To sell or to keep MBP 2016?

chfilm

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Hey guys,

I'm looking at a bit of a dilemma, would be interested in your thoughts:

I own a MacPro 2013 as my primary workstation for heavy video editing.

An iPad Pro 11" for almost everything I do outside the house, writing on the go, reading and light email/web stuff if I have to work at some office as a freelancer. On Journeys I almost exclusively travel with the iPad and am happy 90% of the time and take the portability bonus over the missing 10% productivity. Everything that's missing is purely software related and iOS issues.

and a MacbookPro 2016 13" with 3,1ghz for........... well.
The thing is, there are RARE occasions in my job, when I do need the macbook still. May it be to serve as a hub for data security during a shoot, or if I have to really move away from my hometown for a longer project, I don't wanna rely solely on the iPad. It happened once for 3 months last year, but other than that, the macbook is really mostly used if on a rare occasion I'm too lazy to fire up the mac pro to edit some photos, or if my girlfriend or a colleague are hanging out here and need a real computer.

There are some basic tasks that the iPad can't do, like to manage facebook ads for example, or even google docs is kinda limited and annoying to use on it.

Almost every day I am contemplating to either:
- Sell the Macbook for like 1500 € to
- buy a refurb 2018 one, for 2100 € just to stay up to date
-sell and wait for a new bezel less/face id 2019 edition
-sell and buy a 12.9" iPad pro
-just sell and be happy and see what will happen with ios 13 or a macbook pro in 2019, or just buy a new one if an urgent need actually comes up.

It's tough, I feel like I need a macbook, just for the rare occasions when it's actually necessary for my job - but 90% of the time it's just sitting here and losing value.

What would you guys suggest?
 
Honestly I would just hope you’re even able to find a buyer…

I can’t think of less desirable MacBook pros, just in terms of resale value, than the 2016 models.

They are the first iteration of the MacBook Pros with butterfly Keyboards which themselves are the least reliable Keyboards Apple has ever used for anything.

I would sell that thing while it’s still well under the extended warranty protection for the keyboard so the buyer has peace of mind.

Butterfly keyboard Macs are a real life version of musical chairs and you do not want to be without a chair (buyer) when the music stops.
 
I might sell my macmini, but why? I dont need the money and im not going to get the value that the computer is worth, so keep, your mbpro you might regret selling that
 
turbineseaplane said:
Honestly I would just hope you’re even able to find a buyer…

I can’t think of less desirable MacBook pros, just in terms of resale value, than the 2016 models.

They are the first iteration of the MacBook Pros with butterfly Keyboards which themselves are the least reliable Keyboards Apple has ever used for anything.

I would sell that thing while it’s still well under the extended warranty protection for the keyboard so the buyer has peace of mind.

Butterfly keyboard Macs are a real life version of musical chairs and you do not want to be without a chair (buyer) when the music stops.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with this. I would try to get rid of that 2016 as fast as possible.
 
BuCkDoG said:
Completely agree with this. I would try to get rid of that 2016 as fast as possible.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that’s true. Probably not what you wanted to hear though. I bought myself the Mid 2015 rMBP as soon as it was released (that last real PRO MacBook) and haven’t had a single issue. I got it maxed out out it’s been a flawless machine.
 
I haven't updated my 2016 MBP because given the state of problems these days, I think this applies more than usual: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
ScreenSavers said:
Unfortunately, that’s true. Probably not what you wanted to hear though. I bought myself the Mid 2015 rMBP as soon as it was released (that last real PRO MacBook) and haven’t had a single issue. I got it maxed out out it’s been a flawless machine.
Click to expand...

Smart move to be honest. I just sold my 2013 mbp for 700 and bought a 2018 15” so hoping everything goes smoothly.
 
I would sell it. It's only a matter of time before you get display cable issues on those 2016s due to the cable being too short, plus the keyboard issues.
 
chfilm said:
Almost every day I am contemplating to either:
- Sell the Macbook for like 1500 € to
- buy a refurb 2018 one, for 2100 € just to stay up to date
-sell and wait for a new bezel less/face id 2019 edition
-sell and buy a 12.9" iPad pro
-just sell and be happy and see what will happen with ios 13 or a macbook pro in 2019, or just buy a new one if an urgent need actually comes up.
Click to expand...

If you want to be and can be totally laptop free, I'd agree with the people who tell you to sell it ASAP to recover maximum value, but I'd question the logic if you're going to sell it and just turn around and buy another laptop that's also not going to be used most of the time. If you feel like you need a laptop even though it's not in daily use and your 13" MBP is doing the job well enough, I'd keep it.

I don't think there's a right answer here. As for myself, if I have a piece of equipment that is just sitting there losing value, but it's something that I might need on short notice to do a job, I keep it and consider it the cost of doing business. My measuring stick is if selling something will negatively affect my ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances.
 
smirking said:
If you want to be and can be totally laptop free, I'd agree with the people who tell you to sell it ASAP to recover maximum value, but I'd question the logic if you're going to sell it and just turn around and buy another laptop that's also not going to be used most of the time. If you feel like you need a laptop even though it's not in daily use and your 13" MBP is doing the job well enough, I'd keep it.

I don't think there's a right answer here. As for myself, if I have a piece of equipment that is just sitting there losing value, but it's something that I might need on short notice to do a job, I keep it and consider it the cost of doing business. My measuring stick is if selling something will negatively affect my ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances.
Click to expand...

You got me - That's exactly the kind of position I find myself in. I might need it on short notice on rare occasions.
Then again I was thinking maybe I can sell it for 1,5k and for "just" 600 € more will get a machine that will hopefully last longer. As far as I understand the 2018 mbp are much more mature devices less prone to break?

Than again, I could see them bringing out a nice new redesign with smaller bezels and face ID which I'd love this year... argh!
 
chfilm said:
You got me - That's exactly the kind of position I find myself in. I might need it on short notice on rare occasions.
Then again I was thinking maybe I can sell it for 1,5k and for "just" 600 € more will get a machine that will hopefully last longer. As far as I understand the 2018 mbp are much more mature devices less prone to break?

Than again, I could see them bringing out a nice new redesign with smaller bezels and face ID which I'd love this year... argh!
Click to expand...

I think I'd sell it now, get the most possible out of it (you're in no rush), and decide on what to do with the money after WWDC.
 
chfilm said:
As far as I understand the 2018 mbp are much more mature devices less prone to break?
Click to expand...

Prone to break is a relative thing. The more time I spend on MacRumors, the more I'm convinced that any second now my keyboard is going to turn into a dog biscuit, my display cable will strangle me in my sleep, and my speakers are going to uncork a sonic boom so loud that I'll go deaf.

I've got a 2016 15" that hasn't been treated gingerly and has even been dropped 3 feet while the lid was open. It's full of dust, gunk, and other nasties. It's fine. I don't doubt the reports of the problems that have been seen with machines of this vintage, but nobody outside of Apple knows what the true frequency of those issues are and if the causes are as simple as they're believed to be (and I think the real story is more complex than what's commonly believed).

I've made it a point to not be nice to the keyboard. I have a faulty battery so I'm going to be getting a new topcase anyway sometime in the next few months. I wanted to see if it's easy to ruin it. The keyboard's not as smooth feeling as it used to be, but all the keys still work normally despite me intentionally letting it get crusty.

In all likelihood, your MBP is probably going to be fine, especially if you're not using it that much. MacRumors makes it seem like every issue report has a 100% probability for everyone in every situation.

If you really just want to justify getting a newer model whether it's a 2019 or a yet to be released model... go ahead and sell it if you don't need it for now, but if you're actually trying to save money, I would stick with what you've got.
 
Last edited:
smirking said:
Prone to break is a relative thing. The more time I spend on MacRumors, the more I'm convince that any second now my keyboard is going to turn into a dog biscuit, my display cable will strangle me in my sleep, and my speakers are going to uncork a sonic boom so loud that I'll go deaf.

I've got a 2016 15" that hasn't been treated gingerly and has even been dropped 3 feet while the lid was open. It's full of dust, gunk, and other nasties. It's fine. I don't doubt the reports of the problems that have been seen with machines of this vintage, but nobody outside of Apple knows what the true frequency of those issues are and if the causes are as simple as they're believed to be (and I think the real story is more complex than what's commonly believed).

I've made it a point to not be nice to the keyboard. I have a faulty battery so I'm going to be getting a new topcase anyway sometime in the next few months. I wanted to see if it's easy to ruin it. The keyboard's not as smooth feeling as it used to be, but all the keys still work normally despite me intentionally letting it get crusty.

In all likelihood, your MBP is probably going to be fine, especially if you're not using it that much. MacRumors makes it seem like every issue report has a 100% probability for everyone in every situation.

If you really just want to justify getting a newer model whether it's a 2019 or a yet to be released model... go ahead and sell it if you don't need it for now, but if you're actually trying to save money, I would stick with what you've got.
Click to expand...
Haha I had a great laugh at your post! My mb is absolutely fine as well, like no sticky buttons or anything. I’m less than happy with battery life and it’s performance though during the rare occasions that I’m using it. It feels really slow, but that’s probably because I’m spoilt by both the Mac Pro and the iPad Pro. Performance should be better on the 2018, but not sure about battery life..
 
chfilm said:
Haha I had a great laugh at your post! My mb is absolutely fine as well, like no sticky buttons or anything. I’m less than happy with battery life and it’s performance though during the rare occasions that I’m using it. It feels really slow, but that’s probably because I’m spoilt by both the Mac Pro and the iPad Pro. Performance should be better on the 2018, but not sure about battery life..
Click to expand...

Given what you want to use your MBP for, maybe you should sell it after all. The 13" does not have a dedicated GPU so it's going to be much slower in graphics intensive tasks.
 
smirking said:
Given what you want to use your MBP for, maybe you should sell it after all. The 13" does not have a dedicated GPU so it's going to be much slower in graphics intensive tasks.
Click to expand...
You’re saying even the 2018 version is gonna be, because of the lack of GPU?
 
chfilm said:
You’re saying even the 2018 version is gonna be, because of the lack of GPU?
Click to expand...

Well, the 2018 will definitely handle the load better than your 2016, but dGPUs make a huge difference for most video or resource intensive graphics. Just how much benefit you get can vary from application to application, but it's generally quite significant.

A dGPU is a big enough deal that benchmarks of the standard BlackMagic eGPUs amount to a modest and very expensive bump in performance when paired with my 15" 2016 MBP, but not a game changer. When you pair that eGPU with a dGPU-less 13" MBP, it's a game changer.
 
smirking said:
Well, the 2018 will definitely handle the load better than your 2016, but dGPUs make a huge difference for most video or resource intensive graphics. Just how much benefit you get can vary from application to application, but it's generally quite significant.

A dGPU is a big enough deal that benchmarks of the standard BlackMagic eGPUs amount to a modest and very expensive bump in performance when paired with my 15" 2016 MBP, but not a game changer. When you pair that eGPU with a dGPU-less 13" MBP, it's a game changer.
Click to expand...
Well yea sure, I guess in theory of course I know that a dgpu should make all the difference but I never thought about it when I felt the mb was so slow in comparison.

How about the iPad- I guess just the entire architecture is so different that it’s hard to compare, but does it have significantly more gpu power than this MacBook? Or is it just the way how iOS was programmed?
 
If I had a 2016-2017 MBP I’d be concerned about the “flexgate” issue... not sure how common that is because the only people who mention it are the ones who have had the problem, but still pretty concerning.
 
chfilm said:
What would you guys suggest?
Click to expand...
Like you, i was really starting to wonder if I'd be better off selling my laptop, and I too was going over what to do on a daily basis.

I'm not saying you should do this, but my line of thought was this: If the risk of failure is high on the laptop, and thanks to the butterfly keyboard and flexgate it is, and the longer I wait, the less money I'd get in selling. I chose to cut my losses and sell. In my case, I chose to sell my 6 month old 2018 machine. For me a lot of nice things fell in place to make it economical, first I got a good amount, second, I had made the decision to leave the Mac platform, so that opened the door to a number of alternatives and one of those (Lenovo) had a massive sale in january. I basically broke even from selling my MBP and getting the Thinkpad. I upgraded a few things, so the price was a tad higher.

For me, if you're not at peace with your decision, and/or machine, then do something about it. Life is too short to spend too much time agonizing over a laptop
 
maflynn said:
For me, if you're not at peace with your decision, and/or machine, then do something about it. Life is too short to spend too much time agonizing over a laptop
Click to expand...

This. Very well said. It is precisely why I sold off my 2016 MBP too. Everything about it was great for me, except the keyboard, and since I could not rely on the keyboard, it was a serious dent on my peace of mind. Now using an Air 2017, and in peace. :)
 
maflynn said:
Like you, i was really starting to wonder if I'd be better off selling my laptop, and I too was going over what to do on a daily basis.

I'm not saying you should do this, but my line of thought was this: If the risk of failure is high on the laptop, and thanks to the butterfly keyboard and flexgate it is, and the longer I wait, the less money I'd get in selling. I chose to cut my losses and sell. In my case, I chose to sell my 6 month old 2018 machine. For me a lot of nice things fell in place to make it economical, first I got a good amount, second, I had made the decision to leave the Mac platform, so that opened the door to a number of alternatives and one of those (Lenovo) had a massive sale in january. I basically broke even from selling my MBP and getting the Thinkpad. I upgraded a few things, so the price was a tad higher.

For me, if you're not at peace with your decision, and/or machine, then do something about it. Life is too short to spend too much time agonizing over a laptop
Click to expand...
So basically what you guys are saying, even the 2018 version is risky because it's prone to break?

So far I was absolutely not worried about mechanical failure of the device as it was rock solid for those two years. The only thing that's bothering me is a lack of performance and actual usecases on a daily bases ;)

Can anyone say something about battery life on the new machines? Has it gotten any better than in 2016? I was so shocked when I switched to this device from my macbook air back then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top