Waiting for Skylake MBP thread

[fatboyhouston]

For all of those who were considering to take advantage of the student discount in the UK (like me)

I really try not to be pissed at Apple but this 'screw over the customer cos we're Apple' thing is reaaaallly starting to push me away... Not cool Apple.. Not cool..

Same here, I was really annoyed when I saw this. Who wants some crappy headphones instead of a decent discount? I've been waiting with everyone else for the new MBP, but this made up my mind for me. I've now bought a used 2015 model, happy in the knowledge that not a penny of the sale will go to Apple.

 

[Havre]

To be honest, I've tried shallower keyboards similar to the rMB keyboard (Logitech keys-to-go was my main keyboard for about a year) and I much rather prefer the rMBP type keyboard (like on the Apple wireless keyboard original) just because they have a much nicer 'jump' when typing. I can only describe that feeling as a 'pure delight' when typing, something that's impossible to achieve with a shallow depth keyboard cos it feels like I'm hitting the desk with every key press :/

This is similar to my first impression.

I almost convinced myself too the other day but I think I'm just desperate for a new one. it's worse in all these categories just for the sake of better portability:

-Battery life (10 vs 12 hours)
-Performance (m vs i, 8gb vs 16gb)
-Connectivity (one vs multi)
-Screen size (12" vs 13")
-Audio
-Webcam (480p vs 720p)
-Keyboard (subjective)

This would be somewhat understandable if it wasn't the same price as the MBP.

Not sure if I understand. If it was equal on all those things as well as price what would be the point of the MBP?

Of course you "pay" for portability - either through lower specs or through cash (or a combination).

 

[JFante]

Not sure if I understand. If it was equal on all those things as well as price what would be the point of the MBP?

Of course you "pay" for portability - either through lower specs or through cash (or a combination).

It needs to be cheaper than the MBP like the Air. A lighter laptop doesn't outweigh all of those very important factors when price is the same (and battery life is essentially part of portability).

The only reason to buy the MB is if portability is a MASSIVE deal for you. If not, the value is poor as you lose out on every other factor for the same cost.

 

[doctorwhofan98]

This is similar to my first impression.



Not sure if I understand. If it was equal on all those things as well as price what would be the point of the MBP?

Of course you "pay" for portability - either through lower specs or through cash (or a combination).

The rMB should be cheaper, though I expect Apple will have a fairly massive price hike for the new MBPs rather than make the MB cheaper

 

[croco_dile]

I almost convinced myself too the other day but I think I'm just desperate for a new one. it's worse in all these categories just for the sake of better portability:

-Battery life (10 vs 12 hours)
-Performance (m vs i, 8gb vs 16gb)
-Connectivity (one vs multi)
-Screen size (12" vs 13")
-Audio
-Webcam (480p vs 720p)
-Keyboard (subjective)

This would be somewhat understandable if it wasn't the same price as the MBP.

I am not disputing the fact that the MBP is more powerful and more functional, but I am just calling out that the current MBP feels ancient, and it is, given its design is over 4 years old.

Anyone who is buying one must be desperate and damn Apple for forcing their most loyal customers into this position.

 

[lcseds]

So you folks in the UK got 15% off and free 3 year Applecare with purchase? Did you also get the promos like the Beats headphones also? If so, that was pretty sweet. I wonder what the reason is for cutting back on this, unless they need the cash .

 

[JFante]

I am not disputing the fact that the MBP is more powerful and more functional, but I am just calling out that the current MBP feels ancient, and it is, given its design is over 4 years old.

Anyone who is buying one must be desperate and damn Apple for forcing their most loyal customers into this position.

We are desperate!!

Yes its portability (excluding battery life) is "ancient" compared to the MB. But everything else is better. Why is it desperate to buy the MBP compared to the MB when it is better in every factor except portability when they are the same price?

This is why I think there are going to be a lot of changes across the range as currently the pricing and options are all messed up.

 

[shareef777]

The next MBP has taken so long to come out, it will be the first time Apple releases a product that's completely vetted of all bugs. It's going to be so great, that after the late 2016 MBP is released, they probably won't need to release another until early 2019.

Apple seems to be so full of themselves that I could see them thinking that. What's sad is that Apple used to get early access to processors and other components. They were generally bleeding edge and implemented new technologies before others (first mainstream hi-res/retina display, first to offer a laptop with Thunderbolt, first to dump optical drives, etc). Now they lag behind in every facet of laptop technologies (4k has been out a while, TB3/USB-C, Skylake). The issue is that we hold out for so long and buy up their released equipment that this will likely signal to them that they have no incentive to keep upgrade cycles at the same pace they used to.

As bad as it sounds, I'm kinda hoping more and more people abandon the Mac to get Apple back to their old innovative ways. Sadly, I'm one of the idiots that have drunk the kool-aid and don't want to go through the effort of migrating all my platforms from the Apple ecosystem (desktop OS, phone OS, watch/tablets). I'm truly hoping for something to get me to abandon ship and thought that Microsoft's continuity was the solution, but then Microsoft had to go and abandon the phone platform. Would have really liked a Razer/Surface/WinPhone combo as there seemed to be a lot of cool features, but alas, that's not possible.

Back to "Waiting for Skylake MBP".

 

[doctorwhofan98]

So you folks in the UK got 15% off and free 3 year Applecare with purchase? Did you also get the promos like the Beats headphones also? If so, that was pretty sweet. I wonder what the reason is for cutting back on this, unless they need the cash .

Yep, we had a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, had I known they were cutting it, I'd have ordered a MBP 2 days ago.

 

[Sincci]

I'm getting tempted to do the same. I need a MBP in time for uni otherwise there will be difficulties, and waiting until October is so far away. I'd also get free Beats headphones if I ordered the current model.

But I don't know if I'd regret not waiting for Skylake. It's a massive dilemma.
[doublepost=1466165085][/doublepost]Essentially, is it clear how much of a performance jump Skylake will be? I don't really care about USB-C or Thunderbolt 3, and I could very much live without the OLED bar. But I don't want my MBP to be slow and/or not getting OS updates for the next 4-5 years.

The difference between Broadwell and Skylake in CPU power is so insignificant that I really wouldn't worry too much about it. Iris 6100 is of course slower than Iris 550, but even then it's not really important since both of these aren't really useful with gaming anyway due to throttling. They should both be fast enough for everything else.

Also, you really shouldn't worry about OS updates either, my previous MBP was the 13" 2009 mid model and it had OS support all the way until macOS Sierra. I really don't expect Apple to stop supporting the current gen rMBP's any time soon.

 

[doctorwhofan98]

The difference between Broadwell and Skylake in CPU power is so insignificant that I really wouldn't worry too much about it. Iris 6100 is of course slower than Iris 550, but even then it's not really important since both of these aren't really useful with gaming anyway due to throttling. They should both be fast enough for everything else.

Also, you really shouldn't worry about OS updates either, my previous MBP was the 13" 2009 mid model and it had OS support all the way until macOS Sierra. I really don't expect Apple to stop supporting the current gen rMBP's any time soon.

Thank you! I'm going to get the 3.1 GHz i7 processor as well to help ensure that it lasts. The only constraint then would be storage but I have hardly any files anyway.

So, I officially give up on the Skylake MBP. Congratulations to Apple for getting me to spend £1000 on a device with relatively old tech... they're too good at this.

 

[Pbrutto]

People are obsessed with OLED ... fine. No harm intended.
But a good IPS panel with multi-colored LED backlight can be so much better.

OLED has a long way to go.
They did not invent pentile pixel arrangement for fun.
It is so much harder to get an accurate OLED display.
You might like these oversaturated displays on your phone, but certainly not on a big screen.

\Other than IPS, OLED has far more problems with whitepoints and consistent color temperature across the panel.
You might like it on a 5,5" display, but not on 15".

(TV's are not really an argument because they can get away with bigger pixels and any ordering or dupliaction of color components they wish. You are too far away to see that on a 1080p TV)

I found an article about OLED calibration that came close to magic, because a truely calibrated OLED panel takes so much more steps to produce and would be expensive as hell.)

Can you link that article?

 

[Havre]

It needs to be cheaper than the MBP like the Air. A lighter laptop doesn't outweigh all of those very important factors when price is the same (and battery life is essentially part of portability).

The only reason to buy the MB is if portability is a MASSIVE deal for you. If not, the value is poor as you lose out on every other factor for the same cost.

The rMB should be cheaper, though I expect Apple will have a fairly massive price hike for the new MBPs rather than make the MB cheaper

Fair enough. I would agree that the rMB doesn't seem like good value for money. I got no idea if that is reflected in the actual sales. Would have been interesting to see some numbers on that.

Not sure if there is room for Apple to increase prices that much, but then again I can't understand how they can sell the current product at current prices either. And ironically because they have waited to long to update the sorry %#"¤# who are still waiting might be willing to pay a little more. So maybe it just the optimist in me thinking there isn't room.

 

[ssong]

So you folks in the UK got 15% off and free 3 year Applecare with purchase? Did you also get the promos like the Beats headphones also? If so, that was pretty sweet. I wonder what the reason is for cutting back on this, unless they need the cash .

Used to.. And to clarify the 3 year warranty was given as a '3 year extended HE warranty' and not 'AppleCare' to be technical, but the benefits were pretty much the same. I wonder if the looming Brexit debate might have anything to do with this, my understanding was that UK consumer law was stricter than the EU one so I wouldn't expect it to but who knows.

At the end of the day, Apple just cut the discount for students on a product that should have had a price cut about a year ago -_-

 

[AndreaB13]

The next MBP has taken so long to come out, it will be the first time Apple releases a product that's completely vetted of all bugs. It's going to be so great, that after the late 2016 MBP is released, they probably won't need to release another until early 2019.

I sure hope so. Early 2019 is a little exaggerated, but I will be pissed off so bad for sure if after waiting a year and an half for an update I buy it and then they upgrade it again after like 6 months.

 

[ssong]

Same here, I was really annoyed when I saw this. Who wants some crappy headphones instead of a decent discount? I've been waiting with everyone else for the new MBP, but this made up my mind for me. I've now bought a used 2015 model, happy in the knowledge that not a penny of the sale will go to Apple.

I'm considering this option my self but even at a discounted rate of the used price, it still feels like overpaying for the same price that one could pick up a rMBP 15 (2015) used, you could probably pick up a new Windows.. I'm torn in million directions :/

 

[koyoot]

http://wccftech.com/radeon-rx-460-crossfire-3dmark-11-benchmarks/

This is the desktop version of the GPU that will end up in upcoming Macbook Pro. Slightly faster than FirePro D300 from Mac Pro.

1024 GCN cores, with 1.3 GHz - 2.6 TFLOPs of compute power.

It is faster than.. GTX 680MX from 2014 iMac.

After digging a bit into this: this is M480, that will end up in Macbook Pro. 1024 GCN cores with 1000 MHz core clock, and 35W power consumption.

http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/AMD+FirePro+D300/review You can compare this GPU with D300 directly.

The score for M480 on average is 7700 pts. Faster than GTX 680M, close to GTX 880M . That is pretty damn good .

 

[ABC5S]

The next MBP has taken so long to come out, it will be the first time Apple releases a product that's completely vetted of all bugs. It's going to be so great, that after the late 2016 MBP is released, they probably won't need to release another until early 2019.

I've been around a long time, and heard many times that same, Apple has had more time to vet out the bugs, and there are still bugs. Not holding my breath on a no bug new rMBP.

 

[Dr_Charles_Forbin]

http://wccftech.com/radeon-rx-460-crossfire-3dmark-11-benchmarks/

This is the desktop version of the GPU that will end up in upcoming Macbook Pro. Slightly faster than FirePro D300 from Mac Pro.

1024 GCN cores, with 1.3 GHz - 2.6 TFLOPs of compute power.

It is faster than.. GTX 680MX from 2014 iMac.

And they'll still have problems with it.....
[doublepost=1466182711][/doublepost]

I'm considering this option my self but even at a discounted rate of the used price, it still feels like overpaying for the same price that one could pick up a rMBP 15 (2015) used, you could probably pick up a new Windows.. I'm torn in million directions :/

Don't be torn - do you really want windows? How much the CPU really mean in the long run for the average user? You like registries and dll's and the rest that comes along with it? Why did you give up on windows in the first place - you just forgot about them. Get a used 2015... you'll be better off in the long run.

 

[R3k]

You can get a "used" 2015 Macbook Pro 15'' 2.5ghz, 16Gb Ram, 512 HDD with discrete GPU and Applecare for $2000 USD or less on Ebay. I got one last year that was used with a battery cycle count of 4. The thing was absolutely clean in every way, i couldn't have told it wasn't new. P.e.r.f.e.c.t.

I took it on an international project for 3 weeks, and then sold it on craigslist, billed my employer for the difference, which was less than baggage fees transferring a desktop system.

Buy from a seller with good reviews who's selling heaps of them and has lots of photos, and you really don't have any risk. If you're paying $2499 USD with or without tax, and deity forbid another $250 on top for Applecare, thats too much.

 

[anush3]

Are there any solid alternative to 15" Skylake MBP in Windows world? Apple disappointed so much, been waiting for this from Jan. Looking at the current Apple software bugs, I feel Apple needs to adopt to release software quickly as they would anyway have bugs - it will at least minimize wait time.

 

[cmChimera]

Are there any solid alternative to 15" Skylake MBP in Windows world? Apple disappointed so much, been waiting for this from Jan. Looking at the current Apple software bugs, I feel Apple needs to adopt to release software quickly as they would anyway have bugs - it will at least minimize wait time.

The solution to bugs in software is to just ignore them?

 

[vfr800]

Used to.. And to clarify the 3 year warranty was given as a '3 year extended HE warranty' and not 'AppleCare' to be technical, but the benefits were pretty much the same. I wonder if the looming Brexit debate might have anything to do with this, my understanding was that UK consumer law was stricter than the EU one so I wouldn't expect it to but who knows.

Err, scuse me, but why do you think UK law is any better than EU law, quite the opposite from observation: nearly everything in the UK is sold with 1 year warranty, whereas all the EU countries have 2 years.. (inc. by default now, due to EU law inheritance, Switzerland)
[doublepost=1466184869][/doublepost]

Are there any solid alternative to 15" Skylake MBP in Windows world? Apple disappointed so much, been waiting for this from Jan. Looking at the current Apple software bugs, I feel Apple needs to adopt to release software quickly as they would anyway have bugs - it will at least minimize wait time.

The closest for me are HP Elitebook or Spectre models.

However, the trackpad and gestures are a decade behind

 

[MacAlien]

http://wccftech.com/radeon-rx-460-crossfire-3dmark-11-benchmarks/

This is the desktop version of the GPU that will end up in upcoming Macbook Pro. Slightly faster than FirePro D300 from Mac Pro.

1024 GCN cores, with 1.3 GHz - 2.6 TFLOPs of compute power.

It is faster than.. GTX 680MX from 2014 iMac.

680MX = 2012. So, faster than a 4 year old computer...I'm unsure if that's something to really be proud of? >.<

 

[jeh72]

It's also great for creating marketing buzz

So what exactly happens if you try to use those programs that don't support it? I'd guess it distorts the colors unless the program specifically designates what color space it was referring to when it wanted a certain color code so that it can be converted to the wider color space?

If the application isn't color profile aware, than you'll end up with slightly over-saturated colors. The average user won't mind, but it does bother some people.