Worst time to buy a MBP ever?

[Dane95]

Hi guys,

Not sure what the purpose of this post is besides just to vent, really. Feel free to read along if you'd like and feel free to skip it, if that's not your thing.

I bought a new MacBook Pro 13 inch in May 2020. Before that I used a Macbook 12" for just about 5 years. The original Macbook with the 1st generation keyboard. At that point the keyboard had been replaced 4 times, and a key had been stuck more times than I can remember. The second hand prices were still pretty high, and when I was able to recoup about 40% from selling it on, when Apple dropped the new MacBook Pros with the new keyboards, I made the purchase and got myself a MacBook Pro 13".

While the keyboard was fantastic, the machine itself was pretty meh, honestly. In day to day use it didn't really feel that much better than my 12" Macbook, and after having a fan-less laptop for 5 years, I sure noticed how often and how quickly these Intel processors would run hot.

Little did I know that Apple would shortly after introduce these new M1 laptops, which would make my Intel MBP go from meh to disappointing. My feelings towards the May 2020 purchase didn't exactly get more positive as the reviews of the new M1 laptops started to tick in. How fast they were, how long the battery lasted and how seemlingless the transition to ARM-chips were.

I know it was tough to predict this would happen, but man.. Was May 2020 the worst possible time in recent years to buy a new laptop from Apple?

With last year's keynote in mind, I'm currently awaiting the 2021 WWDC, and bar something crazy happening again, I'm probably gonna take the loss on this Intel MBP and get a new M1 MBA instead. I could probably make the change for about $130 and even though I tend to keep my laptops for much longer, I'm thinking it would probably make the most sense to shift horse at this point, since the new Airs are quite inexpensive.

 

[skaertus]

Hi guys,

Not sure what the purpose of this post is besides just to vent, really. Feel free to read along if you'd like and feel free to skip it, if that's not your thing.

I bought a new MacBook Pro 13 inch in May 2020. Before that I used a Macbook 12" for just about 5 years. The original Macbook with the 1st generation keyboard. At that point the keyboard had been replaced 4 times, and a key had been stuck more times than I can remember. The second hand prices were still pretty high, and when I was able to recoup about 40% from selling it on, when Apple dropped the new MacBook Pros with the new keyboards, I made the purchase and got myself a MacBook Pro 13".

While the keyboard was fantastic, the machine itself was pretty meh, honestly. In day to day use it didn't really feel that much better than my 12" Macbook, and after having a fan-less laptop for 5 years, I sure noticed how often and how quickly these Intel processors would run hot.

Little did I know that Apple would shortly after introduce these new M1 laptops, which would make my Intel MBP go from meh to disappointing. My feelings towards the May 2020 purchase didn't exactly get more positive as the reviews of the new M1 laptops started to tick in. How fast they were, how long the battery lasted and how seemlingless the transition to ARM-chips were.

I know it was tough to predict this would happen, but man.. Was May 2020 the worst possible time in recent years to buy a new laptop from Apple?

With last year's keynote in mind, I'm currently awaiting the 2021 WWDC, and bar something crazy happening again, I'm probably gonna take the loss on this Intel MBP and get a new M1 MBA instead. I could probably make the change for about $1300 and even though I tend to keep my laptops for much longer, I'm thinking it would probably make the most sense to shift horse at this point, since the new Airs are quite inexpensive.

Considering that you already have a 2020 model, I would wait for the redesigned MacBooks. Apple may surprise us. It may take a little longer than WWDC, but you already have a new laptop, and waiting until the end of the year will not hurt. Just hold your impulse a little bit, otherwise, you may have the same feeling by the end of the year when you wish to replace your M1 MacBook Air/Pro with the brand new model.

 

[tompaulman]

I feel a similar way. My 2016 MacBook Pro got this "flexgate" issue, SSD just failed out of the blue and the battery got swollen. Repair would cost almost the same as what I paid for a new machine 4 years ago. So I was looking for a replacement but didn't find anything suitable.
- The new MacBooks are expensive and will likely suffer from similar issues soon. They are deliberately designed not to be easily repairable so that you are forced to buy a new machine instead. Also, buying an Intel Mac in 2021 is like buying a PowerPC in 2005 - you won't get support for much longer.
- No M1 MacBooks available yet (I only buy 15-inch)

I ended up buying a maxed out vintage MacBook (late 2008) for $200 and will use it for the next year or so. It should do for browsing, emailing and watching movies, at least. And hope the upcoming 15" MacBooks are good.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi guys,

Not sure what the purpose of this post is besides just to vent, really. Feel free to read along if you'd like and feel free to skip it, if that's not your thing.

I bought a new MacBook Pro 13 inch in May 2020. Before that I used a Macbook 12" for just about 5 years. The original Macbook with the 1st generation keyboard. At that point the keyboard had been replaced 4 times, and a key had been stuck more times than I can remember. The second hand prices were still pretty high, and when I was able to recoup about 40% from selling it on, when Apple dropped the new MacBook Pros with the new keyboards, I made the purchase and got myself a MacBook Pro 13".

While the keyboard was fantastic, the machine itself was pretty meh, honestly. In day to day use it didn't really feel that much better than my 12" Macbook, and after having a fan-less laptop for 5 years, I sure noticed how often and how quickly these Intel processors would run hot.

Little did I know that Apple would shortly after introduce these new M1 laptops, which would make my Intel MBP go from meh to disappointing. My feelings towards the May 2020 purchase didn't exactly get more positive as the reviews of the new M1 laptops started to tick in. How fast they were, how long the battery lasted and how seemlingless the transition to ARM-chips were.

I know it was tough to predict this would happen, but man.. Was May 2020 the worst possible time in recent years to buy a new laptop from Apple?

With last year's keynote in mind, I'm currently awaiting the 2021 WWDC, and bar something crazy happening again, I'm probably gonna take the loss on this Intel MBP and get a new M1 MBA instead. I could probably make the change for about $130 and even though I tend to keep my laptops for much longer, I'm thinking it would probably make the most sense to shift horse at this point, since the new Airs are quite inexpensive.

May 2020 was the perfect time to buy the 4-port Intel 13" model, if what one wanted was a decent 13" Intel Mac laptop, let alone one without the butterfly keyboards. I'd say that it was a poor time to buy the 2-port Intel model seeing as that model was pretty much the same as its direct predecessor, except that its keyboard got fixed, and that, unlike its direct predecessor, it likely can't take a Mojave installation for the purposes of running 32-bit Intel apps that are now effectively dead. Also, the M1 model that replaced it came out just six months after its release (while the 4-port model has lasted an additional seven and a half months on the market and has yet to be discontinued).

That all said, while M1 is absolutely rooted in Apple's future, it will be a while before every app is ported over and the speed gains fully realized. At least half of my apps still aren't native. There are still many high-end things that haven't yet offered support for any Apple Silicon Macs. By the time this changes drastically, the M1 Macs will have been refreshed with replacements based on something newer (M1X/M2/M2X/etc.). This is how it was in the PowerPC to Intel transition too. That said, if you don't particularly want to deal with the annoyances of not having everything be 100% compatible with your system at this point in time, the still-sold crop of Intel Macs are all great.

Apple pretty much discontinued all of their REALLY low-end Intel Macs up to this point. The Intel Macs that were so underpowered and outdated internally that it made minimal sense to buy them even a year ago. The Intel Macs that remain are all still decent if the person buying needs legacy compatibility.

That all being said, to sell your Intel MBP or not to sell your Intel MBP really ought to come down to how well said Intel MBP is meeting your needs. If your needs aren't that high-end anyway, then there's not really too much point. By the time an Intel MBP becomes too old to be worth continuing to use, the M1 Macs won't be TOO long behind.

 

[xxray]

I feel a similar way. My 2016 MacBook Pro got this "flexgate" issue, SSD just failed out of the blue and the battery got swollen. Repair would cost almost the same as what I paid for a new machine 4 years ago. So I was looking for a replacement but didn't find anything suitable.
- The new MacBooks are expensive and will likely suffer from similar issues soon. They are deliberately designed not to be easily repairable so that you are forced to buy a new machine instead. Also, buying an Intel Mac in 2021 is like buying a PowerPC in 2005 - you won't get support for much longer.
- No M1 MacBooks available yet (I only buy 15-inch)

I ended up buying a maxed out vintage MacBook (late 2008) for $200 and will use it for the next year or so. It should do for browsing, emailing and watching movies, at least. And hope the upcoming 15" MacBooks are good.

I think 2016 MBPs were one of the worst, if not the worst, time to buy a MBP. Performance wasn't much better than 2015, flexgate issue, butterfly keyboard, Touch Bar bugs. 2017 was a bit better, but not much. They both didn't last much for longevity either as a lot of Apple's latest macOS features are only for MBPs that are 2018 or later.

 

[pshufd]

I agree. Though it may be a good time to sell one. I have two Retinas and just replaced the batteries in both. One has a cycle count of 0 and the other 1. I had two when I was going to the office but I'm at home now and built a desktop so I don't need the two laptops but I like the idea of a backup. The plan is to put both up for sale and just sell one of them.

Then get the M1X. But that might not be until November.

I would also like a new iMac. The 27 inch would meet my wants; I can actually meet my needs with my PC build from last year; but I just prefer macOS for office stuff. I'd love a big M1X iMac or even a M1X Mini - though I'd like the All-In-One aspect. If I did sell one of my Retinas and the other died, then I'd just get an M1 Air and then an M1X when they come out.

It's a bad time overall to buy a Mac if you need more than an M1.

 

[Kung gu]

I feel a similar way. My 2016 MacBook Pro got this "flexgate" issue, SSD just failed out of the blue and the battery got swollen. Repair would cost almost the same as what I paid for a new machine 4 years ago. So I was looking for a replacement but didn't find anything suitable.
- The new MacBooks are expensive and will likely suffer from similar issues soon. They are deliberately designed not to be easily repairable so that you are forced to buy a new machine instead. Also, buying an Intel Mac in 2021 is like buying a PowerPC in 2005 - you won't get support for much longer.
- No M1 MacBooks available yet (I only buy 15-inch)

I ended up buying a maxed out vintage MacBook (late 2008) for $200 and will use it for the next year or so. It should do for browsing, emailing and watching movies, at least. And hope the upcoming 15" MacBooks are good.

The 2016-2017 MBPs were the worst MBPs.

The 2021 MBPs should be MUCH better than the butterfly era MacBooks. In terms of thermals/performance and reliability.

 

[Macbookprodude]

I feel a similar way. My 2016 MacBook Pro got this "flexgate" issue, SSD just failed out of the blue and the battery got swollen. Repair would cost almost the same as what I paid for a new machine 4 years ago. So I was looking for a replacement but didn't find anything suitable.
- The new MacBooks are expensive and will likely suffer from similar issues soon. They are deliberately designed not to be easily repairable so that you are forced to buy a new machine instead. Also, buying an Intel Mac in 2021 is like buying a PowerPC in 2005 - you won't get support for much longer.
- No M1 MacBooks available yet (I only buy 15-inch)

I ended up buying a maxed out vintage MacBook (late 2008) for $200 and will use it for the next year or so. It should do for browsing, emailing and watching movies, at least. And hope the upcoming 15" MacBooks are good.

Dude you should have gone with the 2015 or 2012.. 2008 is, really old.. what web browser runs on it ?

 

[Macbookprodude]

I think 2016 MBPs were one of the worst, if not the worst, time to buy a MBP. Performance wasn't much better than 2015, flexgate issue, butterfly keyboard, Touch Bar bugs. 2017 was a bit better, but not much. They both didn't last much for longevity either as a lot of Apple's latest macOS features are only for MBPs that are 2018 or later.

Anything after 2015 dual graphics was garbage with one being too overpriced (2019 models).. the M1 will soon be replaced by the M2 - feels like PowerPC abs Intel days again. In 2006, jobs promised more Piwerpc products in the pipeline and cook mirrored the same lie with Intel - and he is an oligarch

 

[tompaulman]

Dude you should have gone with the 2015 or 2012.. 2008 is, really old.. what web browser runs on it ?

I installed Mojave on it (via dosdude patcher) and I'm using Safari 14.1.1. Everything works perfectly well. It has 8 GB of RAM and an SSD which definitely helps.
I would of course prefer something newer, but my goal was to buy a machine that would be as cheap as possible while still useful, so this was a good compromise. I'll just use this for a year, maybe two, and then buy a 15'' MBP with Apple silicon.

 

[AgentMcGeek]

I think 2016 MBPs were one of the worst, if not the worst, time to buy a MBP. Performance wasn't much better than 2015, flexgate issue, butterfly keyboard, Touch Bar bugs. 2017 was a bit better, but not much. They both didn't last much for longevity either as a lot of Apple's latest macOS features are only for MBPs that are 2018 or later.

I jumped the guns on the redesigned 2016 MBP 13" and I wasn't disappointed. The big let downs for me were #1 the keyboard issue (resolved only in 2020 when I got my 1st gen keyboard replaced by a 2nd gen for free), and #2 the quad-core update that came soon after. Being stuck with a dual-core and 2133 LDDR3 in 2021 sucks.

 

[Dane95]

Update: I ended up selling my Intel MBP for $1180 and purchasing the M1 MBA for $1285 (converted from my local currency).

And wow.. This MBA is SO. MUCH. BETTER. This upgrade is worth many hundred dollars let alone one hundred. The machine is flying while staying silent due to lack of fans and so far I haven't caught it getting hot one single time. That's from indexing my spotlight, transfering a ton of files, powering my external display, playing Football Manager and doing it all simultaneously as well.

If anyone else is thinking about making the switch, I would highly recommend it even if you can't get the same price for your Intel MBP as I did.

 

[applesed]

Update: I ended up selling my Intel MBP for $1180 and purchasing the M1 MBA for $1285 (converted from my local currency).

And wow.. This MBA is SO. MUCH. BETTER. This upgrade is worth many hundred dollars let alone one hundred. The machine is flying while staying silent due to lack of fans and so far I haven't caught it getting hot one single time. That's from indexing my spotlight, transfering a ton of files, powering my external display, playing Football Manager and doing it all simultaneously as well.

If anyone else is thinking about making the switch, I would highly recommend it even if you can't get the same price for your Intel MBP as I did.

Its interesting how I hear people say pro users are staying away from the M1...I mean single core performance is great and heat/power is great (my exp from the mini). Rosetta is seamless for most. So, there is some sig. percentage of pro users that can benefit *now*.

 

[pshufd]

Its interesting how I hear people say pro users are staying away from the M1...I mean single core performance is great and heat/power is great (my exp from the mini). So there is some percentage of pro users that can benefit *now*.

A Pro user can certainly partition their workload. I plan to get a Mini and I will run my production stuff on Windows. I think that a lot of people are going to take the M1 plunge as the M1X didin't happen this week. The decision is Intel vs M1 and it's looking more and more like M1 is the way to go.

 

[Dane95]

Its interesting how I hear people say pro users are staying away from the M1...I mean single core performance is great and heat/power is great (my exp from the mini). Rosetta is seamless for most. So, there is some sig. percentage of pro users that can benefit *now*.

I dunno if you were referring to me, but I wouldn't call myself a pro user. But yeah, otherwise I agree. I can't see how anyone wouldn't stand to benefit from these improvements.

 

[WeatherWeasel]

My wife needs a new one, her 13 inch air was new in 2013 but with 4G of Ram and not that much in the drive and that she uses it for hours a day, she would like a 16 inch or bit larger screen and I want her to wait until Apple updates to the M1 or M2 chip in something bigger. We shall see how this plays out.