Coming from a mid-2010 MacBook Pro, is the July 2019 refresh 13" MBPro a worthy upgrade?

[fwuz]

So as the title says, i have had my mid-2010 mbpro for nearly 9 years. and after a few personal modifications (8 GB RAM, 250GB SSD) which did give it new life, it's equipped with a 9 year old graphics card that makes photo editing near impossible. I use my laptop mainly for web browsing, youtube/Netflix, and light photo editing. i plan to get into light video editing when i upgrade. i read and watched countless videos on the July 2019 refresh of the 13" MacBook pro w/ 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, and i plan to get this July refresh model with the following configurations:

• 16 GB of storage
• 250 GB SSD

All in all this will cost me $1600, which is a great price considering that i was going to go for the 4 port model which would have costed me $300 more. Thank you Apple for this update!!! Is this a worthy upgrade? I considered upgrading last year, and the year before that, but i just kept waiting for some reason. I feel that now, especially with a 4 year butterfly keyboard warranty, is the best time for me to make the plunge. I really want to get into photo/video editing!

Also, with the keyboard warranty already included, is Applecare+ really necessary? I took really good care of my mid-2010, and even spilled diet Coke on it in the earlier years, and i just got super lucky with it. aside from the RAM and storage upgrades the only thing i needed was a battery replacement. I take pretty good care of my electronics.

 

[ruslan120]

I’ve been avoiding the butterfly keyboard like the plague. It’s just bad news waiting to happen imo.

On the other hand, 2010 is really old... on the other hand, new macbook pros should be coming out soon.

My $0.02 would be to buy a used 2015 for a fraction of the price then see how the 2020 Macbooks look and resell the 2015 if you decide to buy the 2020.

 

[fwuz]

I’ve been avoiding the butterfly keyboard like the plague. It’s just bad news waiting to happen imo.

On the other hand, 2010 is really old... on the other hand, new macbook pros should be coming out soon.

My $0.02 would be to buy a used 2015 for a fraction of the price then see how the 2020 Macbooks look and resell the 2015 if you decide to buy the 2020.

Thank you for your input. i hear you on avoiding the butterfly keyboard altogether. i am going to miss my scissor keyboard. However i have played with the butterfly one at Best Buy and although it is a much different feel, it is tolerable and i am the type to just roll with the changes. i just want the latest and greatest. i've skipped out on the past few years for a reason , as i've read countless articles & watched countless videos on keyboard and heating issues. 2016-present has been a rough few years for Apple!

as for looking into a used 2015 model, i am honestly trying to avoid buying/reselling laptops, as it is a bit of a hassle for me personally. it is definitely worth considering though!

When you say "new MBPros are coming soon", are you referring to the potential 2020 redesign? i am not sure if i could wait another year, and i did read an article somewhere where one should not purchase the first iteration of a redesign, as it could have some bugs early on. then as the years progress they make tweaks. and considering this 2019 refresh design is 4 years old, isn't it perfected?

 

[Howard2k]

Allegedly new models coming October. I’d wait if everything is working ok now. When the new ones come out the current version will still be available if it’s preferable. Or the rumour is wrong. But I would wait.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thank you for your input. i hear you on avoiding the butterfly keyboard altogether. i am going to miss my scissor keyboard. However i have played with the butterfly one at Best Buy and although it is a much different feel, it is tolerable and i am the type to just roll with the changes. i just want the latest and greatest. i've skipped out on the past few years for a reason , as i've read countless articles & watched countless videos on keyboard and heating issues. 2016-present has been a rough few years for Apple!

as for looking into a used 2015 model, i am honestly trying to avoid buying/reselling laptops, as it is a bit of a hassle for me personally. it is definitely worth considering though!

When you say "new MBPros are coming soon", are you referring to the potential 2020 redesign? i am not sure if i could wait another year, and i did read an article somewhere where one should not purchase the first iteration of a redesign, as it could have some bugs early on. then as the years progress they make tweaks. and considering this 2019 refresh design is 4 years old, isn't it perfected?

Even though you'll have a keyword warranty, getting AC+ is recommended as that'll cover you for any other hardware failures & accidental damage for a fee.

Honestly I'd go for the latest model. Some posters around here act like the butterfly keyboard has a 100% failure rate and that it's unusable. It's genuinely not that bad and they've made a lot of improvements to it. It's pretty much perfected in 2019.

The keyboard warranty on the 2019s isn't because they expect it will fail - it's so that people are reassured that Apple take this issue seriously and that they will fix any problems on their new model if they do arise.

 

[Neil J. Squillante]

Honestly I'd go for the latest model. Some posters around here act like the butterfly keyboard has a 100% failure rate and that it's unusable. It's genuinely not that bad and they've made a lot of improvements to it. It's pretty much perfected in 2019. The keyboard warranty on the 2019s isn't because they expect it will fail - it's so that people are reassured that Apple take this issue seriously and that they will fix any problems on their new model if they do arise.

Good advice from keysofanxiety. It's worth reading Apple's Keyboard Service Program warranty as it's a model for a clear, plain English legal explanation.

 

[ruslan120]

Even if it’s covered, you’ll be without a computer for at least a few days at a time while they repeatedly service the keyboard.