Apple Refreshes MacBook Pro Lineup (arstechnica.com)

Apple said on Thursday it is refreshing the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. Neither machines are getting major redesigns, but the innards are getting a spec update. For starters, both the models are powered by the 8th-generation Intel processors and house more cores than before -- a maximum of six cores on the 15-inch model (compared to four in last year's models) and four in the 13-inch model (compared to two). That means faster performance for many use cases. Maximum SSD capacity is also doubled, and the MacBook Pro line offers DDR4 RAM for the first time. ArsTechnica: The laptops also borrow some features from the iMac Pro and the iPad Pro -- the T2 chip and True Tone, respectively -- and feature a revised butterfly keyboard, the third generation of the design Apple introduced in 2016 (the revision is a little more significant this time around). Apart from those tweaks to the keyboard, the basic design of the MacBook Pro is unchanged. The top configuration of the 15-inch model includes an 8th-generation, six-core Intel Core i9 CPU clocked at 2.9GHz. Six-core Intel Core i7 processors are also options. The 2017 iteration of the MacBook Pro featured DDR3 memory with a maximum configuration of 16GB. This time, it's DDR4, and the maximum is 32. The faster memory uses more energy, so a bigger battery is now included -- but Apple's battery life estimate remains the same as last year's. The GPU in the top standard configuration is listed as an AMD Radeon Pro 555X.

The 13-inch model has different specs, of course. It still only offers integrated Intel graphics, for one thing -- Intel Iris Plus 655, this time with 128MB of eDRAM. But the maximum number of cores are again doubled -- in this case to four -- in 8th-generation Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs, which run at up to 2.7GHz. Maximum SSD capacity is also doubled; it's now 2TB. The maximum memory is still 16GB. Apple claims the 13-inch model is up to twice as fast as its predecessor, though it will of course depend on the application. ArsTechnica says the keyboard on the new MacBook Pro models, though look similar to the one in the predecessor lineup, feel a little different to type on. The price of 13-inch starts at $1,799 while the 15-inch starts at $2,399.

Comments

A little step in the right direction.

[Ecuador]

6 Core on the 15" and 4 Core on the 13", which makes the 13" a viable alternative for many people who could not previously consider it. More importantly, there is finally a 32GB option (welcome to the 2010s Apple), but as you'd expect from Apple only for the 15" and only at the time of purchase as it is soldered-on. Yeah, those 32GB RAM modules are too large to fit in just a 13" laptop.
Sadly, you only get USB-C connectors, which is the main reason I have asked my company to refrain from upgrading my 2015 MBP (my existing peripherals won't work, plus there will be an extra little box to carry around with me), although there was also the fact that so far there was no real hardware upgrade - esp. regarding memory (compare to a Mac Pro I have at home, with 48GB and 6 cores - sure not a laptop, but it almost a decade old, a 2010 model).

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[ThosLives]

Eh, the biggest loss in my mind is still MagSafe... that was a truly useful connector.

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[alvinrod]

I wonder if it has to do with them constantly pushing for both thinner and lighter. The MagSafe connector wasn't massive, but they killed off the headphone jack in their phones so that they could go thinner and the MagSafe connector may have been the largest remaining constraint preventing that. Also, at some point they get the weight down far enough where the MagSafe connector's attraction isn't broken by gentle tugs/pulls and you can actually drag the notebook off a table with the cord because the magnetic attraction is too strong. If you make the magnetic attraction less strong, eventually you wind up defeating the point of it to begin with and it comes loose too easily.

I've never personally owned a Mac notebook (I have friends/relatives that have had various models over the years) so I don't know how true that is in reality, but I can't think of anything else (outside of some patent situation) that makes any sense. I suppose you could argue cost or some hippy crap like them not being able to get the components from a conflict free source or something like that that.

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[swillden]

Sadly, you only get USB-C connectors, which is the main reason I have asked my company to refrain from upgrading my 2015 MBP (my existing peripherals won't work, plus there will be an extra little box to carry around with me)

Your existing USB-A peripherals will work fine. You may need to buy a couple of these. Not sure what extra little box you're talking about, but maybe you mean one of these? I have one (not that model, but similar) and I think it's great because it combines all of the less-needed ports into a single compact unit -- HDMI, Ethernet, SD card, etc.

One non-obvious upside of USB-C on Macbooks is that you can use any of the ports for charging, which means you can plug your charging cable in from whichever side is convenient. This seems like an irrelevant advantage until you've actually lived with it for a while. Another thing I really like, since my phone and bluetooth headphones use USB-C as well, is that I now travel with only a single charger, my laptop charger. I used to carry extra charging cables so I could charge the phone and headphones from the laptop, but now I don't bother. One charger and one cable, is all I need. It even works if I need to connect phone to laptop because the cable between the computer and charger is a normal male-to-male USB-C cable. So I can just disconnect it from the charger and use it to connect laptop to phone. The fact that it's a standard cable also means that when I got annoyed that Apple's provided cable was too short, I just bought a longer one and swapped it out.

So, IMO, the USB-C ports are great.

However, there is a good reason to stick with your 2015 MBP: the new keyboard sucks, and while the touchstrip isn't awful it's not great either.

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[Mattcelt]

Windows 10 is a privacy invasion hiding behind a desktop.

I will never use it.

So my choices are OSX and Linux. While I love using Linux at work, it's worse than useless for work.

For better or for worse, the majority of the time OSX just works. And sadly, Linux will never overtake Apple in that space until their overarching ethos becomes focused principally on UX (at the kernel level, not simply at the UI level).

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[swillden]

Eh, the biggest loss in my mind is still MagSafe... that was a truly useful connector.

I disagree. I love the idea of the MagSafe connector, it seems like a brilliantly simply design for an obvious problem... but it doesn't work as well as I would like, and the problem that it solves isn't a problem. Not for me, at least.

Taking the second point first, I got my first laptop in 1993 and I've had one ever since; a quarter century of experience. In all that time, I've never once had a laptop damaged by someone kicking a cord, and I'm anything but conscientious. I've had many cords kicked, and I've had many laptop cords break from wear, but no laptops or cords ever damaged in the way that MagSafe would protect. I'm not saying that my experience is universal, of course. If your pre-MagSafe life was littered with the remains of shattered laptops caused by kicked cords, then you might want to stick with MagSafe as long as possible. But for me, it doesn't seem to matter.

Indeed, I've had more problems with MagSafe cords breaking than I have with any other sort of laptop cord. They come apart right where the thin cable goes into the MagSafe connector.

The other problem with the MagSafe connectors is that they're too easy to disconnect when you don't want them to. Sitting on my bed, under the covers, with the laptop sitting on top of the blankets, for example, puffy blankets often exert just enough upward force on the connector and cord to angle the connector so that it didn't make contact. On countless occasions I've realized that my ostensibly plugged-in laptop is almost dead because it wasn't actually quite plugged in. Apple fixed this problem when they went to the right-angled connector... but then with MagSafe 2 they went right back to the straight-out version.

USB-C is a better solution, I think. Because you can use any of the USB-C ports to charge, you can plug in from either side. Because the connector inserts into the laptop, a little pressure on the cable doesn't disconnect it. Because it doesn't insert very far into the laptop, it pops out easily when someone kicks the cable. So far I haven't had any problems with cables breaking the way my old MagSafe Apple charger cables did, but if one does break, it's not a big deal. I can simply buy any old male-to-male USB-C cable of reasonable quality and replace the broken part. For that matter, I have already swapped the Apple-provided cable out for a much longer (and sturdier) one, extending the distance I can sit from an outlet.

Then there's also the fact that my phone and headphones are USB-C, so I can use my laptop charger to charge those devices as well. This means I now travel with only a single charger, and don't even carry any extra USB cables.

I thought I would miss the MagSafe connector, but I don't. At all. I do miss the better keyboard and real function keys, though.

Re:A little step in the right direction.

[blindseer]

Same reason they removed the headphone socket and dropped down to a single combined USB/charging port.

I guess that way they can sell more dongles.

Right, because only Apple does that. Except most every maker of high end cell phones, they have only a USB-C port now. Oh, and Lenovo that has that silly proprietary micro-Ethernet port, and the adapter is not included with the laptop.

Yep, only Apple is looking to sell more dongles. Except all the other manufacturers doing away with everything but the USB-C port on their laptops, cell phones, and tablets.

Give the Apple bashing a break for once. Everyone making everything electronic is trying to cut down on the variety of ports they offer. I quite enjoy not having to track a dozen different kinds of chargers and power supplies at work now. I quite enjoy that Lenovo standardized on their one port for powering their displays, laptops, and other stuff. If they can't stick with USB-C then I'm happy that they stuck with something standard across their many products. I miss the magnetic power ports on Apple and other laptops but there are products out there that can bring something real close as an adapter or cable.

Re:Does new design overheat when placed on a pillo

[Vadim Makarov]

Go find that in a hotel room, in vacation home, etc. That's a huge dongle to carry around! There are a few laptops that do not have ventilation openings at the bottom, MS Surface and the previous (2013) MacBook Pro are some of them. All the rest have shitty thermal design that requires air flow under the bottom.

In short, a notebook should not require any add-ons in normal use. Bed is my normal use.

Re:Why is this news?

[jellomizer]

You must be new on Slashdot.
I remember back in the Early 2000's every minor Linux kernel release got a front page story. It was darn annoying.

That being said, Apple is the only major player, offering a Non-Windows Laptops. While Apple hasn't been offering a major Redesign in appearance, the Hardware upgrade is actually the more important part then the appearance.

Especially as the Macbook pro line is still arguably the industry standard on the "Premium" Laptop which the likes of Asus, Dell, Lenovo are all trying to copy off of.

In all fairness The current Macbook pro isn't that much different then for the Titanium Powebook back in 2002. Thinner, more powerful, but still a Gray Metal Laptop With a clamshell design, with a keyboard and a track pad.

In other news...

[Cajun Hell]

Hamilton Beach has a new drip coffee maker, whose parts cost $0.17 less than the previous model but make coffee 2% faster!! (Why isn't this on Slashdot's front page yet?)

Oh, you use a French press? A French press, really. Looks like some snob is already getting ready for this weekend's celebrations, I see. Well, good for you! But some of us prefer drip coffee makers even though the coffee isn't nearly as good. And my favorite manufacturer is Hamilton Beach, which is why my coffee maker case-cover has a hole, to show off the Hamilton Beach logo.

Re:Finally able to support more than 16GB RAM!

[smooth wombat]

But in most cases, if you need that much RAM, you probably need a desktop with it.

Apple doesn't believe people who want to do real work want a desktop which is why they've been relegated to the trash can.

Still not "Pro"

[sremick]

Still glued-in battery (consumer hostile)
Still no removable/expandable SSD (consumer hostile)
Still no removable/expandable RAM (consumer hostile)
Still no easily-replaceable keyboard (consumer hostile)
Still a horrible keyboard design that people will continue to hate
Still no necessary ports
Still no Magsafe, so users are back to busting their computer motherboard
Still overpriced, especially for repair parts like the display ($500 or more for some models)
Still not recyclable

There's nothing "Pro" about this. This is the "MacBook Contempt"... as in, Apple's overt contempt for their customers.

Re:what? Killing magsafe??

[DontBeAMoran]

The last magsafe-equipped MacBook Pro is the 2015, now on clearance from Apple. Get one while you still can.

Re:Why is this news?

[blindseer]

In all fairness The current Macbook pro isn't that much different then for the Titanium Powebook back in 2002. Thinner, more powerful, but still a Gray Metal Laptop With a clamshell design, with a keyboard and a track pad.

I worked on a solar car competition in college and in the early years the cars came in all kinds of shapes. The size was constrained by the rules on height, width, and length, so size didn't vary all that much but inside that box the cars filled that in the best way they thought at the time.

The next couple competitions the more outrageous shapes disappeared and the more successful shapes were copied and varied upon by others. Another couple competitions and all the cars looked basically the same, a wide and flat wedge with a bubble on top for the driver.

Why mention solar cars in a thread about laptops? Because when it comes down to the evolution of the shapes of the things we deal with everyday there are shapes that just evolve naturally. This has been true for all laptops since the demise of the trackball in the 1990s. Of course the current Macbook Pro looks like the PowerBook from 2002, because that is a shape and size that has a nice compromise of cost and convenience. I'm guessing if people had their way they might like some variations on the shape and color but a brushed aluminum, titanium, or stainless steel shell is durable that looks nice enough that people will buy it. A thin flat clamshell design is well suited to a keyboard and screen, and being folding shut to fit in a purse, briefcase, or backpack. For pointing devices it's a trackpad, because nobody wants a trackball or pencil eraser sized joystick any more.

In all fairness The current Macbook pro isn't that much different then for the Titanium Powebook back in 2002. Thinner, more powerful, but still a Gray Metal Laptop With a clamshell design, with a keyboard and a track pad.

Just like those solar cars where the shape and size settled into really just variation on a single theme the real competition comes with what's under the hood. This includes the ports offered. I'll hear people complain about the lack of ports on Apple laptops and yet we find other high end laptops copying it. Sure, we might still see a single USB-A port alongside the USB-C ports but for the most part the choice of ports on high end laptops is thinning. If there is an Ethernet port then it's a flimsy pop-out thing or a proprietary micro-port which may or may not have the adapter included. Video ports will be HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, or just video out of one of the USB-C ports. Maybe there is a slot for SD cards but those seem to be disappearing. Charger ports are switching over to USB-C. I miss the magnetic charger ports but I'll take the standard USB-C until we figure out a standardized magnetic charge port that doesn't require buying only those expensive chargers from the manufacturer.

That being said, Apple is the only major player, offering a Non-Windows Laptops. While Apple hasn't been offering a major Redesign in appearance, the Hardware upgrade is actually the more important part then the appearance.

Yep. We'll be getting plain metal grey laptops with only 2 or 3 ports, maybe 5 ports on the high priced ones, for a long time. Gone are the days with laptops with 12 ports on them. Remember those days? I have an old laptop here with headphone, microphone, PCMCIA, power, serial, VGA, parallel, Ethernet, modem, S-video, and 2x USB-A. Dealing with only USB-C and a combo headphone/mic port is annoying sometimes but I'll take that over the heavy, colorful, and many ported, laptops of the past.

Re:Why is this news?

[rjstanford]

Well said.

As for the ports, the nice thing about USB-C standardization is that we no longer need to guess which port anyone will need, only the general largest number of simultaneous accesses they'll want. Very few people have ever plugged more than 2-3 things into their laptop at the same time, especially in the WiFi era; many have never attached anything but power.

Re:what? Killing magsafe??

[93 Escort Wagon]

The last magsafe-equipped MacBook Pro is the 2015, now on clearance from Apple. Get one while you still can.

If you're quick (it helps to use something like Refurb Tracker), you can also still occasionally grab a 13" MacBook Pro off the Apple refurb store.

I prefer buying refurbished direct from Apple because you can get AppleCare+ - but there are also other options available, such as Gazelle.

If you're buying new, you can sometimes get a better deal from B&H Photo than you get directly from Apple.

Re:Why is this news?

[blindseer]

In Windows-land, you can buy an Acer E5-576-392H for $380 which has 7 ports: 4x USB (mix of types), 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, and an RJ-45. And the obligatory audio jack, so I guess 8 total. It even includes a DVD drive.

Let's see, 1/3 the processors, 1/3 the RAM, 1/3 the screen resolution, for 1/3 the price. Oh, and twice the weight. TAKE MY MONEY!!

You can still buy motherboards with serial ports or PS/2 jacks.

Why? So I can plug in my CueCat?

The Windows side of the market actually has variety of products and meets consumer demand. It's not a problem.

I'm boggled on why Acer isn't getting more mention on Slashdot then. No... wait... I changed my mind. I'm not boggled at all.

Except for Apple. Apple has a problem where they want to make their products a work of art rather than tools. That's fine for consumer hardware to a point, but it really falls apart with the trash can Mac Pro.

Absolutely, because I wasn't getting anything done until my CueCat was plugged in.

Are you for real?