2019 Macbook Pro?

[Harry110]

The logic board on my 2011 15" Macbook Pro died on me last week. Very sad to see her go. And even more sad because another 15" is out of my price range due to needing/wanting 512GB of storage.

After checking the trusty Buyer's Guide, it says "don't buy." I've seen the rumors of a redesign and a 16/16.5" MBP. Is there thought to be a redesign for the 13" MBP as well? What about educated guesses as to a release month? I'd be willing to wait till the summer. But if it's likely to be sometime in the fall or winter, I might as well buy the 2018 at the best sale price I can find.

Forgive the "crystal ball" nature of these questions, but so many of you have a better perspective to make a more informed decision than I. Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[mroy16]

I haven't seen anything about a redesign for the smaller sizes, though it's always possible that a new design is applied to the entire existing lineup. I also seem to remember hearing that the redesign is likely to be bumped to '20 or '21.

New notebooks are often released in the early fall, around the back-to-school season. If I recall correctly, October give or take a month is typical.

The only thing to note about buying a 13" right now is that the baseline non-TB model did not receive an update in 2018 and is indeed the 2017 model. The TB 13" and 15" models were all updated in 2018.

 

[maflynn]

With WWDC only a month away, I say wait and see. Right now the chatter appears to be leaning towards not seeing a redesign.

Given the issues with the keyboard, and Apple issuing an apology over said keyboard, I believe we'll see an update to the butterfly keyboard at the very least.

 

[Nbd1790]

I think we'll see an updated butterfly keyboard (new generation) which may solve some issues with failing keyboards, but it will most likely have the same key travel issues (if you view them as an issue, which most people do)

Taking an educated guess here, I would think this year is only going to be a spec bump in terms of processing power and the outer housing / shell will remain the same. I know people are hoping for a complete redesign (or in the least some sort of a design overhaul) but based off of rumors, most likely a spec bump. Not sure what the plans are for the 13 nTB model considering the Air seems to sort of be a refresh to that particular model (despite lower processor configurations / power)

Again, this is just my opinion, but I would be genuinely surprised to see a major change from the current models for this year.

 

[Harry110]

Thanks for the responses. The idea of buying something that seems to be destined not to last 5+ years (as my 2011 did) has me a bit paralyzed. It seems the last few models of MBP came out in the summer (June 2017 and July 2018.) The question remains will they announce a new one at WWDC? Which will, of course, come right after potential Memorial Day Sales. Thanks again, and if anyone else has thoughts or suggestions I'd continue to appreciate them.

 

[thevault]

Maybe they will release a new MBP in 2024 Tim Genius is having trouble just releasing a new MP in 2020

 

[playtech1]

I could see a minor redesign this year, with the same resolution screen being pushed out a little in each direction with smaller bezels (small bezels was the hot thing in Windows laptops in 2018), plus yet another re-spin of the Keyboard O'Doom.

 

[shaunp]

Do yourself a favour and get a 'temporary' laptop until Apple's plans are clear. By that I mean just get something second hand and cheap - MacBook, PC laptop, Chromebook, whatever. Just anything to see you through until there's a better time to buy. The current MBP is a dog. Horrible unreliable keyboard and thermal throttles a lot. They have made it too thin for spec of CPU/GPU and it doesn't have sufficient cooling. On top of that there's issue of the Mac Pro - will it be released this year and have Apple gone and done something wild like releasing a machine based on their own CPU? If Apple are going to be in a transitional period you might want to wait until the dust settles rather than been a beta tester. Even if Apple don't start making machines with their own CPU, I reckon they will want the current MBP out of support as quick as possible because of the design flaws.

 

[RumorConsumer]

You getting one?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-2019-benchmarks-and-first-impressions-post-yours

 

[Vjosullivan]

Do yourself a favour and get a 'temporary' laptop until ... there's a better time to buy.

No matter how long you wait, the following year's upgrade will be better but will still contain flaws.

Given that you've been happy with the 2011 model until it died; What is it that you do with your laptop that you think might be beyond the capability of the current models?

 

[shaunp]

No matter how long you wait, the following year's upgrade will be better but will still contain flaws.

Given that you've been happy with the 2011 model until it died; What is it that you do with your laptop that you think might be beyond the capability of the current models?

Running VM's - current laptop has 64GB RAM, which is sometimes not enough. I also could not live with keyboard. And now I am using a thicker laptop I appreciate not having to carry around a load of different adaptors. I also swapped out one of the SSD's the other day as I kept filling it. Yes, one of the SSD's, not THE SDD and I could do it myself in around 5 minutes if you exclude the time it took to copy data off the old one.

 

[Harry110]

I’m going to buy the 2019 MBP. If I could hold out for a major refresh I would, but I can’t. And besides, that is bound to have it’s own issues. If the 2020 turns out to be the best computer ever made, I’ll sell the one I’m about to get.

I’m thinking I’ll take advantage of B&H’s discounted price. From what I understand my American Express will extend warranties by a year. So the standard 1 year becomes 2 and if I get AppleCare+, I should be covered for a total of 4 years. (Please correct me if that is wrong.)

Anyone know whether the new 4 years of butterfly keyboard protection would become 5 with an American Express card?

 

[hajime]

.

 

[mragarg]

I’m thinking I’ll take advantage of B&H’s discounted price. From what I understand my American Express will extend warranties by a year. So the standard 1 year becomes 2 and if I get AppleCare+, I should be covered for a total of 4 years. (Please correct me if that is wrong.)

Anyone know whether the new 4 years of butterfly keyboard protection would become 5 with an American Express card?

I believe that is wrong. The American Express warranty would overlap with the AppleCare+. The card extends the Manufacturer's warranty by one year. The manufacturer's warranty is 1 year, so it's extended by another year.