After waiting for nine years, waiting another 2 – 6 months is worth it imho. The upgrade will be even bigger when going directly to a 2018 model.
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Waiting for the 2018 MBP
- Thread starter benface
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After waiting for nine years, waiting another 2 – 6 months is worth it imho. The upgrade will be even bigger when going directly to a 2018 model.
After waiting for nine years, waiting another 2 – 6 months is worth it imho. The upgrade will be even bigger when going directly to a 2018 model.
It is exactly like Poki says. The hashtag key is broken for about 4 years (when I spilled half a liter of milk (for the second time) on my keyboard) and I just copy-past it in case I need it... The shutdowns and black screens are more of a problem. But I will manage for another year if necessary. (I do not earn my living with my MacBook or Xcode... If I would, I had bought a new MacBook Pro 4 years ago...)
I never purchased a product that lasting...
I personally am not in the market for a new one, since my Early 2015 is overkill at the moment for what I do. But, I was hoping to surprise my brother with one, since he is still on his 2006 Dell Inspiron with Windows 10 Anniversary Update. My next next upgrade is probably not gonna be until 2020 and hopefully by then things like OLED will come to the MBP and options like 64 GBs of RAM (VM's).
So with no new chips announced at CES the hope of a March update is pretty much dead right?
Announcing new CPUs via a simple press release without any press conference just a few weeks before computers with these chips ship is actually pretty standard for Intel, so I wouldn't rule a march release out yet.
Don’t worry yet intel still has the investor briefing at the end of the month.
Personally, I don't think I will be buying anything Intel until I know that they have fixed their silicon.
I am waiting to see if Apple releases new MBPs with AMD APUs or with the upcoming Intel-AMD chipsets. AMD has announced Ryzen Pro mobile APUs [edit: which are due Q2 2018]. Current Ryzen APUs match Intel in multi-threaded applications but fall short in single-threaded applications, so I am hoping these APUs with the newer Ryzen 3 CPUs with Vega GPUs will be a viable replacement for Intel chip(set)s. Even slightly slower single-threaded performance would not bother me much if it meant a more secure computing experience.
To the best of my knowledge, the following is what I have been able to compile about the recent security issues, as it pertains to non-iOS devices:
AMD CPUs are only affected by Spectre V1, but Intel CPUs affected by Spectre V1, Spectre V2 and Meltdown. All the Intel CPUs from 1st generation to 8th generation affected by this, but only old AMD Bulldozer, Piledriver CPUs affected by Spectre V1, only in Linux. Zero Ryzen CPUs have been affected by this.
Ryzen is not vulnerable to Meltdown because Ryzen checks that an instruction doesn't cross any privilege boundary, but Intel didn't want to bother checking that an instruction doesn't enter ring 0, to do so meant to sacrifice a few cycles and for Intel performance was more important than security.
The best articles I have read on this issue are from ExtremeTech and ArsTechnica.
Another user on a different forum posted this chart, which I found helpful:
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Not only that, I am sick of the lamenting everytime go visit. Its just too much of an expense him with paying mortgage, his son in school and other living expenses. So, I would like to treat him to one. He really deserves it.
But, I really want to see if the 2018 comes with slight improvements, especially to the keyboard. If it doesn't show up by March, I will just get him an Early 2015 13 inch like mine.
Didn't they announce new chips with radeon on board ? Sounds liek sort of thing Apple will love.
You are a good brother!
New Dell XPS 15" 2 in 1 form factor announced using new CPU +GPU chips:
https://gizmodo.com/dells-xps-15-2-in-1-wants-to-be-the-anti-macbook-pro-1821849746
Dell really turning up the heat on competition!
https://gizmodo.com/dells-xps-15-2-in-1-wants-to-be-the-anti-macbook-pro-1821849746
Dell really turning up the heat on competition!
Geez. I wonder where they got that four USB-C port idea from?
I just sit here wondering why Apple can't produce a machine remotely like this. And it's barely over $1000 to start, no less. If I wasn't tied to MacOS for work, I'd be setting sail for the rough waters of Windows 10.
Exact same situation, Ive gone from PC Towers to a macbook and to a surface pro just because I couldnt stand restarting for bootcamp or the choppiness of parallels to run Solidworks. Though Im getting to a point where I may be going back to a mac soon... Why cant Dassault just port it to OSX?! D:
I’m not really tied to Mac OS as such, though I do like/ prefer working on it... what’s really pushing me from the platform to look at offerings like this is the MacBook keyboard, which IMO is just inadequate for someone who does a lot of typing for their work, with reliability issues and questionable ergonomics for longer typing sessions - this XPS also sounds to have a new design, but one that sounds like it’s made to be a good/ comfortable typing experience rather than ‘thinner’. If they’ve put in a decent amount of R&D and testing (Apple obviously didn’t with their keyboard) this will be a very tempting option at the price it’s being offered at
I’m not really tied to Mac OS as such, though I do like/ prefer working on it... what’s really pushing me from the platform to look at offerings like this is the MacBook keyboard, which IMO is just inadequate for someone who does a lot of typing for their work, with reliability issues and questionable ergonomics for longer typing sessions - this XPS also sounds to have a new design, but one that sounds like it’s made to be a good/ comfortable typing experience rather than ‘thinner’. If they’ve put in a decent amount of R&D and testing (Apple obviously didn’t with their keyboard) this will be a very tempting option at the price it’s being offered at
I've only used the new KB at the Apple Store and hated it. Hoping they'll either change it in 2018 or at least improve it enough that it's no longer arguably the worst keyboard they've put in a laptop.
Okay other then the random failures and low key travel what makes it a bad keyboard? I find typing on them to be perfectly fine. Still won’t buy until new models because of aforementioned reliability issues.
I believe the random failures and the low key travel are the usual reasons cited for the bad reception (low key travel may be a personal preference, but failures are inexcusable). You can't just say "other than the reasons it's a bad keyboard, why is it a bad keyboard?"
I have a 2016 MBP and I don't consider it to be a "bad keyboard", to be fair. But I do consider it worse than previous MBP keyboards. Mine hasn't failed, but I don't prefer the lower key travel. I typed more accurately on the older keyboard. But I also know it isn't coming back. They can try and make it less prone to sticking and failure, though.
I have a 2016 MBP and I don't consider it to be a "bad keyboard", to be fair. But I do consider it worse than previous MBP keyboards. Mine hasn't failed, but I don't prefer the lower key travel. I typed more accurately on the older keyboard. But I also know it isn't coming back. They can try and make it less prone to sticking and failure, though.
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I thought the same - but then I bought a second hand rMB for cheap. Actually using it a little bit it is a fine keyboard after a short adjustment. My only issue with the keyboard now is the failure rates. The bigger issues to me are the disaster that is the TouchBar, and the comedy oversized trackpad.
I think they can pull it off if they get the tapic engine in there.
I’ve had a bit of experience using a friend’s and a family member’s to see if I could get used to it... the second gen on the MBPs and 2017 MacBook feel ok - my problem is doing a lot of typing starts to make your fingers sore as there is obviously little/no dampening on keys with that short a travel, and that’s even typing with what I’d call moderate pressure, not hammering away. You’d probably be ok if you don’t do a huge amount of typing, but if you do it’s not ideal
I am adding you to my list of brothers.....
Apple has been selling a "machine like that" since November 2016.
Oh, they've been selling a more powerful machine that's also a 2-in-1 with stylus support, a comfy keyboard, a 4K touchscreen, VEGA GPU, and at a rather affordable price? Somehow I must have missed the news of that Apple machine hitting the market.
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That's a bummer to hear. I type on my 2012 MBA for 8+ hrs a day and while it's no substitute for a good mech keyboard, it isn't fatiguing and it's quite frankly very nice for a laptop keyboard.
To have to worry about sore fingers in 2018 due to a laptop keyboard redesign seems crazy to me.
I know it won't happen anytime soon , but a little more key travel, a little smaller touchpad, a Touch Bar or nTB option on both the 13" and 15", two extra ports on the entry level 13", and two extra cores would go a long way to making the MBP a near perfect machine, even if one has to live the dongle life until, say, 2020. And it's not like Apple couldn't easily do all these things if they wanted to. I'm not asking for a 2-in-1 or 32+GB of RAM or something else that Apple just can't or won't do this year. We could have a ****ing GREAT MBP that few people would find complaints about (a la the 2015) with just a couple small, but significant changes.
But really, we aren't getting a radical fix for the keyboard. Something small, maybe, but Apple won't be changing it up anytime soon. Same with the touchpad. Perhaps they'll scale it back 10-15% without mentioning it, I don't know. That'd be nice. Apple tends to stick with the changes they make, though, until a major redesign comes along.
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