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New Macbook in 2018?
- Thread starter coquemessa
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At the entry level, it's a choice between ultra-portability and more storage vs more power, one more port and bigger screen.
Well it’s really $1499 for the MBP if you consider a 256GB SSD a necessity, but point taken.
(And similarly, if retina isn’t a dealbreaker one could also wonder why people buy the entry level 13” MBP for $1299 when the Air is $999
)To address your question though, personally I think it mostly boils down to weight, for those who prefer the 12” rMB over the 13” MBP. There’s a real difference between 2 and 3 pounds, for those who want the absolute lightest/smallest Mac laptop.
But it’s really not an easy decision to make for a less technical users—or even someone with a relatively decent understanding of the hardware. It really does depend on the user’s specific use case, and personal priorities.
What matters most to you? Durability? Keyboard? Display? Weight? Ports (“Legacy” vs. 5 Gbps USB vs full TB3)? Speed yes, but for your workload which subsystem is most important (CPU/GPU/SSD)? Is your CPU usage bursty or continuous? What will battery life be for your typical usage?
There are pluses and minuses to each of the entry level offerings in the MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro lineups, which arguably(?) makes it the most confusing space in the entire Apple product portfolio.
It’s not just weight but footprint too. It’s less annoying to use the 12” in economy class on the plane for instance.
Some good points were already made but I personally also like the fanless design. I hate the noise fans make and the processing power of the macbook is sufficient for me.
I will be upgrading my current MBP 2015 to a newer model once Apple reveal them in WWDC (or September/November maybe?) Still deciding if I want ultra portability (12" MacBook) or slightly more productivity (13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar). All I do is just type writing and some browsing, but the 13" one seems last longer for it's processing power.
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I will be upgrading my current MBP 2015 to a newer model once Apple reveal them in WWDC (or September/November maybe?) Still deciding if I want ultra portability (12" MacBook) or slightly more productivity (13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar). All I do is just type writing and some browsing, but the 13" one seems last longer for it's processing power.
For what you’ve described the 12” MacBook would be more than enough typing and web browsing will not tax the 13” processing power, to be fair it probably wouldn’t even tax the 12” if I was you I would wait until Apple update them.
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Based on your light usage I’d probably buy the 12” rMB and see how you feel about the keyboard and battery life. If it doesn’t meet your requirements you could return it for the 13” MBP.I will be upgrading my current MBP 2015 to a newer model once Apple reveal them in WWDC (or September/November maybe?) Still deciding if I want ultra portability (12" MacBook) or slightly more productivity (13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar). All I do is just type writing and some browsing, but the 13" one seems last longer for it's processing power.
Your decision re: the 12” rMB may become harder though, because supposedly there are cannon lake y-series parts coming out late this year. These will be the first CPUs at Intel’s 10nm process, and the CPU should use less power and/or have a faster base clock due to the die shrink. Expect better performance and less throttling. Maybe fixes for meltdown and Spectre as well. Could very well be an early-2019 availability though.
btw these will be the first CPUs to support LPDDR4, so 32GB will be available. I assume Apple will offer that option on the rMB but of course you wouldn’t need it based on your writing and browsing usage. You might consider 16GB if you plan to keep the machine for 3-4 years but really if you’re just writing/web browsing 8GB would be sufficient.
All I do is just type writing and some browsing, but the 13" one seems last longer for it's processing power.
As others have mentioned, try out 12" MB, if it doesn't suit you, return it for MBP.
Personally, I would purchase MB, as I have done in the past. Ultra portable, silent, and with enough performance for almost anything. If I can do some light Unity3D work on it, I don't think that browsing and typing will tax it that much
Thanks for the advice, I will make my decision when Apple update them. Actually I am happy with my current 13" MBPr 2015, the keyboard, screen size is nice, but I found 1.6 kg is too heavy for me to carry around. So I want to upgrade to something thinner and lighter. I am also looking forward to the rumoured new MacBook. Is the screen size of rMB too cramped for productivity?
Unfortunately, there is no return policy in Apple Stores in Hong Kong, so I have to make the decision very carefully
Unfortunately, there is no return policy in Apple Stores in Hong Kong, so I have to make the decision very carefully
If Apple decides to market a more affordable laptop at $799-899, it will be with the Air. But even at the $999 price, a refresh of the Air would seem more attractive to Apple than knocking $300 off the rMB or 13” MBP.
But maybe it has run its course, 10 years is a pretty good run. Apple still sells millions of them though, because it’s the least expensive laptop.
The longer I wait, the more I'm starting to believe there will be no MacBook 12" update in 2018...
...which is fine by me since I bought in 2017 right at launch.
In retrospect though, I should have bought a month later, to get in on the free edu headphones deal.
...which is fine by me since I bought in 2017 right at launch.
In retrospect though, I should have bought a month later, to get in on the free edu headphones deal.
I don’t have much faith in Intel’s ability to deliver in volume the Cannon Lake Y-series parts early enough for Apple to refresh the rMB this year.The longer I wait, the more I'm starting to believe there will be no MacBook 12" update in 2018...
...which is fine by me since I bought in 2017 right at launch.
In retrospect though, I should have bought a month later, to get in on the free edu headphones deal.
It promises to be a worthwhile upgrade, however: 32GB LPDDR4; Intel’s 10nm process, thus better thermals (likely less throttling); base clocks reportedly as high as 2.2GHz (but who knows what will ultimately be released); and though not definite, hardware fixes for meltdown and Spectre, at least for those variants that can be mitigated in hardware.
I don’t know what to think of the rumors of a 13” MacBook, as I can’t imagine Apple selling both 12” and 13” models alongside each other. So I think either the rumor is wrong, or the 12” will be discontinued. Maybe the rumored larger model is actually a 14”; having 12” and 14” MacBooks, that I could see.
I’m wondering if they’ll pull a Skylake and just sort of skip Cannon Lake (like Broadwell) for the most part and go straight to the new uArch.
Ryzen is biting hard at them, they need to do some serious work to mitigate Spectre attacks at the silicon level, a new process won’t do much performance wise, just power wise.
I love my 12” MacBook but after using some Dell XPS laptops I feel the bezels are huge. They could potentially increase to 13” by just minimising the bezels.
P3 colour space and a 1080p FaceTime camera would also be great to have.
With new 10nm chips and a new uArch the performance on these fanless MacBooks could go from good to impressive.
I was just in an Apple store, and heard a blue shirt pretty much really pushing the 13" MBP vs the 12" MB to a customer. He was saying it's "soooo much better" and "there's really no reason get the MB". The customer wound up buying a MBP.
That seemed like a really hard sell to me... It makes me think Apple has a supply of MBP to dump before June and less of a supply of MBs that might be around for the better part of another year...
That seemed like a really hard sell to me... It makes me think Apple has a supply of MBP to dump before June and less of a supply of MBs that might be around for the better part of another year...
Maybe, just all depends on Intel. As far as I'm aware there really isn't anything out there for Apple to upgrade with yet.
Agreed. Apple Store employees have their own biases. However, some may sometimes be encouraged to gently upsell.
Best Buy often does that for whatever reason. Sometimes it seems they do that when a predicted update is coming soon. I say predicted because they may not necessarily have any inside info. For example, just before the usual iPad update time frame in 2015 Best Buy Canada had a $100 off sale on the iPad Air 2. It seemed to me they were trying to clear out inventory before the inevitable price drop once new models arrived a month later.
However, the new model never arrived. The iPad Air 2 didn’t get replaced until 2017, or almost three years after the initial launch.
I was happy because I got an iPad Air 2 for $100 less while others who skipped the sale to wait for the new iPad were disappointed because nothing was released.
Interesting...or they are really just pushing that MBP is a better bang for the buck.
If you read up on the thread, some say the Macbook is ultra portability.
Well no it is not. Not when you are comparing to the Macbook Pro, i would call the Macbook "slightly" more portability.
The problem is, the trade off is immense. I would have done the same if I was the sales person. Would you risk recommending customer a Macbook then he or she has a chance of not happy with its performance, or simply just upsell them the MBP?
Now that I came to think about it. It really wasn't Apple's fault. The original Intel roadmap, We were suppose to have 10nm in 2017. i.e Macbook would be Quad Core by 2017 or at least 2018. NAND and DRAM prices were out of estimate prediction. The Macbook that we should have today or going to be in 2018, was suppose to be great.
Until it is not.
Which mess up the lineup. Apple doesn't care much, since their Mac is doing very well from the iPhone halo effect.