Waiting for the 2019 MBP [Merged]

[Falhófnir]

I’d agree with you and I think a lot of people upgrade on the industry standard of 3-5 years, which does make it harder to justify the extra cost on a MacBook Pro. And since I last owned a personal windows machine (about 3 years ago), bloatware may well not be as bad as it used to be.

At least in my experience, even with upgrading to the newer Windows updates, I’ve tended to notice that older windows machines haven’t faired as well for me as my MacBooks have.

I use my company provided windows for my day job, and honestly can’t stand the bugginess so I’m willing to pay that premium to keep using MacOS for my personal business and home use. But I will agree that on a 3-5 year replacement schedule $3000-4000 gets pricey. This is also why I typically try to buy refurbished models from Apple.
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Lol. I was waiting to see who’d say it first. Personally I haven’t had the issue on my machine (knock on wood), but yes obviously a failed keyboard would kind of defeat the longevity value of the MacBook Pro.

I mean, Windows does have its own annoyances but I tend to think they are overblown a bit, I get on ok using my gaming computer which I’ve had for a good couple of years now with no major issues. Having said that it’s only really gaming (occasional bit of web browsing if it’s already up and running too) that I do with it, so perhaps there are techincal issues I’d run into if doing more. As my work is primarily Word processor and web based, I don’t see what could go hugely wrong there though (hopefully not famous last words )

If I do end up getting a MBP it will almost certainy be a refurbished one or stock clearance 2017 model (if I can find it for ~ £2k or less for the 512GB SSD model) as I won’t even really utilise the power it brings to the table (was hoping for a 2015 model update using an i7-8559U or something) and I just don’t want to waste that much extra cash.

 

[Painter2002]

I mean, Windows does have its own annoyances but I tend to think they are overblown a bit, I get on ok using my gaming computer which I’ve had for a good couple of years now with no major issues. Having said that it’s only really gaming (occasional bit of web browsing if it’s already up and running too) that I do with it, so perhaps there are techincal issues I’d run into if doing more. As my work is primarily Word processor and web based, I don’t see what could go hugely wrong there though (hopefully not famous last words )

If I do end up getting a MBP it will almost certainy be a refurbished one or stock clearance 2017 model (if I can find it for ~ £2k or less for the 512GB SSD model) as I won’t even really utilise the power it brings to the table (was hoping for a 2015 model update using an i7-8559U or something) and I just don’t want to waste that much extra cash.

In my line of work, I deal a lot building and using databases for reporting purposes, and it can be quiet buggy sometimes, even on a decently specced Lenovo. I often end up rebooting when windows locks up on me. But if I wasn’t using this machine for that kind of work it definitely work fine for casual use. It just wouldn’t look anywhere near as beautiful as my MacBook Pro . And we won’t even talk about trying to use macs as gaming devices. Lol.

I could make due if I had to switch back to windows, but I still prefer MacOS and the ecosystem it comes with, and am willing to pay that premium.

 

[Nbd1790]

If it's power is what you're looking for (which I sure as hell am) hold out until next year and purchase the previous year at B&H. They tend to discount the previous model years up to $1400 (which I've seen on the 2016 models)

Doesn't make the price THAT much better in comparison to windows computers, but it sure as hell is a nice chunk off. If this model year doesn't have a high failure right (fingers crossed) I'll be looking at the 15 inch i9 32gb RAM and 2tb SSD hopefully for at least $800-$1000 off

 

[macduke]

I think the biggest downside to buying this model is that the GPU is mostly the same. If that is important to you and you either don't want to spend on an eGPU or want to be able to bootcamp some decent games then I would wait.

Possible changes for 2019:

• Apple CPU/GPU or at least a faster AMD GPU
• Larger edge to edge display (OLED? 4K?)
• Thunderbolt 4 80/100 (is this possible on non-Intel?)
• Face ID

 

[EPO75]

So next year you guys want a 8k screen, 64GB, needs to fly and cheaper, why not make a 2020 topic already ffs.

 

[redheeler]

So next year you guys want a 8k screen, 64GB, needs to fly and cheaper, why not make a 2020 topic already ffs.

Who said anything about 8K? I just want 3360x2100

The resolution of the 2018 models is a deal-breaker for me. For $2,399+, I at least expect a better resolution than my 6-year-old MacBook Pro has, without having to use a scaled resolution.

 

[The Mercurian]

So next year you guys want a 8k screen, 64GB, needs to fly and cheaper, why not make a 2020 topic already ffs.

Yeah how about 4k ??

But no I want for only two things:
1. A non-touch bar hex core option
2. Non-insane prices

 

[EPO75]

Yeah how about 4k ??

But no I want for only two things:
1. A non-touch bar hex core option
2. Non-insane prices

Well never a MacBook for you then as prices won't drop, go buy an Acer or something.
Prices are hardly higher, my MacBook 15 Retina 2012 and my MacBook 17 Pro in 2009 were almost the same prices and we even had the Euro-Dollar conversion.

 

[The Mercurian]

Well never a MacBook for you then as prices won't drop, go buy an Acer or something.
Prices are hardly higher, my MacBook 15 Retina 2012 and my MacBook 17 Pro in 2009 were almost the same prices and we even had the Euro-Dollar conversion.

The 2014 MBP 15" 2.8Ghz (top spec i7) I'm typing on cost €3100 (ish). It has 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
The new one with i7 (not top spec), 16GB RAM and 1TB hard drive costs €3,619.
I'd call that an increase wouldn't you (its 14%)? And my old one was top spec at the time for CPU, RAM and SSD, I'm not looking even near top spec in the new one there.


Whats more, I can get a DELL XPS 15" 2.2GhZ i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD for €2200 today,
The new MBP with 15" 2.2Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD is €4099. Thats an 87% premium over the competitor.

That is insanely overpriced.

 

[EPO75]

The 2014 MBP 15" 2.8Ghz (top spec i7) I'm typing on cost €3100 (ish). It has 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
The new one with i7 (not top spec), 16GB RAM and 1TB hard drive costs €3,619.
I'd call that an increase wouldn't you (its 14%)? And my old one was top spec at the time for CPU, RAM and SSD, I'm not looking even near top spec in the new one there.


Whats more, I can get a DELL XPS 15" 2.2GhZ i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD for €2200 today,
The new MBP with 15" 2.2Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD is €4099. Thats an 87% premium over the competitor.

That is insanely overpriced.

Can't compare it with a crappy DELL and Windows. That is just the problem, there is no real competitor.

Comparing top spec stuff is bullish.

The SSD drive stuff is indeed crazy expensive stuff, especially if you upgrade.

Ah well I earn more money then I did in 2014.

My old MacBook always stayed around the same price, never been cheap but have been pretty happy with them all.

 

[cool11]

Yeah, I had a suspicion that such topic was opened,
and here we are...again!

I guess that after the first complaints on new mbp 2018, that I wish to be only a few,
then this topic will be massive.

 

[Schranke]

AMD Vega mobile for 2019

I could get behind that. I am not impresses with the GPU update this year.

lol it's like tradition here isn't it?

it is, and I love it

I’m with you on this. I saw this thread and face-palmed that there was already a thread for those who aren’t happy right after Apple just released machines that look impressive (on paper at least), after everyone was complaining how outdated the 2017 model lineup was...

well it is the same every year, especially when the cycle have been long. People are expecting a lot from apple, and sometimes a little to much.

I’ll just be sitting here like you waiting to see what Apple comes up with next, not because I need a new machine (I better not after buying my last Mac last year), but because it is fun seeing what they come up with....

Great to have a comrade here, and yes it is fun to follow. but I also find that these threads are a good way to stay on top of what might be possible new hardware upgrades.

So next year you guys want a 8k screen, 64GB, needs to fly and cheaper, why not make a 2020 topic already ffs.

Last time we made a thread jumping the waiting for n+1 MBP the mods closed it... so I guess we will be unsuccessful again

eah, I had a suspicion that such topic was opened,
and here we are...again!

See @jinnyman

 

[jimmy_uk]

The 2014 MBP 15" 2.8Ghz (top spec i7) I'm typing on cost €3100 (ish). It has 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
The new one with i7 (not top spec), 16GB RAM and 1TB hard drive costs €3,619.
I'd call that an increase wouldn't you (its 14%)? And my old one was top spec at the time for CPU, RAM and SSD, I'm not looking even near top spec in the new one there.


Whats more, I can get a DELL XPS 15" 2.2GhZ i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD for €2200 today,
The new MBP with 15" 2.2Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD is €4099. Thats an 87% premium over the competitor.

That is insanely overpriced.

Dell XPS build quality, fit and finish nowhere near Macbook Pro.

 

[Falhófnir]

In my line of work, I deal a lot building and using databases for reporting purposes, and it can be quiet buggy sometimes, even on a decently specced Lenovo. I often end up rebooting when windows locks up on me. But if I wasn’t using this machine for that kind of work it definitely work fine for casual use. It just wouldn’t look anywhere near as beautiful as my MacBook Pro . And we won’t even talk about trying to use macs as gaming devices. Lol.

I could make due if I had to switch back to windows, but I still prefer MacOS and the ecosystem it comes with, and am willing to pay that premium.

I’d definitely say the MBP would be my machine of choice all else being equal, or even paying a more reasonable premium if there was an option available around the £2k mark as the 2015 model was. I just can’t get my head around paying that much more for one of the machines when I don’t need the power but I do want at least 1/2 a terabyte of storage and a 15” screen. The problem is Apple only offer the 15” pro in this size, so I don’t have the option of speccing up a 15” MacBook to suit me, I have to pay for the H processor and discrete GPU and cutting edge SSD and touch bar, whether it’s useful to me or not.

At the moment I feel a bit in limbo - I haven’t got a pressing need to update yet (though this is around the time I usually would do so) I guess I’m just hoping Apple might eventually come out with something that I could jump at. Back in 2015, the machine was £1,599 and 256GB storage actually didn’t seem that unreasonable (pre 4K & Live Photo’s in particular which take up a lot of space) - that pricing made it pretty much a no brainier against just about anything any of the competition could offer at the time! I know the £ is lower against the dollar now than it was at that point, but to jump up by almost £800 is pretty eye watering.

 

[Painter2002]

I’d definitely say the MBP would be my machine of choice all else being equal, or even paying a more reasonable premium if there was an option available around the £2k mark as the 2015 model was. I just can’t get my head around paying that much more for one of the machines when I don’t need the power but I do want at least 1/2 a terabyte of storage and a 15” screen. The problem is Apple only offer the 15” pro in this size, so I don’t have the option of speccing up a 15” MacBook to suit me, I have to pay for the H processor and discrete GPU and cutting edge SSD and touch bar, whether it’s useful to me or not.

At the moment I feel a bit in limbo - I haven’t got a pressing need to update yet (though this is around the time I usually would do so) I guess I’m just hoping Apple might eventually come out with something that I could jump at. Back in 2015, the machine was £1,599 and 256GB storage actually didn’t seem that unreasonable (pre 4K & Live Photo’s in particular which take up a lot of space) - that pricing made it pretty much a no brainier against just about anything any of the competition could offer at the time! I know the £ is lower against the dollar now than it was at that point, but to jump up by almost £800 is pretty eye watering.

Yeah agreed, if/when I need to upgrade again, I’ll be buying a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple, not new. Gives time for the issues to surface and I like have $200-400 USD taken off the price tag.

I still just can’t get over how the maxed out 15” now costs $6,700?! I mean seriously though, how can upgrading to 4tb SSD alone ($3,200 USD) cost more than an entire new 13” MacBook Pro??

 

[The Mercurian]

Yeah agreed, if/when I need to upgrade again, I’ll be buying a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple, not new. Gives time for the issues to surface and I like have $200-400 USD taken off the price tag.

I still just can’t get over how the maxed out 15” now costs $6,700?! I mean seriously though, how can upgrading to 4tb SSD alone ($3,200 USD) cost more than an entire new 13” MacBook Pro??

Also - where are you going to go with a laptop that expensive? I'd be afraid to leave the house with it, much less bring it to my local coffee shop. You actually would be far better off buying a desktop and a cheapo laptop instead.

 

[alex00100]

Guys there's no way we'll see anything new besides new cpus and new amd gpus next year. It's always been 4 years between a redesign and usually a small improvement in-between (like True Tone and new keyboard here). Next year will be like 2015.

 

[Painter2002]

Also - where are you going to go with a laptop that expensive? I'd be afraid to leave the house with it, much less bring it to my local coffee shop. You actually would be far better off buying a desktop and a cheapo laptop instead.

Agreed, I am scared enough taking my $2000 MacBook Pro out in the wild, let alone even think about taking a $6700 dollar MacBook Pro out of the house. No screw that, I’d be terrified just to take it off my desk over to my living room.

 

[Schranke]

Yeah agreed, if/when I need to upgrade again, I’ll be buying a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple, not new.

I have always been a little jealous of the major markets having access to refurbished machines. Not an option in Denmark, and I am not really sure how it would work buying a refurb elsewhere and have it shipped. and I even prefer the international English keyboard over the native danish keyboard so layout would be a non issue for me.

Agreed, I am scared enough taking my $2000 MacBook Pro out in the wild, let alone even think about taking a $6700 dollar MacBook Pro out of the house. No screw that, I’d be terrified just to take it off my desk over to my living room.

Haha, the next MBP does not need to be thin and light, everyone would be afraid to bring it with them due to the price point, so why bother because

 

[Martius]

Hello guys! Let's the discussion begin!

I think the pricing is not clearly reflecting the value anymore. I saw people arguing that you get more power for the same price, but yeah, surprise surprise – in computer industry it always been like that. Or you want to pay the sticker price for a "new stock" 486 computer in 2018?

I bought my base 2015" 15" new in 2015 (16GB RAM / 256SSD). I bought it with a teachers discount (10% off here in Czech Republic). I paid around $2200 for it (I checked the exchange rate CZK / USD from November 2015), with current exchange rate it would be around $2450.

Right now I can get the base 2018 MBP with tearchers discount for around $3050, which is $600 more ($850 if I compare prices using exchange rates from Nov. 2015 USD/CZK vs Jul. 2018 USD/CZK) – and I still get 16GB / 256SSD, which are the two things I care the most.

Of course I get those nice modern features, but also I have to buy some dongles, have no magsafe, no function keys (compromises)...

Where are the times when Apple came with something revolutionary (=expensive) and then lowered the price when the manufacturing became cheaper.

The funny thing – I also checked how much was the base MBP 15" in 2011 (the one before retina, I didn't remember how much it was) here in Czech Republic and it was 32000 CZK (the average monthly salary in 2011 in Czech Republic was around 25000CZK), the current average salary in Czech Republic is around 31000CZK and the current price for base MBP 15" is 73000CZK.

So back in 2011 – an average person in Czech Republic could afford the base 15" with 5 weeks salary, now it's almost 10 weeks salary.

I'm speechless. Not that anyone cares, but something is wrong. As a developer I need a good computer, but I have never thought that I will have to pay like 112000CZK ($5100) for a laptop I would be happy with in 2018 (32GB ram / 1TBSSD).

 

[Falhófnir]

Yeah agreed, if/when I need to upgrade again, I’ll be buying a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple, not new. Gives time for the issues to surface and I like have $200-400 USD taken off the price tag.

I still just can’t get over how the maxed out 15” now costs $6,700?! I mean seriously though, how can upgrading to 4tb SSD alone ($3,200 USD) cost more than an entire new 13” MacBook Pro??

The other thing that gives me pause is the rumoured switch to ARM from 2020 - will that mean these machines start getting depreciated after 2 years? If Apple starts pushing developers towards supporting their own chips first and foremost it won’t take long for things to begin not working while developers are tied up working on ARM apps. I guess the doubt will be even worse for the 2019 model - though at least by the time it releases we should have more concrete info on whether Apple are actually doing it!

 

[PhoneI]

£1,699 for the Spectre X360, £1,899 for the XPS, £2699 for the MacBook Pro equivalently specced... is MacOS (as a personal indulgence) really worth £800-£1,000 to me?

Yes

 

[meme1255]

here in Czech Republic

Check the Austrian edu store. It is cheaper (by ~ 6% which Apple makes on their awful exchange rate EUR/CZK) and I have asked the Apple Support whether I can buy a MacBook in Vienna with discount even though I study in the Czech Republic and they confirmed that. For 6000 CZK you can have a nice visit there. Just use Revolut or buy € at a low-spread exchange office (as you live in Prague, it should be hassle-less thing to do).

The edu discount now is only 6 % both here and in Austria if I remember correctly.

EDIT: Or you can use that 6 % to buy Apple Care which seems to be necessary recently.

 

[Painter2002]

The other thing that gives me pause is the rumoured switch to ARM from 2020 - will that mean these machines start getting depreciated after 2 years? If Apple starts pushing developers towards supporting their own chips first and foremost it won’t take long for things to begin not working while developers are tied up working on ARM apps. I guess the doubt will be even worse for the 2019 model - though at least by the time it releases we should have more concrete info on whether Apple are actually doing it!

I’m not sure they’ll completely dump the Intel chipset for ARM immediately. Likely they’ll introduce a “new” MacBook into the lineup for the first few years to see how well it does. Ultimately a full lineup switch will depend if they can make it powerful enough to fit Pro users needs (or at least what Apple “thinks” the Pros need).

I could be wrong on that end but I’m not stressing out about it until happens, not the first time Apple making their own chips has made its rounds. When it happens then I’ll decide how I feel about it.

 

[Martius]

Check the Austrian edu store. It is cheaper (by ~ 6% which Apple makes on their awful exchange rate EUR/CZK) and I have asked the Apple Support whether I can buy a MacBook in Vienna with discount even though I study in the Czech Republic and they confirmed that. For 6000 CZK you can have a nice visit there. Just use Revolut or buy € at a low-spread exchange office (as you live in Prague, it should be hassle-less thing to do).

The edu discount now is only 6 % both here and in Austria if I remember correctly.

EDIT: Or you can use that 6 % to buy Apple Care which seems to be necessary recently.

But I'm afraid I can't get CZ keyboard in Austria?! I know it's sounds silly, but I'm kind of use to have CZ keyboard. Well I might get iMac 27 + the future cheaper 13" MB... for the same price as the 32GB / 1TB SSD

But thank you, I will check it anyways!