New Macbook in 2018?

[EugW]

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.

The MacBook is way more portable. I bought a new laptop last year. I could have bought anything but for me it was a no-brainer. I got the 12" MacBook, to replace my previous (old) 13" MacBook Pro, specifically because of portability.

If you need the performance of the Pro, then sure, get it. The thing is though, most people don't actually need that performance. I sure don't in a portable. If you think the performance is a problem, then you would have to say the same thing about any machine that is up to as fast as about the 2015 Core i5 MacBook Air, because the performance of the 2017 MacBook is roughly the same.

https://consomac.fr/news-6759-notre-test-du-macbook-pro-133-de-2017.html

I'd say for most people the bigger drawback is the lack of ports. I think the main upgrade most might want for the MacBook is a second USB-C port, but then that would eat into MacBook Pro sales more... because for most people performance isn't the issue.

 

[torana355]

Hopefully Apple fix the keyboard, i'm still waiting to upgrade my 2011 13" MBA which has been a brilliant machine.

 

[deepakvrao]

The MacBook is way more portable. I bought a new laptop last year. I could have bought anything but for me it was a no-brainer. I got the 12" MacBook, to replace my previous (old) 13" MacBook Pro, specifically because of portability.

If you need the performance of the Pro, then sure, get it. The thing is though, most people don't actually need that performance. I sure don't in a portable. If you think the performance is a problem, then you would have to say the same thing about any machine that is up to as fast as about the 2015 Core i5 MacBook Air, because the performance of the 2017 MacBook is roughly the same.

https://consomac.fr/news-6759-notre-test-du-macbook-pro-133-de-2017.html

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I'd say for most people the bigger drawback is the lack of ports. I think the main upgrade most might want for the MacBook is a second USB-C port, but then that would eat into MacBook Pro sales more... because for most people performance isn't the issue.

That is VERY reassuring. Just getting my MB 12 2017 m3 to replace my MBPro 2015, just for the portability. If I get a pass thru charging hub, I think even the ports will not be an issue [for me].

 

[Macalway]

You just have to have used both. Those who actually own the MacBook, and have tried the others know this.

And the Apple retail employees, are not the last word......on anything.

 

[Dave245]

The MacBook is way more portable. I bought a new laptop last year. I could have bought anything but for me it was a no-brainer. I got the 12" MacBook, to replace my previous (old) 13" MacBook Pro, specifically because of portability.

If you need the performance of the Pro, then sure, get it. The thing is though, most people don't actually need that performance. I sure don't in a portable. If you think the performance is a problem, then you would have to say the same thing about any machine that is up to as fast as about the 2015 Core i5 MacBook Air, because the performance of the 2017 MacBook is roughly the same.

https://consomac.fr/news-6759-notre-test-du-macbook-pro-133-de-2017.html

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I'd say for most people the bigger drawback is the lack of ports. I think the main upgrade most might want for the MacBook is a second USB-C port, but then that would eat into MacBook Pro sales more... because for most people performance isn't the issue.

I think if Apple dropped the price of the 12” MacBook a lot more people would probably buy it, the problem is at the moment if you max out the MacBook (16GB Ram and i7 processor, 512GB SSD) your almost at the price of the 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar which has better performance.

 

[Macalway]

It's not about power

 

[EugW]

I think if Apple dropped the price of the 12” MacBook a lot more people would probably buy it, the problem is at the moment if you max out the MacBook (16GB Ram and i7 processor, 512GB SSD) your almost at the price of the 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar which has better performance.

Yes. The value isn't the greatest.

What I have said before is the MacBook needs a second USB-C port, with Thunderbolt 3 support, and a $100 price drop, along with a 720p to 1080p camera.

Of all of the above, the I can see the $100 price drop and the Thunderbolt 3 support happening next year. I'm not optimistic about the second USB-C port or updated camera though.

 

[iDaniel88]

I have a mid 2011 MacBook Air that I'm looking to upgrade for the autumn when I start my Master's course. I'm having a rough time deciding though! The choice, atm, is between the MacBook 12" and the 13" MBP - it's impossible!

I guess I'm just going to wait it out until I see what Apple will announce in June.

 

[Dave245]

Yes. The value isn't the greatest.

What I have said before is the MacBook needs a second USB-C port, with Thunderbolt 3 support, and a $100 price drop, along with a 720p to 1080p camera.

Of all of the above, the I can see the $100 price drop and the Thunderbolt 3 support happening next year. I'm not optimistic about the second USB-C port or updated camera though.

That’s the conflict that it creates for people at the moment, I’m not saying that the MacBook isn’t a great product far from it in fact I think that what Apple was able to do with it being so thin and light is huge, the conflict is in the pricing at the moment. Get a maxed out i7, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD Macbook for around £1,864 or get a 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD for £2,129

 

[SpitUK]

The 2017 12” MacBook is a fantastic machine for 90% of peoples tasks. If someone says they are slow then they haven’t used one and only judging it on specs alone. I have posted this video before as I use my 2017 12” as a laptop and a desktop on a 4k monitor...

You can’t tell me that it’s slow and you need a MacBook Pro to perform office tasks.

This is my Apple setup with the 12” acting as the desktop....

 

[EugW]

That’s the conflict that it creates for people at the moment, I’m not saying that the MacBook isn’t a great product far from it in fact I think that what Apple was able to do with it being so thin and light is huge, the conflict is in the pricing at the moment. Get a maxed out i7, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD Macbook for around £1,864 or get a 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD for £2,129

Well, I got the m3 with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. In the UK, that comes out to £1,429.00.

However, I'm in Canada, and got the edu pricing, which is CAD$1875. That's £1038, or £1,173 after tax.
[doublepost=1522601848][/doublepost]

The 2017 12” MacBook is a fantastic machine for 90% of peoples tasks. If someone says they are slow then they haven’t used one and only judging it on specs alone. I have posted this video before as I use my 2017 12” as a laptop and a desktop on a 4k monitor...

You can’t tell me that it’s slow and you need a MacBook Pro to perform office tasks.

This is my Apple setup with the 12” acting as the desktop....

Nice.

I haven't tried a 4K monitor, but FWIW I don't notice any lag with a 2560x1440 monitor.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I think if Apple dropped the price of the 12” MacBook a lot more people would probably buy it, the problem is at the moment if you max out the MacBook (16GB Ram and i7 processor, 512GB SSD) your almost at the price of the 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar which has better performance.

Dave, you really need to buy one and decide for yourself! It's really pointless going in continuous circles about these wonderful designs.

In all fairness, there's probably not many who go for that full spec on the MacBook. For me, the i5 with 512GB was enough. At the Brexit price of £1550, that was a huge amount of money for something that may last for 4 years. Originally it was £1299 and I kind of thought that it was £100 over priced and expected Apple to reduce it to £1199 but then Brexit happened, the UK went on self destruct (and has been lying and fighting with itself ever since - yep, our politicians need to be in jail!) and Apple increased the price 20% - HARSH!!!!!!! Especially for people like me who saved and saved and went without other things for many months!

Try one for 14 days and I guarantee that you won't be posting on here - you'll be enjoying doing other things on it instead!
[doublepost=1522622334][/doublepost]

The 2017 12” MacBook is a fantastic machine for 90% of peoples tasks. If someone says they are slow then they haven’t used one and only judging it on specs alone. I have posted this video before as I use my 2017 12” as a laptop and a desktop on a 4k monitor...

You can’t tell me that it’s slow and you need a MacBook Pro to perform office tasks.

This is my Apple setup with the 12” acting as the desktop....

BRILLIANT video Spit. Pretty incredible what the lil M3 8GB RAM can do

 

[Dave245]

Dave, you really need to buy one and decide for yourself! It's really pointless going in continuous circles about these wonderful designs.

In all fairness, there's probably not many who go for that full spec on the MacBook. For me, the i5 with 512GB was enough. At the Brexit price of £1550, that was a huge amount of money for something that may last for 4 years. Originally it was £1299 and I kind of thought that it was £100 over priced and expected Apple to reduce it to £1199 but then Brexit happened, the UK went on self destruct (and has been lying and fighting with itself ever since - yep, our politicians need to be in jail!) and Apple increased the price 20% - HARSH!!!!!!! Especially for people like me who saved and saved and went without other things for many months!

Try one for 14 days and I guarantee that you won't be posting on here - you'll be enjoying doing other things on it instead!
[doublepost=1522622334][/doublepost]

BRILLIANT video Spit. Pretty incredible what the lil M3 8GB RAM can do

Yea that's the problem i've had for a while now! i keep going between getting the MacBook or the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, i've planned that later this year when they are updated i will try one out and if it doesn't work for me i will return and get the MacBook Pro.

To be fair most of my work can probably be done on the MacBook, writing isn't exactly taxing to the machine and i'm not someone who has about 10 Safari tabs open at once (maybe 2 or 3 at most) i do multitask a lot tho (i often have Pages and or Final Daft open while also using Safari) but i imagine the MacBook can handle that. Some low end editing is something i also do as a hobby mainly (1080 vids) i don't edit in 4K with footage that's an hour or so long like one of my friends, in all honesty i could probably edit the videos i do in iMovie but i do love using Final Cut Pro.

When the MacBook's are updated later this year i'll try one for the 14 days that Apple give and see how it goes. Now all i've to do is wait until Apple updates them

 

[SpitUK]

Yea that's the problem i've had for a while now! i keep going between getting the MacBook or the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, i've planned that later this year when they are updated i will try one out and if it doesn't work for me i will return and get the MacBook Pro.

To be fair most of my work can probably be done on the MacBook, writing isn't exactly taxing to the machine and i'm not someone who has about 10 Safari tabs open at once (maybe 2 or 3 at most) i do multitask a lot tho (i often have Pages and or Final Daft open while also using Safari) but i imagine the MacBook can handle that. Some low end editing is something i also do as a hobby mainly (1080 vids) i don't edit in 4K with footage that's an hour or so long like one of my friends, in all honesty i could probably edit the videos i do in iMovie but i do love using Final Cut Pro.

When the MacBook's are updated later this year i'll try one for the 14 days that Apple give and see how it goes. Now all i've to do is wait until Apple updates them

The MacBook can handle all that no problem.

 

[dgdosen]

So no Y chips introduced today. I think we need to wait until 2019 for quad core MBs...

 

[EugW]

So no Y chips introduced today. I think we need to wait until 2019 for quad core MBs...

Yep. My 2017 MacBook purchase is looking better and better. Well, not perfect though since I bought the thing just a few weeks too early and missed the free edu Beats headphones.

 

[Macalway]

Man the news today really sucks for this machine. But at least we expected it. I must admit, Intel made it pretty clear it wan't happening.

What a cluster ****

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

I don’t need quad-core performance, and i think MANY MacBook buyers don’t neither. We just use the computer to edit word documents, read PDF and handle some emails.
What I’m stilling dying for is, thunderbolt 3 port. So that i can hook it to a large monitor and a high-speed external drive at the same time, or simply a 5k display.

 

[PickUrPoison]

I don’t need quad-core performance, and i think MANY MacBook buyers don’t neither. We just use the computer to edit word documents, read PDF and handle some emails.
What I’m stilling dying for is, thunderbolt 3 port. So that i can hook it to a large monitor and a high-speed external drive at the same time, or simply a 5k display.

I think the two issues here are power consumption of a Thunderbolt controller (the MacBook’s current low-power chipset doesn’t support TB) and PCIe lanes (I’m not sure if 4 of the 12 available PCIe lanes can be dedicated to TB, if I have time I’ll do some research).

Specifically, I don’t think it’s a market segmentation play, since Apple already offers a TB capable MBP at the same approximate pricing. So it’s not that they’re trying to encourage you to move away from the rMP over to the 13” MBP.

If technical hurdles are overcome, I think we’ll see a TB MacBook. But definitely not two TB3 ports, unless future Y series CPUs offer more than 12 PCIe lanes.

 

[EugW]

I think the two issues here are power consumption of a Thunderbolt controller (the MacBook’s current low-power chipset doesn’t support TB) and PCIe lanes (I’m not sure if 4 of the 12 available PCIe lanes can be dedicated to TB, if I have time I’ll do some research).

Specifically, I don’t think it’s a market segmentation play, since Apple already offers a TB capable MBP at the same approximate pricing. So it’s not that they’re trying to encourage you to move away from the rMP over to the 13” MBP.

If technical hurdles are overcome, I think we’ll see a TB MacBook. But definitely not two TB3 ports, unless future Y series CPUs offer more than 12 PCIe lanes.

Rumour has it 2019 for a Thunderbolt MacBook. Maybe.

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

I think the two issues here are power consumption of a Thunderbolt controller (the MacBook’s current low-power chipset doesn’t support TB) and PCIe lanes (I’m not sure if 4 of the 12 available PCIe lanes can be dedicated to TB, if I have time I’ll do some research).

Specifically, I don’t think it’s a market segmentation play, since Apple already offers a TB capable MBP at the same approximate pricing. So it’s not that they’re trying to encourage you to move away from the rMP over to the 13” MBP.

If technical hurdles are overcome, I think we’ll see a TB MacBook. But definitely not two TB3 ports, unless future Y series CPUs offer more than 12 PCIe lanes.

I do realize there must be technical difficulties or otherwise apple will have put thunderbolt 3 onto MacBooks already.
But the ability of connecting to a monitor higher than 4K, or connecting to a 4K monitor and USB3 accessories at the same time is attractive
Let’s just hope for 2019

 

[EugW]

I do realize there must be technical difficulties or otherwise apple will have put thunderbolt 3 onto MacBooks already.
But the ability of connecting to a monitor higher than 4K, or connecting to a 4K monitor and USB3 accessories at the same time is attractive
Let’s just hope for 2019

Apple is waiting for it to be included in the chipset. There is some soft evidence it might be included with Ice Lake. Or maybe not.

 

[ofarlig]

So what is the latest word on new processors for the Macbook then? There are way too few rumors about the Macbook. I got a 2016 m3 but it is starting to feel a bit slow for my usage so I have been thinking about either a 13" MBP with touch bar (base variant so the i5) or a new Macbook with the i7-7Y75 processor.

I like the form factor of my current machine so I am kind of leaning towards that but feel I should be waiting until WWDC at least.

 

[EugW]

So what is the latest word on new processors for the Macbook then? There are way too few rumors about the Macbook. I got a 2016 m3 but it is starting to feel a bit slow for my usage so I have been thinking about either a 13" MBP with touch bar (base variant so the i5) or a new Macbook with the i7-7Y75 processor.

I like the form factor of my current machine so I am kind of leaning towards that but feel I should be waiting until WWDC at least.

Probably late 2018 at the earliest but possibly not until 2019. OTOH, part of the rumours suggest a possible quad MacBook with Thunderbolt sometime later in 2019.

If you want a big performance boost soon, new quad 13” MacBook Pros would fit the bill. As much as I like my 2017 Core m3 MacBook, I wouldn’t recommend upgrading from a 2016 m3 to a 2017 i7. You’d gain perhaps about 25% to 35% performance which is decent but I’m not sure it is worth it given the cost. Consider waiting until next year for a much bigger boost if you really must have the 12” form factor.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Yea that's the problem i've had for a while now! i keep going between getting the MacBook or the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, i've planned that later this year when they are updated i will try one out and if it doesn't work for me i will return and get the MacBook Pro.

To be fair most of my work can probably be done on the MacBook, writing isn't exactly taxing to the machine and i'm not someone who has about 10 Safari tabs open at once (maybe 2 or 3 at most) i do multitask a lot tho (i often have Pages and or Final Daft open while also using Safari) but i imagine the MacBook can handle that. Some low end editing is something i also do as a hobby mainly (1080 vids) i don't edit in 4K with footage that's an hour or so long like one of my friends, in all honesty i could probably edit the videos i do in iMovie but i do love using Final Cut Pro.

When the MacBook's are updated later this year i'll try one for the 14 days that Apple give and see how it goes. Now all i've to do is wait until Apple updates them

Final Cut Pro X is absolutely superb on the MacBook 2017 Dave! Heck, I loved using it when I had a 2015 MacBook. Apple simply manage to optimise all of their software beautifully for their Macs Adobe Premiere is not nice on it but then again, many people say that even for the MacBook Pro. I'm not worried as I much prefer FCPX to Premiere anyway - the thought of just 'renting' the software for Adobe is a real turn off for me.