Apple Launches 2018 MacBook Pros: 8th Gen Core, Up to 32GB of RAM, Third-Gen Keyboard, Quad-Core on 13-Inch and More

[antonis]

While true, but I'd say, consistently faulty means every single of those keyboards is a failure. It is not so. For some, on this very forum, the issues have yet to surface.

Agreed. Maybe 'consistently' wasn't the right word, but still the reported issues are spanned across machines that have been produced/shipped for 3 years in a row now (beginning with 12" MB of 2015 with the first butterfly keyboard and all the models sold until then).

 

[Spock]

I didn’t read all 36 pages of comments so I’m sure this has been posted already but since the non-touchbar MacBook Pro and the 12 inch MacBook didn’t get an upgrade could that mean they may merge the two? It sure would clean up the product line to get rid of the Air and the non-tb MacBook Pros. Put an i5 and another USB-C port on the 12 inch MacBook and I would buy it on day one. I remember my 12 inch PowerBook G4, I used that thing to death. And as far as price is concerned, I paid over $1700 for that PowerBook...

 

[DevNull0]

Yes, a middle finger to all of those Mac fans who wanted the latest intel processors and 32GB of ram. Because nothing that a i9 6 core, 32Gb of ram, 4tb ssd, with 10 hours of battery life machine can do, can't be done on an iPad Pro...

If all you use your computer for is trolling on forums, it's totally overkill.

Apple should get applause for buying the latest CPU from intel and putting it into their machine?

And a cap of 32 gig of still last generation ram in a $6700 laptop is a good thing do you? At that price point you'd get 128 gig from any other vendor.

Same defective keyboard. Same soldered ram and SSD. Same have to buy the emojibar if you want the 15" or more than a tablet CPU in the 13". Same absurd pricing on ram/SSD as years ago even though in 2018 those prices have dropped that much more outside the swimming pool of Apple kool-aid Same gimp video chips.

Same gimp ports that require adapters for everything. Way back in 2015 on the MB, USB-C was promised as the future. Now with machines released a full 3 years latter, when browsing newegg/best buy/etc that future is still clearly no closer. And a machine with only USB-C is still a gimp piece of crap. Makes as much sense in 2018 as a machine with only firewire would have made in 2011. Exactly zero sense.

 

[Val-kyrie]

I specifically want to know when Apple execs ever compared the 6/6 Plus to the 5 or 5S in terms of how easy (or not) it was to bend yer phone.

Watch this video and the other videos from Louis Rossman. This will have the information you require. Otherwise google it. Apple had a live demo which was extensively reported. I don't keep links from 4 years ago, but you can do your own research or live in denial. Methinks you drink too much of the Apple Kool-Aid.

Update: Here is one last link, straight from MacRumors.

 

[Ethosik]

It has the same GPUs as the models from last year, which weren’t all that “powerful”...

We have shifted to an External world now. I would much prefer an okay internal graphics card with amazing battery life (because you know these are laptops) to an amazing internal graphics card with horrible battery life. eGPUs exist now and you get get a 3x eGPU setup if you need that much power.
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There isn't much to justify having an Apple Event just for these refreshes. If they were ready at WWDC, they would have probably done it then.

Plus they probably want to focus on making pros happy again my spending quite a bit of time on the new Mac Pro in a later event.
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In all fairness, this could be a great machine for creative designers developing web/apps.

Those who are working in a business and who are mostly working remotely and who have pro apps installed but who are saving their work / accessing assets from a network/cloud drive.

I’m not a designer but I’ve worked places where people saving their work onto their machine’s drives is severely frowned upon!

Not everyone is working on 4K video or audio or video post production & so not everyone needs huge local drives.

Yep I work on a few clients computers that just have a Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB and are not even using half of that.
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Actually, I believe anything MORE than 256 GB is a joke and unnecessary.
Any real work should be done on external hard drives or the cloud.

Then again (and no sarcasm here), maybe I'm wrong - what could the reason be for a larger internal drive on a Macbook? Maybe I don't know.

But for anyone doing photo or video work, the real work has to be done offline to be more efficient workflow wise.

Not only that, we are no longer in the 2000s. An external Samsung 850 Evo 4TB is able to achieve 500 MB/s. Sure it is not 3+GB/s, but it should be enough for video editing and photo work.

 

[Spock]

Apple should get applause for buying the latest CPU from intel and putting it into their machine?

And a cap of 32 gig of still last generation ram in a $6700 laptop is a good thing do you? At that price point you'd get 128 gig from any other vendor.

Same defective keyboard. Same soldered ram and SSD. Same have to buy the emojibar if you want the 15" or more than a tablet CPU in the 13". Same absurd pricing on ram/SSD as years ago even though in 2018 those prices have dropped that much more outside the swimming pool of Apple kool-aid Same gimp video chips.

Same gimp ports that require adapters for everything. Way back in 2015 on the MB, USB-C was promised as the future. Now with machines released a full 3 years latter, when browsing newegg/best buy/etc that future is still clearly no closer. And a machine with only USB-C is still a gimp piece of crap. Makes as much sense in 2018 as a machine with only firewire would have made in 2011. Exactly zero sense.

How is DDR4 a generation behind? Is DDR5 out already? And USB-C is the future, most computers are shipping with USB-C ports including the new low cost Surface tablet and even the Nintendo Switch. And a FireWire only computer wouldn’t have made sense because FireWire was not as versatile as USB-C/Thunderbolt 3. Sure having dongles sucks but now you can get adapters and use those ports for what ever you want, need dual gigabit Ethernet ports? No problem, get two adapters etc.

 

[Ethosik]

That has to be one of the worst defenses I've ever heard. Many people don't use external hard drives or the cloud. I surely don't rely on those when I'm working. I usually back up every once in a while, but it's never my sole storage source. Extra storage is never a bad thing. For some users a laptop is their only Machine. People store music, photos, movies, documents, etc... So yes, it's not a joke. Thanks.

I partially agree with you and him. This is why I have had to deal with so many horrible situations where someone got Ransomware and did not back up their important work.

It is very easy to get a 4TB Samsung 850 EVO and an external 2.5" enclosure and get 500MB/s speeds for work.

I take my data very seriously. I back up to three 8TB external hard drives, keeping one off site. I also back up to my 12TB NAS (three drive failure redundant). I also backup to the cloud as much as I can (8TB+ of Cloud storage is VERY expensive, so I do not have that much cloud storage available at the moment).

 

[Gintoki-kun]

Another overpriced line up...

Been wanting to replace my 2013 rMBP since the battery is like 46% or so of its max.
Thing is, touch bar, I don't need you. Just an extra thing that ramps up the price for no need and we are left with an overpriced laptop (13" at least). I am happy with the fact that finally we have quad core on a 13". But come on, the price is out of this world for a base model

 

[Ethosik]

Apple is penalized for putting form over function in their top end notebooks and designing thermal constraints that are asinine given the chips that actually exist in the real world. All in the name of making a super-thin ultrabook and then trying to pretend it's a machine for power users.

They do not put form over function. They put user experience over unnecessary power hungry components that just satisfies the minority.

Pretty decent CPU
Okay internal GPU
In some systems, LPDDR memory which maxes out to 16GB by the processor
Lower capacity SSDs vs larger capacity HDDs for lower price
Lower retina resolution instead if unnecessarily rending stuff at 4K just to have 4K on the spec sheet

All of these decisions make up for one of the most critical spec in a laptop which is battery life. My 2016 MacBook Pro laster 8 hours one day on battery when I was just working on Pages all day with plenty of battery life to spare. This is one of the reasons I choose Apple. People argue form over function, but I argue battery life vs power. Just get a good CPU and good RAM. External storage and external GPUs now make up for the internals if you need it.

 

[bluecoast]

It is actually cheaper. $3,899.00 for the following:

• 2.9GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz
• Retina display with True Tone
• Touch Bar and Touch ID
• Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
• 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory
• 1TB SSD storage

When I got my 2016 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, best GPU available, highest CPU, it was $4,500. So the new laptop is actually much cheaper
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When has Apple said they are focusing on a gaming system? This is what I find so irritating. This is like complaining that the NVIDIA Quadro series are horrible for gaming when they are built for other purposes.

Gaming is certainly mentioned, but it is not a primary purpose to what these computers are created for. All these people comparing these computers to "gaming first" laptops are missing the point.

Let me ask you something, is gaming on a GTX 1050 card possible? How about a GTX 970 still? YES. It will not play games at 4K at 60+ FPS solidly.

These AMD GPUs do just fine with gaming. Not max settings and 4K 60 FPS, but not 1FPS maximum like the way some people here go on and on make it seem. Again, it all comes down to optimization. Heck, even my GTX 1080 in my dedicated gaming Windows PC struggles at 2560x1440 to even get 60fps on some games. There are STILL places in WoW that bring my FPS down to 10.

Look, we probably will not be playing 4K 60fps Doom 2016 on Mac systems. But these systems certainly can play a lot of games very well - some games might require medium settings and a lower resolution. Companies just need to take the time to optimize. If the Nintendo Switch can optimize pretty well to get Doom 2016 to play in Handheld mode, these Macs should be fine if companies just spent a bit of time optimizing.

Still to this day I have not run into a recent game that is so well optimized other than GTA 5 on Windows. That game is so buttery smooth, even doing super sampling at 5K on my GTX 1080 I am able to get around 50-60 FPS on average. Bayonetta is a close second in terms of optimization. Other games are so badly optimized even my GTX 1080 struggles at 2560x1440 to get a constant 60fps.

Absolutely. I’m not at all complaining that the MBP isn’t a gaming machine.

Again, when you go onto the product page and to the scrolling tab showing the various applications that run great on the new MBP, Fortnite is on the last tab, out of sight ‘behind the fold’. That says it all.

 

[kazmac]

It is actually cheaper. $3,899.00 for the following:

• 2.9GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz
• Retina display with True Tone
• Touch Bar and Touch ID
• Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
• 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory
• 1TB SSD storage

When I got my 2016 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, best GPU available, highest CPU, it was $4,500. So the new laptop is actually much cheaper

When you factor in tax and Apple Care, it's over $4k. As I said elsewhere, I understand that there is state of the art RAM, CPU and SSDs inside, but Touch bar, questionable keyboard reliability, and Apple raising prices to increase their profit margins are three risks I am not willing to take.

In defense to the 2017 iMacs, for $3k I could buy an iMac that would blow away every iMac I've owned. To me, that's a good value and a price I'd be willing to pay IF the QC/Build Quality for hardware and software were ironed out.

I am a little nervous that this Fall's potential updates to the iMac and Mac Mini will probably push up the prices again, to say nothing of QC / build quality. I am not sure if I want to risk putting out so much for another iMac, so I am hoping the Mini will be powerful enough to serve my needs and wants.

If Apple were building rock solid hardware and software and weren't price gouging to push up their profit margins, I wouldn't be complaining. My 2017 12.9" iPad Pro flaked out and Apple said nothing was wrong with it, so I just sold it and took a loss of nearly a grand. I am rather hesitant in giving them full price (or even educational discount price) for any of their tech now.

Back on the topic, regardless, I do hope anyone who orders these MBPs gets the machine they want with no keyboard etc. issues. It looks beautiful on paper and I love the idea of TrueTone on a Mac Display.

 

[macintoshmac]

Well when I win the lottery I’ll buy a new Mac. My dad still has a 2010 MBP cause they’re too expensive to buy a new one. In any case I’ve had this discussion on here before and it amazes me how people can justify the prices of goods and services these days. I don’t want to get into it again.

I am definitely not justifying the prices. Talking about prices, I think the notebooks have been priced steeply right from 2016, I got a 13" mid model for $300 more than what I paid for 15" top model 5 years ago.

These notebooks are definitely not cheap. But, if you purchase them, what they offer can be some consolation.

 

[bluecoast]

When you factor in tax and Apple Care, it's over $4k. As I said elsewhere, I understand that there is state of the art RAM, CPU and SSDs inside, but Touch bar, questionable keyboard reliability, and Apple raising prices to increase their profit margins are three risks I am not willing to take.

View attachment 770398 In defense to the 2017 iMacs, for $3k I could own an iMac that would blow away any iMac I've ever owned. To me, that's a good value and a price I'd be willing to pay IF the QC/Build Quality for hardware and software were ironed out.

I am a little nervous that this Fall's potential updates to the iMac and Mac Mini will probably push up the prices again, to say nothing of QC / build quality. I am not sure if I want to risk putting out so much for another iMac, so I am hoping the Mini will be powerful enough to serve my needs and wants.

If Apple were building rock solid hardware and software and weren't price gouging to push up their profit margins, I wouldn't be complaining. My 2017 12.9" iPad Pro flaked out and Apple said nothing was wrong with it, so I just sold it and took a loss of nearly a grand. I am rather hesitant in giving them full price (or even educational discount price) for any of their tech now.

Regardless, I do hope anyone who orders these MBPs gets the machine they want with no keyboard etc. issues. It looks beautiful on paper and I love the idea of TrueTone on a Mac Display.

Again, I’m not here to defend Apple, but these are pro machines.

Meaning that you’ll buy them for a company - this could be as a freelancer all the way up to a mega-Corp.

And importantly, you’ll claim the sales tax back as it’s an purchase that you’ll put against being a core business asset ie so these machines are not that expensive in the end...

...Especially for situations where you are working on a multi million dollar advertising campaign etc and you just need to get your work done yesterday ie where a super fast turnaround time is absolutely key.

For anyone who doesn’t absolutely need the power of these machines - and if you don’t, you’re probably not a ‘pro’ - I think you should wait until the fall when we’ll almost certainly we’ll get iMac & Mini updates and this new mysterious MBA replacement.

EDIT: I know what you mean on the pricing. I too hope that there is now starting to be a clear line between Apple’s pro and consumer machines - with pricing to reflect that ie consumer machines are much cheaper.

Who knows, we might all be pleasantly surprised!

 

[bopajuice]

One big reason is that didn't want to beyond the return period and apple releases an update, which is precisely what they did. Returning it then, offered me more options. In all honesty, while not perfect, I really liked the razer, and I may buy it again. As the dust settles with the new MBP, I'm left with mixture of feelings. I'm not sure they addressed the defective keyboard.

Perhaps, I'm no lawyer, but we'll find out in the coming weeks as people like iFixit will tear open the laptop and we'll get a first hand look at the keyboard.

I really liked mine a well. The big problem for me was software. I mark up and edit a lot of Pdf files. Nothing Windows offers is even close to Preview in terms of ease of use. I could have bought Adobe Acrobat, but I am not a fan of subscriptions or paying for something that comes with MacOS as part of the OS. The free versions were not that good. I cant imagine having to visit a website to combine and merge PDF files when all you have to do in MacOS is drag and drop.

I really liked the Razer. It is thin, fast, and built well. The screen was very nice. I just did not have the time or desire to reinvest in software to get to where the Mac is without spending an extra dime.

On another note, Windows worked fine for me overall. No issues. Like you, I may revisit Razer at some point.

 

[elmaco]

Even if they replace it, what you've bought is a POS, I'd return it entirely if I was you.

Apple will not replace the keyboard. It will cost me $800 to repair, and who says it will not break down again in 6 months?

The only alternative is to get a PC, perhaps a Hackintosh, or use a 2015 model.

 

[maflynn]

The big problem for me was software

Yeah there's that, not just PDFs but other things that we take for granted in macOS. I know there are counterparts in windows, and I also know there are apps available in Windows, that's not available in macOS. Finding them and working with them can consume time, especially since the risk of malware is higher in windows then macOS.

The screen was very nice.

I love the idea of having a matte screen, no question about that, but the MBP's screen is deeper in color and was a higher resolution. In some ways its sort of a tie, I like Razer's screen in one way, but the MBP screen is better in other ways

 

[kazmac]

Again, I’m not here to defend Apple, but these are pro machines.

Meaning that you’ll buy them for a company - this could be as a freelancer all the way up to a mega-Corp.

And importantly, you’ll claim the sales tax back as it’s an purchase that you’ll put against being a core business asset ie so these machines are not that expensive in the end...

...Especially for situations where you are working on a multi million dollar advertising campaign etc and you just need to get your work done yesterday ie where a super fast turnaround time is absolutely key.

For anyone who doesn’t absolutely need the power of these machines - and if you don’t, you’re probably not a ‘pro’ - I think you should wait until the fall when we’ll almost certainly we’ll get iMac & Mini updates and this new mysterious MBA replacement.

EDIT: I know what you mean on the pricing. I too hope that there is now starting to be a clear line between Apple’s pro and consumer machines - with pricing to reflect that ie consumer machines are much cheaper.

Who knows, we might all be pleasantly surprised!

No worries at all.

Sure, I understand that there are many professionals and businesses who want and need that kind of horse power and can claim the purchase for business use. Apple has never been "cheap" so to speak. More power to the pros (literally).

What I really want is rock solid build quality in the hardware and software. That's my main concern now. I'll be glad to throw Apple my money if I can have another Mac that runs well for 4-5 years.

 

[bluecoast]

No worries at all.

Sure, I understand that there are many professionals and businesses who want and need that kind of horse power and can claim the purchase for business use. Apple has never been "cheap" so to speak. More power to the pros (literally).

What I really want is rock solid build quality in the hardware and software. That's my main concern now. I'll be glad to throw Apple my money if I can have another Mac that runs well for 4-5 years.

Yeah, the jury is out on build quality, absolutely!

This is from someone who breathed a huge sigh of relief when Apple announced the free keyboard repair program.

I lived in a constant
state of paranoia/fear whenever I opened up my MBP 13 2017 & had daily thoughts about converting my home office into a clean room (ok I exaggerate!).

Let’s see what the tear downs bring. With units being delivered today, it shouldn’t be too long.

 

[tipoo]

Uses GDDR5X? Probably not...

Nah, but on investigating after my comment -

Radeon Pro 560 - 1.9Tflops
Radeon Pro 560X - ??

Radeon RX 560 - 2.4Tflops
Radeon RX 560X - 2.6Tflops

So I would expect this Radeon Pro 560X is somewhere around 2.2Tflops. Already see sites reporting it as the 2.6Tflops of the last one, I expect them to be wrong. Gotta love when Apple launches with a GPU name that doesn't exist in any other companies lineup and it causes confusion through the internet and a bit of research for anyone who cares, lol.

Most of the difference was in the RX vs Pro in other words, the X offers a slight bump.

 

[naturalstar]

Maybe it’s been said somewhere and already addressed (no time to read all pages right now), but I wonder if these price increases are in part due to the new tariffs put in place? Last I read, electronics are being affected.

It’s definitely tough to swallow when one doesn’t really need a MacBook Pro, but has had one and wouldn’t mind continuing with one (like myself). Oh well, my 2013 15” was a treat to myself and I got it at a great price from BB at the time. I’ve enjoyed using it, but I’m not pressed for another at the moment. I would just like to get another eventually. Guess I’ll wait for another good deal to show up. Nice to see the refreshes either way.

 

[DevNull0]

They do not put form over function. They put user experience over unnecessary power hungry components that just satisfies the minority.

Wow. I have to say I'm truly stunned you can actually believe that.

What is unnecessary power hungry? Literally every other PC vendor on the planet has machines of comparable power to Apple (usually at the sub-$500 price point), up to hugely powerful workstations in a laptop form factor (at the Apple price point).

Isn't it up for the user to decide? Apple has 3 laptop lineups, surely there's a range for extremely limited machines like the current macbook pros and much more capable machines (like the circa 2010-2012 macbook pros) somewhere in that lineup.

And if you think that a gimp undersized, underpowered laptop with a crate of dongles, external GPUs, external storage devices, and an external keyboard is a pleasant user experience. There are just no words to describe that opinion.

You clearly have no interested in a high performance computer yet you feel justified in telling people who do what they really need. Just amazing.

 

[Feenician]

Wow. I have to say I'm truly stunned you can actually believe that.

What is unnecessary power hungry? Literally every other PC vendor on the planet has machines of comparable power to Apple (usually at the sub-$500 price point), up to hugely powerful workstations in a laptop form factor (at the Apple price point).

Isn't it up for the user to decide? Apple has 3 laptop lineups, surely there's a range for extremely limited machines like the current macbook pros and much more capable machines (like the circa 2010-2012 macbook pros) somewhere in that lineup.

And if you think that a gimp undersized, underpowered laptop with a crate of dongles, external GPUs, external storage devices, and an external keyboard is a pleasant user experience. There are just no words to describe that opinion.

You clearly have no interested in a high performance computer yet you feel justified in telling people who do what they really need. Just amazing.

Can I see the sub-$500 machines comparable to a MacBook Pro please?

 

[LizKat]

As soon as the 32GB option is available in the 13", I'm buying (this 2012 model is starting to show is age).

My situation also, but but but the ports. I'm gonna have to get over that. Time moves on.

But but but the price. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to learn to love the MacBook my next trip to the well for a laptop.

Still have a year left on applecare on an Apple refurb'd mid 2012 13" MBP bought in 2016 so I'll remain a spectator for awhile yet.

 

[DevNull0]

And USB-C is the future, most computers are shipping with USB-C ports including the new low cost Surface tablet and even the Nintendo Switch.

USB-C is the future? Tell that to the people who bought MacBooks in 2015 with only a single USB-C port. They now have 3 year old machines with this port that is still "the future" and all they have to show for it is a pile of dongles to use this port that will be the one true port of the future. In a couple years when they retire their machines they can be proud of their forward-thinking port even though they never connected anything to it without an adapter.

Other devices give you multiple ports including USB-C. And people who have the choice, are, so far, ignoring it (the evidence is the complete Mojave Desert full of native USB-C hardware on the market).

When new ports hit the market that actually are the future, they come out on computers along side legacy ports to ease the transition and people switch to the new port over a few years because it is just flat-out better.

USB-C has been the only port Apple gives you for 3 years, and the user-base still does not exist for it.

And to prove what a steaming turd even Apple knows USB-C really is, you can't even plug the latest iPhones into a USB-C only mac without an adapter.

Plenty of "better" connections have failed over the years. microchannel was far better than ISA, and yet it flopped miserably while ISA lived a couple of years longer before something came to replace it. SCSI never hit mainstream beyond high-end servers despite being better than anything else on the market. OS/2 was absolutely better than Windows, we know how that one turned out. The list is endless.

And USB-C has gained zero traction in 3 years. 3 years ago, it was very common on PC motherboards, now it's become much more rare and is fading away. USB-C has had it's run, it is a flop, and much like MCA and SCSI, it will sort of float around a minor fringe for a couple more years until the equivalent of EISA and SATA come along to be the real "future" and you won't need a company trying to force it. It will happen fast and naturally before you even realize it's here. That describes the entire history of computing.

And where Apple as screwed up big-time is making this piece of road-kill at the side of the information highway the only port on their macs.
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Can I see the sub-$500 machines comparable to a MacBook Pro please?

Oh, please, that game has been going on on this forum for ages. I find a machine that performance-wise will beat the MBP at under $500 plus have socketed ram, 2.5" drive bay, etc. And you will complain it's not as thin, not the same build quality (which is BS), shorter battery life, etc. While I say it's better because it has a proper keyboard.

I'm not playing that game, just look at your best buy flyer and you'll see plenty of laptops at the price point that would do the job if you would have an open mind and not play semantic games.

 

[Feenician]

Oh, please, that game has been going on on this forum for ages. I find a machine that performance-wise will beat the MBP at under $500 plus have socketed ram, 2.5" drive bay, etc. And you will complain it's not as thin, not the same build quality (which is BS), shorter battery life, etc. While I say it's better because it has a proper keyboard.

I'm not playing that game, just look at your best buy flyer and you'll see plenty of laptops at the price point that would do the job if you would have an open mind and not play semantic games.

No. I don’t expect that any machine you find will be the same build quality, or battery life, or as thin. What I am saying is that you wont produce a sub $500 with the same 8th gen quad core i5, with 3.2Gbs NVMe SSDs etc. And you won’t because such a thing would not be possible without losing money on every unit. I’m playing nice here and looking at the absolute bottom end of the 13” 2018s.

Making claims you cannot back up is against the forum rules btw.