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What can I do to make my 2016 MBP stop sucking so much?
- Thread starter maclaw21
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My 2015 seems to run okay on Monterey but it's starting to show its age a little bit. I sent it to Apple to have a new battery put in since the one in there was already down to 81% capacity after only 55 cycles.
I have been VERY tempted to trade/replace it with a 2018 15" with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and a i7/i9 CPU and maybe that one will be MUCH slicker but everyone goes on about how amazing the M1 Pros are and now I'm thinking I'll maybe wait and try to get one of those instead.
I have been VERY tempted to trade/replace it with a 2018 15" with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and a i7/i9 CPU and maybe that one will be MUCH slicker but everyone goes on about how amazing the M1 Pros are and now I'm thinking I'll maybe wait and try to get one of those instead.
Yeah, unless you need windows, hard pass on the 2018. They still have the bad keyboards. If you need intel, the 16 inch 2019 is the way to go. Otherwise, M1 is the way forward.
Yeah I know the keyboard is great on the 2015s I take it that’s been resolved with the new ones? I haven’t got to try one out even though I was just at the Apple store but I don’t think they were going to let anyone touch anything due to COVID.
To me, the gold standard is the 2011 17 inch. I haven’t gotten to try a new machine yet, partially due to COVID. It’s not so much that the 2015s keyboards are great, it’s that the 2016-2019s were so so bad, clearly for reliability, but for me also the lack of key travel. Some people like the shallow keys, though. The 2019 16 inch got an all new (older style) keyboard, so it should just about match the 2015s.
The 2016 was the worst Apple laptop I've ever been around (been around a lot)
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My wife went from a 2016 MBP to an M1 MBA last year
Mic working on mine these days.
I know, exactly! My wife was shocked when her M1 machine crashed last week. She hasn’t rebooted it since she got it last year. I took the opportunity to update the software. I may have rebooted a few times in the interim, but we’re talking a machine that runs a month at a time. Compare that with her experience with the 2016? Geez. And she’s constantly working on her machine from home, zoom sessions, research, etc. Lucky, gets to do all remote these days. I can’t even get an external
Mic working on mine these days.
As others have mentioned, the 2016-2019 laptops were not Apple’s finest years. But things turned up quite a bit in 2020 and 2021 saw the Apple silicon and some pretty good reviews. So, rather than continuing to beat the dying horse, you might consider a refurb’d 2020 MBP. On Apple’s website there are at least two at $1100, and a bunch between that and $2000. If you care about the innards in any way, consider the 2021 but I don’t.
To continue the horse-beating: have you booted into Safe Mode recently? Just doing so, shutting down, and booting normally sometimes helps unclog some of the aging system arteries, and free to try. And I 2nd the excellent suggestion to try a guest account and compare with yours. If much better, you know you’ll be looking for something specific, maybe several somethings.
Lastly, if you are using Microsoft Office, Norton Security, and a lot of other 3rd-party apps, if you’ve kept them up-to-date they become bloatware compared to 2016 versions. If you still need/want them, delete them and re-download current copies to install vs. just updating. Again sometimes this helps.
To continue the horse-beating: have you booted into Safe Mode recently? Just doing so, shutting down, and booting normally sometimes helps unclog some of the aging system arteries, and free to try. And I 2nd the excellent suggestion to try a guest account and compare with yours. If much better, you know you’ll be looking for something specific, maybe several somethings.
Lastly, if you are using Microsoft Office, Norton Security, and a lot of other 3rd-party apps, if you’ve kept them up-to-date they become bloatware compared to 2016 versions. If you still need/want them, delete them and re-download current copies to install vs. just updating. Again sometimes this helps.
If one doesn’t specifically want an Intel Mac (perhaps for dual boot or other software compatibility), I would absolutely not buy one at this point.
I understand your position, and don’t disagree in principle. But if you’re looking for a pretty powerful machine and have only a few pesos to acquire it, last year’s (oops, two years now) models are pretty compelling as is the refurb program from Apple. About Intel vs. M1, none of the software I use really cares, and I certainly don’t.
That’s a very fair point.
You can get great deals on these now and that should definitely be considered.
Thank you for following up with that
Same with my 2016, hardly ever rebooted it or had any trouble with the processing. But I stuck with the original OS, which it was built for. That might make a difference in stability.
One extra stumbling block to consider fixing is upgrading the HD. Replace it with an SSD and it will run much faster.
All 2016s already had ssds soldered to the main board. Fast ones too.
I absolutely loved those 17" machines at the time, but they were not exempt from issues either; most notably the GPU.
The 2021 model is pushing 16.2", so it's pretty close in terms of screen real estate. The performance and battery life are out of this world. I would highly recommend picking one up when you get the chance. I originally placed an order through Apple (delivery in April), but was able to find the exact spec at B&H. I had it in my hands the next day.
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Didn't realize. Then it's a house cleanup operation: clean install, as others suggested, should fix sluggishness for good.
Re: the 17 inch, i was referring to the keyboard specifically. Lots of juicy key travel. Otherwise it was great for its time, but the GPUs really let it down.