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Born again 17" 5k Laptop coming...?
- Thread starter ChinkyBob
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Well, you are arguing very super specific uses as the one just described. Is there truly enough people doing you what do, that prefers using a Mac, that would be will spend $2500-$3000 minimum on a 17" rMBP for Apple to spend the R&D to make one? I'm willing to bet a good portion of that group is happy using the scaled 1920x1200 option on the rMBP.
Unlike the Mac Pro, which is also a small market, the 15" rMBP already exists against the 17" whereas there is no real alternative to those who need a Mac Pro with a Xeon, ECC RAM, Workstation GPUs, etc.
Oh I'd love one. Get a 970M or 980M in there, 32GB Ram. Bring back the powerhouse.
Oh please.
We all know the 17" wouldn't have any of this.
The 17" was a literally a high end 15" cMBP stuck into a larger chassis with the accompanying screen. I don't know what mythical land you hail from had a 17" that had better specs than what could be configured on the 15" cMBP.
As I've said numerous times across multiple threads, the only real advantage the 17" had over the 15" was the screen size, resolution, and extra USB port. People make it out like the 17" had dual drives and a better GPU. It didn't offer anything performance wise over the 15".
Thats nonsense. If they didn't sell well, they wouldnt still be around. Nearly every major manufacturer still makes at least one 17 inch model, several still make multiple 17 inch models.
Indeed, I am not pretending there's a big market for it, just justifying its existing for a market.
When I speak about powerhouse, I wasn't referring to apple's powerhouse. I am talking about the current crop of 980M and 970M SLI machines, or my little Alienware M17xR2 with two 5870 graphics cards and two SSD's. I didn't mind the bulk I loved the native 1920*1200 screen. All I am saying is that people will pay 4K to get what they want. Hell If I could get OSX on one of the new generation 980M notebooks I would be all over it.
I just don't see that happening. It would eat into Mac Pro sales and thats not even touching on the part of Apple turning far more mainstream with the current MacBook Pro. It is no secret that the "Pro" in the name is a bit of misnomer.
That is not to say that MacBook Pros can't handle hefty work loads but if you need that kind of power your going to be far better served by a Dell/Custom Build or a Mac Pro desktop.
Edit: HDD - Apple is never going to include hard drives in a future Mac notebook. There are simply to many benefits to flash storage at this point.
Assuming it had other TOTL specs, would you be willing to pay over $3000 usd for the privilege?
not an editor, not over 40. i just love my large 17 inch 2008 MBP. its hanging on its last legs now due to my clumsiness and the almost dead battery. given the option id snap up a 17 inch MBP but unfortunately i will have to go for the 15
the only reason i havent upgraded several years ago is the lack of that option
the only reason i havent upgraded several years ago is the lack of that option
I'm doing fairly well with a 2003 17" PowerBook G4 (1.0Ghz, A1013) and a 2006 17" MBP (A1151), both near mint condition.
I also have enough spare 17" PowerBook parts that my A1013 will be supported for quite a while.
Just chiming in here to add my enthusiasm for the 17" Macs.
Yes, and look at those models. They are all fairly low end machines that aren't nearly the match of even a basic Macbook Pro. The only really high end 17" notebooks still in production are gaming machines. We seem to go through threads like this every month; the market decided that 17" notebooks aren't popular. That's all there is to it.
Agreed. After that post I did some mock-shopping and was surprised by how low-end most of the 17" Windows notebooks are. People are right when they suggest a US$3000-4000 price point for the hypothetical 5K 17" MB. Apple would probably sell a couple of hundred of them...it would be a massive loss-maker.
It was ALWAYS big and awkward to carry around. It earned the nickname "the lunch tray" for a reason. I don't believe that the 17" was marketed properly. Instead of matching the 15" price points to lower the price and offer variations in specs, it was always equal to the high end 15" for no good reason. If, for instance, there was a 17" at $2100 and another at $2600 (a $100 premium over the 15"), I think it would have sold much better.
Yes they would have done but still in fairly small numbers and with a much lower profit margin, again not worth apples time and effort especially in the development dept.
I do think this had some part of the demise of 17" MBP. There were probably plenty of people who preferred to have the screen real estate of 17", but it was purposefully priced it out of range for most people. Apple essentially forced people to buy specs that they didn't need just because they wanted a large screen. Jumping from the 13 to 15" makes sense since the 15" brings more powerful graphics and quad-core processors. It made no sense to limit the 17" to such a high price point.
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You have my vote for the Macbook Pro 17 coming back, but I know there is no chance of Apple producing it again.
I have always bought 17" Macbook Pro 17 laptops (I have had 4 of them) I still have a Late 2011 Macbook Pro 17 that I have upgraded to SSD and 16GB memory. I also bought the latest Macbook Pro 15.4 Retina, and it does not compare to the 17 inch display. It does not replace the 17" model
I have always bought 17" Macbook Pro 17 laptops (I have had 4 of them) I still have a Late 2011 Macbook Pro 17 that I have upgraded to SSD and 16GB memory. I also bought the latest Macbook Pro 15.4 Retina, and it does not compare to the 17 inch display. It does not replace the 17" model
I've never understood Apple's system. Screen size should not correlate to power. At one point I wanted a small, light powerful notebook and left Apple to buy a Sony Vaio because they had 3lb machines with quad core processors, internal Blu-ray drives and discrete graphics, and I paid $2500 for it. I wish Apple would allow their customers to do the same.