Ask HN: Is now a good time to buy a new MacBook or should I wait?
So it's time I bought myself a new machine. As a dev I feel gravitated towards the MBP line-up.
However, with all the stories I've been hearing about the 2016/2017 models having weird keyboard issues and a rather large (too large) trackpad, along with the potential of a new model being released at some point this year apparently (32GB anyone?).. I'm not sure if I should just go for it or if waiting a while is a good idea.
What do you think? Any insider knowledge you could share that would help?
44 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 96.4 ms ] threadPerhaps going for one of the developer Dells with Ubuntu is the safest future bet..
The developer edition laptops aren’t sold in a 15 inch version, which is why I opted to tolerate the Windows factory install. However like other XPS 15 owners, I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to resolve conflicts between Ubuntu and the NVIDIA gpu, which doesn’t seem to be compatible with Canonical’s open source “nouveau” drivers which I think might be enabled by default on 18.04. If you don’t mind the 13 inch display, the developer model might be worth considering in light of the trouble I’ve had trying to seamlessly dual-boot.
I'm used to Dell, and they replace hardware the next business day on location, even when I'm out traveling.
> That's what I was thinking to do, when Apple dropped a bombshell.
> https://developer.apple.com/macos/whats-new/
> OpenGL and OpenGL ES will be unavailable in macOS and iOS in the future OS versions. I was somewhat expecting it when Apple announced Metal. At the same time, I was hoping Apple to maintain relatively higher-level and standard graphics APIs. The expectation was shattered into pieces by this announcement.
If no -- then wait.
[0] http://ysflight.in.coocan.jp/main/e2018.html
Microsoft OGL on Windows Classic is a shim to whatever the graphics card maker provides. Effectively there are no OS that ship legitimate and non-deprecated OGL support today.
Android AFAIK is the only platform that ships/mandates OGL ES. There are shims to support OGL ES based on the platform 3D support, such as one GitHub project Microsoft published that uses DirectX or one that I believe ships as part of Steam on Mac platforms.
AFAIK there is no platform that ships and mandates Vulkan. Unfortunately Android does not require it on new devices yet.
This is really more like Apple deprecating their OpenSSL libraries - they are telling people that Apple isn't going to maintain it going forward, so you should stop using their copy and bundle your own.
When in doubt: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac
The flagship models used to be upgraded as technology came available, but are now typically upgraded yearly. There's a suspicion that Apple held back the hardware refresh from WWDC partially because they weren't ready w.r.t. the keyboard repair program announced today.
MacBook Air is a zombie. I believe they want to kill it, but the retina MacBook is too expensive to replace it, and it sells extremely well (at high margins).
The Mac mini is a zombie, or perhaps a bit of a square peg. It was meant as the desktop switcher computer, where you plug in your old PC K/V/M and go. Then it kinda sorta rebranded to be upgradable as a server circa 2012 (with products like xServe discontinued), before actually losing those higher end upgrade options in 2013. I think most people don't expect it to be usable as a pro desktop, but Apple has a huge gap there since their desktop focus is on the All-in-One iMac. So like the MacBook Air, the focus is on low cost and good margins, not technology.
The Mac Pro they simply didn't predict the market well enough on. The GPU-heavy design they were going for and external peripherals might actually fly if it was coming out today, but general purpose computing didn't embrace using multithreading or OpenCL for getting better performance. So, the ability to use the power of the machine was a bit hit-or-miss depending on the application you were using. Worse, the thermal profile both had a max amount of power and required an even distribution of heat. GPU processing power and power consumption has scaled up due to the highly parallel nature, while Intel's power consumption has stayed relatively the same. The design didn't allow for them to swap out components for the newer ones that hit the market after release.
iMac Pro is relatively new and likely a specialty product, although I imagine Apple to take it seriously. So probably not a predictable once-per-year release schedule, but I don't see a reason for that design to get silently shelved and the line to stagnate.
I am waiting it out.
The flipside is of course that recent models are rather disappointing in many ways. It's only marginally faster than the 2012 model it replaced, contains the same amount of memory and cpu cores. And there is the keyboard, which is a severe downgrade and has many flaws and the well documented reliability issues. That 2012 model was the best piece of hw I ever owned. So, you can wait but don't expect any miracles.
The historical update cycle says "no", as well: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Retina_MacBook_Pro
Bottom of that page, just had to replace my 2013 and decided I didn’t want to deal with the new MBP and it’s silly touchbar or failing keys, or oversized trackpad. Ordered it with max memory, and happily transferred everything from old to old.
You may actually not want those pixels. Or that graphics chip.
I've only recently noticed this because of setting up my latest Linux laptop. (I use a MBP for work because every tech company just gives you one now without an option for another OS.) I wanted a modern Linux laptop personally for hobby work so I bought a PC one and installed Antergos Linux on it. Antergos comes with Gnome by default (unless you select something else on install). Modern Gnome (3.28 in my case) was made to be pretty similar to macOS. Permanent top bar with status icons on the right, dash-to-dock which basically behaves like macOS's dock, and so on. Lots of eye candy animation as you switch between apps / desktop spaces, etc.
I'm fairly happy with it, but then I had to open up my very old laptop with CentOS 7 (with KDE Plasma for UI) installed on it to clear it out and finally get rid of it; and found myself instantly feeling good and productive with that old school KDE style UI (which was made to be similar to old school Windows. Not even Win10, but like the WinXP/Vista time with start menu and taskbar with rectangular tabs at the bottom). I'm actually thinking about installing KDE on this new laptop and switching over now; but I just spent a lot of time configuring everything in Gnome to my liking and feel like I'd keep this for a while first.
There are many small things like this.... Otherwise I would love to use a carbon with Linux.
I bought a 15” with touch bar and discrete GPU, as did another guy in my office, and we’ve both had no issues after nearly 8 months .. it’s a very nice machine and very performant.
My only complaint is the battery life is slightly less than the one I had before, however it didn’t have a discrete chip so it’s not a fair comparison.
The new hinge design is fantastic and it’s very lightweight. I can effortlessly wave it around with one hand and not get tired.
If you want a MacBook, for love of God, wait! The current generation is seriously outdated in terms of hardware and disturbingly poorly made. I work with 10 colleagues every day who mostly use the current generation MacBooks, and couple of older ones. The newer are not bought at the same time, and we all had/have keyboard issues, external monitor issues, updating issues (mine was most severe, had to wipe the drive!), poor cooling... Quite disappointing.
The previous generation ones work like a charm.
My biggest complaint is the inability to upgrade storage. 18 months in, I’m facing the need to upgrade due to an uptick in container and VM based projects that necessitate a large chunk of scratch space. I recently taught a 300-level networks class and had a couple students who had also underestimated their storage needs.
I don’t love the keyboard, but my accuracy is improved on it. I also haven’t encountered any colleagues, students, or friends who have encountered any key issues.
The trackpad is large, but it works like a dream most of the time. I only experience an occasional wrist detection fail, and this usually occurs when I’m working in bed with awkward hand positioning.
I haven’t seen any issues with 16GB, even when running numerous containers and virtual machines. I’d love the option for more/upgradeable RAM, but I’m satisfied with this config for now.
Battery life is decent in practice. It’s not all day, but it’ll get me through a flight without any trouble so far. The flexibility of USB-C PD is awesome. I carry a tiny 60W Dart-C adapter when I’m on the go and I’ve even used a 30W adapter in a pinch. Either one will keep my 15in 2016 MBP running all day.
Also, I was looking for the 16gh RAM, 500GB HDD 15" Pro. Something like $3100 from Apple. I went to Best Buy and they were running a $200 off promotion on them. On top of that, I found the exact model I was looking for as an open model, someone having returned it the previous day. Didn't have a single scratch - was discounted to $2150. They respected the promotion and I got a (like) new MBP Pro for $1950.
I chalk this up to the fact that so many other people seem to really dislike these machines.