Hope Yet

[Mockletoy]

Right now Apple's loss not mine. Regardless of their revenue losing customers is never a shrewd move, I dumped the Mac in 2016 as the MBP was simply inadequate. Now I have a ASUS GL703GS and use it professionally after a year of heavy use it's still as good as new and thx to updates from ASUS a little faster. Performs like a small desktop and has never raised any issue.

Summer I may replace if the right notebook is available, or I may simply keep it as it has a de facto 3 year warranty. Certainly another year with the GL703GS would not be a hardship by any means as it still remains to be tremendously performant.

Q-6

When I think of what Apple would charge for a device with similar specs to my GE75 ... haha.

Granted, I would pay more for the Apple experience (support, cohesive ecosystem across devices, etc.), but, well, let’s just say that I didn’t hold out for the rumored 16” MBP because it’s going to be both very, very expensive and also not really targeted at me.

Apple seems to only be interested in making pro-grade or general consumer level devices. They clearly have no interest in the gaming / enthusiast market.

This thing they did with just randomly turning my GPU into a paperweight in Mojave, with no explanation at all, has left a distinctly sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Queen6]

"Many I know very much want a professional grade Mac notebook, equally they don't want what Apple is currently serving up as it's entirely consumer focused. Maybe the rumoured 16" MBP will be the change?"

At the rate things are going with Apple, the base price on the MacBook Pro 16" will probably be $5,499...

Wouldn't be surprised as Apple's greed knows no bounds. Maybe not so much, although if Apple does opt to differentiate the 15" & 16" you can guarantee the latter will be accompanied by a significant premium. TBH the premium aspect is now far over rated and more a design statement like the fashion industry. Apple will continue to push the boundaries of customer acceptance and reduction in manufacturing cost as for Apple what's in middle is where the meat is...

Q-6

 

[pshufd]

Wouldn't be surprised as Apple's greed knows no bounds. Maybe not so much, although if Apple does opt to differentiate the 15" & 16" you can guarantee the latter will be accompanied by a significant premium. TBH the premium aspect is now far over rated and more a design statement like the fashion industry. Apple will continue to push the boundaries of customer acceptance and reduction in manufacturing cost as for Apple what's in middle is where the meat is...

Q-6

If they do a 16.5 or 17, I'd look for it on the used market after a few years.

Or try my hand at Hackintosh. It has to be an attractive proposition to get one of the 17.3 MWs and Hackintosh it. Maybe that would be the best criteria in selection.

 

[Mockletoy]

Wouldn't be surprised as Apple's greed knows no bounds. Maybe not so much, although if Apple does opt to differentiate the 15" & 16" you can guarantee the latter will be accompanied by a significant premium. TBH the premium aspect is now far over rated and more a design statement like the fashion industry. Apple will continue to push the boundaries of customer acceptance and reduction in manufacturing cost as for Apple what's in middle is where the meat is...

Q-6

Their greed really is out of control. They are charging $600 to upgrade a Mac Mini from the pathetic 8gb of RAM to 32Gb. So, $600 for 24gb of RAM.

You could very nearly go buy 128gb at retail for that amount of money. And apple doesn’t pay retail ...

That’s just plain predatory.

 

[Queen6]

When I think of what Apple would charge for a device with similar specs to my GE75 ... haha.

Granted, I would pay more for the Apple experience (support, cohesive ecosystem across devices, etc.), but, well, let’s just say that I didn’t hold out for the rumored 16” MBP because it’s going to be both very, very expensive and also not really targeted at me.

Apple seems to only be interested in making pro-grade or general consumer level devices. They clearly have no interest in the gaming / enthusiast market.

This thing they did with just randomly turning my GPU into a paperweight in Mojave, with no explanation at all, has left a distinctly sour taste in my mouth.

No doubt that many professionals, enthusiasts and casual users would benefit from Nvidia GPU's, however two hard headed corporations. Likely one told the other to "step off" regarding pricing and a feud ensued, unfortunately it's the end users that suffer with ever less choice.

Drivers for eGPU's far as I can see both Apple & Nvidia point the finger at one another and as you state paperweight time Frankly Apple could do a lot more if it wanted.

Personally I'm fine with a 6lb notebook that can cool 230W of TDP. A top tier 15" 2019 MBP with i9 might be able to keep up for a couple of minutes on the CPU side beyond that it's all downhill...

8th Gen hex core i7 8750H, full 3.9GHz all cores. Similar to the new Mac Pro Asus's cooling solution enables the notebook to run the CPU fully unconstrained, should one choose to do so.

I would love to see the 8th Gen i9-9980HK in this chassis, I'd be confident it could hold a sustained 3.5GHz across all 8 cores...

Q-6
[doublepost=1559665356][/doublepost]

Their greed really is out of control. They are charging $600 to upgrade a Mac Mini from the pathetic 8gb of RAM to 32Gb. So, $600 for 24gb of RAM.

You could very nearly go buy 128gb at retail for that amount of money. And apple doesn’t pay retail ...

That’s just plain predatory.

Monopolies never serve the customer. Apple has very cleverly positioned itself, playing the game wisely both up and down the spectrum. That said as fan of the Mac it's not been a great ride, nor likely to get better anytime soon.

Another aspect of myself leaving Apple is the way the company conducts itself, it's one thing to be highly profitable, entirely another to abuse customer loyalty, deliberately price gouge and deal in duplicity on a daily basis. The major problem being that Apple simply puts itself above it's customers, and nothing will change until a significant number of people cease to be customers.

TBH I'm at a point where I'd rather learn and deal with Linux than deal with Apple and it's nonsense. FWIW I don't trust Apple any more than Microsoft and the latter is a dam sight more transparent, sales and marketing for the masses...

Q-6

 

[Mockletoy]

No doubt that many professionals, enthusiasts and casual users would benefit from Nvidia GPU's, however two hard headed corporations. Likely one told the other to "step off" regarding pricing and a feud ensued, unfortunately it's the end users that suffer with ever less choice.

Drivers for eGPU's far as I can see both Apple & Nvidia point the finger at one another and as you state paperweight time Frankly Apple could do a lot more if it wanted.

Personally I'm fine with a 6lb notebook that can cool 230W of TDP. A top tier 15" 2019 MBP with i9 might be able to keep up for a couple of minutes on the CPU side beyond that it's all downhill...

8th Gen hex core i7 8750H, full 3.9GHz all cores. Similar to the new Mac Pro Asus's cooling solution enables the notebook to run the CPU fully unconstrained, should one choose to do so.
View attachment 840780
I would love to see the 8th Gen i9-9980HK in this chassis, I'd be confident it could hold a sustained 3.5GHz across all 8 cores...

Q-6
[doublepost=1559665356][/doublepost]

Monopolies never serve the customer. Apple has very cleverly positioned itself, playing the game wisely both up and down the spectrum. That said as fan of the Mac it's not been a great ride, nor likely to get better anytime soon.

Another aspect of myself leaving Apple is the way the company conducts itself, it's one thing to be highly profitable, entirely another to abuse customer loyalty, deliberately price gouge and deal in duplicity on a daily basis. The major problem being that Apple simply puts itself above it's customers, and nothing will change until a significant number of people cease to be customers.

TBH I'm at a point where I'd rather learn and deal with Linux than deal with Apple and it's nonsense. FWIW I don't trust Apple any more than Microsoft and the latter is a dam sight more transparent, sales and marketing for the masses...

Q-6

Just saw a story about Dell soldering in the SSDs on the newest XPS 13 machines. It's not just Apple -- slowly but surely the entire industry is moving in a direction I don't like. I've always been a tinkerer, I guess. I like to take things apart and do things myself. I guess that is an era that is slowly coming to an end. It makes me sad for all these kids growing up with their sealed computing appliances, who will never know what it feels like to open up a machine and fiddle around with its guts.

 

[pshufd]

Just saw a story about Dell soldering in the SSDs on the newest XPS 13 machines. It's not just Apple -- slowly but surely the entire industry is moving in a direction I don't like. I've always been a tinkerer, I guess. I like to take things apart and do things myself. I guess that is an era that is slowly coming to an end. It makes me sad for all these kids growing up with their sealed computing appliances, who will never know what it feels like to open up a machine and fiddle around with its guts.

It's not a problem on the new class of 17.3 inch mobile desktops. Lenovo has soldered in parts on at least on of their systems but not on the Mobile Workstation class. Those things seemed to be designed for user-modifications. There are lots of these models available from various vendors and they typically allow up to 128 GB of RAM with four slots, and three or four SSD/HDDs. Some even allow you to change the video card.

 

[Queen6]

Just saw a story about Dell soldering in the SSDs on the newest XPS 13 machines. It's not just Apple -- slowly but surely the entire industry is moving in a direction I don't like. I've always been a tinkerer, I guess. I like to take things apart and do things myself. I guess that is an era that is slowly coming to an end. It makes me sad for all these kids growing up with their sealed computing appliances, who will never know what it feels like to open up a machine and fiddle around with its guts.

Another brand to ignore, majority of my contracts explicitly stipulate the control of data, that doesn't mean ending up in the hands of the likes of Apple or Dell...

Q-6

 

[StuKatz1]

Man would a 14 inch be right in many people‘s sweetspots
[doublepost=1559676167][/doublepost]

"Many I know very much want a professional grade Mac notebook, equally they don't want what Apple is currently serving up as it's entirely consumer focused. Maybe the rumoured 16" MBP will be the change?"

At the rate things are going with Apple, the base price on the MacBook Pro 16" will probably be $5,499...

The base pricing of the 16 is gonna be really funny. But given how they just showcased the MacPro, it will be perceived by the sheep as a steal. Marketing 101

 

[timish]

"Many I know very much want a professional grade Mac notebook, equally they don't want what Apple is currently serving up as it's entirely consumer focused. Maybe the rumoured 16" MBP will be the change?"

At the rate things are going with Apple, the base price on the MacBook Pro 16" will probably be $5,499...

...and you will have to buy a charger for $999.

 

[pshufd]

...and you will have to buy a charger for $999.

That charger is going to be really stylish though.

 

[StuKatz1]

I honestly am really enjoying my search for the perfect pro-oriented windows laptop. Have any of you guys made to jump, what did you end up picking and why? I know Queen has.

 

[pshufd]

I honestly am really enjoying my search for the perfect pro-oriented windows laptop. Have any of you guys made to jump, what did you end up picking and why? I know Queen has.

I was about to get a Thinkpad 72. I put in the order. Canceled it. Put it in again and canceled it when Apple made the MBP announcement. It's thick, ugly, has an awful trackpad and weighs a ton. But it's user-upgradeable to 128 GB RAM, and three SSDs. And it doesn't throttle. 17.3 inch 4K screen. Tons of ports.

I looked at a bunch of other models in the same class and there are a lot of them out there. Just read the reviews to see if there are known problems with them. I was also considering the RoG Mothership. The downside of that one is that you need a desk or table. RoG makes a few other models in this class.

Razer makes a nice 17.3 and last year's model had a 4K option but this year's model has better specs but only a HD screen. Razers are on the thin side too so the cooling isn't as good as the models that are an inch or more thick.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Razer makes a nice 17.3 and last year's model had a 4K option but this year's model has better specs but only a HD screen. Razers are on the thin side too so the cooling isn't as good as the models that are an inch or more thick.

They made something to the cooling that nobody has done before, additional fans under the trackpad, at the cost of battery size. From the reviews it seems the cooling is actually very good, Dave initially thought his machine was broken because it didn't heat up as expected. I'm looking at this model but waiting for some professional in-depth reviews.

 

[pshufd]

They made something to the cooling that nobody has done before, additional fans under the trackpad, at the cost of battery size. From the reviews it seems the cooling is actually very good, Dave initially thought his machine was broken because it didn't heat up as expected. I'm looking at this model but waiting for some professional in-depth reviews.

Good to know. Not having 4K or at least QHD was a deal-breaker for me.

I was running my MBP at 2280x1800 resolution until I got a 4K monitor.

 

[StuKatz1]

I was about to get a Thinkpad 72. I put in the order. Canceled it. Put it in again and canceled it when Apple made the MBP announcement. It's thick, ugly, has an awful trackpad and weighs a ton. But it's user-upgradeable to 128 GB RAM, and three SSDs. And it doesn't throttle. 17.3 inch 4K screen. Tons of ports.

I looked at a bunch of other models in the same class and there are a lot of them out there. Just read the reviews to see if there are known problems with them. I was also considering the RoG Mothership. The downside of that one is that you need a desk or table. RoG makes a few other models in this class.

Razer makes a nice 17.3 and last year's model had a 4K option but this year's model has better specs but only a HD screen. Razers are on the thin side too so the cooling isn't as good as the models that are an inch or more thick.

I actually need something between the 13 and 15 inch, at a maximum. Not doing video and don’t really care about screen. I am looking for More of an audio production focused setup.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Man would a 14 inch be right in many people‘s sweetspots
[doublepost=1559676167][/doublepost]

The base pricing of the 16 is gonna be really funny. But given how they just showcased the MacPro, it will be perceived by the sheep as a steal. Marketing 101

15" inch bezeless with a dGPU? Count me in.