I am upgrading my Macbook Pro - which one would you choose?

[arthurzee]

My Macbook Pro is from mid 2015 and it's already struggling with things big time and, as Black Friday is fast approaching, I am thinking to upgrade.

A few of my friends asked if I would consider windows, and said how much cheaper they are, and I am having second thoughts.

Here are the 3, I am considering:

Macbook Pro 15" - i9,32GB RAM, ProVega20, 1TB SSD - £3,834
Lenovo ThinkPad Extreme Gen 2 - i9, 32GB RAM, Nvidia 1650, 1TB SSD + Multi-Touch Screen + Wifi 6 support - £3,096
HP Spectre x360 - i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 1650, 1TB SSD + Multi-Touch Screen, Wifi 6 support - £1,799

I am going through a lot of courses now, learning video and graphic editing as well as doing a fair bit of LIVE streaming and will be using some device for NOTE TAKING.

An Ipad Pro 11inch is ANOTHER £1,100 on top of a Macbook.

So a top spec Macbook Pro + Ipad Pro would cost me nearly £5,000, what seems absolutely INSANE. No touch screen of WIFI 6 on MACs, that seems just crazy to me in this day and age.

The only reason why I am even considering is because I also have an iWatch & iPhone XR. I don't quite know if I could even control devices and do "screen mirroring" and "Clipboard" between an iphone and a windows laptop or TVs.

Is there anything "pro macs" that I am missing here?

What would you do??

 

[Nacho98]

If you can, I'd maybe just pick something up on black Friday once the extended holiday return policy kicks in and then hope that Apple releases the 16" within the return window and see what that offers. That way you at least can get some black friday discount in case the 16" doesn't materialize until next year.

When Apple's most expensive MBP was just a tick over $3k, it was expensive, but palatable. When Apple started pushing prices to $4k and beyond, it just got ridiculous. I realize that a lot of that comes from huge SSD options that were never there before, but still. Everyone has a threshold for what's reasonable, but personally I couldn't look at a $4k+ MBP on my desk and think I wasn't a total clown for buying it.

That i9/32/1TB machine you listed should be $3k USD, not nearly 4k pounds. Nearly 5 years ago, you could get a 16/256 machine for a mere $2k USD. Today, Apple still sells a lowly 16/256 machine...for $2400, even more than 5 years ago which is absolutely clown status. If you ask me, nearly 5 years on, doubling the RAM to 32 GB and quadrupling storage really shouldn't be a penny over $3k USD IMO.

A 32/1TB machine is hardly exotic and shouldn't have an exotic price. I'd say a 32/1TB machine is/should be a pretty standard configuration today with a more realistic price than Apple is charging. So I don't know, maybe I wouldn't bother picking one up on black friday, and I'd get one of the other options on your list.

Apple doesn't deserve these prices, especially with **** keyboards.

 

[psingh01]

Of the three that you listed, I would take the Thinkpad. It is one that I am strongly considering myself but I’m waiting to see the 16” MBP first (And I’m not in a rush to get one). I’m looking at some of the other Thinkpads as well (P1, P53/73).

I cannot bring myself to buy a butterfly keyboard MBP after having used a 2017 MBP for work and having many issues.

 

[arthurzee]

Of the three that you listed, I would take the Thinkpad. It is one that I am strongly considering myself but I’m waiting to see the 16” MBP first (And I’m not in a rush to get one). I’m looking at some of the other Thinkpads as well (P1, P53/73).

I cannot bring myself to buy a butterfly keyboard MBP after having used a 2017 MBP for work and having many issues.

I've tried the keyboard for 2 minutes in the Apple store today and didn't like it already. The only thing that I am concerned when it comes to Thinkpad is the battery life on the touch screen OLED display.
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If you can, I'd maybe just pick something up on black Friday once the extended holiday return policy kicks in and then hope that Apple releases the 16" within the return window and see what that offers. That way you at least can get some black friday discount in case the 16" doesn't materialize until next year.

When Apple's most expensive MBP was just a tick over $3k, it was expensive, but palatable. When Apple started pushing prices to $4k and beyond, it just got ridiculous. I realize that a lot of that comes from huge SSD options that were never there before, but still. Everyone has a threshold for what's reasonable, but personally I couldn't look at a $4k+ MBP on my desk and think I wasn't a total clown for buying it.

That i9/32/1TB machine you listed should be $3k USD, not nearly 4k pounds. Nearly 5 years ago, you could get a 16/256 machine for a mere $2k USD. Today, Apple still sells a lowly 16/256 machine...for $2400, even more than 5 years ago which is absolutely clown status. If you ask me, nearly 5 years on, doubling the RAM to 32 GB and quadrupling storage really shouldn't be a penny over $3k USD IMO.

A 32/1TB machine is hardly exotic and shouldn't have an exotic price. I'd say a 32/1TB machine is/should be a pretty standard configuration today with a more realistic price than Apple is charging. So I don't know, maybe I wouldn't bother picking one up on black friday, and I'd get one of the other options on your list.

Apple doesn't deserve these prices, especially with **** keyboards.

For sure it is getting a bit ridiculous right now. 16GB of ram costs £320 and the mark up on the SSD is also crazy. They are really not doing themselves any favours. If they only added the touchscreen to their Macbook Pros, that could have justified the expense better.

 

[Hazmat401]

You should also considered the Dell XPS 15 which was my second choice but I caved and got a Refurb MBP 15 with a Vega GFX because I'm pretty vested in apple ecosystem

 

[MrGunnyPT]

You should also considered the Dell XPS 15 which was my second choice but I caved and got a Refurb MBP 15 with a Vega GFX because I'm pretty vested in apple ecosystem

How's the experience with Vega?

 

[Hazmat401]

How's the experience with Vega?

I'm picking it up from the apple store on Tuesday in Delaware.... I don't need the horsepower of the Vega 20 but if I was going to pay over $2500... I was going to get the latest and greatest specs

The 560x is over 4-5 years old... Apple can kick rocks! I originally ordered a i9/16/512 with the Vega 16 for $2850 new with the education discount but a new round of laptops hit the refurbs site and I got the same i9/16/512 with the vega 20 for $2670... good enough for me and my use

 

[OxCxDx]

The 560x is over 4-5 years old... Apple can kick rocks!

I would agree, the 560x is not a very good benchmark to compare to.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

For me it's either going to be the Dell XPS 15 or the new 16" MB Pro

I'm picking it up from the apple store on Tuesday in Delaware.... I don't need the horsepower of the Vega 20 but if I was going to pay over $2500... I was going to get the latest and greatest specs

The 560x is over 4-5 years old... Apple can kick rocks! I originally ordered a i9/16/512 with the Vega 16 for $2850 new with the education discount but a new round of laptops hit the refurbs site and I got the same i9/16/512 with the vega 20 for $2670... good enough for me and my use

Aye the same reason why I won't buy the current 15".

 

[Whackman]

I'm picking it up from the apple store on Tuesday in Delaware.... I don't need the horsepower of the Vega 20 but if I was going to pay over $2500... I was going to get the latest and greatest specs

The 560x is over 4-5 years old... Apple can kick rocks! I originally ordered a i9/16/512 with the Vega 16 for $2850 new with the education discount but a new round of laptops hit the refurbs site and I got the same i9/16/512 with the vega 20 for $2670... good enough for me and my use

What would be the best card for Adobe After Effects (for animation)? Do i even need the Vega 20?

 

[Fishrrman]

Title:
"I am upgrading my Macbook Pro - which one would you choose?"

I would NOT "choose" ANY of the current models.

I'd "hold out" until the 2020 MacBook Pros come out, with the new keyboard.

You asked for opinions, those are mine.

 

[Hazmat401]

What would be the best card for Adobe After Effects (for animation)? Do i even need the Vega 20?

I have no experience with After effects but the Vega 20 is 50x faster than the 560x along with the fact that it runs a whole lot cooler too

 

[maflynn]

What would you do??

What would I do? I'd opt for the Lenovo Thinkpad, because I did. I bought the X1E at the beginning of the year and I couldn't be happier that I chose this.

 

[solouki]

Dear arthurzee,

I don't know quite what you mean when you say "struggling with things big time". The 2015 MBP is a fairly fast machine, and electrons don't get slower just because the machine is older. So, unless there is some other problem, say your SSD is nearly maxed-out and you are running out of disk space, you really shouldn't see the 2015 MBP "struggling ... big time" with tasks that it used to do quickly. For example, I have a 2013 MBP that is used for email, YouTube, reviewing journal articles, creating Keynote and Powerpoint presentations and lectures for medical students, Messages, Safari, etc., all without any problems. I even occasionally compile computer codes, typeset LaTeX articles, and make small iMovie videos on it --- yes, it is slower than my 2019 MBP, but I wouldn't describe it as "struggling big time". To me, "struggling big time" means that the machine is nearly useless for the assigned tasks. (For instance, I run number crunching programs on the 2019 2.4 GHz i9 8 core MBP that I would not run on the 2013 MBP because the 2013 MBP is a factor of 2 or 3 times slower for these tasks.) So, if your needs have entirely outpaced your 2015 MBP, then you may be disappointed in a 2019 MBP too. If your needs are that high, then you might consider a desktop or workstation (the new Mac Pro, yet to be available, or an iMac Pro may be more suitable for your needs).

Secondly, while I assume that Hazmat401 is using hyperbole when he/she states that the Vega 20 is 50x faster than the 560x, I would like to give you slightly more realistic comparisons. In my experience, and depending upon what exactly I'm using the GPUs for, I find the Vega 20 to be between 15% and 40% faster than the 560x, that is between 1.15x and 1.4x faster, not 50x faster.

And finally, as I mentioned in my first paragraph, if you have found that your 2015 MBP really is struggling, then perhaps there is some problem that can be addressed to bring it back to its nominal specifications. Things like clearing disk space (backing up seldom used files to an external drive) on your Macintosh HD, closing Safari Tabs, using Safari instead of Chrome, cleaning out your caches, quiting unused apps instead of letting them sleep and thus take up some RAM space, rebooting your MBP to clear up any memory leaks, closing your VMs when not in use, etc.

Good luck with your decision, and enjoy your new computer, whatever one that might be!

Solouki

 

[mikzn]

My Macbook Pro is from mid 2015 and it's already struggling with things big time and, as Black Friday is fast approaching, I am thinking to upgrade.

The good news is you can sell that particular rMBP for a very good price - especially if it is a 16g / i7 version - the SSD is easily upgrade-able - ie a Samsung SSD 970 PRO ? 1tb ? 2tb?

I agree with solouki's opinion and post - maybe more storage or something else is the issue ?