New vs. older Macbook Pro

[mikeiow]

RobDickinson said:

I always wonder about this.

I've used windows since its inception. Since windows XP I cna barely remember an (OS) crash and since windows 7 it really takes broken hardware to take it down. Even the gpu driver has been moved out of the kernel and can be recovered from.

Mind you this is only from working on it 40 hours a week in commercial development jobs plus gaming and 'creative' work outside (photo/video processing etc). Oh on multiple levels of hardware including self builds, company desktops and a range of laptops.

Mind you this is only with pushing the hardware to the max/overclocking and running a heavy pro/workstation load plus gaming etc. Perhaps if I partook of some typical apple work ( web browsing for polo necks?) it'd struggle...

Faster? For what? The things I use tend to be faster on windows even given equivalent hardware, apple tax usually means you can get far more bang for your buck in windows.

More pleasant to use? Possibly. Subjective though as windows xp->7->8-10 have greatly changed how things work and even between them there is substantial differences, even just on windows 10 it changes if you have a touch enabled device.

Personally I've not bothered with windows 10, far to many downsides for the upside, but I'll be dragged into it one day its inevitable.

Oh a windows fanboi I hear. Well no. I hated the earlier versions, despised microsoft, came from an amiga/unix background. I've also developed on OSX and for iOS and been quite critical of the stty tactics and ideas around windows 10.

I can see you have had an exceptional experience with windows, & I am pleased for you!
I'm not sure I feel that is a widespread experience - having worked in IT for over 30 years now, I know many people have many issues over the years!
Win7 was pretty good, I'd say, but on models since (& even with Win7 on occasions) I had experienced MANY crashes, BSODs etc!
The final nail for me was upgrading my daughters <1 year old decent laptop from Win8 to Win10 - a long afternoon of my life I won't get back, and things ran slower afterwards (they were pretty poor before!). Since then, both 'kids' (at Uni) have got MBPr - they cost about a grand (education discount) & have not taken up any significant amount of my time to help maintain - *that* bit is priceless!

Like I say, I think Win10 may have moved on well, & I'm glad to see that, as I suspect a 'tech refresh' in my household may not stand the current "Apple Tax" cost! I also feel that Apple are losing the plot somewhat: even more expensive for even less (eg fewer ports meaning more adapters), the latest Sierra OS release doesn't get widespread plaudits (& I hope to remain on El Capitan for some time!).
The experience is great (trackpad is awesome) - I moved to Apple some years back when a pal pointed out how many hours I spend on the computer (I probably average 7 hours a day many days!), he said "why not invest in making that experience more pleasant"....but Apple need to up their game. Their online support is great (I have had some occasional odd things happen, they are not flawless).

Overall, it is all in the apps and how that works for you. With a nod to decent data protection (still haven't seen anything as good as Time Machine for windows machines)

OP, do share what you go for, perhaps after a few months use!

[dmsims]

One last comment

If you really depend on your Laptop - forget Apple

unless you want to

Make appointment sometime in the future (possibly many days in the future)
Go to the Apple shop
Leave it there for a number days
Pick up from the shop when ready

2 years onsite support is £1 for the Dell XPS 13 (3 years £172)

[Armitage.Shanks]

Daughter has a 2013 MB Pro and, so far, it has had 2 x track pads, 1 x replacement fan, 1 x replacement HDD and now the second HDD has just failed again.

On every occasion it takes days to get an appointmnet in store to fix/assess and this last time they want £200 to fit a replacement 500Gb HDD. They said go to Amazon buy one for £50 and fit it yourself.

Whilst I accept they talk of fragility of HDD against the SSD I don't accept that a 3.5yr old laptop can have so many faults and issues.

Would I pay £1k again for a Mac? Nope. Given my experience I could buy a new windows laptop every 2yrs and still be quids in. However where 'the great unwashed' (students) are concerned Apple products are cool so regardless of poor customer experience, excessive high prices, having to endure the in-store 'experience' when it goes wrong they will still want a Mac everytime!

You won't win this one.

[dmsims]

Armitage.Shanks said:

You won't win this one.

Who is paying?

(JFDI)

[ZesPak]

dmsims said:

Who is paying?

(JFDI)

She WANTS a Mac.

He's right, ha can't win this one. Either he needs to buy a good spec MacBook which will set him back the better part of 2k, or he saves over 1k and will have a disgruntled teenager.

I know this topic isn't about educating your kids, but if it were my daughter, I'd give her a very good offer (xps for example), look at the budget (1.5k),and have her fork out the difference of she really wants something else.

[21TonyK]

ZesPak said:

dmsims said:

Who is paying?

(JFDI)

She WANTS a Mac.

He's right, ha can't win this one. Either he needs to buy a good spec MacBook which will set him back the better part of 2k, or he saves over 1k and will have a disgruntled teenager.

I know this topic isn't about educating your kids, but if it were my daughter, I'd give her a very good offer (xps for example), look at the budget (1.5k),and have her fork out the difference of she really wants something else.

And that the reality... stroppy teenager who wants a Mac vs. an ex-techie parent... never gonna win!

So... this is the sw she has sent me...

AutoCAD
Rhino
Photoshop
InDesign
Sketchup

She'll back back home in 72 hours so I can talk 1-2-1 about it. She needs/(I want) a machine that will last until her Masters if not right the way through. No use for a hand-me-down to her little bro in 2 years. He's set on law or medicine and struggles with anything not shaped like a rugby ball!!

[mikef]

21TonyK said:

So... this is the sw she has sent me...
AutoCAD
Rhino
Photoshop
InDesign
Sketchup

As a Mac fan, who uses both platforms, faced with that list I'd be thinking Dell XPS 15 over a MacBook Pro

Disclosure: I have a MacBook Pro 2016 and kiddie just took my Dell XPS 9350 off to uni

[leglessAlex]

mikef said:

21TonyK said:

So... this is the sw she has sent me...
AutoCAD
Rhino
Photoshop
InDesign
Sketchup

As a Mac fan, who uses both platforms, faced with that list I'd be thinking Dell XPS 15 over a MacBook Pro

Disclosure: I have a MacBook Pro 2016 and kiddie just took my Dell XPS 9350 off to uni

As would I, but if a top spec, previous generation MacBook Pro can be found for reasonable money then that would also be perfectly suitable.

I just think the latest MacBook would be a pain in the ass in uni, a lot of file sharing between me and my coursemates is done via USB stick, would be annoying to carry an adapter around all the time.

[WinstonWolf]

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS, the only problem it's had is I had to reset the PRAM and delete the hibernation file once.

It's never been wiped, each OS has just upgraded over the top and it's quicker than the day I bought it.

You don't need the latest and greatest, whatever you buy will be out of date soon enough anyway

[dmsims]

WinstonWolf said:

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS,

Are you on Sierra ?

[Murph7355]

ZesPak said:

...Either he needs to buy a good spec MacBook which will set him back the better part of 2k, ...

A new Macbook Pro of a good spec will be over 2.5k.

I may be back on here with my tail between my legs in 14yrs' time, but I'm afraid if my kids want me to pay for their machine, and the choices remain the same then they will be going the route I went recently (Dell). And unless they work for it, it will be unlikely to be an XPS too (unless one of my cast offs)...(yes I know machines will have changed a lot then!).

As soon as they can pay for their own machines, they can do what they want.

"Disgruntled"? One can be that when one can afford it. "Gratitude" is all I will be expecting to see.

[brianashley]

WinstonWolf said:

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS, the only problem it's had is I had to reset the PRAM and delete the hibernation file once.

It's never been wiped, each OS has just upgraded over the top and it's quicker than the day I bought it.

You don't need the latest and greatest, whatever you buy will be out of date soon enough anyway

Ours is a 2012 , 15 inch . Up graded to 8gb Ram . 250 SSD . New battery .The thing flies ! The battery has amazing life due to the SSD . We have Windows 10 on it and Sierra .Its used by our son for school work . If we sold it today we would still get £370 plus which is what it cost us (Purchased last year for £220.00 minus the hard drive but at least with the CORRECT charger . Never ever had a issue .

[WinstonWolf]

dmsims said:

WinstonWolf said:

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS,

Are you on Sierra ?

Yup, it's one of the last that can run it. Bought it new from the Apple refurb store, it still does everything I need of a laptop. I've just checked, it must be a 2010 but that's still pretty good for a seven year old laptop. I'd have reinstalled Windows a good few times by now if the machine would run it.

[C70R]

15" 2016 MBP with 16GB and SSD here. Still utterly fantastic, and very smooth/slick.
A friend bought a 2017, and used the touchbar for about 20min before realising it wasn't adding much to his experience. YMMV.

[dmsims]

WinstonWolf said:

dmsims said:

WinstonWolf said:

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS,

Are you on Sierra ?

Yup, it's one of the last that can run it. Bought it new from the Apple refurb store, it still does everything I need of a laptop. I've just checked, it must be a 2010 but that's still pretty good for a seven year old laptop. I'd have reinstalled Windows a good few times by now if the machine would run it.

Yeah I was puzzled because our 2009 will not install it - some arbitary decision by Apple

I don't understand why seven years is so good - it's only "Unix" with a pretty face

I've never had to reinstall Windows (7 upwards)

[WinstonWolf]

dmsims said:

WinstonWolf said:

dmsims said:

WinstonWolf said:

I *think* my MBP is circa 2009, upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD and it's still absolutely fine. Runs the latest OS,

Are you on Sierra ?

Yup, it's one of the last that can run it. Bought it new from the Apple refurb store, it still does everything I need of a laptop. I've just checked, it must be a 2010 but that's still pretty good for a seven year old laptop. I'd have reinstalled Windows a good few times by now if the machine would run it.

Yeah I was puzzled because our 2009 will not install it - some arbitary decision by Apple

I don't understand why seven years is so good - it's only "Unix" with a pretty face

I've never had to reinstall Windows (7 upwards)

Still feels like brand new thanks to the case and screen, I deal with a lot of hardware, the average seven year old 'Doze laptop has been retired years ago. For me the value in a Mac is how long they last compared to everything else

[dmsims]

WinstonWolf said:

Still feels like brand new thanks to the case and screen, I deal with a lot of hardware, the average seven year old 'Doze laptop has been retired years ago. For me the value in a Mac is how long they last compared to everything else

You have one more year - just had a new screen and LVDS cable fitted

The next repair (and there have been many) will entail me posting a youtube vid of it being hit repeatedly with a very large mattock

[ZesPak]

WinstonWolf said:

Still feels like brand new thanks to the case and screen, I deal with a lot of hardware, the average seven year old 'Doze laptop has been retired years ago. For me the value in a Mac is how long they last compared to everything else

This is merely anecdotal. You can claim it all you want, but if their warranties and the costs of extra warranty don't back it up, then what good is it?

Sounds like my BMW dealer trying to convince me not to buy a Jaguar "because they break down a lot", while wanting to charge me an arm and a leg for the 3rd year of warranty Jaguar offered free.

Edited by ZesPak on Thursday 30th March 13:08

[C70R]

ZesPak said:

dmsims said:

Who is paying?

(JFDI)

She WANTS a Mac.

He's right, ha can't win this one. Either he needs to buy a good spec MacBook which will set him back the better part of 2k, or he saves over 1k and will have a disgruntled teenager.

I know this topic isn't about educating your kids, but if it were my daughter, I'd give her a very good offer (xps for example), look at the budget (1.5k),and have her fork out the difference of she really wants something else.

Missed this in my first reply.
I traded up from a 2016 XPS into a 2016 MBP (nature of work changed). Night and day.
The MBP is slicker, faster and more reliable by a country mile. I would say that the extra £1k is money well-spent, even on initial view of build quality alone...

ETA - This is my first ever Apple product (I'm a die-hard Android mobile guy), so I'm anything but a fanboy. However, I'm beginning to realise what the fuss was all about.

[21TonyK]

Stupid question but can you upgrade the RAM from 16 to 32 on a new (2016) MacBook pro?

Found this... but I can see the advantage of slinging another 16gb in it at a later date.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-15-inch-Lap...

And it looks like an agreement has been reached. She can have whatever she wants (within reason) if she pays half.