I'm thinking with the MacBook Pro 13" 16GB of RAM should be standard as it's nearly £2000.
I'd like one but there's no way on earth that I can spend £2K on something that ages badly after 3 years.
Think i'm going to get my keyboard replaced soon as certain letters don't work at times.
AppleCare is proving worth its money for me on the MacBook 12.
Ye they dont age badly unless your the most demanding user. The MBP will last a consumer at least 5 years. Like £400 per year... as for professionals its like one job... maybe one and a half. Although they are more expensive than 2015 they are inline with inflation and the MBP hasn't increased in price for 3 years. The current gen has solved all the problems with the newest design so is the safest bet currently. The base models perform the best and the upgrades are roughly 12-18% increases over base prices yet offer 2-7% performance increases across the board. Your mileage will vary.
Even if you decide to keep it 3 years and swap... £666 per year and you will probably sell it for £1000 in good condition so really its more like £333 per year. The base 2016 TB MBP is selling in the UK for around the 1100-1200 mark.
Im not sure if your aware of Apples memory compression algorithm which has been around since Mavericks but it essentially means (depending on situation) your ram capacity can be doubled. 8gbs gives you more like 16gb and 16 more like 32, worst case 50% more 8-12 16-24 etc. The SSDs are running at 3000mbs read and 1500 writes when it does swap and cache its unlikely any average user would notice the SSDs are like ram drives. This happens frequently on my 2015 macbook and I dont notice and the SSD is half the speed.
Its worth running activity monitor over a day and seeing what an average day is like before saying 16GB is necessary.
Im a photographer and graphic designer. I use Indesign, illustrator, photoshop, lightroom, after effects, premier, animate on the daily. Email is usually open, web browser, and apple music is usually on. I work on large indesign catalogs which can be 3-400 pages. With that lot open and swapping between I rarely surpass 32gb but thats with it all open.
For me I like an ultra book for the ability on the road and a desktop machine for heavy lifting. I am also more productive at a desk in a work style environment than I am with a laptop on the sofa etc
I have 48gbs in my mac pro and haven't used it all yet. I also have a windows workstation, windows has only recently implemented memory compression, it has 32gbs and that does hit it quite often. Some days I may have a project where I am solidly working on one task say a wedding, with lightroom, photoshop, web browsing, email and music I think 8gbs can work but 16gb is ideal in the mac ecosystem.
Just got to be realistic with that you do and the machines timescale. Apple has implemented tech to try and save you money and also get more from its hardware but these things are often unknown and it just creates more friction with users thinking 8gbs is disgusting as standard these days.
I think the main ball ache is the fact that the ram is soldered so in 3-5 years as the OS grows and apps become more hungry you cant add more which is where the friction is. Most apple users are probably on an upgrade cycle every 3-5 years anyway.
I always max machines and generally buy the latest and greatest. This time I decided to get the base macbook and tbh for what I need it for its been great and saved me more money, although I would like a newer machine im not that fussed. This is probably because the magic in macs has gone and really until this generation there has been barely anything worth talking about in the speed or development department. I wasn't impressed with the newer macbook pros in 2016 with the ports, £300 increase for the TB and how useful it is.
The 2018 is the first version of this iteration that deserves its name. Although the ports are best on earth it still doesnt change the fact that for ease you need a £300 dock for use as a desktop and myriad dongles when your out and about.
Its maybe not so bad for consumers because once you swap your USB 3 micro b to A cables out for USB C to Mircro B you can use all your old devices a twin USB stick (C and A in one) and maybe the odd dongle for HDMI etc but if your someone who travels, presents etc you need to cover yourself for any legacy port which means myriad cables in my experience 3rd party do it all dongles arent very reliable. At the end of the day this is life now and its less shocking just get on with it I suppose.
When I first got the macbook I didnt expect much and ive got to be honest it was a bit sh*t. The more the software has updated the more impressive its become for what it is. Its more capable now than it was when I bought it 3 years ago. Lets be fair the base 2015 is the slowest machine apple has released in a long time yet I use it for data management at events, culling etc quick edits and it handles it like a champ... geek bench is 2600 single and 4500 multi the quad macbook pro benches double single and triple multi... thats basically mac pro performance from a few years back its blistering for its footprint.
At the end of the day the Macbook is an excellent machine it can do everything the pro can in terms of making edits but when it comes to compute power to render anything, exporting video, photos from lightroom etc you cant get away from the fact its far more thermally constrained. Its now super fast in lightroom to make edits, its faster than my mac pro but importing 500 5DMKIV images and making 1-1 previews will take an hour my mac pro takes 10-12 mins, same with exports.
Its having the right machine for the right task. I use the Mac pro to make 1-1s to an external SSD and edit while im in the office but will take that drive with me and edit on the road and when I have finished will merge that catalog into my main library making a seamless workflow.
The MBP has been slated for its lack of thermal capacity but if you search out the same information for the macbook its not good reading it throttles significantly worse which is expected from fanless device. When you consider the i7 512 dual core macbook with one port is £1800 the quad macbook pro is £1950 your getting not only double the performance for 0.2lbs more weight but much better sustained performance for £150.
That may not be the case in 2-3 months but thats the current state of affairs which makes the macbook look ridiculously expensive. Make the same comparison with the 2017 top off the shelf 13 MBP and on paper there is only about a 10% difference in performance.
