This year's new MacBook Pro models have a boost in value compared to last year. How much, though, remains to be seen.
Oh, I agree they have a significant boost in desirability. I am not sure with the prices like this:
Fully outfitted with the fastest processor, max RAM, and max storage brings the price for a fully-loaded 15-inch MacBook Pro up to a massive $6,699.
there is a boost in value. In fact I would hate to spec out a comparable Dell or HP and observe the price difference. There has always been a gap, but I suspect it has become a chasm.
Actually there has never been a gap. Matching spec-for-spec, and not even considering things one couldn't match at all (like the magsafe or yore, unibody construction, the greater trackback, and so on), a full-speced MBP and comparable Dell/Lenovo etc ended up in very close price rangers (if not more expensive). I've looked myself, including some Alienware and Razer stuff, but it was equally expensive ($3500+ dollars with the configuration I wanted, which matched the top speced MBPr).
I side with the HDMI, USB-A, MagSafe, and card slot arguments. USB C monitors are nowhere to be found when it comes to meeting rooms, USB-A is gonna be a tough tech to kick, MagSafe is a super convenient tech that I hate to see go, and the card slot has been very useful as a separate file repository. I know we can have all that with dongles, but those are inconvenient. Or even partition your drive instead of relying on a card slot, except that cards are swappable.
That the TouchBar should be on all MacBooks, iMacs, and Apple keyboards. Fragmentation brings problems similar to those on Android.
The ESC key is super important and should always be mechanical.
So I'll stick with my 2016 MacBook Pro until there's an alignment.
At the latter part of last year, my 2011 MBP17” went unsupported so I had to buy the MBP15. Not unhappy, in spite of missing out on a six core model, and True Tone.
The MBP13” with four cores is a big deal and I might have optioned to go with this model if it had been available last year. Four cores is the minimum one needs to run a VM — two dedicated to the Mac side, two dedicated to the VM side.
If one’s workflow does not require more screen real estate, the MBP13 packs everything most users will need in a small package. It’s a no compromise choice. My guess is the ratio of MBP13:MBP15 will tilt more favorably to the MBP13 with these offerings.
Sad. Most people who buy laptops for business and general use buy 15” laptops and now Apple has made them unaffordable and added capabilities most users don’t need or want while removing feature like hdmi, MagSafe, functions keys (touch bar is stupid) and USB-a that people need and they still have the worst most unreliable keyboard in the industry.
Customers want a 15”laptop, 4 core, Intel only gpus. Now apple does not have an affordable 15” laptop.
I am buying an dell XPS and running win10 and unbuntu. Apple just lost a customer.
John ivy and tim should be fired for ruining the MacBook family. Apple is brain dead stupid.
Steve jobs is crying in his grave,
This is the CPU bump I've been waiting on for a long time.
Alas that Vega didn't make the cut in (or better yet, Geforce 10 series, but that ship has sailed I guess), the GH part from the "G" combo package appears to be in the right wattage and is 3.6Tflops rather than the minor bump to 2.1 here.
grammar police saving the internet one blog post at a time
If he were commenting on a user post, I'd agree that it's silly nitpicking, especially because we don't know if the writer is a native English speaker/writer or not. But sites like this one consider themselves to be professional journalism and as such, articles should be copy edited.
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As for Apple, I think pricing has gotten absurd and as I've commented elsewhere, I think the high salaries at Apple (even if they're offset by high housing prices) have warped Apple's perception of what's viable for most people. It's not the base price that's so much the problem - it's the prices Apple wants for memory and storage which they hold hostage by not enabling users to upgrade themselves. My late-2008 MBP made it quite easy to upgrade/replace memory, storage and battery and IMO, was a far superior design, if a little thicker, than the current designs. I now have a late-2016 MBP, could only afford 1TB of memory which made it far more expensive than the previous machine and I'll soon be out of storage space in spite of cleaning up files constantly. Apple charges at least twice what you could buy memory/storage for in the open market. $1200 to get from 512 to 2TB is ridiculous and $400 for an extra 16GB of RAM? And Apple shouldn't even be selling machines with 128GB of RAM in an age when people shoot lots of video.
I've also found the Touch Bar to be almost useless and the positioning of the Siri key near the Delete key is a constant annoyance as I hit the wrong key all the time. I thought Apple was the king of UX? Apple should add a feature where one could customize the position of the virtual keys on the Touch Bar.
As for the keyboard, I've had no problems with it on my late-2016 MBP except that the tops of the "A" key and "N" key now appear to just be a white blob. Doesn't affect typing though. I do seem to be suddenly having a problem where periods get added to the ends of words and my fingers are nowhere near the period key.
I did have a major video problem, but Apple fixed it for free under the original warranty.
And for all the security Apple claims to build into the OS, it appears that I may have been hacked recently and it was definitely not via social engineering. It is possible that I wasn't hacked and instead an e-commerce site that I use once every few years was hacked and they got my email address and my password to that site. Luckily, I only used that password on that one site.
grammar police saving the internet one blog post at a time
If he were commenting on a user post, I'd agree that it's silly nitpicking, especially because we don't know if the writer is a native English speaker/writer or not. But sites like this one consider themselves to be professional journalism and as such, articles should be copy edited.
----
As for Apple, I think pricing has gotten absurd and as I've commented elsewhere, I think the high salaries at Apple (even if they're offset by high housing prices) have warped Apple's perception of what's viable for most people. It's not the base price that's so much the problem - it's the prices Apple wants for memory and storage which they hold hostage by not enabling users to upgrade themselves. My late-2008 MBP made it quite easy to upgrade/replace memory, storage and battery and IMO, was a far superior design, if a little thicker, than the current designs. I now have a late-2016 MBP, could only afford 1TB of memory which made it far more expensive than the previous machine and I'll soon be out of storage space in spite of cleaning up files constantly. Apple charges at least twice what you could buy memory/storage for in the open market. $1200 to get from 512 to 2TB is ridiculous and $400 for an extra 16GB of RAM? And Apple shouldn't even be selling machines with 128GB of RAM in an age when people shoot lots of video.
I've also found the Touch Bar to be almost useless and the positioning of the Siri key near the Delete key is a constant annoyance as I hit the wrong key all the time. I thought Apple was the king of UX? Apple should add a feature where one could customize the position of the virtual keys on the Touch Bar.
As for the keyboard, I've had no problems with it on my late-2016 MBP except that the tops of the "A" key and "N" key now appear to just be a white blob. Doesn't affect typing though. I do seem to be suddenly having a problem where periods get added to the ends of words and my fingers are nowhere near the period key.
I did have a major video problem, but Apple fixed it for free under the original warranty.
And for all the security Apple claims to build into the OS, it appears that I may have been hacked recently and it was definitely not via social engineering. It is possible that I wasn't hacked and instead an e-commerce site that I use once every few years was hacked and they got my email address and my password to that site. Luckily, I only used that password on that one site.
Time to leave the platform then? Apple is too expensive, not secure, makes useless and underperforming hardware, the list goes on. Sounds like a good reason for you to jump ship because complaining about it on a blog site doesn’t do anything to solve your issues with Apple. Why are you still a customer? If I felt like you I would have been gone five years ago. Got any other reasons to stick with the platform other than to complain and lament it’s impending demise? Not targeting you in particular but rather the “community" of users who complain vehemently and vocally about issues like yours yet remain with the platform. Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome where the victim falls in love with the kidnapper? Is it perpetual hope against hope Apple will return to the early 21st century when desktop computers were king? I don’t accept everything Apple does with gusto and approval. Instead I try to adapt and evolve with the technology because I believe that, bottom line, Apple products are worth the price you pay and I don’t see anything else out there that comes even close.
Did they fix they keyboard? No, I didn't think so... quieter is not the problem. Stopping working is the problem, Apple. Hello??
What percentage of users have experienced a keyboard defect, specifically? AI’s data suggests it’s only a fraction of the users who have service calls made, and that itself is only 2-3%.
Sad. Most people who buy laptops for business and general use buy 15” laptops and now Apple has made them unaffordable and added capabilities most users don’t need or want while removing feature like hdmi, MagSafe, functions keys (touch bar is stupid) and USB-a that people need and they still have the worst most unreliable keyboard in the industry.
Customers want a 15”laptop, 4 core, Intel only gpus. Now apple does not have an affordable 15” laptop.
I am buying an dell XPS and running win10 and unbuntu. Apple just lost a customer.
John ivy and tim should be fired for ruining the MacBook family. Apple is brain dead stupid.
Steve jobs is crying in his grave,
Strange. I must be looking at a different Apple Website.
For the same price I paid for a 2017 15" MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, I can now buy a 2018 15" MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD.
Not sure how it became more unaffordable with the 2018 release.
Your definition of affordability is different than most. Most don't have few thousands to spend on laptop upgrade every couple/few years. Stupidest thing Apple did was implementing touch bar/strip/whatever called. It increased cost without much productivity/usage. Moreover, this time Apple did not upgrade function key MBP and still offers 128GB SSD. That is dumb.
Apple suppose to have upgrade and affordable decent 13" MBP( function key,consistent 4 USB-C ports, 8GB RAM,256GB SSD for under $1299)
You conviently dodged his point — for the same money, you can get way more this year. This fact is at odds with the other fellow’s suggestuon that this laptop is more unaffordable.
Nowhere did he say he was upgrading every couple years.
Lastly, these are the pro series. If you don’t need top of the line, don’t get one.
This year's new MacBook Pro models have a boost in value compared to last year. How much, though, remains to be seen.
Oh, I agree they have a significant boost in desirability. I am not sure with the prices like this:
Fully outfitted with the fastest processor, max RAM, and max storage brings the price for a fully-loaded 15-inch MacBook Pro up to a massive $6,699.
there is a boost in value. In fact I would hate to spec out a comparable Dell or HP and observe the price difference. There has always been a gap, but I suspect it has become a chasm.
Actually there has never been a gap. Matching spec-for-spec, and not even considering things one couldn't match at all (like the magsafe or yore, unibody construction, the greater trackback, and so on), a full-speced MBP and comparable Dell/Lenovo etc ended up in very close price rangers (if not more expensive). I've looked myself, including some Alienware and Razer stuff, but it was equally expensive ($3500+ dollars with the configuration I wanted, which matched the top speced MBPr).
If you look around and you did not find the gap, I suggest you to buy new glasses. In the last 3 years I've bought 9 MBP and 12 Dell XPS for my company. For a starting configuration (i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) a Dell XPS is about 15% cheaper than an MBP. Fully maxed out it is about 30% cheaper. Invoices don't lie
Sad. Most people who buy laptops for business and general use buy 15” laptops and now Apple has made them unaffordable and added capabilities most users don’t need or want while removing feature like hdmi, MagSafe, functions keys (touch bar is stupid) and USB-a that people need and they still have the worst most unreliable keyboard in the industry.
Customers want a 15”laptop, 4 core, Intel only gpus. Now apple does not have an affordable 15” laptop.
I am buying an dell XPS and running win10 and unbuntu. Apple just lost a customer.
John ivy and tim should be fired for ruining the MacBook family. Apple is brain dead stupid.
Steve jobs is crying in his grave,
Stop your trolling.
My 2017 MBP side-by-side to a 2018 of a similar configuration costs the same. You're whining about a problem that doesn't exist.
Sad. Most people who buy laptops for business and general use buy 15” laptops and now Apple has made them unaffordable and added capabilities most users don’t need or want while removing feature like hdmi, MagSafe, functions keys (touch bar is stupid) and USB-a that people need and they still have the worst most unreliable keyboard in the industry.
Customers want a 15”laptop, 4 core, Intel only gpus. Now apple does not have an affordable 15” laptop.
I am buying an dell XPS and running win10 and unbuntu. Apple just lost a customer.
John ivy and tim should be fired for ruining the MacBook family. Apple is brain dead stupid.
Steve jobs is crying in his grave,
Enjoy that dell. In other news, Apple continues to outpace its competitors in hardware sales...
Hey, I feel your pain, and understand your frustration. It's getting impossible to justify or afford new Apple laptops, some of us must go the used or refurbished last year's model route. It's sad, but you can't do anything about it. Enough people are paying for the new features and paying the higher prices, apparently.
I side with the HDMI, USB-A, MagSafe, and card slot arguments. USB C monitors are nowhere to be found when it comes to meeting rooms, USB-A is gonna be a tough tech to kick, MagSafe is a super convenient tech that I hate to see go, and the card slot has been very useful as a separate file repository. I know we can have all that with dongles, but those are inconvenient. Or even partition your drive instead of relying on a card slot, except that cards are swappable.
That the TouchBar should be on all MacBooks, iMacs, and Apple keyboards. Fragmentation brings problems similar to those on Android.
The ESC key is super important and should always be mechanical.
So I'll stick with my 2016 MacBook Pro until there's an alignment.
Fully agree about the ESC key. Don't agree about the MagSafe if I look how many MagSafe chargers I have had to buy in the past.
HDMI and a single USB-A would be very convenient, definitely for the 15" model where space is less an issue.
Your definition of affordability is different than most. Most don't have few thousands to spend on laptop upgrade every couple/few years. Stupidest thing Apple did was implementing touch bar/strip/whatever called. It increased cost without much productivity/usage. Moreover, this time Apple did not upgrade function key MBP and still offers 128GB SSD. That is dumb.
Apple suppose to have upgrade and affordable decent 13" MBP( function key,consistent 4 USB-C ports, 8GB RAM,256GB SSD for under $1299)
Oh sure... only because you said so?
Of course many don't have the thousands to spend on a laptop. I don't either. The 2018 MBP's are no more expensive (cheaper actually) than the same MBP from a year ago. What you're probably complaining about (like most people) is the price of the top-of-the-line MBP with the crazy expensive 4TB SSD. You didn't happen consider the fact that a 4TB SSD from Samsung that remotely has the same speed as Apple's offering is around $1,900 right?
Since you believe that your opinion should be applied as gospel to others, I have the 2017 MBP and the Touch Bar is a non-issue for me and I use mine every day for coding development. ZERO issue.
The masses apparently don't share your sentiment. Apple still sells a crazy amount of them, but I'm sure you'll spin it to suit your agenda.
Sad. Most people who buy laptops for business and general use buy 15” laptops and now Apple has made them unaffordable and added capabilities most users don’t need or want while removing feature like hdmi, MagSafe, functions keys (touch bar is stupid) and USB-a that people need and they still have the worst most unreliable keyboard in the industry.
Customers want a 15”laptop, 4 core, Intel only gpus. Now apple does not have an affordable 15” laptop.
I am buying an dell XPS and running win10 and unbuntu. Apple just lost a customer.
John ivy and tim should be fired for ruining the MacBook family. Apple is brain dead stupid.
Steve jobs is crying in his grave,
Enjoy that dell. In other news, Apple continues to outpace its competitors in hardware sales...
Not sure where you got this data point. Apple ships less than half of what PC vendors, such as Dell/HP/Lenovo sell. Apple is growing slightly faster than the overall market but PC's are a very mature market.
Apple makes more $ on each sale due to a very loyal customer base. All this latest announcement does is bring Apple up to par with other PC vendors that are utilizing Intel's 8th Gen Core i processors and updating some of their unique (i.e. proprietary) features. Apple's main advantage is that MacOSX is vastly superior to Windows 10. On a pure hardware basis Windows PC's are still a better 'value'. YMMV...
I wonder whether the lack of Face ID is a problem of supply or a technical one. I trust that at some point, it will be able to recognise any number of users with separate accounts. I wonder too how many users maintain multiple accounts on their MacBooks. I have a couple on each of mine.
Even if there was only one user account, the problem with Face ID on a laptop would be that a lot of the time when the machine is docked the lid is closed.
So? That didn't stop them from putting TouchID on the laptop that can't be reached when it's docked either...
FaceID would still be incredibly useful _most_ of the time for most users.
Comments
That the TouchBar should be on all MacBooks, iMacs, and Apple keyboards. Fragmentation brings problems similar to those on Android.
The ESC key is super important and should always be mechanical.
So I'll stick with my 2016 MacBook Pro until there's an alignment.
You've scored all points for making your post one to ignore, with a double demerit for spelling both Ive's first and last names incorrectly.
The MBP13” with four cores is a big deal and I might have optioned to go with this model if it had been available last year. Four cores is the minimum one needs to run a VM — two dedicated to the Mac side, two dedicated to the VM side.
If one’s workflow does not require more screen real estate, the MBP13 packs everything most users will need in a small package. It’s a no compromise choice. My guess is the ratio of MBP13:MBP15 will tilt more favorably to the MBP13 with these offerings.
Alas that Vega didn't make the cut in (or better yet, Geforce 10 series, but that ship has sailed I guess), the GH part from the "G" combo package appears to be in the right wattage and is 3.6Tflops rather than the minor bump to 2.1 here.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/3056/radeon-rx-vega-m-gh
Weird that AMD made that but only sells it to Intel.
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As for Apple, I think pricing has gotten absurd and as I've commented elsewhere, I think the high salaries at Apple (even if they're offset by high housing prices) have warped Apple's perception of what's viable for most people. It's not the base price that's so much the problem - it's the prices Apple wants for memory and storage which they hold hostage by not enabling users to upgrade themselves. My late-2008 MBP made it quite easy to upgrade/replace memory, storage and battery and IMO, was a far superior design, if a little thicker, than the current designs. I now have a late-2016 MBP, could only afford 1TB of memory which made it far more expensive than the previous machine and I'll soon be out of storage space in spite of cleaning up files constantly. Apple charges at least twice what you could buy memory/storage for in the open market. $1200 to get from 512 to 2TB is ridiculous and $400 for an extra 16GB of RAM? And Apple shouldn't even be selling machines with 128GB of RAM in an age when people shoot lots of video.
I've also found the Touch Bar to be almost useless and the positioning of the Siri key near the Delete key is a constant annoyance as I hit the wrong key all the time. I thought Apple was the king of UX? Apple should add a feature where one could customize the position of the virtual keys on the Touch Bar.
As for the keyboard, I've had no problems with it on my late-2016 MBP except that the tops of the "A" key and "N" key now appear to just be a white blob. Doesn't affect typing though. I do seem to be suddenly having a problem where periods get added to the ends of words and my fingers are nowhere near the period key.
I did have a major video problem, but Apple fixed it for free under the original warranty.
And for all the security Apple claims to build into the OS, it appears that I may have been hacked recently and it was definitely not via social engineering. It is possible that I wasn't hacked and instead an e-commerce site that I use once every few years was hacked and they got my email address and my password to that site. Luckily, I only used that password on that one site.
Nowhere did he say he was upgrading every couple years.
Lastly, these are the pro series. If you don’t need top of the line, don’t get one.
It’s nice to want things, isn’t it? To hope and to dream of things that will never be...
Oh sure... only because you said so?
Since you believe that your opinion should be applied as gospel to others, I have the 2017 MBP and the Touch Bar is a non-issue for me and I use mine every day for coding development. ZERO issue.
The masses apparently don't share your sentiment. Apple still sells a crazy amount of them, but I'm sure you'll spin it to suit your agenda.
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-pc-companies-sales-idc-market-share-chart-2017-4
Apple makes more $ on each sale due to a very loyal customer base. All this latest announcement does is bring Apple up to par with other PC vendors that are utilizing Intel's 8th Gen Core i processors and updating some of their unique (i.e. proprietary) features. Apple's main advantage is that MacOSX is vastly superior to Windows 10. On a pure hardware basis Windows PC's are still a better 'value'. YMMV...
So? That didn't stop them from putting TouchID on the laptop that can't be reached when it's docked either...
FaceID would still be incredibly useful _most_ of the time for most users.