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El Gallo
Formerly “MumboJumbo”
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
 
2016-12-26, 13:13

I've been sitting with my still unopened Macbook Pro 2015 because, well when I open it, it can't be returned.

I've probably overthought this to a large degree. I mean talking myself into a new laptop shouldn't be this hard but it is clear that it is not just for me but the market at large because there are fewer and fewer purchases in this mature market.

A good chunk of this does fall at Intel's feet. I look at Geekbench scores for my 6 year old laptop and brand new dual-core laptops are often not even twice as fast. I'm sure they might be a bit more efficient but they are not several multiples faster as was the case in the past.

Apple has done what they should and could in the area of displays, SSD throughput and they've always had pretty good power management, keyboard and trackpads, etc.

I think the real issue for some of the dissatisfaction is that most desktops and laptops have been getting around the lack of CPU progress by adding strong GPU's and Apple clearly has not made that a priority. Also while Retina was a good first step the lack of movement to outright 4k on the laptops, especially with the price increases is problematic. Also SSD's are great but they are also small. It feels strange to buy a laptop where the the very large and expensive SSD that is the same size as the HD I purchased 6 years ago.

In short the machine feels stuck in the middle and in the past you probably didn't mind this as much because as technology marched on, you added on. My 2010 Macbook Pro now has 2 GB of storage on it via a 500 GB SSD and a 1.5 TB HD. It has 8 gigs of RAM when it started with 4 gigs. (Everything else after it can go to 16 gigs.)

My laptop can't edit HD footage at full resolution on the internal screen. The new Macbook Pro can but can't do that with 4k video which is the next step. They both can drive external monitors for what would have been their next steps but Apple had the choice to take that step now and raised the price but didn't take the step. The technology is there.

It used to also be that Apple would understand that moving the bar hit their margins a bit at the beginning but moved buyers so that the later sales would allow better profit margins when everyone now was moving to the spot where Apple had raised the bar.

If the new MBP had a 4k display and perhaps the current GPU a year ago and something akin to the Nvidia 1050 on the way soon along with a 1TB SSD at their current pricing, then I don't think people would complain.

Dell has their current XPS 9550 at around $2200. It has a 4k display, is upgradable with an equivalent GPU to what Apple is just now shipping and comes with 16 gigs and 1 TB SSD. It also has upgradable RAM and a second SSD slot. The Apple equivalent is $3200 and everything is soldered on and the display can drive amazing external monitors but the internal monitor itself is only 2K. (Dell is 4K.)

I'm sorry to keep dwelling on this. It's just hard to love my 2010 MBP so much and know what a good job it has done for me but still feel so blah about the last and current gen machines. The Dell machine is honestly what I want for specs. If it had an Apple quality assurance and Mac OS it would be easy purchase even at $4-500 more dollars. Managing to catch the last gen machine at $2200 down from the $2800 it would have been has been harder to stomach than I imagined. I know the SSD is upgrable but the graphics were considered middling when it was introduced and much like this gen, it was considered a bit late. Running a generation behind with lengthening product cycles is just really starting to make it hurt.


Grrrrrr...............haven't opened the box just in case there's some sort of amazing after Christmas sale on non-moving Mac gear.
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