What are some compelling reasons to get the new rMBP 15" with touchbar?

[Hieveryone]

I currently have a late 2013 rMBP 2.6/8/256

I really want to get the new 15" rMBP with touchbar, but have no compelling reason to shell out $2,399?

Also, do you know how much I'd get for my current rMBP? Thanks.

 

[xb2003]

The value? Check eBay. It seems like used values hover around 2x what Apple will recycle it for, give or take.

The Touch Bar, dGPU, and possibly size would be the only reasons I can think of. Some might value the new screen, though I am not one of them.

Wait for a refresh.

 

[tubeexperience]

None.

If you have a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina or newer, there's no reason to upgrade unless you have some specific needs.

 

[jerryk]

If you want to use TB-3 to drive 4/5K monitors it makes sense. And the idea of having one cable to connect to a dock that drives those monitors, provides gigbit ethernet, attaches external drives, keyboard, mouse, and charges the unit is compelling.

I have a 2015 15" rMBP (512/dGPU) and may pick up a new unit when the docks situation gets a bit more sorted. I love the idea of just plugging one cable instead of the 4 or 5 I do now.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

It all depends on your technical needs and/or your personal desires. One or both must satisfy the need to spend the money. If in doubt or you can't find an answer why, definitely don't do it! Enjoy what you have (which is a great laptop BTW) and then pick-up a new MBP in 1-2 years. By then, the USB-C market and Force Touch ecosystem will mature and there will a lot more reasons to upgrade.

 

[Hieveryone]

It all depends on your technical needs and/or your personal desires. One or both must satisfy the need to spend the money. If in doubt or you can't find an answer why, definitely don't do it! Enjoy what you have (which is a great laptop BTW) and then pick-up a new MBP in 1-2 years. By then, the USB-C market and Force Touch ecosystem will mature and there will a lot more reasons to upgrade.

Maybe for the bigger screen but honestly, I prefer portability and have an external monitor I love that I hook my 13" up to.

Maybe if the new 15" is as portable as my current 13" it would be worth it, but I'd need to see one in the store.

Even then though the price tag of $2,399 seems like a ton of money for a new laptop given I have a perfectly good one that does everything I want it to.

I don't think I have a good reason after reading this thread, but I REALLY want one lol.

 

[jackoatmon]

well i can tell you why it interests me, in order of importance:

- serious 4k video editing power
- wide colour gamut / quality display (very big deal for me personally)
- weight / design / thermal package is exquisite
- faster SSDs & double the GPU power of previous models
- my top-spec 2011 iMac is getting very long in the tooth
- touchbar seems excellent as an input tool for visual art

So it basically all boils down to: amazing with Adobe CC and FCPX; screen looks fantastic for presenting works-in-progress in meetings; take heavy tasks on the road (I travel for work constantly)

 

[Hieveryone]

well i can tell you why it interests me, in order of importance:

- serious 4k video editing power
- wide colour gamut / quality display (very big deal for me personally)
- weight / design / thermal package is exquisite
- faster SSDs & double the GPU power of previous models
- my top-spec 2011 iMac is getting very long in the tooth
- touchbar seems excellent as an input tool for visual art

So it basically all boils down to: amazing with Adobe CC and FCPX; screen looks fantastic for presenting works-in-progress in meetings; take heavy tasks on the road (I travel for work constantly)

I don't even know what half of what you said means

I just use my rMBP for Firefox, mail, Word, and sometimes the calculator.

 

[therealseebs]

CPU and video card upgrades. Theoretically, you can have a single cable do everything, but so far as I can tell we're not remotely there yet. Maybe next year.

You might be happier with the 2015, but (1) they only have discrete GPUs on refurbs (2) the discrete GPUs apparently don't actually run reliably, with a tendency to thermal throttling and some users reporting reliability problems.

Dunno whether the 460 will be better. It should be in principle, but in reality the machine's thin enough to make cooling still a significant concern.

 

[jackoatmon]

I don't even know what half of what you said means

I just use my rMBP for Firefox, mail, Word, and sometimes the calculator.

Oh really? If I were you, personally, I would use the opportunity of not needing the horsepower to get a rosegold 12" MBP. I'm not being sarcastic. I love those little things. the perfect tiny powerful laptop, at a fraction of the cost of an MBP.

if u ry want to splurge, just get the base model 13 with TouchBar so you get to play with the new toy but you're not paying for a bunch of capacity you'll never use. No sense in paying for a $500 graphics chip in your machine that never turns on, or a 4-core $400 CPU that never speeds up over 1ghz on a single core!

 

[simonmet]

For me, the only compelling upgrade from the previous model is the brighter, more colourful screen. Since getting an iPhone 7 and seeing the iPad Pro and iMac 5K in store the older screens look somewhat dull and lifeless by comparison.

The SSD was already very fast in the previous model, while the Skylake CPU is only marginally faster. You'll notice a substantial boost in read/write disk speed from a pre-2015 model however. I never found weight to be much of a problem so it's just a typical evolution rather than revolution in portability.

Graphics could be a compelling upgrade for some if you depend on fast graphics and spec it with the 460, but that's in the "nice to have" category for me. The M370X in the previous model is mediocre at best but ok for casual gaming and graphics-accelerated workflows.

The new track pad seems almost ridiculous large to me.

All in all there are plenty of iterative improvements, not considering the loss of ports, but only the screen I consider "compelling".

 

[jackoatmon]

^ yah see this is probably the reaction i would have had if my machine wasn't overdue for replacement

but since it is... yipeeeeee!

 

[Hieveryone]

Oh really? If I were you, personally, I would use the opportunity of not needing the horsepower to get a rosegold 12" MBP. I'm not being sarcastic. I love those little things. the perfect tiny powerful laptop, at a fraction of the cost of an MBP.

if u ry want to splurge, just get the base model 13 with TouchBar so you get to play with the new toy but you're not paying for a bunch of capacity you'll never use. No sense in paying for a $500 graphics chip in your machine that never turns on, or a 4-core $400 CPU that never speeds up over 1ghz on a single core!

That's not a bad idea. I might consider the silver rMB for my next computer although I would probably upgrade the CPU to 1.3 GHZ. 1.1 seems so slow.

Getting the 13" with touchbar isn't a bad idea either.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Larger screen than your current model, while only adding a half pound of weight.

16GB of RAM for increased multitasking ability.

Kickass touch bar.

Powerfully loud speakers.

Much better graphics.

An SSD size upgrade if you need it (it will be faster regardless).