Waiting for Skylake MBP thread

[Exile714]

I am boggled by apples upgrade prices...

I'm hoping they'll have more reasonable upgrade pricing once they release the 2016 model. I think those SSD prices reflect 2012-era costs and Apple is reluctant to change pricing strategies between redesigns.

I actually think holding on to old pricing models makes sense. It tells people not to wait for a better deal, because one isn't coming. It's the same reason they don't announce new models far in advance of their release, which in turn is why smart shoppers (like us!) look to rumor sites to better plan our upgrades.

 

[StandardFlint]

It boggles my mind they are actually still selling computers with 128 gb internal storage at this price point. You can buy a samsung evo 850 256gb ssd for like $80

I am boggled by apples upgrade prices...

It boggles my mind that the thing they're trying to push as their main computer has a base model of 32GB.

 

[doitdada]

Well, every new generation of Intel processors brings iterative improvements, they are not groundbreaking but they are improvements.
Haswell processors which are to be found in the present MBP are now 2 generations old. There was Broadwell right after Haswell and now it's Skylake. And yes, there are high perfoming chips available, such as i7 6820HQ or even i7 6700HQ which can be found in today's laptops made by other OEMs.

Or you can take a look at previously mentioned XPS 15, Razer Blade or ZenBook Pro. All of them look awesome, have 4k displays, newest processors, 512gb ssd, pretty good discrete GPU and cost the same or less than the entry level MBP 15.

I guess you can jump ship and buy any of these computers, but none of them are related to mac software, hardware or ecosystem.

Regarding the classic MacBook Pro, I salute Apple for keeping a computer in their line-up that is a dedicated DVD player, and yes, four years isn't very old compared to other DVD players on the market.

I understand the release cycles, but if you look at benchmark numbers and real world tests, you will understand that upgrading a Haswell system to a Skylake system, would result in marginal gains. The same can be said about Broadwell. Only in low power processors will an architectural difference actually amount to gains worth the money involved in getting a new computer for a user.

I own both a 4K top tier monitor and a television. The amount of computing power to game on either of those screens at ultra requires a SLI setup of 1080 GTX to run 60 frames a second. No laptop will in this decade have the power to utilise 4K gaming. I think the screen DPI and power of Haswell, SSD and the M370X is great for El Capitan at the moment.

Windows 10 serves me well as a gaming platform and media center, but on a laptop, I prefer macOS as my operating system along with the Apple trackpad and shortcuts.

 

[Dydegu]

 

[Voley]

I like how you all are here, we will go to Windows, check out dat Dell, or how Apple suggest getting iPad pro, that's so cool, all this pencil and ****.

But I am iOS developer, I use Mac with specific software that works only there to write freaking iOS apps, just let me do it on a machine that is not 400 days old.

Or actually I use Macbook Pro from 2010, and I wanted to buy new model since like January this year, the wait pisses me off.

 

[WRONG]

It's the answer this thread deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll wait for it. Because we can take it.

Click here to add drama

 

[TheLongestWave]

Click here to add drama

your fridge is running

 

[Mohamad-pro]

Apple can advertise the iPad Pro as much as they want, to me it's a downgrade form the rMBP , If I reach the point when my laptop isn't performing as I needed it to be, and still there is no new MBP is available, I will switch to Linux, the iToys team will not force a product on me that is a downgrade or outdated, it's as simple as that.

 

[KohPhiPhi]

Apple isn't selling four year old computers. The current rMBP 15 have been improved where advancements in technology has occured, in dGPU and especially SSD. I feel stupid for returning my rMBP 15 last October/November, since it's the most powerful tool provided by Apple for the last 400 days. CPUs from Intel haven't really offered anything new since Haswell, except for the low power offerings you find in the new MacBook, and bumping specifications for the sake of new names instead of actual performance is backward thinking. With pixels so small, performance so good and form factor so defined, I can't see a real need for an upgrade except by making it thinner and lighter along with better battery life.

If you want power and screen estate, buy a desktop.

That is not the point.

The point is that Apple is selling, as of today, the MBP 15" (a 3 year old CPU with a 3 year old GPU) for $2500!!!! There is absolutely NOTHING that justifies such premium price for those specs in Q3 2016. Moreover, from a hardware point of view, the MBP and MBA have lost their edge over the premium Windows alternatives (Dell XPS, Surface Book, Razer Blade, etc), which have caught up in terms of build quality and design, and which are offering 2016 hardware for less money.

Seriously, Apple laptops used to be years ahead Windows alternatives. Now a days, their hardware is simply superior. Had it not been of MacOS, Apple laptops would be in big troubles.

For its own sake, Apple better release a MONSTER update in their MacOS machines very soon...

 

[croco_dile]

Regarding the classic MacBook Pro, I salute Apple for keeping a computer in their line-up that is a dedicated DVD player, and yes, four years isn't very old compared to other DVD players on the market.

You can salute with both hands and feet but as far as the rest of us are concerned selling a 4 year old DVD player or door stopper at current pricing point is absurd.
[doublepost=1470350785][/doublepost]

Regarding the classic MacBook Pro, I salute Apple for keeping a computer in their line-up that is a dedicated DVD player, and yes, four years isn't very old compared to other DVD players on the market.

You can salute with both hands and feet but as far as the rest of us are concerned selling a 4 year old DVD player or door stopper at current pricing point is absurd.

 

[doitdada]

The point is that Apple is selling, as of today, the MBP 15" (a 3 year old CPU with a 3 year old GPU) for $2500!!!!

As you know, cheaper alternatives are out there and you can buy them in browser right now. Laptops and desktop computers are getting more expensive, because peeople are not buying them in the same volume as before the iPhone and the iPad. So that means higher prices for a smaller group of buyers. It becomes a speciality item, and along with it, a special price.

Discrete graphics cards in laptops are always older desktop chips that are clocked down and shrunk to fit smaller cases and made to operate at lower temperatures, so a little age is expected. The about five percent gain in Skylake won't matter to the users that have a MacBook Pro from late 2013 or newer.

If you think $2500 is too much, I guess the market discriminates your use case and you should look for affordable laptops running Windows. Personally I care more about portability issues like weight and thinness. Great keyboard and trackpad is also important along with the screens colour accuracy. There are so many ways to enhance the way you use a computer. With the slow development in processors, I believe Apple should look elsewhere for innovation than just adopting the latest chipset.

 

[shareef777]

As you know, cheaper alternatives are out there and you can buy them in browser right now. Laptops and desktop computers are getting more expensive, because peeople are not buying them in the same volume as before the iPhone and the iPad. So that means higher prices for a smaller group of buyers. It becomes a speciality item, and along with it, a special price.

Discrete graphics cards in laptops are always older desktop chips that are clocked down and shrunk to fit smaller cases and made to operate at lower temperatures, so a little age is expected. The about five percent gain in Skylake won't matter to the users that have a MacBook Pro from late 2013 or newer.

If you think $2500 is too much, I guess the market discriminates your use case and you should look for affordable laptops running Windows. Personally I care more about portability issues like weight and thinness. Great keyboard and trackpad is also important along with the screens colour accuracy. There are so many ways to enhance the way you use a computer. With the slow development in processors, I believe Apple should look elsewhere for innovation than just adopting the latest chipset.

Then why are you here? Go buy the 2015 model and leave us here to wallow in self pity!

 

[The Reasonable One]

Then why are you here? Go buy the 2015 model and leave us here to wallow in self pity!

Just curious, did your watch break due to water damage or did you lose it? I know it can handle a bit of water, but I'm wondering whether I can wear mine (sport) in the shower safely without it exploding.

Edit: Reason is I just saw your sig

 

[rezwits]

Why?

It's kinda a 50/50 at this point. Why? Because I need retina to test my Apps, AND, that would be 6 months away.

But the 50/50 is I would only save at most $600, unless I just got one off of eBay. so a nah...

But this changed because two weeks went by also...

I mean now if they said FEB 2017, I would. nah mean? It's like you live with the USB Ports and put them to use, or you get a hub with the new one.

Both machines have pros and cons. I don't want arm, so there are a few reason, I could go into....

 

[uptownnyc]

Maybe the "most significant upgrade ever undertaken by Apple." is a departure from the Intel chipset, hence the longer refresh period.

 

[Pyali]

A little bit of vomit just came up

 

[fastasleep]

I accept your surrender. No Apple competitors exist that haven't released computers with newer Intel chips and chipsets,

The burden of proof is on you. Show me a single laptop shipping right now with quad core Skylake-H/iGPU chips.

If you're talking about Broadwell, nobody cares.

 

[Rob_2811]

Maybe the "most significant upgrade ever undertaken by Apple." is a departure from the Intel chipset, hence the longer refresh period.

Very unlikely. If they were going to release an Arm mac they would've done it with the Macbook. No way they are going to release a laptop aimed at the professional market that can't run pro apps like Photoshop etc

 

[bwoodruff]

That is not the point.

The point is that Apple is selling, as of today, the MBP 15" (a 3 year old CPU with a 3 year old GPU) for $2500!!!! There is absolutely NOTHING that justifies such premium price for those specs in Q3 2016. Moreover, from a hardware point of view, the MBP and MBA have lost their edge over the premium Windows alternatives (Dell XPS, Surface Book, Razer Blade, etc), which have caught up in terms of build quality and design, and which are offering 2016 hardware for less money.

Seriously, Apple laptops used to be years ahead Windows alternatives. Now a days, their hardware is simply superior. Had it not been of MacOS, Apple laptops would be in big troubles.

For its own sake, Apple better release a MONSTER update in their MacOS machines very soon...

I wouldn't mind getting a newer computer... I tend to like to get something new every 3 years or so.

But to get something better than my 2012 model w/ 2.7 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, 756 GB SSD, and GT 650M 1GB I'd have to spend ~$3100. That would get me the 2.8 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, 1TB PCI-e storage, and Radeon R9 M370X 2GB. And even then, I'm not really sure what I'd be gaining. Slightly higher clock speed on newer processor architecture, same amount of RAM, 256 GB of storage that might be a bit faster (but real world usage... ?), and I'm not sure how to compare the video cards.

It looks like I could sell my 2012 model for... maybe ~$1500? I just don't see the value for the money being there. Would the new one really be $1500 better than what I have? The 2012 model I have still seems like a beast even compared with the top model they are selling 4 years later.

Ben

 

[fastasleep]

Not sure about the HD580 part, but if you want a list of laptops with Skylake, here you go:

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/8162-skylake-ultrabooks/

That's a list of Skylake-U and some Skylake-M laptops — MBP would use Skylake-H.
[doublepost=1470365246][/doublepost]

Uh, Skylake is Skylake. Apple, like other companies, uses different variants of chips all across their product lines. Please show me where Apple is using the 45W CPU with the HD 580 so I can buy one.

... isn't that exactly what we're waiting for? This thread is turning into an oroborus.

 

[bwoodruff]

I read that a lot of people switch from Mac to Windows... If Mac line is not updated very soon the situation will be critical...

I tried. I built the best Windows PC I could afford (fast latest gen i5, 256 GB SSD, 3x BenQ 144Hz 1080p gaming monitors, 2x 980ti SLI, 16GB RAM, the works). Sold it less than a year later. Just wasn't using it. Ended up using my iPad Air 2 more than the PC. When I sold the PC I went back to my 2012 rMBP w/ Thunderbolt display.

Ben

 

[fastasleep]

Just curious, did your watch break due to water damage or did you lose it? I know it can handle a bit of water, but I'm wondering whether I can wear mine (sport) in the shower safely without it exploding.

Edit: Reason is I just saw your sig

I wear mine in the shower every day. Tim Cook said he wears his showering. People swim with them on. You can get them wet, just don't dive with them.
[doublepost=1470366577][/doublepost]

No, they haven't.

Yes, they have:
"On May 19, 2015 the 15-inch MacBook Pro was updated with faster flash storage, increased battery life, Force Touch trackpad, and an AMD Radeon R9 discrete graphics card on the higher-end model."

Well, every new generation of Intel processors brings iterative improvements, they are not groundbreaking but they are improvements. Haswell processors which are to be found in the present MBP are now 2 generations old. There was Broadwell right after Haskell and now it's Skylake.

Broadwell would've bumped speed 5-10%, nobody would ever notice the difference if they weren't told it was different than Haswell.

And yes, there are high perfoming chips available, such as i7 6820HQ or even i7 6700HQ which can be found in today's laptops made by other OEMs.

Those have HD530 iGPUs. Apple is not going to use those — it'll be the quad core chips with Iris Pro 580 — i7-6970HQ, 6870HQ, and i7-6770HQ. Since they were announced in January, we've known these chips to be the likely MBP candidates (https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/27/skylake-macbook-pro-15-chips/). Show me the machines that are currently shipping with these chipsets aside from the Skull Canyon NUC. Are there any yet?

Or you can take a look at previously mentioned XPS 15, Razer Blade or ZenBook Pro. All of them look awesome, have 4k displays, newest processors, 512gb ssd, pretty good discrete GPU and cost the same or less than the entry level MBP 15.

The Waiting for a Windows Laptop thread is over there ---->

 

[altair7]

That's a list of Skylake-U and some Skylake-M laptops — MBP would use Skylake-H.
[doublepost=1470365246][/doublepost]

... isn't that exactly what we're waiting for? This thread is turning into an oroborus.

It also has a list of laptops that use Skylake-HQ processors. There are a few in the 14 inch section and several in the 15 inch section. Many of these laptops are better than the current MBP offerings.

 

[fastasleep]

It also has a list of laptops that use Skylake-HQ processors. There are a few in the 14 inch section and several in the 15 inch section. Many of these laptops are better than the current MBP offerings.

None of those use the i7-6970HQ, 6870HQ, and i7-6770HQ with Iris Pro 580 which is very likely what Apple is going to use. Once again: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/27/skylake-macbook-pro-15-chips/

 

[altair7]

None of those use the i7-6970HQ, 6870HQ, and i7-6770HQ with Iris Pro 580 which is very likely what Apple is going to use. Once again: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/27/skylake-macbook-pro-15-chips/

The laptops that are being discussed all have GTX 960s or 970s. There is no need to have a slightly better integrated GPU if you are using these higher end discreet gpus. Not only that, these machines cost less with these GPUs than a 15" MBP with only intel integrated graphics and 3 year old hardware.