Please Help. I need to make a decision.

[Speechless]

Okay, so I *HAVE* to buy a new computer BY February 2017. I start courses where I will be in many different fields for the majority of the day. I also want to really get into learning more programs that require a great deal of power.

I currently own a Early 2013/rMBP/2.4 i7/8 ram/256GB and it is HORRIBLE. I am out of warranty, my battery is so horrible that it only lasts 45 minutes on a charge, I don't think the right side of this Mac even works? (right speaker is totally fried, some lights don't turn on, USB on that side sometimes doesn't respond), my trackpad is sunken in (I don't know how - it requires an excessive amount of force to respond sometimes), Right now I have Safari in full screen with three tabs open + iTunes and Microsoft word open on the desktop and i'm only getting 600mb of free Ram? (that can't be normal..), and finally it gets unusable when I try to load any graphics game (like The Sims or Cities: Skylines - which should run just fine). I tried just swallowing the urge to get a new one but I simply can't use this anymore and after the random shutdown I had with it last night (where it wouldn't load up for 45 minutes and was blank) I know I have to get a new one.

However, my problem now is the fact that the new MacBook Pro just released is getting HAMMERED with hate and now Consumer Report can't even recommend it?? If I get a new computer, I would want it new - the thought of getting the last generation MBP that was released so long ago doesn't seem logical to me..but it also doesn't seem logical to get the new one either..AND the thought of going back to a Windows machine is a nightmare.

Any recommendation, insight, or anything would be appreciated.

 

[boilingDream]

Personally, I would switch at this point. Would probably but a Dell XPS or Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

 

[UnluckyXIII]

How have you let your MBP fall into such disrepair??

 

[Speechless]

Personally, I would switch at this point. Would probably but a Dell XPS or Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

I had a Dell before this one and it was pure hell. I would just man up and switch in a minute but macOS is the most utilized thing I own tech wise. Everything works together so much better across my devices. My girlfriend owns the Surface Book and I hate it. Windows is so bad. I'm afraid there's just no other choice left.

How have you let your MBP fall into such disrepair??

I, honestly, have no idea. It was purchased brand new and I absolutely love this thing (never had a drop or a spill) it just gets used sooo much with me.

 

[raqball]

I had the TB base and returned it due to battery life (6 hours) and the TB gliched out often. I now have the nTB and like it well enough. Battery life on my nTB has increased to about 10 hours plus...

The only bummer on the nTB version is that it only has the 2 USB C ports. If you can make due with 2 ports, then consider it.

 

[Apple 26.2]

I'm almost in the same situation as you, though my early 2011 MBP isn't nearly as heartbreaking (I dropped a 5lb kettle bell on it... long story). I'm hoping it'll last another year as I just don't feel comfortable with what I'm hearing and reading about the late 2016.

 

[Ma2k5]

If you can wait till February, maybe see what CES 2017 has to show. At worst, things will probably get cheaper.

 

[skids929]

The new MBP (in my experience) have been fantastic. I have a 13 inch TB model and I Love it. The battery life could be better, I get about 8-9 with light usage, but thats plenty for me. I do think Apple overestimated the battery life on these and they are getting hammered for it. Otherwise this is a fantastic laptop and an absolute superb replacement to my old one. I love Sierra and I like the TB and love the trackpad and the speed of machine overall.

I am not sure what happened to your old machine, sounds like you are hard on them. I think the advice of the nonTB model is good for you. You will get better battery life and it's plenty of machine for you. Bottom line, people who come to the internet, especially forums come to talk about the things they like and more often what they don't like. And that consumer reports review is complete BUNK, trust me. They produced results NO ONE who has been using these machines would agree with. Honestly, I really thought the article was some click bait crap at first.

I think you just need to try it for itself and make your own decisions, you can alway return it if you don't like it.

 

[xraydoc]

Buy yourself a non-touchbar 13" MBP and be done with it. It's a great machine - quick, beautiful screen, great battery life.

I have the 15" and I'm very happy with the battery life for basic office tasks.

 

[therealseebs]

I know it seems silly to get the year-old model, but they're actually pretty livable.

I dunno. Maybe someday they'll make something with an antiglare display and other more work-friendly features, until then I'm off in Linux land.

 

[echoout]

I've had most of the Apple pro laptops back to 1999. This is the first one that feels like a step backward. I returned mine. If you must stick with Apple then the last gen ones are the way to go, in my opinion.

 

[linguist]

I never heard such beat up macbook pro retina before lol, so sorry to hear that !!!

Let's see the options for your future use, how about considering more durable gaming laptop ?

microsoft office windows version also tend to be faster and more optimized. itunes tend to be better on macos.

since maverick, RAM compression is part of the OS, so low amount of RAM left is not indicator of lacking in RAM, the OS is using all the RAM while compressing and swapping if necessary, look at the ram pressure indicator, green you have plenty left, yellow you use more RAM but still enough, nearing red you need more RAM.

playing game while doing other things, on retina display probably tax your GPU and CPU at the same time, nothing other than extra physical core and faster GPU would help.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Okay, so I *HAVE* to buy a new computer BY February 2017. I start courses where I will be in many different fields for the majority of the day. I also want to really get into learning more programs that require a great deal of power.

I currently own a Early 2013/rMBP/2.4 i7/8 ram/256GB and it is HORRIBLE. I am out of warranty, my battery is so horrible that it only lasts 45 minutes on a charge, I don't think the right side of this Mac even works? (right speaker is totally fried, some lights don't turn on, USB on that side sometimes doesn't respond), my trackpad is sunken in (I don't know how - it requires an excessive amount of force to respond sometimes), Right now I have Safari in full screen with three tabs open + iTunes and Microsoft word open on the desktop and i'm only getting 600mb of free Ram? (that can't be normal..), and finally it gets unusable when I try to load any graphics game (like The Sims or Cities: Skylines - which should run just fine). I tried just swallowing the urge to get a new one but I simply can't use this anymore and after the random shutdown I had with it last night (where it wouldn't load up for 45 minutes and was blank) I know I have to get a new one.

However, my problem now is the fact that the new MacBook Pro just released is getting HAMMERED with hate and now Consumer Report can't even recommend it?? If I get a new computer, I would want it new - the thought of getting the last generation MBP that was released so long ago doesn't seem logical to me..but it also doesn't seem logical to get the new one either..AND the thought of going back to a Windows machine is a nightmare.

Any recommendation, insight, or anything would be appreciated.

Get a Mackbook on return and see if it has enough ooooooomph for you, if your that mobile you will appreciate the portability over it takes a few seconds more on some tasks that you probably wont notice compared to your old MBP

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

The negative reports you see are clickbait, professional trolls trying to manipulate stock prices, spoilt brats who aren't happy they can play Steam games for 15 hours on the machine daddy bought them.

There have been some legit professional concerns over graphics drivers bugs but those have been mostly fixed and more to follow.

RAM is not an issue because the SSDs are faster than most apps can write to memory (Real world cache writes are around 700-900MB/s). That means your scratch/cache data can be as fast as having more RAM.

If you want to go further, buy a cheap 128GB SM951 and use it as a scratch attached to Thunderbolt 3.

 

[Mxbzz]

Since you have two months, I'd wait for all the kinks to get fixed. It is starting to become a huge nuisance with the frequent crashes I am getting when using an external monitor. I just looked at my Console and found that I've had to force reboot my 15" MBP on 12/13, 12/14, 12/16, 12/21, 12/23, and just 5 minutes ago-- the culprit being "Control Strip".

Knowing I'm not the only one with this issue, I haven't brought it into the Apple Store as a replacement is likely to yield the same results. However, I am very close to just giving it a shot because it's gotten to the point where I'm half-expecting the need to force-reboot my MBP now.

 

[David58117]

Just get the non-TB version, it's actually pretty well received. Mines getting 12-13 hours of battery, the keyboard is better than the 12" MacBook..it's a nice computer..

 

[therealseebs]

RAM is not an issue because the SSDs are faster than most apps can write to memory (Real world cache writes are around 700-900MB/s). That means your scratch/cache data can be as fast as having more RAM.

This is wrong by well over an order of magnitude. SSD writes peak out about 1GB/sec. Memory on modern systems would usually have well over 13GB/sec.

SSDs are not even close to the speed of memory. If you page, at all, you're going to see huge speed hits. That's why memory compression is even an option -- and even that is still a significant slowdown.

 

[sneak3]

Im on the EXACT same dilema as you are and I'm set on picking up a 15" mid 2015 rMBP. Im just not okay in gambling with that much money. It's going to be my only and main machine so I need it to be reliable.

Think about it, it has been so much time since so many people complain about different issues...I do think they will do it right after the refresh but right now it's a no for me.

If only they would sell the 2016 15" with integrated graphics only, then I'd might take the shot cause I feel the battery issues are not hardware related. But all that **** with the new GPUs? That wont be fixed so quickly, at all. That without mentioning the other small little issues that people have been encountering and probably still will until the refresh...