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It's time for a new Macbook Pro, please advice.

nicolasvh

nicolasvh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 26, 2016
25
5
Hello all!

In 2016 mistakes were made, as I (rather, the company I worked for, but still) splashed out quite some dollars on the fancy new late 2016 Macbook Pro model. Some call it the worst MBP Apple has manufactured in years. Honoured to be a part of that. :rolleyes:

Truth be told, it's been a very negative experience. The keyboard keeps acting up, the screen feels rather loose, the laptop shuts down randomly, the battery seems to be draining faster than every other MBP I owned. Performance of the laptop is okay luckily, as I also beefed up the laptop with the 2,9Ghz i7, Radeon Pro 4GB and some extra storage. Yet, I'm not blown away or something.

But I kinda had it with this one and it's time to order a new one as the company policy allows for a new laptop every 3 years. I'm a bit torn though...

Should I wait for the 16 inch MBP that is rumoured to release later this year? Or should I not bet on that and just go with the recently updated 2019 MBP model? I'm quite a sucker for having the shiny new thing and buying a new laptop just before a new model would release gives me shivers, but I guess I should learn from my mistakes and not go for a new (potentially, child disease filled) model..

Any advice is welcome.

PS: I hate the keyboard, so I'd feel bad if the new model would ditch that design but chances seem low as far as I can tell.
 
Why not wait until October, the 2016 model is still working isn't it? The keyboard of the 2019 model, is the same butterfly one that you yourself posted that you hated. Granted it should be less prone to failure but still its the butterfly mechanism.
 
The current 2019 is simply the 2016 model with newer processors (effectively the same GPU unless you splash out on the Vega options). Similar keyboard, supposedly somewhat improved with new materials and a membrane to stop dust ingress, though also listed on the KB repair programme so definitely has potential to act up on Apple's own admission. I would advise waiting and seeing what they release later in the year unless you're absolutely desperate.

While the 16" will be a first gen product, and it's likely it's own set of issues will show up, I'd like to think the myriad of issues the 2016-19 design threw up from the start means Apple will have put extra effort and thought into the robustness of the new design. Time will tell on that, though.
 
Thanks for the replies! :) I guess waiting might make most sense. I guess if no announcement is made in October, I can assume there will be no new 2019 model?
 
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nicolasvh said:
Thanks for the replies! :) I guess waiting might make most sense. I guess if no announcement is made in October, I can assume there will be no new 2019 model?
Click to expand...

Yes, if there is no new announcement in October, it’s a safe bet that there will be no new 2019 redesign.
 
There WILL be another MacBook Pro announced this year.
Probably Oct/Nov.

It will have the redesigned keyboard (actually, they are "going back" to the pre-2016 "scissors" keyboard).
I sense this will be a BIG improvement over the current models.

Can you wait that long?
 
nicolasvh said:
Thanks for the replies! :) I guess waiting might make most sense. I guess if no announcement is made in October, I can assume there will be no new 2019 model?
Click to expand...
There's a lot of corroborating rumours from various sources at this point so it's quite likely it will happen, but on the chance it doesn't yeah probably no new design until summer 2020.
 
I must be one of the lucky ones but other than a very rare popping sound my 2016 has performed phenomenally thus far. Plan on keeping it another 4 years.
 
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You might as well wait 2 months to see what the new has. We can hope that the keyboards will be better, but I doubt very much that they will be worse. I have a 2017 model issued from work and I had the keyboard replaced in June. So far it is working ok and no stuck keys. I had more issues with the original keyboard sooner out of the box than this. So I think that whatever the new one has, even if it is a butterfly keyboard, that it will be much improved over earlier versions.

I'm not a fan of the low profile/low travel keys but it is not a deal breaker. Malfunctioning keys are.
 
cinnabun814 said:
I must be one of the lucky ones but other than a very rare popping sound my 2016 has performed phenomenally thus far. Plan on keeping it another 4 years.
Click to expand...

Nice to see another lucky 2016 owner out there! I have a nTB 2016 MBP and have also been lucky. I use it every day between 5 and 10 hours for about 6 days a week and have no problems in the almost three years I've owned it. It's actually given me fewer problems than I had with my 2012 15-inch retina MBP (image retention and a bad battery resulted in repairs and a replacement).

My 2016 MBP has performed so well I'm planning on keeping it at least another year or two. Probably around the second or third generation of the next redesign.
 
At this point, if I already had a 2016, I would wait and see if Apple comes out with new model or no, but for you your situation might call for soemthing different.

At the same time, I would probably wait a few months after release to see if there are any major problems with the first gen.

I luckily went on ahead and bought a 2019 MacBook Pro 15" recently base model and am epxeriencing no issues (so far). Knock on wood
 
cinnabun814 said:
I must be one of the lucky ones but other than a very rare popping sound my 2016 has performed phenomenally thus far. Plan on keeping it another 4 years.
Click to expand...
I don't know why anyone would say the late 2016 MacBook Pro is the "worst MBP Apple has made." I've had one since day one and never had any problems with it. Also all subsequent upgrades have not had major changes to the overall architecture of the device, apart from adding the membrane under the keyboard and CPU performance boosts. It's as solidly built as any other Apple device I've seen or owned. As enticing as the 2019 models are with their faster CPUs, I plan on using my 2016 model for many years to come as well.
 
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I agree the keyboards are terrible. I am on my 4th repair on it and im sure the next is a replacement. I'm going to demand a replacement of the newer redesigned keyboard one since im so done with the butterfly keyboard!
 
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