Best Mac Update in a Long Time?

[TallManNY]

This seems to me like one of the best Mac updates in a long time. We got really compelling iMac updates, both for consumers at the 21" size and for pros at the high end 27" models. Then we got updates to the MacBook Pro including a very nice price drop to make the MacBook Pro more accessible. A bit of extra speed for the MacBook, very helpful. Then we had the iMac Pro announced. This was an amazing set of updates. There is really something for nearly everyone. Only the Mac Mini folks were left out.

I'm definitely getting my Mom a new iMac 21". And I'm somewhat tempted to buy a MacBook Pro for myself (the cheaper one without touchbar) and retire my 2011 27" iMac. Probably won't, but I can get my configuration of 16gb RAM and 256gb SSD for $1,699.

 

[jcuecker]

I don't think it's even close to being one of the best updates at all. All we got was a slightly updated CPU, GPU and tb3. Introduction of retina and slim unibody were much bigger updates.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I agree, really great update. The MacWhiners had to find something so they chose to moan about the aesthetics (not bezel free), which must go to show the internals are great.

 

[Adam Warlock]

I'm a certified "MacWhiner" but I'm happy to report I'm generally pleased with the latest Mac updates. Could it have been better? Of course! A new Mac Mini was what I was really hoping for, but it could have been worse. I may actually pull the trigger on a new iMac instead, but only because I've given up on a Mini refresh or reboot, and I suspect the upcoming Mac Pro will be priced absurdly. That said, I agree with jcuecker: we've seen better updates all around, but I think these latest ones are good.

 

[Glideslope]

I agree, really great update. The MacWhiners had to find something so they chose to moan about the aesthetics (not bezel free), which must go to show the internals are great.

Not the greatest of all time. However, IMO, the correct amount at this point in history looking at the majority of the user base (average folk.) Online orders are backing up a bit even for standard configs. IMO, it's demand. This will definitely increase the Mac's % of market within 12m. Everyone is never happy. I can't wait till "whatever" comes in late 2018. If they do produce a Min Tower again the fact that this iMac Pro is in Dec make me think it's a loooong way off, if ever.

That being said, I ordered a 27" i7. My Early 2008 MP will be cleaned a sealed in the Basement Chamber of Mac. I'm very confident I will be able to do what I need to with this and an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD.

 

[kazmac]

The updates are most welcome, and the first time in years I felt like actually gave some thought to the Mac line; I was particularly impressed & happy that they showed some love to the 21.5" iMac (which is what I'm veering toward again depends on resolution and after extensive in store testing).

For me, it's what is under the hood, and it is nice that Apple stepped up to the plate with competitive internals. Looking forward to eventually upgrading later this year or early 2018.

 

[pat500000]

Its better than no update, however, allowing peole to upgrade gpus would be the best thing.

 

[RuffDraft]

Its better than no update, however, allowing peole to upgrade gpus would be the best thing.

They've allowed that with the introduction of High Sierra and TB3.

I agree - just posted something similar in the other thread. I'm super-hyped for the iMac Pro. For me, I can't wait for the new MP, so this is the next best thing. I'm so thankful that they've done it. It wipes the floor with a maxed out iMac 27" for a moderate leap in expenditure. I almost pulled the trigger on the new 27", but for an extra £900, I can have an iMac Pro with wayyyyy better internals. That's an easy decision for me.

 

[toddzrx]

I'd call it a descent upgrade. I'm glad they brought back discrete graphics to the 21.5" and added USB-C. However, the base storage for every iMac should be at least a Fusion Drive at this point. The Small 24GB SSD that Apple includes with the 1TB FD costs peanuts; surely by now they can just afford to include this as standard. For that matter, it'd be nice to see them reduce their SSD prices by another $100 when I, as Joe consumer, can get a 256GB SSD for $80 or so.

 

[Shivetya]

A slight hardware bump (5/15%) and a promise of a iMac Pro, which to me was a ******** debut. Six months out? All that means is we got a photo shopped picture and some fancy web pages. It would not even have to had the real hardware at the show, all info on that panel could have been spoofed. It could be like the first iOS debut, it only works if you do X then Y, but do them out of order....

So no, not the best. When the changed to the current chassis I was impressed. When they debut 27 inch iMacs it was impressive.

 

[theluggage]

This seems to me like one of the best Mac updates in a long time.

I think that says more about the state of recent Mac updates than the wonderfulness of this one.

The iMacs and MacBook Pros have been brought up-to-date in terms of processors and GPUs. TB3 on the iMacs, without dumping all the "legacy" ports. Good, possibly enough to persuade me to get a new iMac, but not spectacular.

Still no new Mac Mini.

Minor speed bump to the MacBook Air - not a good endorsement of the 12" MB and non-TB MBP that they need to do this.

No external keyboard with touchbar.

Six month wait for the iMac Pro (I don't need one but if they'd been out in a few weeks I might have succumbed to the tech porn) - time will tell how many people who do need that sort of horsepower will accept a sealed, non-upgradeable all-in-one. No info on the new Mac Pro.

 

[Floris]

Yes, finally.. modern tech in a design that works for me, with a monitor i can use for the stuff i use it for. DONE & DONE .. and i can still upgrade the ram, and the t3 means my external ssd drives feel like internal drives, compared to what i am used to right now.

 

[macmyworld]

Seems like a mediocre update at best. Apple should have made an SSD standard at the price points. As I type on my late 2014 iMac with a 128GB SSD/1 TB HD and 16 GB RAM, I wonder what the new iMacs really add for the money. I really wanted to upgrade this go around but expected the SSDs to be cheaper and 16 GB of RAM to be standard on the two higher models.

Looking at the CPU bumps, I might see 20 - 30% over my i5 and while the graphics are better, I'm fine with what I have. Would have liked to see the new extended keyboard free, 256 GB SSD standard and 16 GB RAM standard.

Pricing out the new iMac is very pricey when equipped. Sadly closer to the 15" MacBook Pro which is also priced too high.

I'm not cheap, just wanted a little better upgrades since I own so dang much Apple stuff.

 

[TallManNY]

Seems like a mediocre update at best. Apple should have made an SSD standard at the price points. As I type on my late 2014 iMac with a 128GB SSD/1 TB HD and 16 GB RAM, I wonder what the new iMacs really add for the money. I really wanted to upgrade this go around but expected the SSDs to be cheaper and 16 GB of RAM to be standard on the two higher models.

Looking at the CPU bumps, I might see 20 - 30% over my i5 and while the graphics are better, I'm fine with what I have. Would have liked to see the new extended keyboard free, 256 GB SSD standard and 16 GB RAM standard.

Pricing out the new iMac is very pricey when equipped. Sadly closer to the 15" MacBook Pro which is also priced too high.

I'm not cheap, just wanted a little better upgrades since I own so dang much Apple stuff.

But your iMac is less than three years old, right? Desktops are very mature devices at this point. I'd have to say of course you don't find a mid-2017 release compelling when you are using a late-2014 release. Lots of people I know are expecting five years MINIMUM as the lifespan for their home Macs. For anecdotes, I'm using a 2011, my GF uses a 2010 and my Mom (who will be getting a new iMac) is using a 2007. These are all fairly light users (and I have a crap but much more current work computer). But their computers are two or three times older than yours.

I think you shouldn't be expecting to replace a computer after less than three years. Desktop computers are much closer to cars and refrigerators at this point. The improvements are usually going to be minor year to year. The CPUs have slowed down in their improvement. The ability to improve the screen is bumping up against the limits that our eye can see. Until voice input becomes standard or VR/AR becomes standard, the improvements are going to be limited.

I think you have a really nice computer and it is hard to compete against it.
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I'd call it a descent upgrade. I'm glad they brought back discrete graphics to the 21.5" and added USB-C. However, the base storage for every iMac should be at least a Fusion Drive at this point. The Small 24GB SSD that Apple includes with the 1TB FD costs peanuts; surely by now they can just afford to include this as standard. For that matter, it'd be nice to see them reduce their SSD prices by another $100 when I, as Joe consumer, can get a 256GB SSD for $80 or so.

I'm excited because iMac got a bump and a price drop. And MacBook Pro got a bump and a price drop on one of the most mainstream (and important) models. Throw in bumps and a new product niche (the Pro All-in-One). Seems the best introduction in several years. Maybe iMac 5k was bigger in the recent years.

 

[Algus]

The updates themselves aren't so good but I think High Sierra eGPU has caught a lot of peoples eyes. All of a sudden I have a reason to upgrade my gear and get TB3

 

[Firebrand]

They've allowed that with the introduction of High Sierra and TB3.

I agree - just posted something similar in the other thread. I'm super-hyped for the iMac Pro. For me, I can't wait for the new MP, so this is the next best thing. I'm so thankful that they've done it. It wipes the floor with a maxed out iMac 27" for a moderate leap in expenditure. I almost pulled the trigger on the new 27", but for an extra £900, I can have an iMac Pro with wayyyyy better internals. That's an easy decision for me.

Your getting the 18-core, right? ;-)

 

[RuffDraft]

Your getting the 18-core, right? ;-)

iWish. Ha ha ha. I will probably stick to the original CPU, 64GB RAM and 16GB VRAM, unless someone advises me otherwise for video editing mult-streams of 4K.

 

[QCassidy352]

But your iMac is less than three years old, right? Desktops are very mature devices at this point. I'd have to say of course you don't find a mid-2017 release compelling when you are using a late-2014 release. Lots of people I know are expecting five years MINIMUM as the lifespan for their home Macs.

Yeah, this. A 2014 5k iMac remains a modern and powerful machine. These updates provide good value (aside from the atrocious 5400 rpm hard drives) for people upgrading from older macs or buying a first mac.

 

[George Dawes]

Tim's getting his act together - at last

iMac Pro and iOS11 both look amazing

 

[redheeler]

I'd say the iMac with Retina 5K Display released in October 2014 was a little bit bigger deal. That display was fantastic, truly ahead of its time and made it a great value. Sitting down to use that display for the first time was truly a unique experience. Did have some real problems with image persistence though, at least for me, that would start to show within 6 months of use.

The Late 2015 refresh a year later was simply a refinement and price drop (CPU bump to Skylake, little bit more efficient M395X GPU, P3 color support on the display), except for the fact that it brought 4K to the 21.5" which was a bit of a bigger deal. Edit: Can't forget the major increase in the speed of the PCIe SSDs over the Late 2014 models.

Now we come to the Mid 2017, this time more of an upgrade and refinement, except for the iMac Pro which is a bigger deal (more of the successor to the failed 2013 trash can Mac Pro than any prior model of iMac). Finally get USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, Kaby Lake CPU bump, DDR4 RAM, brighter display, and a decent GPU upgrade.

Though Apple has been gradually expanding the amount of models that come with SSD or Fusion drive standard, it both amazes and saddens me that the base model 4K iMac still does not have this standard.

Then we got updates to the MacBook Pro including a very nice price drop to make the MacBook Pro more accessible.

But with half as much storage at that price point. This was a fairly deceptive move, and essentially what Apple was doing for several years before the 2016 models were introduced, advertising a lower starting price while anyone who wants a decent amount of storage will be be paying for the next model up and no price drop happened there. Only very light users can really made due with 128 GB, the users who would be fine with something like a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro, otherwise it tends to fill up fast. An external drive is a potential solution yes, but costs extra and has its own set of compromises.

These kinds of tactics are nothing new for Apple, though. Hopefully we will see a real price drop on the Touch Bar lineup next year.

 

[adib]

The improvements are usually going to be minor year to year. The CPUs have slowed down in their improvement.
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Except for the iMac Pro that's coming late this year... and maybe a 120 fps screen in the next ;-)

 

[Takuro]

I think it just feels like a bigger update than it really is due to how small and infrequent updates had been. A lot of this had to due with pretty massive delays on Intel's part for Kaby Lake CPUs.

The iMac pro is impressive and is obviously their new "halo machine", but be that as it may, the vast majority of people will never buy one no matter how competitively priced it is. It's true that it's technically the best value per dollar, but that's a whole lot of dollars.

 

[Fishrrman]

Best iMac update in a long time?

Nah...
Not even close to being one, particularly since it's been almost TWO YEARS since the last one.

It's a nicely executed incremental upgrade, and one that was sorely needed, but that's all.

I would expect the 2018's to be "a bigger jump" with Coffee Lake, which will offer "full support" for the newer 4k video formats (DRM, etc.).

 

[TallManNY]

I'd say the iMac with Retina 5K Display released in October 2014 was a little bit bigger deal. That display was fantastic, truly ahead of its time and made it a great value. Sitting down to use that display for the first time was truly a unique experience. Did have some real problems with image persistence though, at least for me, that would start to show within 6 months of use.

The Late 2015 refresh a year later was simply a refinement and price drop (CPU bump to Skylake, little bit more efficient M395X GPU, P3 color support on the display), except for the fact that it brought 4K to the 21.5" which was a bit of a bigger deal. Edit: Can't forget the major increase in the speed of the PCIe SSDs over the Late 2014 models.

Now we come to the Mid 2017, this time more of an upgrade and refinement, except for the iMac Pro which is a bigger deal (more of the successor to the failed 2013 trash can Mac Pro than any prior model of iMac). Finally get USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, Kaby Lake CPU bump, DDR4 RAM, brighter display, and a decent GPU upgrade.

Though Apple has been gradually expanding the amount of models that come with SSD or Fusion drive standard, it both amazes and saddens me that the base model 4K iMac still does not have this standard.

But with half as much storage at that price point. This was a fairly deceptive move, and essentially what Apple was doing for several years before the 2016 models were introduced, advertising a lower starting price while anyone who wants a decent amount of storage will be be paying for the next model up and no price drop happened there. Only very light users can really made due with 128 GB, the users who would be fine with something like a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro, otherwise it tends to fill up fast. An external drive is a potential solution yes, but costs extra and has its own set of compromises.

These kinds of tactics are nothing new for Apple, though. Hopefully we will see a real price drop on the Touch Bar lineup next year.

I'd say the 5K iMac was one of the most amazing releases. But it was somewhat limited in its broad impact because it was still expensive. And for many of us we wouldn't buy it because of skepticism of the ability of the GPUs to push that many pixels. But it was amazing. And it still is. I think you still can't buy a PC all in one with a screen that is comparable for the price.

I did not catch that SSD drop on the MacBook Pro. Yes a bit sneaky. And yes the 128gb is limiting (the 256gb version is not in my opinion, if you want more than you go external), I agree with you there.