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felixroqu3

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 5, 2012
648
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New York, NY
I need a MacBook Pro and was wondering if i should get one now, or wait until its refreshed. You think Apple will refresh them in October? Not sure if the refresh would be a huge improvement over the current models. What do you think?
 
Considering the current models have potential keyboard issues, I’d wait to see what Apple does to resolve that. Plus the refreshed models will very likely have 8th-gen Intel CPUs with significant performance gains (more cores).
 
There were countless rumors about updates to the MacBook Pro lineup before WWDC 2018 and now that it passed and nothing happened the rumors changed to a hardware event somewhere in September or October. What if nothing happens and apple skips the 8th gen and go for the cannon lake ? Just saying, don’t rely on rumors. You need a MacBook buy one if you can wait then wait. Simple as that
 
There were countless rumors about updates to the MacBook Pro lineup before WWDC 2018 and now that it passed and nothing happened the rumors changed to a hardware event somewhere in September or October. What if nothing happens and apple skips the 8th gen and go for the cannon lake ? Just saying, don’t rely on rumors. You need a MacBook buy one if you can wait then wait. Simple as that
Apple doesn't really launch/announce hardware at WWDC, so that's harder to go on. OP asked if they should buy or wait, which implies they have the ability to wait. If the current models weren't dealing with keyboard issues, I'd say the wait wasn't as necessary, but if it were me, I'd hold out to see if they've resolved that issue with the next model.
 
Apple doesn't really launch/announce hardware at WWDC, so that's harder to go on. OP asked if they should buy or wait, which implies they have the ability to wait. If the current models weren't dealing with keyboard issues, I'd say the wait wasn't as necessary, but if it were me, I'd hold out to see if they've resolved that issue with the next model.
Of course if you can wait then wait. As many people already said in here , the best time to buy a laptop is when you actually need it.
 
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I want one for upcoming trip in September , I will use it mostly for 4k editing in Final cut Pro and lightroom raw editing. I actually need it now but can wait until August if there is any chance for spec update.
 
At this point it really is probably worth waiting it out however long it takes (unless you really desperately need it) because I expect they won’t want to launch another model with the defective keyboard. Expect a gen 3 butterfly or magic keyboard in the next model with the keyboard failure more comprehensively fixed.
 
You think Apple will refresh them in October?
Yes.
Not sure if the refresh would be a huge improvement over the current models.
  1. Very likely: The jump from quad-core to hex-core will be a decent improvement for multi-core performance.
  2. Very likely: The keyboard gets a much-needed reliability improvement, as the 2016 - 2017 models have keyboards that are 3-4 times more likely to encounter problems compared to the models from 2015 and before. Not exactly what I'd want to hear before spending $2,400 on a Mac.
  3. Somewhat likely: A price drop.
  4. Somewhat likely: A bump in display resolution to better compete with PC laptops that are already available with 4K displays.
  5. Somewhat likely: A bump to 32 GB RAM. I consider this a guarantee for the 2019 models but the 2018 models may stay at 16 GB.
What do you think?
Wait!
 
Yes.

  1. Very likely: The jump from quad-core to hex-core will be a decent improvement for multi-core performance.
  2. Very likely: The keyboard gets a much-needed reliability improvement, as the 2016 - 2017 models have keyboards that are 3-4 times more likely to encounter problems compared to the models from 2015 and before. Not exactly what I'd want to hear before spending $2,400 on a Mac.
  3. Somewhat likely: A price drop.
  4. Somewhat likely: A bump in display resolution to better compete with PC laptops that are already available with 4K displays.
  5. Somewhat likely: A bump to 32 GB RAM. I consider this a guarantee for the 2019 models but the 2018 models may stay at 16 GB.

Wait!
Haha, awesome. Thank you very much :)
 
Keep in mind that it would be very very strange for apple to go all of 2018 without updating their Mac line (I don't think they have ever gone a whole calendar year without a single Macbook Pro update even when the gap was largest (2015 => 2016). And Apple doesn't hold major product releases after about Oct so it is basically guaranteed that there will be some update by Oct 2018. If you can wait that long, I would wait.

Major processor improvements are basically guaranteed. Keyboard improvements are very likely (because why would apple want to add an ADDITIONAL model to their keyboard repair program? That would just be silly). I wouldn't expect much else but you never know.
 
I'm curious to what you end up doing. I'm going to be in the market this year as well as my laptop is starting to have issues. I'm hoping it lasts long enough for the new models to come out. At least there are deals to be had on Apple computers now, you just have to spend time looking for them.
 
My suggestion: If you can find a great deal on the top model, then buy it now (I'm talking about a good couple of hundreds in savings).
 
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