New vs. older Macbook Pro

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Discussion

21TonyK

Original Poster:

11,494 posts

208 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Been out of IT for years so not kept up to date or even remotely following stuff over recent years so please be gentle...

Daughter is at Uni doing Architecture. Has been using her little Asus netbook which was lightly upgraded with SSD so i5, 4GB and 256SSD. Its okay for office docs but for CAD and Adobe stuff shes struggling.

Basically she wants/needs a MacBook pro but I'm not about to fork out £3K+ for a laptop when I know I can get a better/equivalent machine that isn't Apple for a third of the money.

However... she wants a mac.

So, looking around I can get a 15.4", i7 with 16GB and an SSD for £2K on the apple refurb site. That's the new model with the touchbar etc.

A lot of the kids on her course have said don't get the new one, even those who have them. I can see the same but older version on Amazon for about £1700.

Is the new one problematic? Worth an extra £300?

TA

thebraketester

14,193 posts

137 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Ive got a new one.... works like a dream so far. Very very quick.


BTW the "base spec" 15" MBP is 2349 brand new. Or... you could get the non touch bar version (the TB is quite a big gimmick in my experience) for 1899.



Also... she will be able to get educational discount on new ones too. ~10% off i think

megaphone

10,696 posts

250 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
I've not heard of the new one being problematic. The older versions have far better connectivity, just a better machine in IMHO.

miniman

24,828 posts

261 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
I would say the key downside, for me at least, is the USB-C connectors. You lose the Magsafe power, and need to buy at least one dongle to connect to normal USB / HDMI / VGA.

That aside, it's a lovely piece of kit.

thebraketester

14,193 posts

137 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Yeah the lack of magsafe is a bit st IMO. But it does mean you can stick it in any hole 'ooo errr' and it charge, which is quite nice.

AndrewEH1

4,917 posts

152 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
miniman said:
I would say the key downside, for me at least, is the USB-C connectors. You lose the Magsafe power, and need to buy at least one dongle to connect to normal USB / HDMI / VGA.

That aside, it's a lovely piece of kit.
This. IMHO the new Pro's aren't very 'Pro' oriented...

Taita

7,592 posts

202 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
2011 Macbook Pro. Has all the ports need and plenty of oomph.

Get the most recent model that has all the connectivity.

Also, if you're buying... Tell her to get an XPS or similar or lump it!

21TonyK

Original Poster:

11,494 posts

208 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
thebraketester said:
Also... she will be able to get educational discount on new ones too. ~10% off i think
Any idea if that applies to the apple refurb store?



Vaud

50,291 posts

154 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
21TonyK said:
thebraketester said:
Also... she will be able to get educational discount on new ones too. ~10% off i think
Any idea if that applies to the apple refurb store?
It doesn't IIRC, at least it wasn't when I was trying at the weekend.

leglessAlex

5,384 posts

140 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Is a Mac really suitable for her course? I'm doing engineering and my Mac really wasn't the greatest choice, a more powerful Windows machine for the same money would have been far more useful.

Still, if she wants it then she wants it.

As for the actual question, I'd say no, it isn't really worth it the extra money and fewer ports for the new one. It's GPU is much more powerful than the previous version but the programs she's using probably won't be able to make much use of that anyway. The battery life is better on the new one, but the old one isn't shabby and they're both useless when actually asked to do anything intensive like CAD, she'll be lucky to get a couple of hours out of them. That's not a big deal though, the power brick isn't that big or heavy.

Of course the big question is, does she really really want a new Mac or just a Mac? If she's happy with the latter then I'd wholeheartedly recommend the previous generation. If not.... Well, that's up to you.

JamieBeeston

9,294 posts

264 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
I have a launch day pro

SpaceBar fallen off already (a month back)

They want the unit back for 5 days to replace the entire top body to fix

Told them to do one frown

I gave away my Previous gen MBP.. (both absolute top spec)

Given the choice, I'd go back to that... performance is maybe 15% more for £4k... not worth it.

From an apple fan boy.


CoolHands

18,498 posts

194 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
£1349 MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...

mikef

4,827 posts

250 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
I moved from the a 2015 Mac Pro 15" to a 2016. It's noticeable faster, smaller and lighter. However, as said - the need to carry several dongles to connect everything is a faff, I miss the magsafe power connector and the keyboard is quite noisy. If you can find an as-new 2015 I'd go for that, unless said kiddie must have shiny and new

Or a Dell XPS 15 if you can persuade her she doesn't need the Mac

miniman

24,828 posts

261 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
CoolHands said:
£1349 MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...
That's the one I have. A few colleagues have the ones with the touchbar thing. I didn't have a Tamagotchi either but my life isn't ruined.

21TonyK

Original Poster:

11,494 posts

208 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
miniman said:
CoolHands said:
£1349 MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...
That's the one I have. A few colleagues have the ones with the touchbar thing. I didn't have a Tamagotchi either but my life isn't ruined.
i5 with 8GB? Is that enough to run Adobe Indesign? I have no clue?

Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?

miniman

24,828 posts

261 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
21TonyK said:
miniman said:
CoolHands said:
£1349 MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...
That's the one I have. A few colleagues have the ones with the touchbar thing. I didn't have a Tamagotchi either but my life isn't ruined.
i5 with 8GB? Is that enough to run Adobe Indesign? I have no clue?

Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?
Ah, mine is 16Gb. I don't use Indesign but it's installed as part of our generic Mac build so people do get along with it ok. Although most of the creatives have mahoosive iMacs.

CoolHands

18,498 posts

194 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
As I understand it the difference between i5 and i7 will be relatively minimal, you need more RAM for faster speed in graphics programmes. If you want 16GB it looks like you have to go 15" screen £1899 which then has i7 anyway

http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro?p...

But I don't know if you do need 16GB maybe someone else can chime in.

dmsims

6,453 posts

266 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
21TonyK said:
i5 with 8GB? Is that enough to run Adobe Indesign? I have no clue?

Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?
and there you have it smile

What exactly is causing the pain.

It is utterly pointless speccing new machines unless you identify the bottleneck!

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Yep 10 min with the laptop should identify if its cpu or memory

Make sure what software she uses is available on mac too

CoolHands

18,498 posts

194 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
With respect netbooks are always st, it's not as easy as saying oh well it only had 4GB of RAM. That's like people that get drawn in to buying a Polaroid flatscreen telly in Asda cos the 'specs' are amazing - it's HD (ready)!!!!11!!1

Either mac would be a million times better, I'm sure. Stump up for the dearer one if you don't want to risk it!