MBP 2015 vs 2020 or upgrade software

[Macstudentuk]

Hello,
Have struggled to find current info so just looking for a few thoughts. I now have a Mbp retina early 2015 and have the option of keeping and getting pro apps for education (I think I can buy these on their own in the Uk?) ... or I can sell it and get a new Mbp 2020 13”. I know people have had issues with last few gens, and the 13” is less impressive than the other mbp in the current range.

There’s an incentive to upgrade this month so it makes sense to do it this month or stick with the 2015 and get the software/apps (logic and final cut are important).
The 2015 works ok, bit slow at times (beach ball) and I have had to put music/film on an external Hd as it’s full. Has 128gb storage, 8gb ram, i5 2.7 intel core. Any thoughts/experience would be appreciated as I’m struggling to know what to do for the best given my needs.
Thanks all

 

[mikzn]

OK - this is just my humble opinion and others may disagree . . .

8g ram - that is low in this day and age
i5 - not the fastest processor
128g - very low for storage - almost un-useable

you could upgrade the SSD but it is not worth it in this case - you still have 8g ram and i5 processor which are not upgrade-able and will be the weak links after an SSD upgrade

time to look at an upgrade - used? - maybe a good spec'd 2015 and above used? ie 16g ram, i7 and 550g ssd?

or a new MBP

IMHO

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I also have your 2015 MBP and will keep it for a while... BUT: I mostly do word processing and other text-based work, no music and sound.
For my needs, the device is still great. You, by contrast, already have beachball experiences.
As you can get a decent amount of money for the 2015 device, I would strongly consider to get a new MBP. Many issues in the last years were related to the butterfly keyboard from 2016 to 2019, but the 2020 MBP got a reasonable keyboard again.

If you do not need Windows, you also could wait for Apple Silicon as Logic and FCP will run from day one on the new devices. The first new devices are expected to be announced in November, and a new 13 or 14 inch MBP should be launched within 12 months, at the latest.

I upgraded my SSD and that helped a lot. So if you would like to stick for a while with your machine, and maybe invest around 150-200 £§€, you could get 1 TB of much speedier SSD which will accelerate the MBP as a hole (of course, @mikzn is right that you will have other the bottlenecks then).

 

[glhiii]

I have a 2015 13" mbp, 1 tb sd, 3.1 ghz i7, 16 gb ram. It works perfectly, has an excellent screen, and for some reason is much easier to type on than my 16" mbp. One good thing about these older machines (actually mine was manufactured in 2017) is that you can upgrade the sd. Mine came with 128 gb -- I bought a 1tb sd on eBay. It took only 15 minutes to change to the new drive.