I originally ordered a 15" 2016 Almost fully loaded: 2.7 GHz, 1 TB, Radeon 460. After reading today's reviews, I cancelled my order and grabbed a fully-loaded refurb 2015 (2.5 GHz, 1 TB, R9 370X), which should last me at least 2-3 years.
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[POLL] Are you going to upgrade to any of the new MacBook Pros [MERGED]
- Thread starter adoniteking
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Honestly, for my part, price is the least thing concerning me. Ports are meh, I can live with some adapters. As a network engineer and developer on a part time basis, I need power and sadly the MacBook Pro just isn't cutting it now. I'm currently using a MacBook Pro non-retina from 2012, and the 16GB of RAM is killing me with VMware Fusion. To do number crunching, the OpenCL benchmarks on a 460 are rather pathetic. (I haven't actually seen the benchmarks on the Pro, but figure that they are like the Desktop version, still better than I've got but not a significant upgrade) In the long run, I'm either going to wait, or end up with a hackintosh on VMware Workstation. Hopefully the new trash can will impress me a bit more... (Great computer, just a ****** looking design 
)
)Laptop needs still sorted by 2008 mbps. mac mini 2009 used for iTunes/elgato dvr system and streaming to ATV.
When need more grunt then 2010cmp does the job.
When come to replace the cmp then may well look at the current mbp then.
By then the usb-c transition will be sorted so won't be an issue for me.
When need more grunt then 2010cmp does the job.
When come to replace the cmp then may well look at the current mbp then.
By then the usb-c transition will be sorted so won't be an issue for me.
honestly I think a refurbished mbp 2015 is the much smarter choice because there is no way that the next literation of the mbp doesn't come with a much improved touchbar and maybe by then third party development has taken of or if not...the concept will remain "niche"
I really like the ars review, it's balanced fair and it covers every detail.
I really like the ars review, it's balanced fair and it covers every detail.
This survey isn't biased is it? It's almost like asking in someone is liberal on a liberal website or visa versa....
Watched a good number of reviews over the past couple days, and will continue to check long-term tests. I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade from my 2015 (duh) but also dislike in general the way the Pro is headed.... not even from a 'pro' perspective (as we've seen many complaining about) but simply from a usability perspective. The Touch Bar is cool, but so is the Apple Watch, and I get along just fine without it.
In short, never have I felt I need to cling dearly to my 2015 15" Pro than now, and after 14 months, I think I love the thing more!
In short, never have I felt I need to cling dearly to my 2015 15" Pro than now, and after 14 months, I think I love the thing more!
Agreed. I had ordered the Touch Bar 15" and changed my mind when I saw the configurations in the refurb store.
My take on the whole thing...
The 2016 MBP 15" is an amazing machine, but makes too many compromises and is a v1.0 product. This isn't so much Apple'a fault, but they're hamstrung by component suppliers and the current transitional state of the industry and associated protocol standards.
CPU and iGPU: We can blame Intel for falling behind on this one. Problems with 14nm manufacturing led to the slippage of Broadwell, especially the Iris Pro versions that Apple would've wanted. Apple at that point decided to skip Broadwell and go directly to Skylake. However, Skylake with Iris Pro was also delayed and ended up being a very low-yield part, which is why we've got GT2 graphics. In addition, Intel now appears rolls out new chips in a staggered fashion with the lowest-end SKUs coming out first, with the highest-end SKUs landing 6-9 months later. This means that a "high-end" machine will often be based on an "old" CPU, even though it's the best part available.
RAM: Again, this is Apple being held back by Intel. The LPDDR3 spec maxes out at 16GB (probably due to signal load on the memory controller), and no Intel CPU supports LPDDR4 yet. The spiel about power consumption of regular DDR4 while true, is only the PR story. What makes more sense is that it would not be financially attractive To offer a DDR4 version JUST for the 32 GB option, as it would require a completely different logic board.
dGPU: Again, Apple is being held back by component suppliers here. While we would all love an nVidia Pascal GPU, nVidia doesn't make one that can fit within the MBP's thermal profile. AMD Polaris 10 is actually a very reasonable compromise here, especially the 460 version that is essentially the only fully-enabled Polaris 10 available right now.
Touch Bar: Innovative and shows a ton of potential, but unproven. It remains to be seen whether this catches on, and as a result it's not worth paying a premium for it just to be a guinea pig early adopter. I'm wondering if it will follow many other v1.0 features, getting significantly refined in a future iteration (Taptic Touch Bar?)
Wide-colour screen: No complaints here, really. It sounds like "metal oxide" with 30% less power consumption implies IGZO, and admittedly OLED is not quite there yet at the sizes and resolutions we are talking about. No glowing logo? Who cares!
Ports: USB-C with TB3 is definitely the future. However, the market is not quite there yet. A full and gradual market transition is probably 2-3 years away from completion. Apple is definitely brave here, but this may be the driver for the rest of the market.
Chassis: The new chassis is sexy, but I think many users would've preferred a smaller footprint (ex: bezel-less display) while keeping the previous thickness and battery capacity.
In summary, I think Apple is caught in a perfect storm where the industry is going through a certain amount of upheaval. Component manufacturers have fallen behind and are unable to provide silicon that aligns perfectly with Apple's industrial design vision. I suspect that this may push Apple into seriously considering in-house AX chips for Mac.
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Unless I get a defective version I really don't see this is a bad machine. I'm not tech savvy like many here, but from what I gather, it's a slightly better computer than the last gen performance-wise, better screen, better keyboard (noise doesn't really concern me), touch bar (which I can definitely see being useful, can't wait for Logic Pro adaptation).
The ports don't bother me because all I need is a USB-C/USB key for transferring files, one USB-C/USB adaptor and a new mouse (which I needed anyway). Not really that much of a hassle. The promise of faster, more universal ports in years to come is nice.
All this and the fact that it's almost a pound lighter than my 2009 13" Macbook is pretty amazing to me.
I have debated a lot whether I should go for a rMBP instead, which is also a significant upgrade for me, but considering I'd pay a little more than 3K for the upgraded rMBP and the version of the new one I want is 3477, I figure it's worse the extra 500 for the investment. I'd like more power to game, but that's not what I get with a mac, which I use because I work with Logic and prefer Mac OS.
Only thing I don't understand is why the trackpad is so big. What are the practical uses?
BTW, does everyone here always get Applecare?
The ports don't bother me because all I need is a USB-C/USB key for transferring files, one USB-C/USB adaptor and a new mouse (which I needed anyway). Not really that much of a hassle. The promise of faster, more universal ports in years to come is nice.
All this and the fact that it's almost a pound lighter than my 2009 13" Macbook is pretty amazing to me.
I have debated a lot whether I should go for a rMBP instead, which is also a significant upgrade for me, but considering I'd pay a little more than 3K for the upgraded rMBP and the version of the new one I want is 3477, I figure it's worse the extra 500 for the investment. I'd like more power to game, but that's not what I get with a mac, which I use because I work with Logic and prefer Mac OS.
Only thing I don't understand is why the trackpad is so big. What are the practical uses?
BTW, does everyone here always get Applecare?
On a fully loaded machine, about $1000 CAD.
That being said, I just snagged a fully loaded 2016 (2.9/1TB/460) to try out. I've got both machines and will decide which one to ultimately keep.
As a longtime pro user who ONLY switched to Mac from PC when the G5 towers came out, it's the whole family of non-upgradeable "pro-sumer" (at best) Macs that alarm me. Is there anything left that's not at least partially soldered down?
G5 towers/ MacPros were ubiquitous across all media industries for years, many are still going (we have some running specialized sound and video cards where I work.) The lame "cube" rehash that passes for today's MacPro (correction-- 2013's MacPro that somehow is still on sale at apple.com) is a rare sight. I've only seen a couple in the wild, clearly it's as big a dud as the cube was.
They also made a typo in the all-soldered non-upgradeable new MacBook Air with emoji strip, somehow it says Pro on it. As many have posted, pro users loved the build and longetivity of MacBook Pros, easy to keep in use for 5 - 6 years BECAUSE they were a pleasure to upgrade the RAM and HD a couple of years after purchase.
To yank away every. last. upgradeability (iFixit score of 1/10!!) while dramatically raising the price can't be a mistake, they know what they're doing.
It feels like it's over, they're actually trying to drive away true "pros" and sell only "pro-like" stuff that rich people have no problem paying for. How else to comprehend removing every last currently popular port but ADDING for the first time a choice of colour??
Our only hope is if after the pent-up demand is satiated, this MacBook Pro tanks hard, Apple fires all involved in the upgrade and finally gets back to offering pro users the functionality they want, regardless of the form it has to take. Or spin off the Pro product line and license OSX for it if they're so preoccupied serving the iPhone masses to care about what's only a niche market after all.
G5 towers/ MacPros were ubiquitous across all media industries for years, many are still going (we have some running specialized sound and video cards where I work.) The lame "cube" rehash that passes for today's MacPro (correction-- 2013's MacPro that somehow is still on sale at apple.com) is a rare sight. I've only seen a couple in the wild, clearly it's as big a dud as the cube was.
They also made a typo in the all-soldered non-upgradeable new MacBook Air with emoji strip, somehow it says Pro on it. As many have posted, pro users loved the build and longetivity of MacBook Pros, easy to keep in use for 5 - 6 years BECAUSE they were a pleasure to upgrade the RAM and HD a couple of years after purchase.
To yank away every. last. upgradeability (iFixit score of 1/10!!) while dramatically raising the price can't be a mistake, they know what they're doing.
It feels like it's over, they're actually trying to drive away true "pros" and sell only "pro-like" stuff that rich people have no problem paying for. How else to comprehend removing every last currently popular port but ADDING for the first time a choice of colour??
Our only hope is if after the pent-up demand is satiated, this MacBook Pro tanks hard, Apple fires all involved in the upgrade and finally gets back to offering pro users the functionality they want, regardless of the form it has to take. Or spin off the Pro product line and license OSX for it if they're so preoccupied serving the iPhone masses to care about what's only a niche market after all.
Apple are indeed too obsessed with the iPhone. Even the iPad plays second fiddle nowadays, with updates nowhere to be seen with the iPad Pro since its launch.
The Mac Pro has been forgotten in the wake of mobile phones and tablets. The MacBook Pros are anything but, and lagging well behind their PC equivalents I'm sad to say. Last night I checked out the Dell website out of curiosity, and their 13" XPS model with 16Gb ram, 1Tb SSD, a 4K touchscreen and 7th generation i7 dual core is £1649, or £790 less than the nearest MacBook Pro equivalent. Plus it still has all the usual ports. And Mac OS is running on that XPS too, admittedly with tinkering. Apple are charging a premium for a product that isn't any longer.
I'm embarrassed at Apple descending from being revolutionary to evolutionary, which was always levelled at Microsoft. They seriously need to up their game.
Where are the Steve Jobs and Jony Ive for this decade to rescue Apple from descending into the mediocrity of the 1980-90's Apple Inc? Wherever they are, please raise your collective hands and race to Cupertino to kick their complacent management into action!
The Mac Pro has been forgotten in the wake of mobile phones and tablets. The MacBook Pros are anything but, and lagging well behind their PC equivalents I'm sad to say. Last night I checked out the Dell website out of curiosity, and their 13" XPS model with 16Gb ram, 1Tb SSD, a 4K touchscreen and 7th generation i7 dual core is £1649, or £790 less than the nearest MacBook Pro equivalent. Plus it still has all the usual ports. And Mac OS is running on that XPS too, admittedly with tinkering. Apple are charging a premium for a product that isn't any longer.
I'm embarrassed at Apple descending from being revolutionary to evolutionary, which was always levelled at Microsoft. They seriously need to up their game.
Where are the Steve Jobs and Jony Ive for this decade to rescue Apple from descending into the mediocrity of the 1980-90's Apple Inc? Wherever they are, please raise your collective hands and race to Cupertino to kick their complacent management into action!
Just returned my 15" with upgraded 460 GPU as I was having occasional screen flicker in a 2 inch high band across the entire bottom of the screen.
I have had a Mac since 2010 and I have loved it since day one. It have been the best computer I have ever owned when it comes to build quallity and design. My Mac have exactly the ports I need, except for HDMI and Thunderbolt 3. HDMI is still widely used in the computer industry. The fact that they droped the HDMI bugs me and also the price. The cheapest 13" MBP have the same price as my 15" MBP costed back in 2010 0_o My Mac can switch hard drive and RAM while the new one can do neither. But after all laptops these days have a high price tag.
The new MBP have a lot of cool features but the lack of widely used ports anoy me. I fear that my next laptop might be a regular Pc if the Mac devlopment continues like this :/ I am all for a more wirless world, but I am also a cable fan.
The new MBP have a lot of cool features but the lack of widely used ports anoy me. I fear that my next laptop might be a regular Pc if the Mac devlopment continues like this :/ I am all for a more wirless world, but I am also a cable fan.
I am excited about getting the new MBP 15 512, not exited about the price increase. I use photoshop and plugins ALOT but I do not keep ten programs running at the same time so I think the 16 gigs of ram will work well for me. Frankly I don't know why some keep so many programs running while doing something else. I was hoping in for touch sensitive screen so I could get rid of my Cintiq but with the extra large track pad and the strip I may be able to anyway once Adobe upgrades photoshop to use the strip. I think my biggest disappointment was making it smaller rather than keep the same outer dimension and not taking the screen up to 16" but I will be buying a 27 monitor to hook up anyway. Just hope Apple ships my new MBP very soon as my present MBP is just about dead. It also would be great if the track pad worked with the iPad pencil.
Well, for what's it worth, I just bought a refurb 15" 2015 2.5 R9 M370X with 512 GB SSD. I just couldn't justify the extra cash for a newer version, particularly when it's not my primary computer. I'm out enough that I need a decent laptop. Plus, I honestly like to having to buy more dongles than I already have (display port to VGA and an ethernet connector).