For those reading the horror stories on this thread (or in a few cases, acute panic before delays have actually occurred) and starting to think that your precious new toy will definitely get lost, delayed, or destroyed in a fiery aftermath by the far-reaching and omniscient wrath of Bill Gates -- allow me to dispel some of your anxieties, with a fairy tale:
I ordered a 16" Space Gray 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32gb RAM, 1tb SSD model the day after Black Friday (November 27th, but sadly no discount due to being a custom configuration), and Apple quoted me with a delivery window between December 16-23. Last week, after checking my order repeatedly with no sign of change, I decided to open my obsoleted email inbox that at one point was used for my Apple ID -- and had an oh sh*t moment -- Apple had emailed about 36 hours prior that my payment method hadn't gone through.
So, last Thursday night, I called my bank to raise my credit limit on the card used (which took <10 minutes), and immediately after I was able to update the payment method via the Apple order page. Note: I could not see that a payment method issue had occurred on the Apple Store app for iPhone; only on the web/desktop version. Minutes later, my order updated to "Preparing to Ship"!
Friday morning, Apple began to ship my order via FedEx. I've had a lot of packages via FedEx recently and most have been at least a day delayed, but none lost. Friday, my little newborn MBP spent in Shanghai. Saturday, Japan. Sunday, it had made it to Memphis, where it encountered a brief "Import clearance delay", which resolved by Monday morning. Monday, it sat in Memphis and didn't move at all. At this point, Apple was quoting a "Delivers by December 21st", and FedEx said "December 17th by 1pm" (same as @LinkRS above).
Tuesday, December 14th -- a full week before Apple's estimated delivery date once shipped, 2 days before the earliest possibility in the order's original delivery window, and 3 days before FedEx's own delivery estimate -- it gets on a plane from Memphis to Chicago, goes from the big O'Hare distribution center to my local facility, gets on a truck, and is delivered by noon! They even placed it in between our front door and screen door to keep it safe. I also believe I could have modified the "No signature needed" field in the FedEx app, but I chose not to and had no issues.
The possibility for orders to be on-time and even earlier than expected, despite this currently being the busiest shipping season of the year, and even with FedEx, just goes to show that dreams really do come true.
So, here I am writing this up on the beast itself! Coming from a dying Late 2016 15" MBP i7 at 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD, I can confirm that essentially everything here is an upgrade. A few of my keys had stopped functioning correctly on the clicky butterfly mechanism of the old machine, and now the keybed feels wonderfully tactile and also more forgiving to the fingers. My old one would get hot and run the fans at full blast with some Chrome tabs open, yet now almost no heat and never any fans, and I'm not exaggerating when I say just about everything in daily use feels instant. Even opening up those same windows from my old machine in Chrome, sometimes with 100+ tabs. Last night, it took around 4 hours for the battery to dip below 80%, and that was while indexing the whole system after using Migration Assistant, which also was fairly easy and copied my whole system over in ~45 minutes. The speakers are indeed the best you can get in a laptop. Bass is clear, and undistorted, and vocals are as clear and well-placed in the stereo field as some high-end studio monitors I've had. And the display -- wow. It's incredible how much the upgrades in contrast ratio, resolution, and additional screen real-estate make to the viewing experience, even on the web, and the adaptive/fast refresh rate is as night-and-day as it was on my most recent iPhone upgrade. It's without doubt the most impressive laptop you can buy today. Side note, I think the aluminum feels slightly smoother and less cold to the touch, even when off, than the old model? Curious if anyone concurs.
Best of luck to everyone with machines on the way, and enjoy to those receiving fresh upgrades! Remember, the possibility that your delivery will encounter zero issues, and perhaps even show up on your doorstep earlier than the current estimates, statistically is far more likely than a truly bad outcome. And in the event something bad does happen, Apple has your back -- and you'll get to practice the art of patience.
Happy mac'ing, to all!
I ordered a 16" Space Gray 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32gb RAM, 1tb SSD model the day after Black Friday (November 27th, but sadly no discount due to being a custom configuration), and Apple quoted me with a delivery window between December 16-23. Last week, after checking my order repeatedly with no sign of change, I decided to open my obsoleted email inbox that at one point was used for my Apple ID -- and had an oh sh*t moment -- Apple had emailed about 36 hours prior that my payment method hadn't gone through.
So, last Thursday night, I called my bank to raise my credit limit on the card used (which took <10 minutes), and immediately after I was able to update the payment method via the Apple order page. Note: I could not see that a payment method issue had occurred on the Apple Store app for iPhone; only on the web/desktop version. Minutes later, my order updated to "Preparing to Ship"!
Friday morning, Apple began to ship my order via FedEx. I've had a lot of packages via FedEx recently and most have been at least a day delayed, but none lost. Friday, my little newborn MBP spent in Shanghai. Saturday, Japan. Sunday, it had made it to Memphis, where it encountered a brief "Import clearance delay", which resolved by Monday morning. Monday, it sat in Memphis and didn't move at all. At this point, Apple was quoting a "Delivers by December 21st", and FedEx said "December 17th by 1pm" (same as @LinkRS above).
Tuesday, December 14th -- a full week before Apple's estimated delivery date once shipped, 2 days before the earliest possibility in the order's original delivery window, and 3 days before FedEx's own delivery estimate -- it gets on a plane from Memphis to Chicago, goes from the big O'Hare distribution center to my local facility, gets on a truck, and is delivered by noon! They even placed it in between our front door and screen door to keep it safe. I also believe I could have modified the "No signature needed" field in the FedEx app, but I chose not to and had no issues.
The possibility for orders to be on-time and even earlier than expected, despite this currently being the busiest shipping season of the year, and even with FedEx, just goes to show that dreams really do come true.
So, here I am writing this up on the beast itself! Coming from a dying Late 2016 15" MBP i7 at 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD, I can confirm that essentially everything here is an upgrade. A few of my keys had stopped functioning correctly on the clicky butterfly mechanism of the old machine, and now the keybed feels wonderfully tactile and also more forgiving to the fingers. My old one would get hot and run the fans at full blast with some Chrome tabs open, yet now almost no heat and never any fans, and I'm not exaggerating when I say just about everything in daily use feels instant. Even opening up those same windows from my old machine in Chrome, sometimes with 100+ tabs. Last night, it took around 4 hours for the battery to dip below 80%, and that was while indexing the whole system after using Migration Assistant, which also was fairly easy and copied my whole system over in ~45 minutes. The speakers are indeed the best you can get in a laptop. Bass is clear, and undistorted, and vocals are as clear and well-placed in the stereo field as some high-end studio monitors I've had. And the display -- wow. It's incredible how much the upgrades in contrast ratio, resolution, and additional screen real-estate make to the viewing experience, even on the web, and the adaptive/fast refresh rate is as night-and-day as it was on my most recent iPhone upgrade. It's without doubt the most impressive laptop you can buy today. Side note, I think the aluminum feels slightly smoother and less cold to the touch, even when off, than the old model? Curious if anyone concurs.
Best of luck to everyone with machines on the way, and enjoy to those receiving fresh upgrades! Remember, the possibility that your delivery will encounter zero issues, and perhaps even show up on your doorstep earlier than the current estimates, statistically is far more likely than a truly bad outcome. And in the event something bad does happen, Apple has your back -- and you'll get to practice the art of patience.
Happy mac'ing, to all!
