I think Apple will be killing the entry level MBPs, the starting will be $1800 instead of $1300
and the new models like Macbook Air 2 or New Macbook will be pricing at $1300
So there will be no such thing as budget macbook in the future, except buying older models produced a few years ago
What do you want from a computer... TBH if your questioning the price then its not the product for you. You need to manage expectation with need and use. Many people get lost and criticize yet dont need the capability. These are now serious machines that will be proper desktop replacements for people because they outperform most of the apple line.
If you make money with the machine its a drop in the ocean. One project for me would pay for any of the reasonable configs of these macbook pros.
The macbook pro has been lacking in recent years so now people think the macbook pro is the baseline... thats not the case and I wish they had discontinued the low end macbook pros for this reason.
The high end macbooks and non touchbar macbook pros perform within 10-15% of each other, yet the macbook is far lighter and a much smaller footprint yet is only an inch smaller. They are amazing machines, im a pro photographer and have the slowest base line 2015 macbook and its great even now. Has no issue chomping through 30mp 5DMKIV files with the newest metal and lightroom updates.
I mean you cant get much slower it benches at like 2500 single and 4400 single, its piss poor on paper. Yet the new metal updates in HS and Adobe CC becoming more optimized the laptop feels quick. You can edit 4k on it... although I wouldn't want to render it on the machine. Oh and you can buy them for like £400 now...
I couldn't use is as a main machine but for cataloging, the odd edit, social media and media consumption it is excellent. The 2017 version on the macbook is almost twice the speed and could probably do the job, thats where your price point is. I dont know why there is so much stigma toward them they are excellent products for the majority of people. The only downside is the single port.
The problem isnt with the macbook pros its with the offerings from intel. There isnt a chip available from intel in this generation to update them therefore it hasnt happened.
At the end of the day the pro machines are for pros and have a price tag to match. This update should be hushing people saying they arent pro machines because the capability of even the i7 quad touch bar 13" is insane. Its faster than almost everything but much higher end machines. Its in 8th place on the single core mac list which insane for an entry level pro product. Its 43% faster single core than my mac pro in my sig and roughly 17% faster multicore... thats insane for a 13" macbook. Granted my mac pro is from 2010 with a 2012 CPU but in 6 years for a portable to be able to replace that level of machine is beyond impressive. Its port selection also enables things that my pro machine cant.
The base 13 macbook pro quad is about 10% slower so still blazing fast. First big processor update in 7 years, there has been very little to upgrade for... this is it. Doubling performance is a 2000's thing it doesn't happen anymore and yet here we are.
For me i have enough multicore performance in my mac pro but the single is the struggle. To replace a huge desktop with a 13" macbook pro and get more performance (On paper) is mental, then unplug it and take that performance with me is incredible. Its the ultimate portable studio atm especially if you add an EGPU, raid array etc
If you cant see value in that then im not sure what you will see value in.
Then there is the 15" which plays with the base iMac pro... those machines will be incredible.
I honestly cant see the disappointment!
If you wanted a macbook pro, now is the time. Get one quickly so you wont have a 12-18 month wait for the next iteration and get the best bang for buck.
For me I will replace my macbook with an i7 13" Macbook pro and if the imac update with these chips has similar gains then the iMac will probably be within 5% of the current baseline iMac pro for about 25% cheaper. This will replace the mac pro with an i7 or i9 18 iMac.
I have criticised apple heavily since the release of the 16 macbook pro and their lack of real presence in the pro market, it seems like they are answering these criticisms. These updates are using chips released this quarter, not 12 months ago, so will be faster than any other equivalent machine on the market.
