Would you buy a new 17" MacBook Pro if Apple made one?

[nilk]

Closing in on 7 years since Apple made a 17 inch laptop some people just can’t move on.

I love my 15" 2012 rMBP and it's honestly the best laptop I've ever used. I've moved on, but if someone is going to ask me, of course I will say I'd rather have a 17" for my work laptop (have much different preferences for personal laptop that I use at home and take with me on vacations, though). I don't expect the 17" to come back (though maybe they can get to 16" by reducing bezels).

I'm fine with the 15" display in current models, but have other concerns about the current generation, but that's another topic.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I love my 15" 2012 rMBP and it's honestly the best laptop I've ever used. I've moved on, but if someone is going to ask me, of course I will say I'd rather have a 17" for my work laptop (have much different preferences for personal laptop that I use at home and take with me on vacations, though). I don't expect the 17" to come back (though maybe they can get to 16" by reducing bezels).

I'm fine with the 15" display in current models, but have other concerns about the current generation, but that's another topic.

You say it yourself its not going to happen so why do people feel the need to endlessly discuss it every two weeks on these forums? It's pointless and incredibly dull.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I would buy one in an instant. I'm still using the last 17" MBP (late 2011) maxed out with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

Glossy or Matte?
Also, how does it fare on High Sierra?
What are the things that don't work? Handoff type stuff or something?

 

[mcpryon2]

I'm questioning if I'll buy a MacBook Pro again after this garbage 2016 15" I've been dealing with.

 

[turbineseaplane]

On that note I just bought a maxed out 2015 15" with AppleCare into 2019.

Needed another laptop and I figured I better get the one I like now as they may never make another model I like again.

 

[Hanson Eigilson]

I got an iMac, a 15” and a 12”. Can’t see the point of the 17”. Too big, may as well have a desktop.

if there had been a thin bezel like dell xps (5.2mm) for the MacBook pro 2015 15" it would have had a screen of 16.6" so 17inch laptop doesn't HAVE to be huge anymore. I'd absolutely LOVE one, with ports on it, some ok'ish graphics and 99wh battery

EDIT:
and i'll even pay them extra not to have the touchbar, it would be perfect!

 

[booksbooks]

if there had been a thin bezel like dell xps (5.2mm) for the MacBook pro 2015 15" it would have had a screen of 16.6" so 17inch laptop doesn't HAVE to be huge anymore. I'd absolutely LOVE one, with ports on it, some ok'ish graphics and 99wh battery

EDIT:
and i'll even pay them extra not to have the touchbar, it would be perfect!

Yep.

With the reduction in bezels and general thinning out of the device, a 17" is totally doable and in such a way where it doesn't have to be much bigger physically than the current 15.4"; it also doesn't need to weigh much more either.

When we look to smartphones and see how the screen-to-body ratio is increasing dramatically (death of bezels), the same thing should be happening with laptops. I have very little faith in Apple these days. We're likely going to be stuck with these current MacBook Pros and crappy keyboards for the next 3-4 years.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yep.

With the reduction in bezels and general thinning out of the device, a 17" is totally doable and in such a way where it doesn't have to be much bigger physically than the current 15.4"; it also doesn't need to weigh much more either.

When we look to smartphones and see how the screen-to-body ratio is increasing dramatically (death of bezels), the same thing should be happening with laptops. I have very little faith in Apple these days. We're likely going to be stuck with these current MacBook Pros and crappy keyboards for the next 3-4 years.

Heresy I tell you, it needs to weigh ten pounds, sport every port ever used since 2001, have 10TB of disk space, 128gb of RAM, Dual NVIDIA 1080's in SLI, a mechanical keyboard and a 4K OLED screen or not a single professional will even consider it.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Both my previous laptops were 17 inch. One was a HP and the other one a Dell. As a student it worked perfect fr watching films as I didn't have a TV. Portability was never an issue as I rarely needed to take it with me to class, and when I eventually needed portability I bought a netbook.

Another thing worth pointing out is that a good backpack will make a heavy laptop alot easier to carry than a messenger back. Understandably a backpack can look unfashionable in come circles.

 

[DanielDD]

No, I don't need really that screen real estate, I prefer the portability of the 13 inch, and I don't want to break my bank account

 

[Fishrrman]

These threads come up regularly here.
Waiting for another 17" MacBook Pro is like... waiting for Godot!

 

[TheLastJedi]

Yes, if they put in 32 gigs of ram and GTX 1070 with gsync.

Or gtx 1080 Max-Q for better performance.

 

[MBX]

17'' made sense when there was no retina and screen resolution scaling. Now you can have a 17'' resolution or even higher on a 13'' with "More Space" set in display settings.

Which is why I don't even have a need for a 15'' anymore even though if Apple comes out with a 15'' no touch bar version I might get one.

 

[turbineseaplane]

17'' made sense when there was no retina and screen resolution scaling. Now you can have a 17'' resolution or even higher on a 13'' with "More Space" set in display settings.

Which is why I don't even have a need for a 15'' anymore even though if Apple comes out with a 15'' no touch bar version I might get one.

That completely ignores the fact that you're making everything physically smaller in the process.

With that line of thinking who needs desktop screens?

Let's just take the 5K resolution and shrink it all down with a Pref slider on a 13" laptop and we can use magnifying glasses to see everything.

 

[MC6800]

17'' made sense when there was no retina and screen resolution scaling. Now you can have a 17'' resolution or even higher on a 13'' with "More Space" set in display settings.

Which is why I don't even have a need for a 15'' anymore even though if Apple comes out with a 15'' no touch bar version I might get one.

If you have smaller text you can fit more on a 15". But how close to it do you have to sit? I have to have my eyes 18" away to read fine text on even a 17", and that's not a sustainable sitting position. At a comfortable 24" away I can't resolve the pixels on the 2011 17", so any finer resolution is wasted. Seems that's the marketing corner they've painted themselves into...

 

[Beachguy]

Not very likely. I can barely afford my house. A Macbook Pro 17" would probably be priced similarly, while offering 5th generation Intel chips. But, great emojis...

 

[Synchromesh]

Interestingly enough there is a small but very vocal community of 17in MBP owners out there. Last 17in machines were sold into 2012 as late 2011 models so they're over 5 years old now. And yet they still fetch well over $1K when loaded properly and in clean condition. If it wasn't for the AMD video card fiasco, those things could run forever as they were built like tanks (and weighed like one to boot). Solid, nearly indestructible machines!

But would I buy one? Heck no. Waay too big for me. I have a 15in and love it but if the 13in came with a faster videocard I'd probably stick to it. I use my machine as a desktop about 99% of the time so I don't care about the screen size but for those 1% I'd rather have the portability.

 

[MBX]

That completely ignores the fact that you're making everything physically smaller in the process.

With that line of thinking who needs desktop screens?

Let's just take the 5K resolution and shrink it all down with a Pref slider on a 13" laptop and we can use magnifying glasses to see everything.

Yes of course I know. But what I'm saying is a 15'' can get it all done for now with retina and "more space" as Apple won't do a 17'' ever again most likely. And for more screen real estate use external screens.

 

[MC6800]

The external screen keeps tipping over when it sits on the couch.

 

[PeterJP]

I voted yes. I have an rMBP13 now and I find the screen to be too small. As said before, increasing the virtual resolution just makes everything smaller. That makes my back & neck hurt even more as I need to lean in even more.
Looking at the size of the 13-15 inchers back when the 17" was made and how small they are now, we can guess how small a comparable (16:9) 17" would be. Extrapolating the current sizes of 13-15 to 17", it would be around 37,5cm x 25.5cm. Thickness is another matter because we might want to fit in more hardware. Let's guess it would be around 2cm to fit in 32GB RAM. Weight would be around 2,5kg then.
Comparing to HP ZBook or Razer, that's *way* smaller (both are around 42cm x 28cm). I'd definitely call that portable. It's actually not too far off from the 2011 15" (36.5cm x 25cm).

 

[Falhófnir]

I would say no for a couple of reasons - predominantly that the price would likely be beyond crazy and also because while I do prefer a decent screen size, I also like to move around with my computer a fair bit including using it on my lap - 17" would really be pushing it for that. a 15.4" 16:10 is quite a nice balance, though I do find 15.6" 16:9 screens a little bit vertically limited. Would be nice if Apple did offer the option again though especially as it would open up the option of more power with the bigger internal volume for those who want it. I'd probably have a play with one in store, but as I say, doubt I'd buy one.

 

[Altis]

Yes of course I know. But what I'm saying is a 15'' can get it all done for now with retina and "more space" as Apple won't do a 17'' ever again most likely. And for more screen real estate use external screens.

If you have to use external screens it may as well be a desktop.

Having fine resolution is nice but it's no substitute for physical area.

You're right that Apple likely won't do a 17" MBP again, like many of the other things people want that they can't be bothered to offer anymore.

 

[Falhófnir]

Yep.

With the reduction in bezels and general thinning out of the device, a 17" is totally doable and in such a way where it doesn't have to be much bigger physically than the current 15.4"; it also doesn't need to weigh much more either.

When we look to smartphones and see how the screen-to-body ratio is increasing dramatically (death of bezels), the same thing should be happening with laptops. I have very little faith in Apple these days. We're likely going to be stuck with these current MacBook Pros and crappy keyboards for the next 3-4 years.

What about if they reintroduced the unibody design with a retina panel, but put in some seriously powerful internals? I would imagine they could probably shoehorn a GTX 1070 in there alongside a 7700HQ, it'd be massive, heavy and chunky, but maybe they could call it the power book again so it'd be a line all to itself?

 

[diggy33]

See, I didnt want to do it, but this thread has caused me to revive my early 2011 17".

 

[stillone]

My 15"is a bit too big.No way I want a 17" version.