2019 MBP Purchase Discussion

[mragarg]

Hey everyone, just wanted to see what everyone thoughts are on the following three options:

(1) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(2) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 Ghz, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(3) Rumored 2019 MacBook Pro 16" (base specs with similar pricing to above)

In short, I currently have an Early-2013 15" Macbook Pro and need to upgrade. The three options above are things I have in mind and the reasons are as follows:

1. Get (1) and upgrade to the new 16" in a few years to overcome possible bugs in first-year models
   
   
2. Get (2) and don't worry about upgrading to 16" for 5+ years and have the 32GB for 'future-proofing'
   
   
3. Get (3) because it's probably a lot better than the current generation
   

Uses for laptop:

• Coding in Java, Python, Full-stack web development
  
  
• General Web browsing and media consumption
  
  
• Possible gaming through GeForce Now (until building a Gaming PC)
  
  
• I will be using this on the go but will have a monitor to plug into and peripherals for whenever I'm at a desk. This makes me think that the base specs of the 16" will be weaker than both options 1 and 2. The 1 inch, bezel-less design would be really nice to have but irrelevant when using a monitor and etc.
  

 

[maflynn]

Hey everyone, just wanted to see what everyone thoughts are on the following three options:

(1) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(2) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 Ghz, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(3) Rumored 2019 MacBook Pro 16" (base specs with similar pricing to above)

Do you need 32GB od ram? Based on what you wrote, I'd say no.

Its hard to give buying advise on unreleased and rumored laptop - and provide feedback over which one will be better. We really don't know anything about the rumored laptop including price, components, etc etc. There may not even be a 16" laptop this year.

If you can wait, then wait, if you can't, option 1 sounds the best, just my $.02

 

[mragarg]

Do you need 32GB od ram? Based on what you wrote, I'd say no.

Its hard to give buying advise on unreleased and rumored laptop - and provide feedback over which one will be better. We really don't know anything about the rumored laptop including price, components, etc etc. There may not even be a 16" laptop this year.

If you can wait, then wait, if you can't, option 1 sounds the best, just my $.02

I understand it's all based on speculation. But the main goal is to buy a laptop this year, within the School Deals period or by October-ish.

I also thought the same about the 32GB but a few people said if I planned to keep the machine for 5+ years, it's better to future-proof it as well as for future development and VMs.

 

[maflynn]

it's better to future-proof it as well as for future development and VMs.

Future proof is a marketing term to get people to over buy and spend more money.

Now if you're running multiple Vms at the same time, and those Vms all amount to more then 16GB, then yes a 32GB laptop may make sense. Back in the day people upped their ram because we moved from 8bit to 16, and 16 to 32 and even 32 to 64 and as we shifted the ram requirements grew. We have no such change to the architecture and such needing more then 16GB of ram is not going to suddenly be a need in 2 years. IF you need more then 16GB now, then yes it makes sense to get 32GB but not for future proofing imo.

 

[chabig]

If you need a laptop by October, but not now, I would wait until October and then buy whatever is on the market that is within your budget. My opinion on RAM is that 8GB is enough for you, but if you are concerned about it and don't mind paying, get 16GB. 32GB is overkill I think. Most of it will sit unused.

 

[SalisburySam]

I currently have an Early-2013 15" MacBook Pro and need to upgrade.

Before selecting a specific model, could you explain why you need to upgrade? Is it just a desire for newer, or is there something specific your current hardware will not do or does poorly? It would be a lot easier for folks to advise you based more on your actual need.

 

[ux4all]

If you can wait, then wait regardless of the 16"... I bought because I no longer have a daily computer (having kids does that sometimes)

If you are worried about buying just before a big upgrade, you'll be constantly waiting.

 

[mragarg]

Before selecting a specific model, could you explain why you need to upgrade? Is it just a desire for newer, or is there something specific your current hardware will not do or does poorly? It would be a lot easier for folks to advise you based more on your actual need.

I currently have an Early 2013 MBPr 15" and the SSD recently failed. I replaced it and everything seems great again. However, I've been experiencing some weird issues over the Logic Board and it also seems like the GPU (Nvidia 650M) is getting ready to fail on me. So the upgrade would be to update the machine and to cover my worries while doing work. The other reason is that I want to get into the USB-C life and upgrade my setup based around it as well.

 

[ruslan120]

I currently have an Early 2013 MBPr 15" and the SSD recently failed. I replaced it and everything seems great again. However, I've been experiencing some weird issues over the Logic Board and it also seems like the GPU (Nvidia 650M) is getting ready to fail on me. So the upgrade would be to update the machine and to cover my worries while doing work. The other reason is that I want to get into the USB-C life and upgrade my setup based around it as well.

I’m in the same boat. Staying posted to replies here.

- Video Editing
- Gaming (old games) on a VM
- Quicktime recording while using the VM
- Occasional Xcode Projects

Thanks for the thread.

 

[tigres]

Hey everyone, just wanted to see what everyone thoughts are on the following three options:

(1) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(2) 2019 MacBook Pro (2.3 Ghz, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB, 560X) 15"

(3) Rumored 2019 MacBook Pro 16" (base specs with similar pricing to above)

In short, I currently have an Early-2013 15" Macbook Pro and need to upgrade. The three options above are things I have in mind and the reasons are as follows:

1. Get (1) and upgrade to the new 16" in a few years to overcome possible bugs in first-year models
   
   
2. Get (2) and don't worry about upgrading to 16" for 5+ years and have the 32GB for 'future-proofing'
   
   
3. Get (3) because it's probably a lot better than the current generation

Uses for laptop:

• Coding in Java, Python, Full-stack web development
  
  
• General Web browsing and media consumption
  
  
• Possible gaming through GeForce Now (until building a Gaming PC)
  
  
• I will be using this on the go but will have a monitor to plug into and peripherals for whenever I'm at a desk. This makes me think that the base specs of the 16" will be weaker than both options 1 and 2. The 1 inch, bezel-less design would be really nice to have but irrelevant when using a monitor and etc.

I just made this same decision actually.
I run 2+ vm's at a time, use at me desk with external monitor and run some apps in windows that use a lot of resources for my job.
On the mac side, I run WebEx (what a hog), One Note, Office Suite, Visual Studio, Jabber, Slack, VDI's etc.

Ended up going with the i9, 1tb 32gb- Vega 20 (most likely did not need this, but already deep in so hey)

 

[mragarg]

Yeah, I’m leaning towards sticking with the higher end base model 15”. Because that way I can upgrade in a couple years after seeing the price and reviews of the 16”

 

[erich.j.k]

Do you need 32GB od ram? Based on what you wrote, I'd say no.

I'm surprised - being a developer myself. Yes, I need RAM. The more the better. This very much depends on your development environment. Since I use Docker for a lot of things or a virtual machine, I need a lot of RAM. Maybe he does too.

Regards,
John.

 

[mragarg]

I'm surprised - being a developer myself. Yes, I need RAM. The more the better. This very much depends on your development environment. Since I use Docker for a lot of things or a virtual machine, I need a lot of RAM. Maybe he does too.

Regards,
John.

So would you say I should get the 32GB of RAM? Like if you were in my shoes, what would you go for?

 

[DaveBerry]

as a pro developer, more ram the better. I currently have 16GB on my mac which to be honest is good. I would like the 32GB for running multiple virtual machines and use of docker. I have to simulate many different servers on a mix of environments. If you are just doing simple single site development with no advanced backend servers, 16GB will be ok.

If you have the space cash, 32GB is a great option.

If you do plan on using virtual machines, make sure you have enough stored for them, each virtual machine can take 40-60gb for windows.. unix will be smaller.

 

[mragarg]

as a pro developer, more ram the better. I currently have 16GB on my mac which to be honest is good. I would like the 32GB for running multiple virtual machines and use of docker. I have to simulate many different servers on a mix of environments. If you are just doing simple single site development with no advanced backend servers, 16GB will be ok.

If you have the space cash, 32GB is a great option.

If you do plan on using virtual machines, make sure you have enough stored for them, each virtual machine can take 40-60gb for windows.. unix will be smaller.

Good to know, thank you! I think I'll stick with the 16GB specs!

 

[sub150]

If you are worried about buying just before a big upgrade, you'll be constantly waiting.

That's....not true. Waiting for refreshes vs waiting for new form factors are quite different.

Sometimes, things are worth waiting for when the "big update" is coming. The iPhone X and the Apple Watch 4 are the two most recent. The next big one is revamped Macbook's with good keyboards. Not sure why anyone is buying one now unless they plan to resell when the new ones come out.

 

[ux4all]

That's....not true. Waiting for refreshes vs waiting for new form factors are quite different.

Sometimes, things are worth waiting for when the "big update" is coming. The iPhone X and the Apple Watch 4 are the two most recent. The next big one is revamped Macbook's with good keyboards. Not sure why anyone is buying one now unless they plan to resell when the new ones come out.

and sometimes a big revamp has the most failures... double edged sword. New form factors will be refined as the gen 1 bugs are worked out... do you wait until it is refined ... oh WAIT, yet another new form factor... the cycle continues, you will always be waiting. Cars, same problem...

iphone x, face id repeated issues... rumor has it they are going back to a touch id... so you bought the xs... but wait, there's an iPhone 11.... or an 11s... or maybe hold out for the 12....

apple watch 4... sure, that's great if you aren't an owner of the previous models.... but wait... what about apple watch 5... possibly twice as good as 4... but then there's the apple watch x upcoming ... keep waiting.

It is what it is, either you buy when you need or you don't... you'll never buy the product that will the best for years and years, those days are long gone.

 

[sub150]

and sometimes a big revamp has the most failures... double edged sword. New form factors will be refined as the gen 1 bugs are worked out... do you wait until it is refined ... oh WAIT, yet another new form factor... the cycle continues, you will always be waiting. Cars, same problem...

iphone x, face id repeated issues... rumor has it they are going back to a touch id... so you bought the xs... but wait, there's an iPhone 11.... or an 11s... or maybe hold out for the 12....

apple watch 4... sure, that's great if you aren't an owner of the previous models.... but wait... what about apple watch 5... possibly twice as good as 4... but then there's the apple watch x upcoming ... keep waiting.

It is what it is, either you buy when you need or you don't... you'll never buy the product that will the best for years and years, those days are long gone.

iPhone X was a major success. There are no rumors of going back to TouchID except for APAC SKU's.
Apple Watch 4. Major upgrade due to revamped screen size.

If you time stuff right it is certainly "worth the wait". Sometimes you are right, the next gen is worse. Imagine buying a the first water cooled Porsche in 99 over a 98 air cooled (or a 2016 MBP). I think the next gen MBP will be very good and worth waiting on.

At some point it IS worth waiting, without a doubt. You aren't going to buy an iPhone XS one day before the iPhone 11 drops. What is the magic day? Day -15? Day -30? To each their own, but touching these MBP's is too big of risk.

 

[ux4all]

touching these MBP's is too big of risk.

Touching anything new when it is a completely new form factor is a risk... tell the people with 2016 mbp that buying the last year of the 2015 was a risk...

I'm hoping that Apple takes a step back and understands that the MacBook Pro is not the iPhone... the aesthetic and smallness of the general consumer product is not the same as the professional grade offerings.