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2017 MBP Owners - upgrade or wait?

J

jgbr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
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With the potential fixing of the keyboard issue, the indication that the base 15inch 2018 is faster than the top spec 2017 and other improvements, do 2017 owners feel they are the 'odd ball out' where value of their machines has greatly reduced and with ownership on par to being less than a year before an update?

Will people buy a 2018 model or keep the 2017 and wait for a 10nm CPU fresh/redesign which is more likely to be 2020?

I'm not looking for a 'this is tech' response more will 2017 owners upgrade or wait?

If so what is your rationale for waiting if so?
 
I don't think it makes any sense to upgrade after 1 year. Unless you are constantly running into a speed barrier or keep having keyboard problems.
 
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As much as I would like to upgrade to the lates and greatest it is not worth it for me. The 2017 machine is great, and im not hitting any limitations with it. The 15" might be seems to ba a little faster on short peak test, but I do not think the cooling is adequate in long term performance unless apple have done something incredible. And the 2018 should perform better in a multicore situation due to the extra two cores, so unless what you work with on your MBP scales really well with cores there would be a reason to upgrade.
 
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It depends on circumstances. I upgraded in March and just pulled the trigger on a 2018 with i9. One of my main applications is heavily multithreaded and early benchmarks are showing close the twice the multi core performance.

Also, at least as of last night, Apple was including a free pair of wireless beats with the purchase. After selling my current machine and the free beats (plus education store discount - yay night school), the upgrade cost is not as high as you would expect.
 
Dovahkiing said:
It depends on circumstances. I upgraded in March and just pulled the trigger on a 2018 with i9. One of my main applications is heavily multithreaded and early benchmarks are showing close the twice the multi core performance.

Also, at least as of last night, Apple was including a free pair of wireless beats with the purchase. After selling my current machine and the free beats (plus education store discount - yay night school), the upgrade cost is not as high as you would expect.
Click to expand...

But where are you listing your current device to sell?
 
I have a 2017 i7/512GB/16GB RAM and finding it hard to sell.

But I also have accidental coverage on mine for two years. I picked up coverage from Best Buy since they have a three repair lemon guarantee on the keyboard. So three keyboard swaps and I get into a new 2018/2019 MacBook Pro. Or if the MacBook gets trashed, I get bumped into the 2018/2019.

However, what I am struggling with is that the 2018 i9/32GB are built to order so not readily carried models at Best Buy. This could change in 2019 if the higher base config comes with 32GB RAM.

I do agree with the OP that the 2017 users got shafted with this jump not in just processor, but also in RAM, better keyboard and slightly larger battery, and true tone display.
 
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Imaging trying to sell it in 3 years when you have the 2018 to compete with.

The only saving grace might be that the i9 throttles due to heat a lot. 10nm with prob 6-8cores might be worth the wait.....until 2020....

Also I have been checked pricing , to get a decent upgrade from top spec 2017 would be i9, 32gb ram and 1tb ssd at least.... it costs more and probably even if you got a good price for 2017 will be looking at atleast 1000 USD upgrade

I’m
Leaning towards keeping 2017 and seeing what happens with CPU arch in future and presumably SSD prices/ram prices will come down. IE 32 and 64GB ram options. 6 core as default.
 
I have the 2016 model. It works well. But it sometimes get extremely hot, like 100 degrees for simple tasks as tabs and videos. Yes, i use Chrome sometimes at the same time as Safari. But it´s so hot. IF the 2018 model is a lot cooler with this kind of use, i will buy one.
 
jgbr said:
Imaging trying to sell it in 3 years when you have the 2018 to compete with.

The only saving grace might be that the i9 throttles due to heat a lot. 10nm with prob 6-8cores might be worth the wait.....until 2020....

Also I have been checked pricing , to get a decent upgrade from top spec 2017 would be i9, 32gb ram and 1tb ssd at least.... it costs more and probably even if you got a good price for 2017 will be looking at atleast 1000 USD upgrade

I’m
Leaning towards keeping 2017 and seeing what happens with CPU arch in future and presumably SSD prices/ram prices will come down. IE 32 and 64GB ram options. 6 core as default.
Click to expand...

The caveat in my purchase is the accidental coverage.

Even though Apple extended the keyboard warranty to four years, Best Buy still has a three repair lemon guarantee. Worst case, the accidental will offer a free upgrade into a 2018/2019/2020 MBP.

The concern is that will the i9/32 GB ever become a base config for the upper models, like non-built to order/readily stocked SKU.

Well, there is the possibikpos we will see LPDDR4 next year and maybe Vega GPU?

Also 2020 might be when Apple brings 4K to the MBP.

I just feel very salty after this silent 2018 update lol. I was expecting just a processors bump to 6 core/i9 option.

But 32GB RAM....
 
I think the 2017 model smoothed our all the issues of the 2016 bar the keyboard.

This is now the dilemma for 2017, hanging on a few years might bring in tech seen on PC and upcoming tech like LPDDR4, shrunk dies, better GPUs and 4K.

I guess we end up full circle that in real terms if you need the pure processing power and ram it’s a no brainer apart from that there maybe no need.

Early days for a first gen i9 mobile... think about what a revision of that will be in a few years.....
 
Schranke said:
As much as I would like to upgrade to the lates and greatest it is not worth it for me. The 2017 machine is great, and im not hitting any limitations with it. The 15" might be seems to ba a little faster on short peak test, but I do not think the cooling is adequate in long term performance unless apple have done something incredible. And the 2018 should perform better in a multicore situation due to the extra two cores, so unless what you work with on your MBP scales really well with cores there would be a reason to upgrade.
Click to expand...
I second this with my 2017 MBP. It awesome, fast enough, no issues with the keyboard (knock on wood), and honestly I’m not concerned at all about the “value” of my machine being worth less with these new models coming out, as I plan to keep it until it’s too slow for my needs anyways, which by that time it won’t be worth a while anyways on the resale or trade-in market.

Doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could afford to trade up to a nice 6 core 15” machine, but there is no real reason to do so. Maybe after four years, when my machine is no longer eligible for the keyboard repair program I’ll buy a newer, better and greater machine, but for now I’m quite content.
 
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I had upgraded in October to the 2017 with top specs 13 inch I7/16gb Ram/1 TB.

My plan was to hold onto this one until a Quad Core came out, and I would upgrade to that for the long haul. I didn’t think they were going to pull it off for a few years. So I placed my order to the higher specs and am receiving it Monday. I’m going to mess around with it, particularly with Final Cut Pro, and if it performs as expected, I have myself future proofed for at least the next 5 years like my MacBook Pro before that and hope the depreciation on the 2017 is minimal.
 
I started out this 2018 release cycle feeling really slighted. My wife and I saved up for a few years (yeah, really) to get our first ever MBP 13' laptops. About 1.5 months ago we bought our first 2017 MBP 13' TB laptops after having a MacBook Air 11' for 3+ years.

We almost maxed these things out... 16GB Ram, next to top CPU, I got 1TB SSD, wife got 512GB ssd, etc...

Then, I hear and see that Apple upgraded the 13' MBP to have 32 GB Ram, 2TB SSD, and a CPU that is 2x faster (Apple's own verbiage on their site). Having saved for a few years for these things ... just to have them outdated in 1.5 months - my jaw dropped.

Then, sites started correcting their initial reports... the 13 MBP did not get 32 GB ram. The CPU was NOT 2x faster than our i5 3.3Ghz processors, but 2x faster than the baseline. Also, 2TB SSD was $1200. <cough wheeze cough>.

After that, I smiled and was again happy with my 2017 MBP 13' TB. My wife and I absolutely LOVE these laptops - we use them for hours every day. I retired my Windows laptop, Mac mini 2011, MBA 11' - this is my primary and only computer. My wife uses hers every day for work and will start her phd at the end of this month.

We both really like these keyboards too. Having AppleCare+ and an extra year of "keyboard" coverage has me happy - I really like the keyboard and the TB model with the extra fan keeps the laptop fairly cool, even when gaming. Expecting to get 6+ years out of these things.


Sorry for the long post, but, it is my first MBP :). So, hell no, not upgrading anytime soon.
 
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i mean, the newer macbooks sure have much improvement in CPU performance. but that doesn't mean the older ones are bad at all. also tbh i don't think cooling is enough for the new processors.

so if you get a really good price for your 2017 and you are gonna use the extra cores or you already use cpu demanding apps. just do it. if you don't, it really doesn't worth it.

the only thing worrying me is not replacing the gen 2 keyboard with gen 3. if they do it then i am totally fine with my 2017 macbook for another 3 years at least.

i expect a big price hit selling these boys though. 2017 15" now are basically a larger 2018 13" macbooks with extra dGPU.
 
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ESA said:
I have the 2016 model. It works well. But it sometimes get extremely hot, like 100 degrees for simple tasks as tabs and videos. Yes, i use Chrome sometimes at the same time as Safari. But it´s so hot. IF the 2018 model is a lot cooler with this kind of use, i will buy one.
Click to expand...
Disable Chrome Hardware Acceleration - it will run much cooler since it won't use discrete graphics. You can also disable discrete graphics altogether if no other app needs it.
 
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