Help: MBP 13" or 15"?

[bykaraanne]

Unfortunately have to bump this because well, WWDC was a bummer.

I'm torn between a refurbished 15" 2017, and trying to make this 2015 work (it doesn't really - but hey, maybe a monitor and more stuff to the external HDD?) until the update. How significant will the update be, or like this WWDC, Apple is just nuts now and it's anyone's guess? If I hold out till October, it's gonna be 7+ months of wait. I should've just bought it in March rofl.

"
Originally released June 2017

Touch Bar with integrated Touch ID sensor

15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display; 2880x1800 native resolution at 220 pixels per inch

16GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory

512GB PCIe-based onboard SSD1

720p FaceTime HD Camera

Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory
"

The price is about US$2.2k for the 256GB and $2.4k for the 512GB.

Wait or just buy for the sake of my business?

 

[Venderious]

Considering you are going to use illustrator CC alot. I'd recommend that you get one with a graphics card. However, I do still prefer the portability and form factor of the 13 inch. It depends on what sort of work you do in Illustrator. If you are doing light work, I'd get the 13 inch and just spec it out. If you are planning on doing more heavy work in the future, you can always get an external GPU.

 

[bykaraanne]

Considering you are going to use illustrator CC alot. I'd recommend that you get one with a graphics card. However, I do still prefer the portability and form factor of the 13 inch. It depends on what sort of work you do in Illustrator. If you are doing light work, I'd get the 13 inch and just spec it out. If you are planning on doing more heavy work in the future, you can always get an external GPU.

I'm definitely going for the 15" I just wondered if it were you guys, would you just get the refurb 15" at the prices listed above, or wait again for the fall release (if it's going to be significant enough to regret the 2017 refurb purchase).

Thank you!

 

[Falhófnir]

Unfortunately the no show at WWDC means all bets are off - it could show up silently in the next few weeks as a small spec upgrade or it could stretch out to October and beyond but be a complete ground-up redesign because of the wait. I guess really it’s down to your own judgement on whether you need the machine and are willing to make the compromises and take the possible hit of the machines being upgraded quietly in coming months.

 

[maflynn]

Personally, I think the 15" is a better buy, dGPU, quad core processor, and a much larger display. I really do like the increased screen real estate.

 

[bykaraanne]

Unfortunately the no show at WWDC means all bets are off - it could show up silently in the next few weeks as a small spec upgrade or it could stretch out to October and beyond but be a complete ground-up redesign because of the wait. I guess really it’s down to your own judgement on whether you need the machine and are willing to make the compromises and take the possible hit of the machines being upgraded quietly in coming months.

That mysterious huh. While I wouldn’t like to wait, I also wouldn’t like to waste a cool S$3k. Seems like that’s what all of us who waited for WWDC are feeling - caught between a rock and a hard place.

Based on your experience, would the October one be a significant upgrade based on all the info we’ve had so far? Or could Apple once again disappoint us with a slight upgrade that wouldn’t render my 15” outdated and expensive?

 

[Venderious]

I'm definitely going for the 15" I just wondered if it were you guys, would you just get the refurb 15" at the prices listed above, or wait again for the fall release (if it's going to be significant enough to regret the 2017 refurb purchase).

Thank you!

I honestly don't think Apple will do significant updates (aside from the specs) this year. So I think it's a safe bet to just buy the 2017 model. It's more than suited for the work you are going to do.

 

[bykaraanne]

I honestly don't think Apple will do significant updates (aside from the specs) this year. So I think it's a safe bet to just buy the 2017 model. It's more than suited for the work you are going to do.

Thank you

 

[negativzero]

There is no real point waiting though. Coffee Lake isn’t going to be substantially better than Kaby Lake. So the next MacBook Pro will only have a possibly fixed keyboard and even that is not a guarantee. Intel is kinda “plateauing” with their CPU improvements.

Only thing worth waiting for are possible Vega GPUs.

You’re better off getting a current MBP if you can’t wait.

 

[Glmnet1]

There is no real point waiting though. Coffee Lake isn’t going to be substantially better than Kaby Lake. So the next MacBook Pro will only have a possibly fixed keyboard and even that is not a guarantee. Intel is kinda “plateauing” with their CPU improvements.

You’re better off getting a current MBP if you can’t wait.

About 50-60% improvement to multi-core performance is substantially better.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

About 50-60% improvement to multi-core performance is substantially better.

If they can get it to work without throttling which seems to be an issue on the windows laptops that have been released so far.

 

[Falhófnir]

That mysterious huh. While I wouldn’t like to wait, I also wouldn’t like to waste a cool S$3k. Seems like that’s what all of us who waited for WWDC are feeling - caught between a rock and a hard place.

Based on your experience, would the October one be a significant upgrade based on all the info we’ve had so far? Or could Apple once again disappoint us with a slight upgrade that wouldn’t render my 15” outdated and expensive?

Absolutely, there’s a pretty big glut of changes in Tim’s infamous pipeline and it’s difficult to judge when to bite the bullet on that basis - perhaps that in itself is an argument for going for it? It’s possible they will cut this design cycle short (there would usually be 4 iterations of a given design) to build a new machine around the magic keyboard, or something similar, but that’s certainly not ‘likely’ at this juncture. I just feel it’s a bit odd to let 16 months go by just to wait for Vega graphics (if that’s the big delay) when everyone else is shipping 6 core competitors and basically eating their lunch. That’s the basis of my thoughts on a bigger change later this year, but of course I could be completely wrong - that’s just where we are at this point!

 

[Glmnet1]

If they can get it to work without throttling which seems to be an issue on the windows laptops that have been released so far.

I took the 50-60% from the new XPS 13 benchmarks so it includes whatever throttling it needed. Of course it could be more or less in a MBP but it'll still be a decent upgrade.

Personally, I never considered the 13" MBP because I didn't want to go to a dual core in 2018 and the lack of dGPU. With a quad core and TB3 for eGPU it seems like a sweet spot for portability and performance.

 

[Naimfan]

I'm definitely going for the 15" I just wondered if it were you guys, would you just get the refurb 15" at the prices listed above, or wait again for the fall release (if it's going to be significant enough to regret the 2017 refurb purchase).

Thank you!

Why not buy it from B&H or Adorama? Often less than refurb, brand new, full warranty, etc.

 

[bykaraanne]

Why not buy it from B&H or Adorama? Often less than refurb, brand new, full warranty, etc.

Unfortunately I’m in Singapore - the refurbished is my best bet other than buying from other users second hand. All other retailers sell it at the same RRP and you can’t upgrade specs.

I’m getting the 4GB graphics 512GB storage though, so no diff that I can’t upgrade specs but haha!

 

[impulse462]

About 50-60% improvement to multi-core performance is substantially better.

depends on if most of his applications actually use mutli-core well though

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I took the 50-60% from the new XPS 13 benchmarks so it includes whatever throttling it needed. Of course it could be more or less in a MBP but it'll still be a decent upgrade.

Personally, I never considered the 13" MBP because I didn't want to go to a dual core in 2018 and the lack of dGPU. With a quad core and TB3 for eGPU it seems like a sweet spot for portability and performance.

Benchmarks are a snapshot and don't take into account throttling over time due to heat build up so no that's not a representation of how it may throttle over time. Both the HP 13 and the Sufacebook 2 have had throttling issues with the quad-cores with notebook check noting that after the 25% throttling it was no better than the dual cores, the same with the HP13 inches the dell XPS 15 inches etc etc etc. The XPS 13 inch however does a lot better.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Surfa...ities-and-slower-response-times.264060.0.html

I agree a quad core 13 inch MBP will be spot on, I don't need GPU power so perfect for me and as you say an egpu will make them a little one laptop solution for many users.

 

[McMacBookPlease]

Benchmarks are a snapshot and don't take into account throttling over time due to heat build up so no that's not a representation of how it may throttle over time. Both the HP 13 and the Sufacebook 2 have had throttling issues with the quad-cores with notebook check noting that after the 25% throttling it was no better than the dual cores, the same with the HP13 inches the dell XPS 15 inches etc etc etc. The XPS 13 inch however does a lot better.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Surfa...ities-and-slower-response-times.264060.0.html

I agree a quad core 13 inch MBP will be spot on, I don't need GPU power so perfect for me and as you say an egpu will make them a little one laptop solution for many users.

^This.

I thought this through before purchasing a 2017 13 inch after seeing the coffee lake processors released. The issue is pure physics. What Intel did was add cores, but no shrinkage to fabrication process. So for thermal output it is a linear equation when you have cores going to same speed. 4 cores vs 2 cores is double the output and double the thermal output as well.

Looking at the current 13inch design I figured if they did an update to 4 cores they would have to be clocked lower to maintain the same thermal envelope or else you would be throttled very quickly in addition to fan noise.

That combined with the fast response speed on a computer is determined by the clock speed not number of cores and that I really like using the 13inch where I basically never hear the fan sold me on pulling the trigger on the current 13inch design (nTB).