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Waiting for the 2018 MBP

I'm about to pull the trigger on a 13" MBP (nTB) was looking at the referb 2017 model thats for sale right now. i really would like it but i really want a quad core chip and im afraid that apple will release a 13" MBP with coffee lake chip this november.

What are your guys thoughts. you think we'll see a refresh with coffee lake in November or no? apple usually has a keynote in November and they tend to talk about mac related things. you think there will be a event? what you guys thoughts. wait or just buy the 13" now ?
 
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Valkyrie743 said:
I'm about to pull the trigger on a 13" MBP (nTB) was looking at the referb 2017 model thats for sale right now. i really would like it but i really want a quad core chip and im afraid that apple will release a 13" MBP with coffee lake chip this november.

What are your guys thoughts. you think we'll see a refresh with coffee lake in November or no? apple usually has a keynote in November and they tend to talk about mac related things. you think there will be a event? what you guys thoughts. wait or just buy the 13" now ?
Click to expand...

Since Intel didn‘t even announce the 28W and 45W chips suitable for the 13“ TB MBP and the 15“ MBP yet, I doubt Apple would update the 13“ nTB MBP before they become available, which will probabpy not be before next spring. After all, it would make for a pretty strange line up if the entry level model is mich faster than the high end model.
 
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Poki said:
Since Intel didn‘t even announce the 28W and 45W chips suitable for the 13“ TB MBP and the 15“ MBP yet, I doubt Apple would update the 13“ nTB MBP before they become available, which will probabpy not be before next spring. After all, it would make for a pretty strange line up if the entry level model is mich faster than the high end model.
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thats true never thought about the higher end chips for 15" and TB one. the chips that were released are 15W chips but can be configured up to 20W. so i could see the 13" TB version getting that just with a higher allowed TDP but for 15" i guess we have to wait.

i thought they would at least see the 13" upgraded and the 15" stay the same till next year. being that dell already put out the updated XPS 13 with the coffee lake quad core chips. figured it would be smart for apple to follow up.

they would not beat the higher TDP quad core chips in the 15" so i figure it would not cannibalize their own line up
 
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Valkyrie743 said:
thats true never thought about the higher end chips for 15" and TB one. the chips that were released are 15W chips but can be configured up to 20W. so i could see the 13" TB version getting that just with a higher allowed TDP but for 15" i guess we have to wait.

i thought they would at least see the 13" upgraded and the 15" stay the same till next year. being that dell already put out the updated XPS 13 with the coffee lake quad core chips. figured it would be smart for apple to follow up.

they would not beat the higher TDP quad core chips in the 15" so i figure it would not cannibalize their own line up
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Apple usually doesn't care too much whether they're behind their competition for some time in their Mac line-up. Also, the current 15W chips run already pretty much unlocked, meaning they can keep their turbo boost pretty much forever, leaving no room for the configurable TDP-up to improve things even further. I guess using the lower end i5 CPUs in the nTB-versions and the higher end i7's in the TB MBPs would be an option, but given the option to update the whole MBP line at the same time in spring my money is on Apple taking that route.

With the rumors of a "high-end" 15" MBP launching together with the iMac Pro, updated 13" MBPs might be an option, and we'd probably see in a Keynote at the end of October. And while I certainly hope Apple will do so, unfortunately I highly doubt they'll do so. After all we're talking about the company who keeps the 2013 Mac Pro and 2014 Mac Mini in their line-up without any updates for years.
 
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Do you think we will know, some days before, when the new MacBook Pro are going to launch?

I ask it because my plan is to purchase one of the kaby lake units just before they discontinue them, and then, within the returning period, compare it to the new 15W quad core on the new 13" MacBook Pro. Maybe the battery life is going down because of the four cores... Or the GPU is less powerful.

Damn, I should have bought it when they were giving the beats.
 
I've been lurking this thread and I need some tie breaker opinions from the experts here. I really appreciate everyone's thoughts as news comes out.

I run my business on my mid-2010 17inch which I fully upgraded when I bought it and it's been an amazing machine. A laptop lasting 10 years in a mission critical environment is unheard of. It's starting to reach the end of the line and impacting my productivity. My hope was apple would release another 17 inch at some point or at least 32gb ram this year, but we know that didn't happen.

The question is: should I upgrade now or wait? Maybe I can squeeze another 3-6 months out of this thing. I'll buy a fully upgraded machine regardless if I do it now or wait because of the mileage I got out of this last machine, it's worth it to me. Even with my current i7, the 8gb of ram and ssd, running multiple apps and processes is rough. I use the escape key like crazy so I'm also concerned about the new bar.

Appreciate any thoughts here. Thanks again for everyone's contributions about the releases of the latest processors etc.
 
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@Wiltontilt1 first of all, do you see yourself working with a 13,3 inches MacBook Pro? Because that is the only size with a physical scape key... I don't see myself working on a touch at.

Secondly, regardless of the size (13 or 15 inches) and the year of the purchase (2017 or 2018) I think those 32GB of RAM are not necessary for you. You said you've being using your big 17" boy for many years with those 8 GB, and no problems whatsoever. So 16GB will be an excellent choice in order to future proof it. Also 32GB will come only with cannonlake or later...

I won't tell you "buy now" or "wait", but if the next jump is not to 10nm (cannonlake), then maybe you should buy now and enjoy your laptop with Sierra, which is -so far- more stable than HS. And you need reliability.
 
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And Cannonlake isn‘t even a guarantee for 32 GB RAM. The current „Cannonlake“ 8th gen 15W CPUs do not support LPDDR4 either.

As for the 15“ - you‘d lose out on a roughly 30% CPU power increase (mainly in multicore performance) and a yet unknown gain in GPU performance, you have to decide for yourself if that‘s worth the wait.
 
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Populus said:
...and enjoy your laptop with Sierra, which is -so far- more stable than HS. And you need reliability.
Click to expand...

i'm running a 2016 15" MBP, and High Sierra is buggy. Thinking about downgrading, but too lazy. I have graphical artefacts in Finders, wake issues, freezing touch bar and trackpad problems. Not ideal.
 
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After seeing so many "will we get a new MBP since ** Lake is out?" "no, because they aren't Iris Pro", I wonder if it will be of good interest for Apple to try adapting their GPUs for iPad Pro (which are now driving 2732x2048 at 120 Hz) to MBPs. Then they can just decouple themselves from Intel's silly Iris Pro-enabled CPU schedules which make us wait ~1yr to get the latest Lake.

Again the same "they aren't the same architectures and OS's so their benchmark scores cannot be compared" applies, but seeing what the 12.9" iPad Pro can do graphics-wise, they're probably not far behind Iris Pro in performance. It's probably a much more feasible way of things than a ARM-based Macbook.
 
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whg said:
The German Notebookcheck has first test results of a Dell XPS 13 with i7-855U QHD:

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Vorschau-Test-Dell-XPS-13-i7-8550U-QHD-Laptop.257740.0.html

If seems to me that the graphics performance is not too worse, comparing the gaming benchmarks for the 3 games tested with the MacBook Pro 13 with TouchBar.
Click to expand...

It's still a good 25% slower than the 13" MacBook Pros. I certainly would prefer to get more GPU power in next years model, not less. But by the time Apple is ready to release new models, Intel probably is ready too, so not too much to worry just yet.
 
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The time of Apple laptops is passing.

- The removal of ports, MagSafe.
- The ridiculous size of the trackpad that gets in the way more than anything else.
- Reduced battery life.
- Gimmick touchbar. That is more hindrance than useful.

They used to have the best screens, trackpads and battery life, which is why I bought them, but windows machines have (in limited models) caught up.

Tried the Huawei the other day. As good as if not better than apple in every way.
Samsung Notebook 9 Pro with Intel 8th gen will very like be my next machine.
 
meboy said:
. . . windows machines have (in limited models) caught up. . . .
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I have a Surface Pro 4 for work and an ASUS gaming notebook. I agree with you on the hardware side. Windows 10 is nice, but unusable (for me) in tablet mode on the Surface. The one thing I really hate about Windows: Twice a year we now get a massive upgrade which blocks your PC for a long time, not to speak about the monthly (sometimes more often) upgrades. More than once when a colleague wanted to start a presentation his notebook was unusable because it needed to finish some update.

I really tried switching to Windows last year when I refused to get one of the new MacBooks. Now I came back to a 2015 MacBook Pro 15" and hope that Apple rethinks its Mac product line in the coming years when I need something new.
 
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It seems that the new 2018 Dell XPS 13 will only have USB type C ports (Thunderbolt 3?), just like the MacBook Pros.
 
What else can we expect for the 2018 MBP's apart from CPU bump and possibly 32gb Ram?

Some (realistic) ideas as the overall design will remain the same:

- Bigger/ stacked battery, how much mAh?

- Highend Vega mobile GPU?

- Retina Touchbar?

- Quieter Keyboard?

- 120mhz ProMotion Displays?

- Additional A11 Bionic CPU alongside Intel's for AI/ Siri/ AR?

- Trackpad compatible with Apple Pencil to rival Wacom?

- What else?
 
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EDIT: I have now seen pictures which only feature USB-C ports. Maybe the German article is using pictures of the existing model?

NathanD said:
It seems that the new 2018 Dell XPS 13 will only have USB type C ports (Thunderbolt 3?), just like the MacBook Pros.
Click to expand...
How do you get that impression? From the pictures in the German article, I can spot both USB-C and USB-A ports.
 
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meboy said:
Not buying it. Dell wouldn't do that.
Click to expand...

NathanD said:
It seems that the new 2018 Dell XPS 13 will only have USB type C ports (Thunderbolt 3?), just like the MacBook Pros.
Click to expand...

This is what the Dell website shows:

Ports (PRTS)
2 USB 3.0 - 1 w/PowerShare
1 SD card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC)
1 Headset jack
1 Noble lock slot
1 Thunderbolt™ 3 (2 lanes of PCI Express Gen 3) supports: Power in / charging, PowerShare, Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps bi-directional), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps), VGA, HDMI, Ethernet and USB-A via Dell Adapter (sold separately)
 
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Euro_Guy said:
EDIT: I have now seen pictures which only feature USB-C ports. Maybe the German article is using pictures of the existing model?

How do you get that impression? From the pictures in the German article, I can spot both USB-C and USB-A ports.
Click to expand...

meboy said:
Not buying it. Dell wouldn't do that.
Click to expand...

alias99 said:
This is what the Dell website shows:
Click to expand...

I'm talking about the new 2018 model that Dell will probably launch next year at CES.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-vNext-gets-teased-ahead-of-CES-2018.257532.0.html
 
Last edited:
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And USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 only is certainly the correct choice for any notebook in 2018. Pretty much all cables and adapters released in the coming years will be USB-C, and USB-A adapters are cheap if you need to connect an older device sometimes. How many of us actually use the Ethernet, FireWire or HDMI ports on a notebook? I'm sure some do that, but aren't the use cases specific enough that you can simply keep the adapter there? I.e. if you connect your notebook to an HDMI display at work regularly, can't you just leave the adapter right next to the display, getting rid of the need to carry it all the time? The SD card reader is a sad one for me, but bringing one adapter with me isn't a big deal, and it has the added bonus of not discriminating against users with different memory card needs.
 
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If apple wants to sell macbooks, they need to add promotion, get a steady 10h battery usage,faceId to work like the current touchid for easy user account change
 
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