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Waiting for the 2018 MBP

Starlights said:
Is it worth buying a base 15" 2017 at this point (16/256) for $2200? I know its just a month to WWDC but is there any significant upgrade expected in the base 15" model since it is already quad core with dGPU?

I understand its a different story for 13" & top tier 15" models....
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I'd still not buy it now. Once new models come and the current ones are EOL'ed you might find really good discounts with some retailers! Or... Apple might lower the prices a tiny bit. Or you might actually LIKE the newer ones...

My general recommendation is almost ALWAYS to buy RIGHT WHEN Apple announces new machines. And then either get the new one... or a heavily discounted one elsewhere. You just have to act fast.

Little anecdote:
In Oct 2008 when the unibody MBPs were introduces I actually bought an EARLY 2008 (pre-unibody) model. This way I could get native DVI, and a matte screen that I wanted. Plus the other components where essentially the same. The GPU was only rebadged and slightly higher clocked.
It did not have a glass trackpad... but was ALREADY Multi-touch! The only non-unibody Pro... with multi-touch...

Back then Apple also had a 'good', 'better', 'best' approach. The base model cost €1800, mid-tier was like €2250 I believe.
I think... back then I got the 'old' mid-tier... for like €1800... which then was a significantly better deal than the new base line model.
I was working at an Apple retailer back then... and bought one right away... they had like 5-6 of said machines. Within 2 days... they were gone.
 
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TheralSadurns said:
I'd still not buy it now. Once new models come and the current ones are EOL'ed you might find really good discounts with some retailers! Or... Apple might lower the prices a tiny bit. Or you might actually LIKE the newer ones...

My general recommendation is almost ALWAYS to buy RIGHT WHEN Apple announces new machines. And then either get the new one... or a heavily discounted one elsewhere. You just have to act fast.
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This is pretty much my advise to anyone not sure when to buy one (and who has the freedom of being able to choose when to upgrade). The first noticeable discounts usually happen a few months, in rare cases a few weeks after the release, which means that you're paying pretty much the same when buying it right at release or when buying it maybe 2 months later. So you might aswell buy it right at launch, maximizes the time you have the newest machine and the time before the first good third-party deals pop up that might make you mad that you didn't wait for them :p
 
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Yeah, you definitely don't want to get into the habit of "waiting for _____", because you'll always be waiting, but at this point you might as well wait until WWDC unless you absolutely need a new laptop right this second.

I'm holding out for new laptops at WWDC then Apple's back to school event. Flip the free headphones, sell my two 2011-2013 MacBook Airs, and put $600-$800 toward a 500GB/16 GB RAM 13" MBP or 15" MBP.
 
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zmon said:
I'd just hold off for another month and see at least. If they're announced, past announcements show they'll be available on the same day to be ordered. Base CPU will most likely be the i7 8750H UNLESS they kill off the old rMBP and replace it with a non-TB model. Which, they could use a i5 8400H, which is just a 4 core/4 thread CPU oddly enough, but I don't see that happening as they've traditionally used the i7's in the 15's as base CPUs.

Intel just seems to make SKUs for the sake of having them. IIRC, the i3-7167u (with Iris graphics) was never even put into a product, and they seem to have repeated that for the Coffee Lake i3's with the 8109u.
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If they wanna push the Touch Bars, they gotta do it with this refresh otherwise it's never going off.

I would love to see them implement Touch Bar on all Macs across the board
 
EugW said:
You just contradicted yourself.

I agree with the second half of that sentence.
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How so? To me it appears to be about norm (habit) and exception (one time, so close to new prod launch)...


BTW, thanks everyone for the advice. I agree that it would be a good idea to wait - nothing to lose, perhaps some gains in new features or lower price for current model/s.
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MrGunnyPT said:
If they wanna push the Touch Bars, they gotta do it with this refresh otherwise it's never going off.

I would love to see them implement Touch Bar on all Macs across the board
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While there seem to be two different camps of opinion regarding the TB, I don't have anything against them except a bit of concern about their long term reliability. Not saying they aren't reliable, but if the TB breaks then one loses functionality of multiple keys all together vs breaking of a single hardware key.
 
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Starlights said:
How so? To me it appears to be about norm (habit) and exception (one time, so close to new prod launch)...
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Product launches happen almost every year. Sometimes more than once a year for the same product line.

And why is waiting 6 weeks OK, but 3 months not? If it's a big enough reason to wait, it's a big enough reason to wait. Dual-core going quad-core and quad-core going hex-core is pretty damn big reason to wait. Unless you buy every year or two, it pays to be strategic about what one buys, and sometimes that means waiting.

Last year it was full HEVC hardware support. In fact, I waited a year for that, and I'm so glad I did. I can play videos on my 1.2 GHz MacBook Core m3 that even a 4 GHz Core i7-6700K iMac can't, or would play with the fans running at maximum vacuum cleaner mode.
 
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EugW said:
Product launches happen almost every year. Sometimes more than once a year for the same product line.

And why is waiting 6 weeks OK, but 3 months not? If it's a big enough reason to wait, it's a big enough reason to wait. Dual-core going quad-core and quad-core going hex-core is pretty damn big reason to wait. Unless you buy every year or two, it pays to be strategic about what one buys, and sometimes that means waiting.

Last year it was full HEVC hardware support. In fact, I waited a year for that, and I'm so glad I did. I can play videos on my 1.2 GHz MacBook Core m3 that even a 4 GHz Core i7-6700K iMac can't, or would play with the fans running at maximum vacuum cleaner mode.
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Exactly same reasons why I bought an 8700k on the PC, was holding out for a 6 Core config just like i'm holding for a Quad Core config on the 13"

There's no point for me to buy a dual core knowing a quad core is coming out next month.
 
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EugW said:
Product launches happen almost every year. Sometimes more than once a year for the same product line.

And why is waiting 6 weeks OK, but 3 months not? If it's a big enough reason to wait, it's a big enough reason to wait. Dual-core going quad-core and quad-core going hex-core is pretty damn big reason to wait. Unless you buy every year or two, it pays to be strategic about what one buys, and sometimes that means waiting.

Last year it was full HEVC hardware support. In fact, I waited a year for that, and I'm so glad I did. I can play videos on my 1.2 GHz MacBook Core m3 that even a 4 GHz Core i7-6700K iMac can't, or would play with the fans running at maximum vacuum cleaner mode.
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Well, like with everything else in life, it boils down to decisions and cost benefit analysis. If it is beneficial to get a machine now vs waiting 3 weeks then by all means it would be a good decision to get one now.

Usually short period would be more justifiable to wait than a longer period due to involved opportunity costs.

However, with that said, its still a personal decision and going both ways is completely justifiable. I think I will wait being this close as my need is not dire.
 
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Since people are talking about the Intel 8XXX series processors that are highly likely to be used in the new macbooks, I haven't seen much people discussing it possibly being the new Intel / AMD partnership processors that are being used in the Dell XPS and some HP machines...the ones that come with Vega GPU architecture on the same Intel chip. Does it seem likely for the macbook Pro?
 
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wickkedd said:
Since people are talking about the Intel 8XXX series processors that are highly likely to be used in the new macbooks, I haven't seen much people discussing it possibly being the new Intel / AMD partnership processors that are being used in the Dell XPS and some HP machines...the ones that come with Vega GPU architecture on the same Intel chip. Does it seem likely for the macbook Pro?
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The TDP is too high for the 13" MBP (65/100W vs 15/28W used currently). Possible for the 15". But I suppose Apple would prefer to use six-core CPUs coupled with dedicated GPUs in the 15" models as opposed to these quad-core CPUs.
 
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Poki said:
The TDP is too high for the 13" MBP (65/100W vs 15/28W used currently). Possible for the 15". But I suppose Apple would prefer to use six-core CPUs coupled with dedicated GPUs in the 15" models as opposed to these quad-core CPUs.
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Interesting analysis there. Should apple choose not to go in that direction, and choose the 6 core CPUs for the macbook Pros, are there any dedicated amd GPUs using vega architecture that would fit the power limitations, or does it seem like we will stick with polaris?
 
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wickkedd said:
Interesting analysis there. Should apple choose not to go in that direction, and choose the 6 core CPUs for the macbook Pros, are there any dedicated amd GPUs using vega architecture that would fit the power limitations, or does it seem like we will stick with polaris?
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Nothing announced yet. However, AMD did tease the RX600 series - still Polaris based, but with better performance. It wouldn't be the first time Apple gets an AMD GPU first, or even an exclusive GPU designed just for them, so there might be some options.
 
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EugW said:
You just contradicted yourself.

I agree with the second half of that sentence.
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So? Cost/benefit is completely different. I think most people would feel comfortable waiting a month for WWDC if it meant saving money on the current line-up of MacBook Pros, or paying the same for a performance improvement. That's less true if you asked people to wait 6-12 months or beyond.
 
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Poki said:
The TDP is too high for the 13" MBP (65/100W vs 15/28W used currently). Possible for the 15". But I suppose Apple would prefer to use six-core CPUs coupled with dedicated GPUs in the 15" models as opposed to these quad-core CPUs.
Click to expand...
I expect to see the quad core with the on-package dGPU, i.e. Intel G-series, on the lower end of the 15”, with 6-core at the higher end (with a traditional, discrete dGPU).

I could very well be wrong, they might go all 6-core. I don’t think we’ll have long to wait to find out.
 
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Hadron said:
We can agree all we like. It remains to be seen whether Apple agree.
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haha.
Yep we can hope for certain configurations etc but really its not down to us is it, but fun guessing.

Apple will build the computer that suits their brand direction, not what 'pro' users want or anybody else. This is how they operate, and this is to produce the most sales to the most people.
 
MrGunnyPT said:
Can we all agree that at least Dual Core configs for the 13" Pro are out of the question?
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I don’t think we can assume anything from a company that prioritizes dongles over providing a practical amount of and types of ports.

Apple makes big money off getting users to upgrade from the base model. I would not be surprised at all if the base 13” maintains some sort of dual core config in order to scrape another couple hundred off buyers. It’s why they still offer 5400 rpm drives as the base config in 2018 for some products.
 
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does the hexa core comes with an iGPU? Would love to NOT have a dGPU with a hexa CPU. Given that apple wont allow us to disable the dGPU, that would save some precious battery life.
 
I’m still cynical. Apple has said a few times that they would never do something only god do it later (comments about no one wanting an iPod without a screen, optimal sizes for phones, stylus for iPad - though that one was more about dependency on stylus)

The key out that they’ve left themselves is the word “compromise”. All that means is that they can still do it, they will just market their solution as being “without compromise”.

I really hope Tim stands by it though. I’ve tried heavy usage of an iPad and I personally couldn’t do it. I’m always going to be someone who needs what a Mac offers and hope it has a long future parallel to iOS.
 
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So with the news of a possible iPhone SE update next month, May, there looks to be a chance of a refresh of the MacBook Pro around the same time? Several device makers will be launching products then and it would give Apple time to announce and make available a product within a few days.
 
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