I will be starting grad school in September and need a new laptop as my present HP Pavillion has broken down.
I am looking at nTB 13 inch 2017 MacBook Pro with i5 7th gen/256 GB SSD/8 GB RAM. I live in India where the MBPs aren't customizable, which means I won't get nTB models with 16 GB RAM. There's no option to buy refurbished models either.
I'll be needing the laptop for extensive reading and programming tasks (nothing too heavy duty though), as well as Word/PPT/Youtube/Netflix/movies. I might decide on casual gaming later, but I'm ready to invest in an eGPU if and when I decide to do that.
In general, my needs are modest. However, portability is a must and so is extended battery life as I'll potentially be using it for long hours without plugging in the power adapter. I also want to future-proof the device, which is why I have decided to opt for a 2017 Pro Model, instead of older ones, and was hoping for 16 GBs of RAM.
Is it wise to go for it? I have heard Apple is going to upgrade the MBP later this year, but the general consensus I get from the forum is that for entry-level MBPs like mine, the upgrade will, in all likelihood, be a new processor with everything else intact. Given the fact that I won't be performing resource-hungry tasks on my laptop except for occasional high-end programming, I'm unsure whether to wait.
On the flipside, a quad-core processor certainly sounds nice and I don't know if the 8 GB RAM would be enough 2-3 years down the line. It's a lot of money going into the laptop and it would really suck to look for a new one after a couple of years because of the RAM as there's no option to upgrade once bought. I'm also aware of the keyboard issues and the class-action lawsuits due to those.
I've been a Windows user my whole life, so it would be exciting to switch to a Mac for a change. I have heard only good things about Apple's inter-device compatibility - I have an iPhone 7 Plus - and international customer service. That's important as I'll be relocating to Canada for grad school from my home country and need service centres close to my university, something which Apple has.
I've also been considering other laptops, like the entry level models of Dell XPS 15 9570 (without the 4k screen or i9 processor). They do seem to be a good bang for the buck (i5/i7 8th gen/16 GB RAM/4 GB dGPU), packing in way more specs than the MBP 13 despite being priced the same.
But, I am doubtful about portability and battery life of the Dell, not to mention quality control issues like thermal throttling which many have complained about. Would anyone here pick MBP 13 over XPS 15 for the tasks I mentioned?
I am looking at nTB 13 inch 2017 MacBook Pro with i5 7th gen/256 GB SSD/8 GB RAM. I live in India where the MBPs aren't customizable, which means I won't get nTB models with 16 GB RAM. There's no option to buy refurbished models either.
I'll be needing the laptop for extensive reading and programming tasks (nothing too heavy duty though), as well as Word/PPT/Youtube/Netflix/movies. I might decide on casual gaming later, but I'm ready to invest in an eGPU if and when I decide to do that.
In general, my needs are modest. However, portability is a must and so is extended battery life as I'll potentially be using it for long hours without plugging in the power adapter. I also want to future-proof the device, which is why I have decided to opt for a 2017 Pro Model, instead of older ones, and was hoping for 16 GBs of RAM.
Is it wise to go for it? I have heard Apple is going to upgrade the MBP later this year, but the general consensus I get from the forum is that for entry-level MBPs like mine, the upgrade will, in all likelihood, be a new processor with everything else intact. Given the fact that I won't be performing resource-hungry tasks on my laptop except for occasional high-end programming, I'm unsure whether to wait.
On the flipside, a quad-core processor certainly sounds nice and I don't know if the 8 GB RAM would be enough 2-3 years down the line. It's a lot of money going into the laptop and it would really suck to look for a new one after a couple of years because of the RAM as there's no option to upgrade once bought. I'm also aware of the keyboard issues and the class-action lawsuits due to those.
I've been a Windows user my whole life, so it would be exciting to switch to a Mac for a change. I have heard only good things about Apple's inter-device compatibility - I have an iPhone 7 Plus - and international customer service. That's important as I'll be relocating to Canada for grad school from my home country and need service centres close to my university, something which Apple has.
I've also been considering other laptops, like the entry level models of Dell XPS 15 9570 (without the 4k screen or i9 processor). They do seem to be a good bang for the buck (i5/i7 8th gen/16 GB RAM/4 GB dGPU), packing in way more specs than the MBP 13 despite being priced the same.
But, I am doubtful about portability and battery life of the Dell, not to mention quality control issues like thermal throttling which many have complained about. Would anyone here pick MBP 13 over XPS 15 for the tasks I mentioned?
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