Yeah, like I said, I'm pretty sure the 13 is powerful enough for me. But it is actually 50 € more expensive than the 2016 15 inch model with same amount of RAM and SSD. I'm not talking about a fully maxed out 13". It's the 13" TB-model, with 512 GB SSD (a must for me) and the smallest i5. Only upgrade is 16 GB of RAM (maybe not necessary, but who knows what the future brings).
Portability is not that big of an issue for me. I'll be taking it on the train maybe once or twice a month for about a 6 hour ride. Other than that it'll stay at home. I have an external monitor though, which I could use with the 13.
About the GPU: Don't you think there might be stuff in the future that would benefit from 4GB of RAM besides from heavy video editing, which I'm not doing? It's somehow bugging me that it only has 2 GB RAM, but paying an extra 350 € for the Radeon 460 seems like a bad deal to me. Also I would like to play other games on it, on my 2013 13 inch I just don't because I can't even play Hearthstone with high settings and it crashes after every 3 games (15 doesn't btw). It's just not top priority for me.
Also I originally thought the performance improvements in the 2017 models weren't too big compared to 2016 models. But I saw a couple of videos which claim they are. So even though the 15 model will be more powerful than the 13, it has a somewhat outdated feel to it (Skylake + 2GB GPU vs Kaby Lake+4 GB GPU)
About the bugs: So the GPU crashes on the 15 model have been fixed by now? Also I read the keyboard might have some issues.
Not heard of the GPU crashes? There aren't really any widespread bugs, sure you'll find isolated examples of issues but you'll find that with anything. Keyboard is the same deal, many many more people experiencing no issues. Clean it regularly seems to be the key, a lot of people convince themselves they have an issue and take it to Apple, who just clean it and it works fine. So no need to trouble yourself with that one if you just take the time to take care of it rather than relying on the notion it'll be absolutely perfect all by itself within the environment.
GPU again, nobody can say. All I'd suggest is that if 2GB works for you today no questions asked, then 4GB is not going to make much of a difference in 3-4 years time. There are other aspects of the computer to consider apart from the GPU, if in 4 years time something new comes out that you want to do, having an extra 2GB isn't going to cut it. You'll want a better CPU/RAM too, so it's always better to buy a new computer then.
The difference between 2016/2017 in the real use case is largely a H.265 decoding chain built into the CPU. They are slightly faster in the top end, but you're never going to reach that and so never make use of it.
It's the same with 8GB/16GB RAM, people seem to think they 'need' as much RAM as they can get, but this simply isn't true and not how RAM works. You would likely not notice a difference between having 8GB or having 16GB. 8GB is ample for the majority of users, and will be for many more years to come given OS optimisations and improvements. Sure you can think it's better to 'future proof' your machine and get the max one you can in order to have it a long time, however...
Financially it doesn't make sense. Plan A) If you can buy a computer today for $2000 that fits your needs (512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, 1Tflop GPU, 15" display etc.) and you're perfectly happy with it. You're not going to even think about hitting the performance ceiling for many years and everything's great. You get your work done and never notice any issues.
Option B) You decide you may need performance at some point in the future and so buy a $4000 machine that massively overdoes your needs (512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 1.8Tflop GPU, 15" display etc.). The same scenario happens, you're happily doing your work and never notice any perceivable slowdown.
However, in 2 years time suddenly your needs change and you're glad you brought that $4000 computer as it can cope 'better' than the other one. At the same time, Apple release a new updated MBP with a base of (512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 2Tflop GPU, 15" display etc.) for $2000. This model has updated CPU and performance of 30% increase over previous generations.
Now you're stuck with a $4000 machine that's outdated and you perceive as 'slow', when you could have been happily using the cheaper one and simply brought a new one when it came out and when you actually needed it.
That's a long post but that's basically why I say, get what you
need right now, not what you think you may or may not need down the road. Financially it's better to not waste money on something you may never use, and save that money for when you need it. If Apple come out with a brand new spanking 2020 MBP, you'll probably want it after all, and if you've got a 2017 that you spent $4000 on, you're going to have a hard time justifying that upgrade.
So again, get either that you want but try get what you actually need. You'll be far better off down the road. Computers don't work by going "Oh your CPU isn't fast enough, you cannot do this task", they'll all do the same thing, just a little (Seconds/minutes) slower. At the top end you're paying for high grade professional equipment, where a few minutes each hour can save time, which saves money in the long run. For the average user, you're probably happy waiting a few minutes longer and saving the money.
