Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Purchase 2016 or wait 2017

ilikewhey

ilikewhey

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 14, 2014
3,617
4,680
nyc upper east
i saw the base touch model on ebay going for 1550, after hearing all the issues with the 2016, should i just wait for the 2017 model thats coming out later on?

i kinda need it and kinda don't. the air is serving me fine but i have to restart occasionally due to 4gb of ram slowing things down. and some other quirks that i wish i have a more powerful laptop.

given the advancements i heard the 2017 is gonna have, such as retina 2.0 and better battery. would that be enough of a justification? or do you think its incremental improvement by tim cook again.
 
Tim Cook isn't designing the MBP. There are engineers for that. Of course, improvements are bound to be incremental, unless someone invents a brand new kind of processor or screen. Whether the rumored improvements would matter to you is something only you can answer.

Hard to figure out what the advantage of an incrementally higher-resolution screen (that remains sub-4K) would be on a 15" or smaller format. Maybe for close lookers?

A better battery would be welcome, of course, and was planned for 2016, but it can only add 23 watt-hours at the very most for the 15". Incremental.

32 GB RAM is more than most people need, but if you need it, then wait for it. Given what you're using now, it's hard to imagine how you could use it. Contrary to some reports, Kaby Lake doesn't significantly affect whether 32 GB will be offered. It will still require desktop RAM to reach 32 GB, just like Skylake.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lobo1978, HenryDJP and ilikewhey
ilikewhey said:
i saw the base touch model on ebay going for 1550, after hearing all the issues with the 2016, should i just wait for the 2017 model thats coming out later on?

i kinda need it and kinda don't. the air is serving me fine but i have to restart occasionally due to 4gb of ram slowing things down. and some other quirks that i wish i have a more powerful laptop.

given the advancements i heard the 2017 is gonna have, such as retina 2.0 and better battery. would that be enough of a justification? or do you think its incremental improvement by tim cook again.
Click to expand...


All we know about the 2017 is rumors. But, I decided to put off purchase of a 2016 until I see what available later this year also because of some of the teething issues. These are to be expected since the models are completely new with few parts carried over from the last models. Since we have 2015s rMBPs they can tide us over for a while.
 
the ram aspect i'm not too worried about, i been living just fine with 4gb for the last 5 years and only now its start to show, and even now its the occasional restart that irritates me a bit.

as for the screen i'm not that bothered either, the current res, imho, is fine since you need at least 27 inch to really tell the difference for such high res. and i have a 4k gaming rig so i don't think i would be that bothered by it.

the only thing that would nag me a bit is if 2017 has like wayy better battery life, like 12 hours or something like my air as oppose to 10 hours at the very best from what i heard.

i'm very tempted by the price i see on ebay, 1550 usd for a msrp 1800 laptop, thats why i figure why not ask you guys whether its a good deal to buy it or wait for kabylake.
 
The battery life for the base 13" without touch bar is already excellent, but for the 13" with touch bar there are a lot of complaints about poor battery life. Most people seem to get 4-8 hours with it. Since that's the model you're looking at, you may want to keep that in mind, to wait or to get the non-touchbar version. (I don't think Kaby Lake is worth waiting for for you.)

Make sure any eBay offer is from someone with impeccable feedback. You can sometimes get better deals from Best Buy in the US, I think, especially if you consider the open box ones, which you can get either online or in-store. They have the full warranty and return policy. Apple has also started to offer refurbished 2016 base models. So look around for the best deal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ilikewhey
thanks yes i only see the touch bar version going forward, otherwise i would buy a 2015 one with all the ports,

the seller i purchased from is one of these giant retailers on ebay, so i'm not worried about that part, at least i hope lol. i think for the price point, 1550 for a new touchbar is pretty good, beats out anything on apple refurb since i have to pay tax on top of that. with ebay no tax so 1550 is 1550 lol.
 
I got the base 2016 13" no tb and I like it. I mean I put a review on here but I'm overall very positive about this computer. I love it! No regrets!
 
I don't think anything but the battery life is likely to be a significant factor for you in a possible 2017 MBP. The processor won't matter much. There will always be good deals.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ilikewhey
is the touchbar battery that bad? like would i be able to get 9 hours at the very least under web surfing with chrome and such?
 
ilikewhey said:
is the touchbar battery that bad? like would i be able to get 9 hours at the very least under web surfing with chrome and such?
Click to expand...

The webpages you go to is probably the biggest factor in determining how much battery life you have. Go to one that is largely static and your battery life will be good. Go to one that has ads, video, etc. and the battery life will be poor. A page with heavy graphics and video can consume 4 to 5 times as much power as a largely static one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sanpete
You're not likely to get nine hours using Chrome. Apple's tests use Safari, which is more efficient. Most people don't get nine hours even with Safari, though. (People using the 13" without touch bar and the 15" do get 10 hours as advertised.)
 
wow that bad? i'm getting at the very least 10 hours on my air with 12 tabs of chrome open with 4-5 word files. and bunch of other things running, and the new mbp can't even last 9 with just chrome?
 
Probably not, based on what I've seen here. As @jerryk said, it depends on the pages. The 13" with touch bar has a smaller battery than the non-touch-bar, with a more powerful processor and touch bar to power.
 
Wait for the 2017. To give Apple the benefit of the doubt for the last time, presumably they'll iron out some of the teething issues of the 2016s.

It might even fix the keyboard, which is failing at an astonishing rate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane
Ha, he means he only tracks complaints and literally ignores (puts on ignore) all contrary facts. The keyboards are working great for most people. There's a long thread here about those having issues, mostly clicking sounds some people don't like.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lobo1978 and HenryDJP
If battery life is an extremely important factor for you, and you can get by for a few more months, I think it is worth waiting to see what follows. This is an area I expect Apple to spend a LOT of time working at, because many of their customers were unsatisfied with the battery performance (there was a lot of initial variability, with some Users getting outstanding performance and some subpar.) While updates have largely eliminated many of these issues with the nTB and 15, Apple is all about impressions, and they know many of their MBA Users are going to be upgrading soon, and battery life is of top importance to many of them, so delivery here isn't an option.) When the iPhone 6 had the bendy frustrations, the 6s changed to a much higher grade aluminum, which was arguably overkill. Apple may make battery changes that are the same type of overkill, resulting in stupid long run times.

We know that there will be a more power-efficient CPU, we think there will likely be a change in the battery shape to increase capacity (and we know that a larger capacity can be used without being banned from aircraft), and there could be a change in the electrolyte formulation used that improves run time especially under heavier load (thank you Tesla and Panasonic!) - all of this could equate to substantial improvements in battery life, which would obviously benefit mobile users the most. As you are considering the MBP version with arguably the weakest battery performance of the three, this is more reason to wait.

When the 2017 comes out, I think you will likely have a nice range of options:
  1. Purchase the brand new 2017
  2. Purchase a 2016 for a discount, if there isn't a big change in battery/performance/other features
  3. Purchase a 2016 refurb for a bigger discount
  4. Purchase a new or refurb 2015 for an even bigger discount
 
Wait it out for the next release. This was a terrible launch littered with issues and lots of drawbacks, even as compared to the last model. Hopefully Apple will iron some of these things out by then. If you are desperate then just grab a refurbished 2015 model, they are all around excellent machines. You can always get rid of them later for a good price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane
hm now the price of 1550 from 1800 doesn't sound too enticing at all now. i ordered it but i can deny delivery. i'm gonna sleep on it.
 
You're better off waiting for the 2017 revision.

There have been reports of issues with the new butterfly keyboard, which are not deal-breakers by any means, but Apple will most likely iron these problems out with its next update.

Also, there was an article a few months ago stating that Apple planned on using a longer-lasting battery, but failed in its testing. So they used an older battery design. There's a chance they could include this in their 2017 model. Again, this was only a rumour, but you only have to look at the new MacBook 15" teardowns to see that empty space near the battery.

The 2016 Macbook Pro is a good laptop, but I'd wait for the 2017 if you can.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane
ilikewhey said:
wait what? what do you mean the keyboard is failing. its a keyboard how does it fail?
Click to expand...

There are a number of reports, here, in Apple's own support forums, and elsewhere, that the butterfly keyboard is failing at much higher rates than expected. Some keys get stuck, others don't register or register two or more times, etc.
 
Naimfan said:
There are a number of reports, here, in Apple's own support forums, and elsewhere, that the butterfly keyboard is failing at much higher rates than expected. Some keys get stuck, others don't register or register two or more times, etc.
Click to expand...

Not common. Forums are aggregators of complaints of all kinds, of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lobo1978
I've seen this question come up every year since I began reading Mac Rumors. It doesn't matter if it's a MacBook or iPhone people ask the same question and get the same answers. Many say the current model is junk and wait for next year's because that version is always better. Others say the opposite, but I say if you need a new computer then go buy the latest model you can afford.

There will always be next year's promise and today's fear of making the wrong decision, no matter what model is in the stores.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back