Waiting for the 2018 MBP

[subjonas]

10 seconds cannot be an issue.

I’ve forgotten my train of thought in 1 second. Ideas are like ghosts, sometimes they stick around and haunt you, sometimes they vanish before you can get a good look at them.

Does a pro user need super slim? This appears to always be the focus!

I know, this drives me nuts. Apple needs two categories of laptops: portability-focused for consumers, and power-focused for professionals.

 

[unobtainium]

I know, this drives me nuts. Apple needs two categories of laptops: portability-focused for consumers, and power-focused for professionals.

They did have that: the MacBook line for regular consumers, the Air line for consumers who demanded the most portability, and the Pro line for users who wanted more features and power. It was a perfect and obvious way to structure the line-up. Now it's all screwed up.

The MacBook is a gimped little device that's thinner (but also more expensive) than the Air. The Air is now incredibly outdated, but also the last to hang on to a decent keyboard and common ports -- paradoxically, these are features many pros miss in the "pro" machines. It's cheap but not as cheap as it should be. The Pro line is thinner than ever but has a borderline dysfunctional keyboard, lack of common ports, price bloat (Touch Bar) and excessively large trackpad. It really is a Frankenstein lineup.

 

[mendosasenemy]

The MacBook is a gimped little device that's thinner (but also more expensive) than the Air. The Air is now incredibly outdated, but also the last to hang on to a decent keyboard and common ports -- paradoxically, these are features many pros miss in the "pro" machines. It's cheap but not as cheap as it should be. The Pro line is thinner than ever but has a borderline dysfunctional keyboard, lack of common ports, price bloat (Touch Bar) and excessively large trackpad. It really is a Frankenstein lineup.

This in a nutshell. Hopefully, some if not all of these issues will be resolved in 7 days!

 

[ThisBougieLife]

The MacBook is a gimped little device that's thinner (but also more expensive) than the Air. The Air is now incredibly outdated, but also the last to hang on to a decent keyboard and common ports -- paradoxically, these are features many pros miss in the "pro" machines. It's cheap but not as cheap as it should be. The Pro line is thinner than ever but has a borderline dysfunctional keyboard, lack of common ports, price bloat (Touch Bar) and excessively large trackpad. It really is a Frankenstein lineup.

I have the 2016 MBP and my opinion of it is overall positive*, but I agree with all of this. The current lineup doesn't make any sense. I won't expect a re-design this year, though.

*I don't prefer the new keyboard design to the old one, but my keyboard hasn't actually broken down and I'm used to the design at this point. I also don't prefer the larger trackpad (with tap enabled, it causes me to make errors while typing), and I'd prefer to have more ports (I use USB-C but it's not all I use).

 

[stevemiller]

while part of me is accepting that we won't see 32gb this round, rather than debate people whose needs are the most important/valid, wouldn't it just be nice if apple offered a 16gb LPDDR3 default and a 32gb DDR4 BTO option so people can decide for themselves which trade-off they prefer? sigh.

 

[TheralSadurns]

while part of me is accepting that we won't see 32gb this round, rather than debate people whose needs are the most important/valid, wouldn't it just be nice if apple offered a 16gb LPDDR3 default and a 32gb DDR4 BTO option so people can decide for themselves which trade-off they prefer? sigh.

Would be. But as Queen 6 said... and I have to agree with him. This is highly unlikely... as it would require a completely different logic board. And Apple probably doesn't offer it to keep the production simply and not offer 2 completely different SKUs (on a technical level) that only have a small visible change.

 

[Queen6]

I find it quite bizarre how some people think Apple would go out of their way to make a product worse than it needs to be. Sure they could find a way to put dual core CPUs in the 13" and quad core CPUs in the 15", but that's neither cheaper (if they stay at the Core-CPU-family and don't downgrade to Pentium or whatever), nor does it have any other advantage to them. When every competing notebook from €500 up offers 8th gen quad core Intel CPUs, do you really expect Apple to order a bunch of slower dual core CPUs just so that they can charge an additional upgrade fee? I doubt it.

Arguably that's exactly what Apple had done with the MBP. Apple is too focused on business these days as opposed to delivering a highly compelling product to market...

Q-6

 

[Poki]

Arguably that's exactly what Apple had done with the MBP. Apple is too focused on business these days as opposed to delivering a highly compelling product to market...

Q-6

All the "downsides" of the MacBook Pro are arguably just a matter of taste though. Apple didn't intentionally design anything to be worse than its predecessor (and they didn't intentionally make the keyboard less reliable either).

 

[c0ppo]

All the "downsides" of the MacBook Pro are arguably just a matter of taste though. Apple didn't intentionally design anything to be worse than its predecessor (and they didn't intentionally make the keyboard less reliable either).

Intentionally? No for sure. Not intentionally. But the end result is the same, so it makes no difference to the end user

 

[Queen6]

All the "downsides" of the MacBook Pro are arguably just a matter of taste though. Apple didn't intentionally design anything to be worse than its predecessor (and they didn't intentionally make the keyboard less reliable either).

I agree Apple certainly didn't explicitly design the keyboard to be less reliable, Apple did however design a more compromised notebook purely for aesthetic reasons, which is a fact we are all stuck with like or loath it.

Q-6

 

[Poki]

Intentionally? No for sure. Not intentionally. But the end result is the same, so it makes no difference to the end user

Yep, but my point was that they will not intentionally use a dual-core CPU just to make the notebook worse. If they use a quad-core CPU and only two cores work, that's a different thing, of course.

 

[c0ppo]

Yep, but my point was that they will not intentionally use a dual-core CPU just to make the notebook worse. If they use a quad-core CPU and only two cores work, that's a different thing, of course.

Nah, not even Apple is crazy/dumb enough to do that. But they could offer nTB at dual cores, and TB model at 4 cores. That wouldn't surprise me at all. But we are getting 4 cores on 13", that is a given.

 

[Ries]

Yep, but my point was that they will not intentionally use a dual-core CPU just to make the notebook worse. If they use a quad-core CPU and only two cores work, that's a different thing, of course.

They did it to the Mac Mini. They'll screw you over in a heartbeat if it meant an upsell or more on the bottom line. Just look at the flash storage sizes for iPhone / iPads through the years.

 

[Poki]

They did it to the Mac Mini. They'll screw you over in a heartbeat if it meant an upsell or more on the bottom line. Just look at the flash storage sizes for iPhone / iPads through the years.

They did not upsell a quad-core chip though. Though I don‘t get that move to lower TDP CPUs in the Mini either.

Nah, not even Apple is crazy/dumb enough to do that. But they could offer nTB at dual cores, and TB model at 4 cores. That wouldn't surprise me at all. But we are getting 4 cores on 13", that is a given.

Yep, that‘s possible. Still would put Apple at a less than ideal position compared to their competition. At least this way the nTB model could keep Iris graphics.

 

[vseera]

A custom MBP now shows delivery date of 4-6 April at Apple UK. A 2 week lead time should show that the new ones are on their way, correct?

Last I checked (about 2 weeks ago), the lead time was about 3-5 days.

 

[midouglas]

A custom MBP now shows delivery date of 4-6 April at Apple UK. A 2 week lead time should show that the new ones are on their way, correct?

Last I checked (about 2 weeks ago), the lead time was about 3-5 days.

Getting the same. Don't get excited as the US still has 1-3 day lead time on custom orders.

 

[OzyOly]

A custom MBP now shows delivery date of 4-6 April at Apple UK. A 2 week lead time should show that the new ones are on their way, correct?

Last I checked (about 2 weeks ago), the lead time was about 3-5 days.

If it was a 4 week lead time then maybe we'd get a spec bump. I could be wrong though...

 

[The Mercurian]

A custom MBP now shows delivery date of 4-6 April at Apple UK. A 2 week lead time should show that the new ones are on their way, correct?

Last I checked (about 2 weeks ago), the lead time was about 3-5 days.

You might as well read tea-leaves. Might be 1000 reasons for such things

 

[raqball]

I just did a custom build of a 13" and the dates are one week..

 

[afir93]

I just did a custom build of a 13" and the dates are one week..

View attachment 755133

Maybe we do get some new MacBooks at the event next week after all? Would be great but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet.

New releases have oftentimes been accompanied by slipping shipping dates in the past, but conversely longer shipping times don't necessarily mean that new models are on the way, shipping delays can have all sorts of reasons.

 

[raqball]

Maybe we do get some new MacBooks at the event next week after all? Would be great but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet.

New releases have oftentimes been accompanied by slipping shipping dates in the past, but conversely longer shipping times don't necessarily mean that new models are on the way, shipping delays can have all sorts of reasons.

My guess is no way.... Usually the dates slip back to 3-4 weeks when something is imminent... Who knows what Apple is going to do but one week for a custom build tells me nothing is on the way...

 

[Falhófnir]

Getting the same. Don't get excited as the US still has 1-3 day lead time on custom orders.

Possibly trying to deter UK purchases as there could be a price cut finally filtering through from the now much stronger pound? When they set the prices in October ‘16 it was about $1.22 (hence why prices are near $-£ parity when you factor 20% VAT in) and now it’s hovering around $1.40 so I’d expect an across the board modest downwards price adjustment.

 

[EugW]

while part of me is accepting that we won't see 32gb this round, rather than debate people whose needs are the most important/valid, wouldn't it just be nice if apple offered a 16gb LPDDR3 default and a 32gb DDR4 BTO option so people can decide for themselves which trade-off they prefer? sigh.

No. It wouldn't just be a 32 GB DDR CTO. It'd more likely be different machine with a different motherboard design, larger battery, and heavier weight, meaning probably thicker too. I'm not convinced they'd just shoehorn 32 GB DDR into the existing chassis.

Given that 32 GB is coming next year, and the relatively small volumes they would sell this year with a 32 GB non-LP RAM model, there is essentially no good reason to do the above from Apple's perspective. Yes, it can be done. However, there just isn't good enough justification to do it.

In contrast, I think the MacBook deserves 2 USB-C ports. From a technical standpoint there isn't good justification to limit it to just one. Apple limits it to one USB-C for purely marketing reasons.

 

[windows12]

My guess is no way.... Usually the dates slip back to 3-4 weeks when something is imminent... Who knows what Apple is going to do but one week for a custom build tells me nothing is on the way...

I'm getting an almost 3 week delivery date (April 9th) for a custom MBP in Spain.

 

[raqball]

I'm getting an almost 3 week delivery date (April 9th) for a custom MBP in Spain.

No clue if that's normal or not for your country.. The screenshot I posted for the US is normal delivery time for a custom order..