New vs. older Macbook Pro
Discussion
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
Or a Dell XPS 15 if you can persuade her she doesn't need the Mac
CoolHands said:
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. miniman said:
CoolHands said:
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. Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?
21TonyK said:
miniman said:
CoolHands said:
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. Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?
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.
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.
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 Her current machine is i5 with 4gb and ssd and its painful watching her doing 3d models etc?
What exactly is causing the pain.
It is utterly pointless speccing new machines unless you identify the bottleneck!
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!
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!
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