Would you buy this MacBook Pro with these specs?

[NickPhamUK]

MacBook Pro 15" (Imaginary)
- No OLED Touch Bar
- Same form factor as 2015
- Skylake Quad Core i7 with variants as upgrades
- A choice between Intel Iris Pro 580 or Intel Iris 550 + a dedicated card
- Dedicated cards: NVIDIA GTX 1050 (base), 1060 or 1070
- 99 Wh battery or more, if possible
- Better cooling system
- RAM 16 GB, an option to upgrade to 32GB
- 2 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports
- 3.5 mm jack
- SD Card Slot
- HDMI
- MagSafe
- 512/1TB/2TB SSD
- Starting price: $1999 (because no Touch Bar)
- A choice of colors: Space Gray, Matte Black, Silver, Gold, Rose Gold

There, I said it. Essentially, Apple doesn't need to do any "innovating". Just give us better internal specs.

Or would you still buy the MacBook Pro 15" (2016)?

 

[Ries]

Add a 4K screen + touch ID power button. I'd buy it. Maybe I would wait for kaby lake, but i'd take that over the new one any day.

 

[jetho]

No, because

- Same form factor as 2015

I only order the 15" because of the smaller form factor. If it would have stayed the same, I would have picked the 13".

2 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports

I don't like these compromise solutions. 2x USB-A & 2x USB-C might be the best option now, but in a couple of month or year(s) you might wonder what to to with the old USB-A ports (besides basic periphery) and be annoyed why you only have 2x USB-C.

MagSafe

MagSafe is a great invention, but I never ran into a situation where it saved me. So I would sacrifice it over USB-C.

 

[sinoka56]

add touch id

maybe 256 base storage

stay with AMD

same scissor keyboard

maintain the glowing apple logo

maintain the extension cord

remove the "MacBook Pro"

 

[Rob_2811]

MacBook Pro 15" (Imaginary)
- No OLED Touch Bar
- Same form factor as 2015
- Skylake Quad Core i7 with variants as upgrades
- A choice between Intel Iris Pro 580 or Intel Iris 550 + a dedicated card
- Dedicated cards: NVIDIA GTX 1050 (base), 1060 or 1070
- 99 Wh battery or more, if possible
- Better cooling system
- RAM 16 GB, an option to upgrade to 32GB
- 2 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports
- 3.5 mm jack
- SD Card Slot
- HDMI
- MagSafe
- 512/1TB/2TB SSD
- Starting price: $1999 (because no Touch Bar)
- A choice of colors: Space Gray, Matte Black, Silver, Gold, Rose Gold

There, I said it. Essentially, Apple doesn't need to do any "innovating". Just give us better internal specs.

Or would you still buy the MacBook Pro 15" (2016)?

I would buy the one you are proposing. I wouldn't touch the 2016 15 inch for the price it is selling for in UK or any of the models with the silly touchbar

 

[mctrials23]

MagSafe is a great invention, but I never ran into a situation where it saved me. So I would sacrifice it over USB-C.

Same here but I had lots of times it popped out when I was using it because of torque on the connector. Over time that wouldn't do a standard cable much good. With a usb-c cable though thats just a simple replacement. My main love of the magsafe cable was that you just showed it to the rough area and it popped in. There was something nice and satisfying about it.

Back to the OP. If you wanted me to pick I chose the imaginary one because I think overall its a better package. If I went for my dream machine it would be a mix of the two. They would make the device a little thicker than the new model, reduce the trackpad size, sack off the new slightly better speakers (because lets be honest, they will still be rubbish compared to decent external ones) and include a much larger battery. 10 hours battery life is BS if you are working on it as a developer. More like 5 if you are lucky.

So:

4 usb-c is fine
larger battery to give ~16hrs battery or 8+ when actually stressing the machine
32gb ram available because we have a bigger battery
512gb standard storage
slightly better GFX than they are offering
touch bar
P3 screen

 

[NickPhamUK]

I would buy the one you are proposing. I wouldn't touch the 2016 15 inch for the price it is selling for in UK or any of the models with the silly touchbar

It would be funny if this quarter's Mac sales in the UK drop by 50%...

 

[Rob_2811]

It would be funny if this quarter's Mac sales in the UK drop by 50%...

It would, you need your head reading buying one of those machines at the current prices. About time they started eating some of those huge margins.

 

[mctrials23]

Well if you release a new product that lots of people have been waiting for literally for years and you don't sell a **** load then you can be fairly sure something is going wrong. Honestly, I think the new macbook pros are brilliant. I can deal with the shortcomings and the size, weight and updates make it a fantastic machine. On the other hand they are really taking the mickey with the prices. If they knocked £300 off each of the macs I would have already ordered one.

 

[NickPhamUK]

Well if you release a new product that lots of people have been waiting for literally for years and you don't sell a **** load then you can be fairly sure something is going wrong. Honestly, I think the new macbook pros are brilliant. I can deal with the shortcomings and the size, weight and updates make it a fantastic machine. On the other hand they are really taking the mickey with the prices. If they knocked £300 off each of the macs I would have already ordered one.

They raise it €500 here in Finland. The base 15" is €2799.

 

[Puonti]

I wouldn't buy the OP's product, because it's an impossible combo.

 

[lympero]

I'm definitely NOT buying the new one

 

[mctrials23]

I wouldn't buy the OP's product, because it's an impossible combo.

What part of it is impossible. They have reduced the overall volume by ~20% and maintained the same battery life as before whist adding the touch bar. The batter is about 40% smaller than the old macbook pro. If they maintained the same form factor they could easily create the machine he describes. What part of it (apart from perhaps the GFX options he might want) is impossible.

 

[NickPhamUK]

What part of it is impossible. They have reduced the overall volume by ~20% and maintained the same battery life as before whist adding the touch bar. The batter is about 40% smaller than the old macbook pro. If they maintained the same form factor they could easily create the machine he describes. What part of it (apart from perhaps the GFX options he might want) is impossible.

The Graphics choices are not impossible. 1070 might be a bit of a stretch for a thin laptop like MBP but that's it.

 

[idark77]

Do not buy any...

 

[Puonti]

What part of it is impossible. They have reduced the overall volume by ~20% and maintained the same battery life as before whist adding the touch bar. The batter is about 40% smaller than the old macbook pro. If they maintained the same form factor they could easily create the machine he describes. What part of it (apart from perhaps the GFX options he might want) is impossible.

No one part of that list is impossible - the combo is.

If that product is possible, show me a competitor's product with those features and that price. I won't ask for macOS, just for the sake of conversation.

 

[leman]

Well, it might be possible to pull this combo off, and maybe even possible to pack a GTX 1060 inside it. But then you can't have a 99Wh battery. And your cooling will be severely compromised. In the end, you'd end up with a machine that tries too hard to accommodate a powerful GPU and will have cooling and battery issues. So yeah. Not to mention that I am sceptical whether Intel can deliver enough Iris-Pro enabled CPUs.

BTW, a very similar laptop exists — thats the Dell XPS 15". So I suggest the OP to look there. Personally, I prefer the new MacBook because its just as powerful but more mobile at the same time.

 

[Jay42]

Add a 4K screen + touch ID power button. I'd buy it. Maybe I would wait for kaby lake, but i'd take that over the new one any day.

Sorry, but I fail to see the need for 4k on a 13" or 15" screen. On a theater projector, yes, but on a 13" laptop screen? No way.

 

[mctrials23]

4k on a 13" or even 15" screen is mad. Eventually that will be standard simply because thats what panels manufacturers make but there is almost 0 usefulness to it and rather large tradeoffs. The 5K screen on my 27" iMac is utterly amazing. Thats twice the size of a 13" rMBP. In real terms you would essentially be saying you want a 2x2 set of 4k res screens if you scaled it up to 27". Completely pointless and the battery / gfx will suffer.