Buyer's Guide: Don't Buy a MacBook Pro Now

[ouimetnick]

There is nothing wrong with Macs being sold now. If the article were speaking of vetted facts with specify of design, hardware and capability, that would be a different matter all together.

Writing a "buyer's guide' predicated on nothin more than rumor, is irresponsible, in my opinion. That kind of reporting doesn't save people money.

This article is not really a buyer's guide. It is clickbait.

It’s actually a rumor roundup. Most of these rumor round ups are very useful. They turned out to be true with iPad, iPhone, and Macs in the past.

As the saying goes, “buy only if you must”
Id like to upgrade my 2014 MBP, but the current Intel machines (I want more than 2 ports) are a poor value.

Are you an Apple executive or someone with a bunch of Apple stock?

 

[SactoGuy18]

The question now: when will we see the new 14" and 16" MacBook Pros? It could arrive as early as late March 2021, showing off the new M1X SoC with more CPU and GPU cores.

 

[cocoua]

Those specs sounds too good to be real!!!

what would be the next, iPhone with ports faster than USB 2.0 speeds?!?? XD

 

[Fusionskies]

I'm still using my 2013 MacBook Pro, the battery is on the way out, and its showing its age. Big Sur was the final official update.
I am holding off for this upgrade, because it sounds sweet.

 

[theISHkid]

Still, if you need one now, buy one now.

If not, wait.

Same advice as always.

While with most products I would agree... this line of laptops is the worst and most overpriced I've ever seen/had in the last 21 years of being a Mac guy. I thought I would never consider going back to PC but I was literally searching for one until these new rumors came out. The Touch Bar made it completely overpriced... they get way too hot and thermal throttle... the keyboard has loads of issues with sticking and double keying... the USB-C charging cable comes loose from the power supply with a simple slight pull... and the lack of anything but USB-C has been a nightmare. Do not buy a MacBook Pro right now. Find something else to use for a few months. Go buy a cheap PC even... but do not waste your money on this thing.

 

[BeefCake 15]

There is nothing wrong with Macs being sold now. If the article were speaking of vetted facts with specify of design, hardware and capability, that would be a different matter all together.

Writing a "buyer's guide' predicated on nothin more than rumor, is irresponsible, in my opinion. That kind of reporting doesn't save people money.

This article is not really a buyer's guide. It is clickbait.

Tim Cook just vetted this article and said they're right.

 

[anson42]

I welcome the return of MagSafe but I hope that USB-C charging still works and that the new MBP does not require MagSafe as the only charging mechanism. I do not want to lose the single cable does everything approach with power delivery via an external Thunderbolt display.

 

[coolfactor]

The low end 13 inch M1 MacBook Pro is the perfect consumer notebook in my opinion.

The MacBook Air tops the list for the perfect consumer laptop, ... and has served me well as a professional laptop, too.

 

[Gabebear]

I’m kinda hoping for something even crazier. Like adding NVRAM(either Micron’s 3D XPoint or Fujitsu’s NanoRam). Being able to truly just map the hard drive to byte-addressable memory without DRAM is going to be a thing on PCs soon anyway.

 

[coolfactor]

Minus Touch Bar

I hope they don't ditch the Touch Bar entirely. It just needs to evolve.

 

[jeffreydi77]

Is there any chance for a spec bump to 10th or 11th gen Intel in the meantime? I need intel for development purposes, would like to get one last MBP before the transition.

 

[mi7chy]

Hopefully, it's more than just a new case. Want to see at least 360 degree hinge for tablet mode with touch and pen inputs. Jump from 4 to 16 performance cores doesn't sound believable either and more likely it'll be 6 to 8 cores.

 

[Nihilvor]

I disagree 100% !

I did my own Analysis & while NOT the M1 Pro model, picked up an M1 Air on Saturday from the Los Gatos Apple Store.

Then you agree with their analysis 100%.
In their Buyer's Guide they have the M1 Air rated as BUY NOW.

 

[nilk]

Glad to have my 2019 16", because I needed to replace my 2012 15" rMBP, and it's been a nice upgrade. But really wish they would've realized the TouchBar needs to go sooner. I do software dev work on this machine and the TouchBar is nothing but a downgrade.

 

[bubulol]

increasing price as well?
MBA M1 is really mad for its price, i dont want a newer MBA M2 even with better/sleeker design if price is higher

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

The unfortunate part about these Kuo-Gurman reports is that I'll be devastated if they don't come true...

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Glad I bought mine in mid 2020 so I could get the touch bar. I love the touch bar and it’s a shame they are removing it!

There's still the possibility that the Touch Bar could be a BTO option. This would surely satisfy both camps, even it if meant charging a little more for the feature.

 

[robotica]

I think the one thing that would make the intel mac a safer buy and much easier to recommend would be a more solid time frame for support. "years to come" is just a bit to wishy washy for my liking.

 

[tcphoto1]

Thankfully, I bought a Mid'15 MBP and avoided the dongles. I certainly wouldn't buy a current MBP but would consider an M powered MBP when released.

 

[Manatee]

I wish they were including cellular modem and Facd ID, but I still plan to buy it.

 

[BeefCake 15]

Is there any chance for a spec bump to 10th or 11th gen Intel in the meantime? I need intel for development purposes, would like to get one last MBP before the transition.

Highly doubt it considering it's a design bump that's an exclusive to the M chips and Intel Macs have really low sales now and prices for them are being slashed hard.

I wish they were including cellular modem and Facd ID, but I still plan to buy it.

what's the point when you can tether? FaceID would be cool.

 

[RalfTheDog]

I wish they were including cellular modem and Facd ID, but I still plan to buy it.

The problem with putting a cell modem in a laptop is, they upgrade cell technology quite quickly and Apple laptops tend to last forever. Just wirelessly tether to your phone.

 

[Macaday]

Apple's strategy:

• Design good feature, sell it for a high price
• Remove the feature, increase the price
• Re-add the feature, increase the price

I’d say the M1 MacBook Air & Pro with a ‘good feature’ (amazing M1 CPU) are one of the biggest bargains in tech right now.

Some would say, the perfect notebook. Which also happens to be their cheapest.

 

[lakerchick4life]

The question now: when will we see the new 14" and 16" MacBook Pros? It could arrive as early as late March 2021, showing off the new M1X SoC with more CPU and GPU cores.

March 2021 for the 14 inch, sounds too good to be true, if it is true I will trade in my 2018 macbook pro 13 inch 256gb to get it

 

[Johnny907]

Meh. I picked up a 16GB/1TB MBA last week and am now running it side by side with my early 2020 MBP with 10th Gen Intel chip. I'll most likely keep the MBA and sell the MBP, but mostly because I missed the lighter body of my 2017 non-TB MBP and the early 2020 model has always felt chonky.
Plus I really dislike the ridiculous TouchBar and though I miss the hardware keys for adjusting keyboard backlighting (especially seeing how they were replaced with keys I will NEVER use) I much prefer the return of physical function keys.

Unless the 14" model offers some legitimate benefits that actually matter to me, I think I'll stick with the MBA for a bit. I thought I'd miss bootcamp but with Windows 10 running so well in VM on my Synology NAS I honestly don't miss it on my local machine. A decent internet connection and VPN tunnel gives me access to Windows anywhere in the world for instances when MacOS can't do what I need it to.