Apple's MacBook Pro Event (10/27/16)

[iacas]

1 hour ago, drmevo said:

Yeah, just spend $600-$1000+ on a new monitor, problem solved. 

What are you gonna hook it up to… a cheap non-retina display?

[Yukari]

You can get some great deals for 4K monitors, if you look around.

I got my 4K monitor for $350 at NewEgg.  It is fantastic.  Albeit the speaker is terrible, but I use Bose bluetooth speakers so it doesn't bother me.

I figure, I will get a new MBP in a year or two.  Hopefully any bugs they may have - being the first generation - would have been worked out by then.

[drmevo]

21 hours ago, iacas said:

What are you gonna hook it up to… a cheap non-retina display?

Unthinkable, I know .  Actually, Apple has recently said that they are getting out of the external display business.

I read a tear-down of the 13" non-Touch Bar laptops, which are already available, and apparently the SSD, at least on that particular model, IS removable. That one isn't very appealing to me though since it only has two TB3 ports. 

Edited October 31, 2016 by drmevo

[nevets88]

What do you all think about the 16GB memory cap? And the not ability to upgrade it yourself as it's soldered on? You'd think a pro line would allow a cap of 32, even 64?

[drmevo]

11 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

What do you all think about the 16GB memory cap? And the not ability to upgrade it yourself as it's soldered on? You'd think a pro line would allow a cap of 32, even 64?

Their argument is that 32GB would use too much power and shorten the battery life. So then why not use DDR4 (which is the latest RAM standard and better on power consumption), since this, after all, a high-end laptop? Plenty of Pro users run VM's, resource-hungry Adobe apps, etc., and actually would need more than 16GB.  

It seems like Apple can't decide whether this is truly a pro laptop, pro-sumer, or what. 

[iacas]

12 hours ago, drmevo said:

Unthinkable, I know .  Actually, Apple has recently said that they are getting out of the external display business.

I don't think they've said it specifically… but they did "partner" with LG for the displays they showed off at the thing. I'm more interested in what they do when (if?????) they update the Mac Pro and Mac mini.

12 hours ago, drmevo said:

I read a tear-down of the 13" non-Touch Bar laptops, which are already available, and apparently the SSD, at least on that particular model, IS removable. That one isn't very appealing to me though since it only has two TB3 ports. 

Right.

11 hours ago, nevets88 said:

What do you all think about the 16GB memory cap? And the not ability to upgrade it yourself as it's soldered on? You'd think a pro line would allow a cap of 32, even 64?

macOS manages swap really well… but yeah, not going to 32 GB is a bit of a downer.

[nevets88]

On 10/31/2016 at 8:34 AM, drmevo said:

Unthinkable, I know .  Actually, Apple has recently said that they are getting out of the external display business.

I read a tear-down of the 13" non-Touch Bar laptops, which are already available, and apparently the SSD, at least on that particular model, IS removable. That one isn't very appealing to me though since it only has two TB3 ports. 

Good to know the hard drive is removable. Probably means the battery is too - very biased towards the long term.

12 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think they've said it specifically… but they did "partner" with LG for the displays they showed off at the thing. I'm more interested in what they do when (if?????) they update the Mac Pro and Mac mini.

Right.

macOS manages swap really well… but yeah, not going to 32 GB is a bit of a downer.

There is no way I'm getting 8GB of memory for a MBP. 16 is a must.

Still using a 2008 Mini. Totally chomping at the bit for a refresh of the Mini.

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Good to know the hard drive is removable. Probably means the battery is too - very biased towards the long term.

I think that is referring to the old 13" one. The "non-TouchBar" one.

[drmevo]

29 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Good to know the hard drive is removable. Probably means the battery is too - very biased towards the long term.

There is no way I'm getting 8GB of memory for a MBP. 16 is a must.

Still using a 2008 Mini. Totally chomping at the bit for a refresh of the Mini.

I'm still using a 2007 White MB   (I also have a Lenovo Win10 laptop and my wife has a newer MB Air for work). However, I use my phone for most web browsing stuff and email these days. I basically just use the MB for when I need the desktop version of a site or to work remotely using RDP.  

The lack of upgrade options or at least the option to try to future-proof from the get-go is what is most concerning to me at this point. I might just get an Air at this point, perhaps from the refurb store.

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

I think that is referring to the old 13" one. The "non-TouchBar" one.

No, that is actually the new (but yes, non-Touch bar) one, although, they are still selling a version of the old 13" for the time being. Why you would buy the old model I can't imagine as it only comes with 128GB of storage for $1299. It also has the older processor, TB2 ports instead of 3, etc. For $200 more you get 256GB and all the new(er) specs on the non-Touch Bar model.

12 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think they've said it specifically… but they did "partner" with LG for the displays they showed off at the thing. I'm more interested in what they do when (if?????) they update the Mac Pro and Mac mini.

One tech writer said Apple told him that outright, but I suppose without confirmation from Apple it can't be confirmed.

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by drmevo

[saevel25]

23 hours ago, drmevo said:

Their argument is that 32GB would use too much power and shorten the battery life. So then why not use DDR4 (which is the latest RAM standard and better on power consumption), since this, after all, a high-end laptop? Plenty of Pro users run VM's, resource-hungry Adobe apps, etc., and actually would need more than 16GB.  

It seems like Apple can't decide whether this is truly a pro laptop, pro-sumer, or what. 

Debatable on needing 32 GB. In some instances there is hardly a notice between 8 and 16 GB. Computers have a big diminishing return issue on high end components. I would say as long as you are not running something like a CADD program then 16 is plenty. 

[nevets88]

37 minutes ago, iacas said:

I think that is referring to the old 13" one. The "non-TouchBar" one.

Guess we'll have to wait for the ifixit tear down. 

10 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Debatable on needing 32 GB. In some instances there is hardly a notice between 8 and 16 GB. Computers have a big diminishing return issue on high end components. I would say as long as you are not running something like a CADD program then 16 is plenty. 

I agree, but back in 2008, the MBP came with 2 or 4 I forget. After a couple of OS upgrades, and then bumping it to 8, I found a noticeable improvement in performance, like with 20 tabs open in Chrome for example. You just don't know what's going to happen in the future and memory and disk space are two big factors in future proofing.

Also VMs, of course most people aren't going to run VMs, but they suck up memory fast. Dedicate 4 to Linux or 8 to Windows, you just lost a big chunk of memory in one go.

 

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Guess we'll have to wait for the ifixit tear down. 

Watch the keynote. They show you the solid state storage. Pretty sure it was a series of chips, not an SSD.

[nevets88]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Watch the keynote. They show you the solid state storage. Pretty sure it was a series of chips, not an SSD.

So I'm guessing it's soldered on SoC like. Oh well. Will take a look. 

[nevets88]

IIRC, this analyst, Kuo, is pretty accurate. What the what? So there will be a new line after the new line is released two weeks from now? Despite the first paragraph, read on, it's more likely no 32 gigs until 2018 because Intel.

Quote

Report: Apple, Inc. to Release New MacBook Pro Computers in 2017

Per a report from well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with KGI Securities (via MacRumors), Apple, Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL) is planning to launch new MacBook Pro systems during the second half of 2017. These new systems, the analyst says, could support up to 32 gigabytes of system memory -- an increase from the 16 gigabytes that the recently released models have.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/02/report-apple-inc-to-release-new-macbook-pro-computers-in-2017.html

Review of new MBP, the one w/o the Touch Bar. Probably in line with what those who are closely following the MBP line expected.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/11/review-cheapest-2016-macbook-pro-is-good-but-its-missing-all-the-cool-stuff/

 

[saevel25]

I hope that isn't true. I really don't want to shell out a lot of money just to have them come out with a new one next year. Why do that when they already spent over 500 days to get this one out. Nearly doubling their average release time for their MBP. 

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I hope that isn't true. I really don't want to shell out a lot of money just to have them come out with a new one next year. Why do that when they already spent over 500 days to get this one out. Nearly doubling their average release time for their MBP. 

Of course they're going to come out with a new one… did you read where it says the "second half of 2017"?

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac

If you ignore the 527 days it took to get the Touch Bar version we have now, the previous generations were replaced/updated after 294, 280, 251, and 247 days. That's an average of 268 days. 262 days from now is July 22, 2017.

If you're constantly living in fear of your computer being replaced with a  newer, better model… you'll never buy a computer.

The only real trick is to not buy a new computer right before the lineup is updated.

[jamo]

42 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

IIRC, this analyst, Kuo, is pretty accurate. What the what? So there will be a new line after the new line is released two weeks from now? Despite the first paragraph, read on, it's more likely no 32 gigs until 2018 because Intel.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/02/report-apple-inc-to-release-new-macbook-pro-computers-in-2017.html

Review of new MBP, the one w/o the Touch Bar. Probably in line with what those who are closely following the MBP line expected.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/11/review-cheapest-2016-macbook-pro-is-good-but-its-missing-all-the-cool-stuff/

 

That's just a new chipset, not a full redesign. Apple updates chipsets mid-cycle all the time. 

[nevets88]

3 hours ago, jamo said:

That's just a new chipset, not a full redesign. Apple updates chipsets mid-cycle all the time. 

 Doh, my mistake. I misinterpreted the article as a full redesign, 1 - 2, when it's just an incremental upgrade, 0.1 - 0.2. That makes more sense. They could have changed the wording of the title - new to update.

The way the article was written though, you can tell that it's in response to all the people complaining about the memory cap.