I really want a macbook with larger screen for media watching, work and more comfortable browsing, but I have no use for the more powerful CPU's, dedicated graphics and touchbar, so the current 15" lineup is overkill and too expensive for me. The comparison that comes to my mind is iPhone and iPhone Plus models, with a slightly more expensive price tag you get basically the same device, but larger and with couple of better features, so I'd love to see the same treatment applied to the MacBook Pro. Do you think there would be demand for such a machine?
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Who else would love a 15" Macbook Pro with lower specs and price analogue to 13" nonTB MBP?
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Maybe? I'm sure Apple's done a cost/benefit analysis on this. However, if you take the 13-inch, and add the Core i7 and the 16 GB of RAM, you're essentially getting close to the price of the 15-inch. Perhaps this will change when/if Apple switches over to the ARM architecture.
Yep hoping they might surprise us with a 15” MacBook at around $1799. Think it’s probably more likely they just want to squeeze as much cash as they can out of people who want a larger screen though. My current plan is to stretch my upgrade interval to 4 years to partially cancel out paying more for stuff like a dGPU I don’t need, but it might come to abandoning the platform because of their ludicrous cost for 512GB SSDs (I’d rather get a stock config than a BTO so you’re talking £2,699)
People are already complaining about the price of 32GB, and the low end GPU, I can only imagine the hue and cry out there if apple offered a lower spec'd model (at a lower price). People's heads would explode 
Choice is always a good thing, so I would be one that would like to see, especially at a lower price point
Choice is always a good thing, so I would be one that would like to see, especially at a lower price point
Yes! I would! Apple used to offer a integrated graphics-only version of the 15" MacBook Pro that was more affordable starting at $1,999 (USD), but they stopped doing that starting with the 2016 models. While I love my 15" MBP from 2015 that does feature a discrete graphics processor, I realize that I don't really need the graphics power and I'm fine with integrated graphics; I use the machine more for the 15" screen and quad cores. An affordable 15" with the new 6 cores would be up my alley when I'm in the market for a computer again.
Only problem is intel no longer offer H series chips with iris graphics so it would have to be a Quad U like they have in the 13” models - or perhaps a G series which is basically an i7-7700HQ with a very similar graphics card to the dGPUs in the pros bolted on...
Yeah that makes sense, and neither are cheaper. In fact Intel's listing price for the quad-core 2.7GHz i7 in the 13" is more than the 2.2GHz or 2.6GHz six-core i7 in the 15". Coffee Lake has a much smaller lineup than previous chips.
It’s surprising how many intel chips you would think are more expensive actually cost the same - I’m pretty sure the 28W U chips don’t actually cost any more than the 15W ones
I'm not following, granted I'm not familiar with all the variants in Intel's line. The new 6 core CPUs in the 15 MBP do have Iris graphics, so there's that to power the display in absence of a discrete GPU.
This is kinda moot for me at the moment because I'm expecting to keep my 2015 15" machine for another two years, so hopefully by then the 15" will be more affordable.
No they have HD630 (UHD 630?) which didn’t seem to be man enough for the scaled resolution of the 15” 2017 model.
Yes. A 15"MBP with the same specs as the 13" tbMBP and no touchbar would be an instant buy.
The specs of the new 13" MBP are perfect for my needs (web dev) but I really want/need that 15" screen...
Being able to avoid the battery hit of DDR ram and the extra heat of GPU and the new 6 core processors would be amazing.
Apple rarely provides what I actually want though...
The specs of the new 13" MBP are perfect for my needs (web dev) but I really want/need that 15" screen...
Being able to avoid the battery hit of DDR ram and the extra heat of GPU and the new 6 core processors would be amazing.
Apple rarely provides what I actually want though...
Their solution to this would make the most sense if the eliminated the non retina Air, and introduced a 14” or 14.1” MacBook configurable to 16 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. I also think they could likely do this at no more than 3.5 lbs and include the Touch Bar. My guess is the 2018 MacBook will go Touch Bar.
As much as I'd love to see and buy such a Macbook (non-pro), I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't want such a model because it'll hurt their bottom line on their more profitable models. A lighter specced 15" will drive away all that money going into their current 15" MBPs. It makes too much sense to be on the Macbook lineup.