Waiting for the 2018 MBP

[SAJD]

Who's with me?

Hopefully we'll see:
- Coffee Lake
- 32 GB of DDR4 RAM
- Battery improvements
- Touch Bar improvements

Possible release dates:
- March 2018
- WWDC 2018

Definitely wait until 2018, these 2016 / 2017 MBP's seem to be lemons...

Please have a browse through this thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7825434) as it lists a number of known faults that people are experiencing from around the world. Some people are on their 3rd and 4th replacement, I myself am on my second machine which only lasted 3 months before a new hardware issue popped up. The thread lists, keys and keyboard issues, thermal issues, speaker issues, touchbar issues, software issue, quality control issues and worst of all - Apple has not openly acknowledged these faults. Please list your faults on this thread if you haven't already. Thank you.

 

[Dr_Charles_Forbin]

Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo etc. all solder RAM in their premium laptop models. Why? Because they care about battery life, so they use LDPPR3 which is not socketed. Design is all about tradeoffs. And these machines sell rather well. The reason for this is simple: many users generally prefer convenience and usability of a light laptop over long-term investment minimisation, especially if the resulting savings are negligible.

I guess my Dell Latitude isn't top end then Still cost almost $2000 when i bought it in 2015. I'm the kind of user that wants a 17" MBP. It is heavy - despite lugging it around in a rolling laptop case. What I'd like to do is replace my mac mini at home and bring it into work. If I did that - I wouldn't have to lug this around.

 

[MBX]

So yesterday I yet again decided to spend some time in store with the Touch Bar models. Just to see if my previous experiences were somehow wrong. My 13" RMBP from 2013 is getting long in the tooth and a replacement will have to be purchased at some point.
After giving the various models another long, thorough try, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not even that worried anymore about any CPU, GPU, SSD or RAM upgrades in the 2018 cycle. Instead, I'm genuinely worried about how the MBP's feel under hand. Because right now, with the latest models the keyboard feels awful. The trackpad has gotten so big that it gets in your way when you're not using it and the Touch Bar is a step back (in my opinion) compared to having physical keys there. These models just feel all wrong to me. Physically they feel awkward to use. It feels like, having run out of ideas, they felt that what worked best for them in the past, would do so again if just repeated.

Tim Cook: "So, lets make it thinner still. Sacrifice the keyboard mechanism for that inferior flat design we've been working on and throw out mainstream ports that are too fat to do it. Oh it gets too hot? Just throttle it more aggressively... What's this about 'Pro' you say?... Profits?! Yes! Make it more expensive! Then also make the trackpad bigger once again, because that went down well last 3 times we did it. And everybody loves those touch displays in our iToys line right? So let's shoehorn one in there too. We'll call it innovation and use that as an excuse to justify the price. It costs what the innovation inside of it costs, right? *laughs*"

None of these decisions make practical sense to me. They don't add up to a better user experience. It just feels like a mess right now. Like something out of the Windows PC world, but (granted) with the Apple manufacturing quality. And to add insult to injury, the price.. oh god, the price.

So yeah, all I'm hoping for is a rebalancing of the physical design. Any speed/storage improvements would be just icing on the cake. How sad is that?

I disagree but seems I'm one of the few who love the new keyboards. Except how noisy they are. But to me they not only feel better but look better too. Looking back at old keyboard they look so outdated and feel so mushy.

It seems people really have issues with changes. But I guess it's question of tastes too. I love the new minimalism and thinness and hope they move further into that direction without sacrificing performance.

Getting rid of the many different ports was a good idea. People need to move on with future. USB-C and such next gen ports are the future. Not the old big clunky stuff. And most of the time it nowadays happens over the cloud. I'm a pro user and I have no issues with the ports.

The touchbar feels gimmicky which is why I hope for a 15'' no touch bar version this year.

 

[sputnikBA]

Actually you know what... at this rate I'm just hoping that they have acknowledge the existing faults - so that keyboard/top cases don't need to be keep being replaced and that popping sound issue is resolved. (by acknowledged I mean internally because we all know its extremely unlikely they will do it publicly unless forced to legally)

 

[oldtime]

Actually you know what... at this rate I'm just hoping that they have acknowledge the existing faults - so that keyboard/top cases don't need to be keep being replaced and that popping sound issue is resolved. (by acknowledged I mean internally because we all know its extremely unlikely they will do it publicly unless forced to legally)

If the keyboards are failing at the rate they seem to be then they absolutely will do something about it, if only because it hurts their bottom line to be servicing laptops so frequently for a design flaw that can likely be smoothed out without much trouble.

 

[The Mercurian]

You all are slow off the ball today it seems:

Details of new Coffee Lake notebook CPU's have leaked:
https://wccftech.com/intel-coffee-lake-mobile-desktop-8th-gen-cpus-leak/

Edit: I expected the extra cores...but those clock speeds are fast too!....que Homer Simpson drool......

 

[richinaus]

You all are slow off the ball today it seems:

Details of new Coffee Lake notebook CPU's have leaked:
https://wccftech.com/intel-coffee-lake-mobile-desktop-8th-gen-cpus-leak/

Edit: I expected the extra cores...but those clock speeds are fast too!....que Homer Simpson drool......

can the I9 sneak into a 15" or is 65w too much? maybe slightly under clocked as it says 45-65w.....

 

[The Mercurian]

can the I9 sneak into a 15" or is 65w too much?

No idea. I believe I9 is new so no precedent

 

[richinaus]

No idea. I believe I9 is new so no precedent

I am really looking forward to these - hope for that I9. just a bit more info on a dGPU [Vega @ 1060 level] and it will be amazing.

 

[oldtime]

You all are slow off the ball today it seems:

Details of new Coffee Lake notebook CPU's have leaked:
https://wccftech.com/intel-coffee-lake-mobile-desktop-8th-gen-cpus-leak/

Edit: I expected the extra cores...but those clock speeds are fast too!....que Homer Simpson drool......

I've been talking about this for weeks

Quad-core coffee lake in the 13"; hexacore in the 15". We'll see them either in the next few months or at WWDC by my guess.

It's why I restrained myself from buying a 2017 despite really needing a new laptop.

 

[The Mercurian]

I've been talking about this for weeks

Quad-core coffee lake in the 13"; hexacore in the 15". We'll see them either in the next few months or at WWDC by my guess.

It's why I restrained myself from buying a 2017 despite really needing a new laptop.

We've all been talking about this for weeks/months - those specs only leaked today. Now there is something definite to talk about

 

[fokmik]

I've been talking about this for weeks

Quad-core coffee lake in the 13"; hexacore in the 15". We'll see them either in the next few months or at WWDC by my guess.

It's why I restrained myself from buying a 2017 despite really needing a new laptop.

You cannot wait until March?

 

[richinaus]

You cannot wait until March?

I can

also this - https://wccftech.com/amd-new-vega-discrete-gpu-for-mobility-with-hbm2-memory/

not sure how good they will be but should be 'enough' for mobile use.

 

[sputnikBA]

You all are slow off the ball today it seems:

Details of new Coffee Lake notebook CPU's have leaked:
https://wccftech.com/intel-coffee-lake-mobile-desktop-8th-gen-cpus-leak/

Edit: I expected the extra cores...but those clock speeds are fast too!....que Homer Simpson drool......

can the I9 sneak into a 15" or is 65w too much? maybe slightly under clocked as it says 45-65w.....

I don't think we'll see the i9-8950HK in a MBP tbh, it seems like something that would make its way into a successor to Microsoft's Surface Studio (which is currently using the same chips as 15" MBPs) because its plugged into mains and won't have battery life concerns.

but then, as stated above its unprecedented so who knows... The Xeon E-2176M Intel Xeon E-2186M we definitely won't get because they are "Xeons" though.

2018 15" lineup of:
- Intel Core i5-8300H (quad)
- Intel Core i5-8400H (quad)
- Intel Core i7-8850H (hexa)

 

[leman]

2018 15" lineup of:
- Intel Core i5-8300H (quad)
- Intel Core i5-8400H (quad)
- Intel Core i7-8850H (hexa)

What would be the point in that. The i5-8300H is going to be basically the same as the i7-7700HQ... I am sure that these leaks are missing parts. Where is the 87xx?

And what happened to Intel's nomenclature? What happened to the HQ suffix? And why are these series *50 CPUs? What happened to *00 series? It all a complete mess...

 

[Poki]

As far as I can see in this leak, there are two 45W six-core i7 chips, and one 45W six-core i9 chip. This makes total sense for the 15" MBP - keep the two i7's for the stock configuration, and the i9 as an CTO part to upsell. The i9 branding certainly will bring a lot more people to shell out additional money to get it.

As for GPU, the Vega mobile AMD teased is almost certainly a similar part as is used in Intel's G-series CPUs (similar Z-height, and manufacturing would be simpler with fewer designs). This would mean a Vega 20 (slightly faster than GTX 1050 Ti) and a Vega 24 (slightly faster than GTX 1060).

Also, AMD did announce that they sell Vega 10 and Vega 12 chips separately, although without dedicated VRAM. Now if Apple could source these Vega 12 chips, and maybe get AMD to build parts with dedicated HBM2 memory (even if it's just 128 MB to cache some data), it would be a nice performance bump from Intel's Iris Plus iGPUs. Since Intel now offers 15W quad-core chips, these GPUs should easily fit within the 28W TDP Apple currently uses (remember that AMD's own quad-core CPUs with integrated Vega 10 only need 15W combined, so getting the GPU alone at 13W shouldn't be a problem).

 

[TheralSadurns]

I disagree but seems I'm one of the few who love the new keyboards. Except how noisy they are. But to me they not only feel better but look better too. Looking back at old keyboard they look so outdated and feel so mushy.

It seems people really have issues with changes. But I guess it's question of tastes too. I love the new minimalism and thinness and hope they move further into that direction without sacrificing performance.

Getting rid of the many different ports was a good idea. People need to move on with future. USB-C and such next gen ports are the future. Not the old big clunky stuff. And most of the time it nowadays happens over the cloud. I'm a pro user and I have no issues with the ports.

The touchbar feels gimmicky which is why I hope for a 15'' no touch bar version this year.

just that HDMI is NOT a legacy port. And won't be for at least the next 10 years.

You could also make the case for MagSafe and the SD card slot. Although technically both are no ports.

 

[jerry70450]

just that HDMI is NOT a legacy port. And won't be for at least the next 10 years.

You could also make the case for MagSafe and the SD card slot. Although technically both are no ports.

Correction: HDMI is not a legacy protocol. The HDMI port however will be legacy soon. There is support for HDMI alternate mode over USB C so USB C will co-exist with current HDMI ports until we switch over.

 

[TheralSadurns]

Correction: HDMI is not a legacy protocol. The HDMI port however will be legacy soon. There is support for HDMI alternate mode over USB C so USB C will co-exist with current HDMI ports until we switch over.

Correction. HDMI is NOT a legacy PORT.
TVs and projectors will keep their HDMI PORTS. As will board-, meeting-, and classrooms.
Yes. At home I can connect an HDMI to USB-C to my TV to hook up a MBP. The TV will still have regular old HDMI.
In the aforementioned rooms however. You often times get a cable or port that are pre-installed. Sometimes even VGA!!!

 

[fokmik]

I can

also this - https://wccftech.com/amd-new-vega-discrete-gpu-for-mobility-with-hbm2-memory/

not sure how good they will be but should be 'enough' for mobile use.

Probably a bit better than current amd 560
[doublepost=1516404626][/doublepost]I think no i9 for the cto but that 45w xeon.
I think to not get any hotter than it should,the i9 with that turbo boost its too much

 

[HerbertDerb]

I doubt we see i9 in the 15" MBP's. According the leak the cTDP of the i9 is 45-65W.
2017/2016 and also 2015's MBP CPU's TDP has always been 45W.

I don't know if the Vega will change this. But i think Apple will go with the "safe bet" and just provide the possibility of i7-8850H as an option. Alltrough there might be an option for Xeon (hopefully...)
Because if the i7-8850H is an option from Apple's website. It's going to be costly.

BUT including i5 to the MBP 15" isn't something that Apple would do imo. They never implemented i5's to the 15" laptops. And if the 13" is going to get quad core upgrade. There's no point of selling quad core 15"'s, because most true power- users, would opt for the hexacore variant. And Apple really wants to sell every 15" at premium compared to the 13" -lineup.
Also most re-sellers would pretty much order the hexacore option.

Maybe there's customs chips from Intel to Apple with different Base Clocks? That should be more "Apple like", to go with i7 in the "base model 15""

 

[oldtime]

There's no point of selling quad core 15"'s, because most true power- users, would opt for the hexacore variant. And Apple really wants to sell every 15" at premium compared to the 13" -lineup.
Also most re-sellers would pretty much order the hexacore option.

I don't know. There are plenty of people that get the cheapest 15" MBP every year not because they need the extra power, but simply because they want a bigger than 13" screen.

 

[sputnikBA]

I don't know. There are plenty of people that get the cheapest 15" MBP every year not because they need the extra power, but simply because they want a bigger than 13" screen.

Also - for the 15” Apple will want to have a “starting at ________” config that won’t really be the one you want, so they can upsell you. If they aren’t really concerned with how many they will sell, they will just manage their inventory accordingly.

What would be the point in that. The i5-8300H is going to be basically the same as the i7-7700HQ... I am sure that these leaks are missing parts. Where is the 87xx?

And what happened to Intel's nomenclature? What happened to the HQ suffix? And why are these series *50 CPUs? What happened to *00 series? It all a complete mess...

Yep their names and lines have been a mess for a long time, shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone anymore. And I don’t think the i9 will be 45w. While apple has gotten custom / better binned chips from Intel in the past, there is no way Intel would state a wiggle room “45-65w” if they were confident in consistently being 45w.

 

[oldtime]

Also for the 15” Apple will want to have a “starting at ________” confit that won’t really get the one you want so they can upsell you.

Oh, like the starting at $1099 iMac

 

[argentum47]

I don't know. There are plenty of people that get the cheapest 15" MBP every year not because they need the extra power, but simply because they want a bigger than 13" screen.

Second this. There is a significant market for a not necessarily powerful 15".
There is a significant benefit for us (not sure for Apple -- judging by the lack of such a line, it probably doesn't benefit Apple) if Apple were to separate those two directions.

MB Real Pro 15" with no unneeded compromises made for portability and a lighter 15" MB/MBA with adequate compromises made. Most other laptop companies all offer such a lineup and I really hope Apple does the same since their number of models is so limited..