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Hellothere99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 24, 2014
5
0
Hi all,

Long time lurker here – now without my MPB so your advice on what a reasonable hardware upgrade would be appreciated.

I have sold my late 2013 15” MBP (Haswell) - 103 Battery Cycles from new that I had going back to Business School / University.

2.3 ghz i7, 16 gb, 1tb pcie ssd, NVIDIA 750M 2gb graphics. The laptop was a custom order from Apple.

  • The 2013 was never maxed out and only infrequently stretched its legs with Adobe PS working on raw images (minimal Premiere Pro use)
  • I did enjoy the super screen running in scaled – more space all the time + the built in speakers were useful
  • It has travelled everywhere with me; however I was particular and always made the effort to plug it in when elsewhere to save the battery (“portable desktop”) and it has been weighty when in my backpack.
  • Airplay is a daily – noting mine needed Bluetooth off is struggling to maintain a smooth play on a 42 inch 4k screen
  • Its getting hot when idling and tired – cleaned internally by Apple in late 2019 however I am concerned over its USB Ports / internals aging with Vintage support.

I am now using my partners 2018 MBA till a decision is made - I am struck by how improved the speakers are in the Air over my 15 Pro and despite losing that screen estate - it is manageable (again using scaled).
  1. Would the recently launched 4-Thunderbolt 13” MPB continue as an upgrade with improvements to RAM and the built-in speakers over my 15 inch?
  2. Would the i5 be sufficient (I have heard these are the rejected i7 chips) for longevity (support to circa 2025/6/7)
Reviews online have shown the upgrades to the HD read / write speeds over my 700mb/sec via BlackMagic – however it’s the whole package I am considering and I don’t want to move to a laptop without a separate graphics card if its going to suffer inc the speaker audio.


Additional:

Budget isn’t the biggest concern and the 16 inch isn’t out of the question – I do not think my use warrants an i7 / i9 with the Graphics Card unless this model is expected to be future proof similar to the 15inch late 2013 model?
I still have my educational Apple discount from new which is helping with 10% off the 13 inch, and there are great deals on the 16 inch.

Advice / opinions will be appreciated with regards to reasonable replacement options.
 
From your description, sounds like you have mid-level computing power needs and appreciate some extra screen estate.

If budget is not a huge concern, a 16" base model (optionally with a 1TB SSD if you need to match what you had) might just be the computer for you. What about hunting for for a good Apple-refurbished deal?
 
From your description, sounds like you have mid-level computing power needs and appreciate some extra screen estate.

If budget is not a huge concern, a 16" base model (optionally with a 1TB SSD if you need to match what you had) might just be the computer for you. What about hunting for for a good Apple-refurbished deal?

Hey Sterk, thanks for the advice.
Taking this on board I really couldn't make do without the real estate.

Delivered today, a 16 inch Pro i9-16-1-5500 spec. Managed to find an Apple seller moving these at over 20% off and cheaper than my Educational discount!

So far super impressed; despite the laptop sounding like its going to join the ISS after the SpaceX Launch!
 
Looks like you found a sweet deal on the high-end stock model. Glad to hear that it worked out for you :)
 
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