially on a trackpad I don't know that the case with other Windows laptops but on the surface book is really good the glass trackpad really responsive I had no issues with scrolling multi-touch gestures worked well it works as well as anything I've tested from Apple so don't worry about that at all as far as the hinge it does have a little bit of floppy flashiness in it that's been a knock that I had on both generations of surface book but I do like how the hinge kind of unrolls and when you hold it to us to feel like you're holding kind of a spiral notebook and it does kind of it's got a cool factor we have to deal with the gap in there so it's kind of give-and-take with the hinge whether or not you're sort of pro or con I think I like the way it looks but I wish it was a little more stable so a kind of interesting question and sort of boils down to is Windows or any OS need a touchscreen and I think if you haven't used a touchscreen OS like Windows 10 it's a very valid question to ask I found myself very often just scrolling with my finger through a website that was really the only time that I used touch when it was docked like a laptop but he was like a tablet certainly I used touch a lot more so yeah for me it was very useful isn't necessarily no it is absolutely not necessary you can do everything you want with the keyboard and a mouse but I like having that added flexibility when I need it it was there when I didn't need it I didn't have to use it I think Apple doe is onto something with the touch bar and I said this in review I was very dubious with a touch bar but it works very well and I think it's got a lot of potential developers get on board with what it can do so it's kind of different approaches to the same means I wish that you had the option to do everything you could touch the screen all over use a touch bar apples made it very clear that touchscreen os's are not coming to Mac OS so I recommend trying both and see which one you prefer probably the simplest one for me is scrubbing your videos when I'm watching YouTube it's really helpful be able just to scrub the video go to a certain time frame doing what I do and my constant watching a lot of videos and going back and watching some borrowed videos making notes being able to scrub is really really helpful and it's not any easier than using a mouse or keyboard but it does feel way cooler the cool thing about ting is that you only pay for the data that you're using you're not paying 70 bucks a month for a six gig bucket maybe use half of it you only pay for the data you use starting at just $10 per gigabyte looking to save a few bucks and also get a really killer service visit TechnoBuffalo ting comm and see how much you could save and on top of that you also get 25 bucks toward your first device in ting service also makes really good gift so check out again at TechnoBuffalo ting accom that's T ing so that was MacBook Pro and surface book we're have a ton more coverage bashing these two behemoths head-to-head but I wanted to sort of answer your questions about it let you know we have more coverage coming and also we can help direct our coverage in the future for what you guys want to see save that comments down below what else you want to see these two computers do and we will do it to you because we love this stuff thanks for giving us the opportunity to do it the next time John right in here from TechnoBuffalothis is comfy here I feel good and this is the face of a man recovering from a super bad flu but I'm here talking about surface book and the MacBook Pro because I love this stuff and I want to talk about technology with you so you couldn't guess it topic is videos all about your questions on the updated surface book with performance base and the new MacBook Pro with touch bar of which we went on more coverage coming up let's go ahead and jump right into the question so as a touch bar really useful for editing if you edit right now in Premiere Pro the note because nobody hasn't done anything with it but if you edit in Final Cut surprisingly useful you can change audio levels in track you can scrub actually found myself using it a lot but the caveat is if you dock your computer like I usually do whenever I do some editing then the touch bar is not that useful for me but if you use your laptop to edit with the screen open the touch bar is surprisingly helpful there's a lot to like about the MacBook Pro I think the touch bar certainly is a highlight I would love to say battery life is outstanding but mine has has not been but I think aside from the touch bar the new screen looks really nice resolution hasn't changed the color gamut way better I like to do thinner bezels the screen is really nice outdoors as well it's way less reflective so screen and touch bar so you get two for two for the price of one oh man build quality these are probably some of the two best made laptops that I have ever tested I think if I'm relying solely on build quality I think I'm gonna give it to the MacBook Pro but probably for a backhanded reason because it doesn't have to have gaps where the screen will pop off which is a benefit of the surface book so I don't want a knock knock it for having that I have to pick one though I think the Apple MacBook Pro really has build quality down pat so Windows and I think rightfully so got kind of a bad reputation for not really smooth scrolling especially on a trackpad I don't know that the case with other Windows laptops but on the surface book is really good the glass trackpad really responsive I had no issues with scrolling multi-touch gestures worked well it works as well as anything I've tested from Apple so don't worry about that at all as far as the hinge it does have a little bit of floppy flashiness in it that's been a knock that I had on both generations of surface book but I do like how the hinge kind of unrolls and when you hold it to us to feel like you're holding kind of a spiral notebook and it does kind of it's got a cool factor we have to deal with the gap in there so it's kind of give-and-take with the hinge whether or not you're sort of pro or con I think I like the way it looks but I wish it was a little more stable so a kind of interesting question and sort of boils down to is Windows or any OS need a touchscreen and I think if you haven't used a touchscreen OS like Windows 10 it's a very valid question to ask I found myself very often just scrolling with my finger through a website that was really the only time that I used touch when it was docked like a laptop but he was like a tablet certainly I used touch a lot more so yeah for me it was very useful isn't necessarily no it is absolutely not necessary you can do everything you want with the keyboard and a mouse but I like having that added flexibility when I need it it was there when I didn't need it I didn't have to use it I think Apple doe is onto something with the touch bar and I said this in review I was very dubious with a touch bar but it works very well and I think it's got a lot of potential developers get on board with what it can do so it's kind of different approaches to the same means I wish that you had the option to do everything you could touch the screen all over use a touch bar apples made it very clear that touchscreen os's are not coming to Mac OS so I recommend trying both and see which one you prefer probably the simplest one for me is scrubbing your videos when I'm watching YouTube it's really helpful be able just to scrub the video go to a certain time frame doing what I do and my constant watching a lot of videos and going back and watching some borrowed videos making notes being able to scrub is really really helpful and it's not any easier than using a mouse or keyboard but it does feel way cooler the cool thing about ting is that you only pay for the data that you're using you're not paying 70 bucks a month for a six gig bucket maybe use half of it you only pay for the data you use starting at just $10 per gigabyte looking to save a few bucks and also get a really killer service visit TechnoBuffalo ting comm and see how much you could save and on top of that you also get 25 bucks toward your first device in ting service also makes really good gift so check out again at TechnoBuffalo ting accom that's T ing so that was MacBook Pro and surface book we're have a ton more coverage bashing these two behemoths head-to-head but I wanted to sort of answer your questions about it let you know we have more coverage coming and also we can help direct our coverage in the future for what you guys want to see save that comments down below what else you want to see these two computers do and we will do it to you because we love this stuff thanks for giving us the opportunity to do it the next time John right in here from TechnoBuffalo\n"