gregpriestley

They are probably refreshing it to make the keyboard even more shitty just like the unreliable MacBook Pros with touch bar.  Only had my MacBook Pro with touch bar keyboard replaced twice so far in 12 months when it starts to play up ....

Any I lose the computer from 2 to 5 days each time.  Insane.

In June 2012 I purchased the MacBook Pro with Retina Display as soon as it was announced.  I maxed it out - 16GB RAM, 750GB SSD storage, Intel 3d generation i7 2.7GHz processor.  It was the most incredible computer.  Showing it to others was a delight as it was so quick (graphics could be better).

This machine is now 3 years 6 months old.  I’m always running out storage space and needing to use external drives for day to day usage.  16GB RAM is insufficient for the number of virtual machines I need to run and my other workloads.  It’s also starting to have issues - for instance the “e” key is dodgy and I don’t quite understand why the fan seems to need to run continually.  It’s out of warranty.

I’d love to buy a new notebook.  In fact, I would have loved to have bought a new notebook 12 months ago which is my typical cadence (2.5 years).

But Apple have effectively released the same machine continuously in all the time since I purchased it - if I bought a fully spec’d MacBook Pro as refreshed last year I’d still be stuck with 16GB RAM, storage would only be 1TB which is still insufficient for my usage, and the processor would be an Intel 4th generation i7 2.8GHz processor.  Effectively the same machine as I have now.  (admittedly graphics would be better, SSD storage speed has improved).

Intel had released the 5th generation processors (i7-5950HQ) when Apple refreshed the notebook last year that would have allowed 32 GB, and SSD over 1TB was also available.  But instead we got a new touchpad - woopty do.

Suitable Skylake processors (i7-6920hq and E3-1535M V5) were announced back in Q3 last year and have been available but still Apple still haven't released anything.

I’d also love to marry a new MacBook Pro with a 4K (or 5K) monitor.  But the Apple monitors haven’t seen a refresh in over 4 years.  My 30” Cinema display is not going to last forever (it has to be at least 8 years old at present and is having issues - but why would I want to buy an outdated monitor that they’ve kept in market for so long, with so many 4K screens so cheaply available?).

It’s fantastic that Apple are releasing / developing all these new product categories (watch, Macbook, iPad Pro, “car”) - but it seems to be at the abandonment of existing product lines and customers (MacPro was unloved for so long, updated and since “abandoned” with no real updates in 2 years; Mac Mini seems the same - I have two of these also needing to be replaced but the last update was a step backwards).  It seems like they have completely abandoned any form of power users.

I’ve been a long time Apple user and want to stay that way, but it’s difficult when they don’t release updated products.  It’s great that they always want to do a new revolutionary design, but just having the innards updated on a regular basis and be technically competitive would suit me.

Great!  New watch bands for a product few people own / use.  But still nothing for MacBook Pro users / Mac Pro users / Mac Mini users.