Hello there friends!
Greetings to everyone.
I want to open this thread as a sort of reflection about the value of the currents MBPs, plus how is going to end up in the future.
I’ll try to be brief.
(note: I'll always and only refer to the new 15" MBP, not the 13")
As a lot of you, after desperately waiting for more than an year, right now I'm quite... confused by the update of the MBP.
I honestly don't know if going to buy one soon, even if my 13" 2009 Core2Duo is dying slowly.
One of the most important reasons that made me wait was the report quality/cost.
The old 2015 15” was sporting not-so-good dGPU, old CPUs, old legacy ports, old battery and so on.
We were expecting a lot of improvements, but as Not Jony Ive good summarized:
So after all this time looks like the upgrade is not that meaningful.
Nobody wants to pay 3200$ for an 16GB RAM, 1 year old CPU.
It is not worth the money, again.
But is it really?
The pros of this new Mac are actually
- improved display
- improved dGPU (the Radeon Pro 460 should be around the GTX 965M)
- slightly better battery
- faster SSD
- lighter and thinner
- improved fans
- improved speakers
Cons are
- an old CPU
- consequently, weaker iGPU for light tasks
- lack of important ports
Of the "new" features, one thing that still amaze me, is Apple decision to use the old 6700HQ Skylake with Intel HD 530, and not the HQ with Iris Pro 580.
Every of us of the Skylake MBP thread were expecting that, as for performance boost as for the reason of this long delay.
Instead, the delay was all Touch Bar fault.
But basically, from everyone coming from an old system like me, the new MBP will be a serious improvement.
Not only that, but as I see a lot of comparison between the Razor Blade, the Dell XPS and the Surface Book, I don't see this huge difference.
In fact, in the cons I didn't mention the price, as from my opinion, it is in line with Apple standard.
Of course it is high, but not that high.
Let's take a look.
I've configured a MBP with 15" with 2.6GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Radeon Pro 460.
It costs 3200$
The concurrents, same configured:
- Dell XPS 15" with 8 GB RAM / 256 GB SSD and 4K is 1650 $. Cheaper, but weaker.
- Surface Book 13" (there is no 15", which for me is a no-go) has a better display and battery life, but is 3300$
- New Razer Blade: improved screen, remarkably better dGPU (NVIDIA 1060) and presumably worst battery life is 2700$. But is not available yet in Europe.
We are in the range of 400/500 $.
I think it's not that dramatic.
What I find way more worrisome, is the messages Apple is sending.
Messages like "we have no idea anymore how to innovate, so take this bar instead".
Or "Let's make a mess of dongles to connect our two most valuable and profitable products (iPhone and MBP)".
Or "Let's get rid of some ports (MagSafe) but take some other we earlier get rid of (3.5mm Jack) without even try to give an explanation."
Or making the webpage of the MBP lacking of detailed explanation.
No talks about Design, Performances, Features.
Just "Overview".
It's supposed to be a Pro laptop, Apple.
Explain to me why. Put real benchmarks on it. Give me details about how is it built.
Not just "that's it, overview, come and get some."
That is also the bad message that emerged from the Event. A presentation of the MBP focused on
"How amazing is the Bar!" and "How many things you can do with the Bar!".
Performances, design and battery life were treated in background.
Those are the things that matter in a laptop.
Finally, to summarize my thoughts, the big problem with this Mac is its demonstration of the lack of focusing by Apple.
A lack of focusing proved also by the computer line, which still remains old and outdated.
And that's really a big problem.
Let's say I'll be convinced to buy this new MBP and use it for the next 4-5 years.
What then?
How can I trust a company that neglected every single computer, every single important ports, every improvement, and struggle to innovate and to make something clear and focused to its products?!
Greetings to everyone.
I want to open this thread as a sort of reflection about the value of the currents MBPs, plus how is going to end up in the future.
I’ll try to be brief.
(note: I'll always and only refer to the new 15" MBP, not the 13")
As a lot of you, after desperately waiting for more than an year, right now I'm quite... confused by the update of the MBP.
I honestly don't know if going to buy one soon, even if my 13" 2009 Core2Duo is dying slowly.
One of the most important reasons that made me wait was the report quality/cost.
The old 2015 15” was sporting not-so-good dGPU, old CPUs, old legacy ports, old battery and so on.
We were expecting a lot of improvements, but as Not Jony Ive good summarized:
So after all this time looks like the upgrade is not that meaningful.
Nobody wants to pay 3200$ for an 16GB RAM, 1 year old CPU.
It is not worth the money, again.
But is it really?
The pros of this new Mac are actually
- improved display
- improved dGPU (the Radeon Pro 460 should be around the GTX 965M)
- slightly better battery
- faster SSD
- lighter and thinner
- improved fans
- improved speakers
Cons are
- an old CPU
- consequently, weaker iGPU for light tasks
- lack of important ports
Of the "new" features, one thing that still amaze me, is Apple decision to use the old 6700HQ Skylake with Intel HD 530, and not the HQ with Iris Pro 580.
Every of us of the Skylake MBP thread were expecting that, as for performance boost as for the reason of this long delay.
Instead, the delay was all Touch Bar fault.
But basically, from everyone coming from an old system like me, the new MBP will be a serious improvement.
Not only that, but as I see a lot of comparison between the Razor Blade, the Dell XPS and the Surface Book, I don't see this huge difference.
In fact, in the cons I didn't mention the price, as from my opinion, it is in line with Apple standard.
Of course it is high, but not that high.
Let's take a look.
I've configured a MBP with 15" with 2.6GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Radeon Pro 460.
It costs 3200$
The concurrents, same configured:
- Dell XPS 15" with 8 GB RAM / 256 GB SSD and 4K is 1650 $. Cheaper, but weaker.
- Surface Book 13" (there is no 15", which for me is a no-go) has a better display and battery life, but is 3300$
- New Razer Blade: improved screen, remarkably better dGPU (NVIDIA 1060) and presumably worst battery life is 2700$. But is not available yet in Europe.
We are in the range of 400/500 $.
I think it's not that dramatic.
What I find way more worrisome, is the messages Apple is sending.
Messages like "we have no idea anymore how to innovate, so take this bar instead".
Or "Let's make a mess of dongles to connect our two most valuable and profitable products (iPhone and MBP)".
Or "Let's get rid of some ports (MagSafe) but take some other we earlier get rid of (3.5mm Jack) without even try to give an explanation."
Or making the webpage of the MBP lacking of detailed explanation.
No talks about Design, Performances, Features.
Just "Overview".
It's supposed to be a Pro laptop, Apple.
Explain to me why. Put real benchmarks on it. Give me details about how is it built.
Not just "that's it, overview, come and get some."
That is also the bad message that emerged from the Event. A presentation of the MBP focused on
"How amazing is the Bar!" and "How many things you can do with the Bar!".
Performances, design and battery life were treated in background.
Those are the things that matter in a laptop.
Finally, to summarize my thoughts, the big problem with this Mac is its demonstration of the lack of focusing by Apple.
A lack of focusing proved also by the computer line, which still remains old and outdated.
And that's really a big problem.
Let's say I'll be convinced to buy this new MBP and use it for the next 4-5 years.
What then?
How can I trust a company that neglected every single computer, every single important ports, every improvement, and struggle to innovate and to make something clear and focused to its products?!
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