4 ms·

2015 is the latest best macbook pro.

by nambit 8y ago

gammateam 8y ago
have you ever repeated that line in an Apple store or any other tech shop? it turns into the twilight zone with the rebuttals they come up with. mostly it is related to the sells and extrapolating that to consumer satisfaction.
cr1895 8y ago
Would you mind elaborating a bit? Why 2015, as opposed to something a bit older or newer? I’m considering getting a MacBook but I’m thoroughly uninterested in a new(ish) one.
- abrowne 8y ago
  The 2015 was the last of that body style, so it has the latest "guts" (CPU etc) with the previous keyboard and ports (USB-A, HDMI, Magsafe). Plus, with the non-mechanical touchpad, there's room for a slightly larger battery¹. 1: "The 2015 revision brought the modern Force Touch trackpad and used the space savings to increase the battery to 99.5 Wh, just under the 100 Wh carry-on limit for most commercial airlines" from Marco Arment, https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever
- rahimnathwani 8y ago
  2015 MBP 15" retina has the older, more reliable, keyboard, magsafe power, decent CPU and adequate GPU, HDMI, 2 mini-DP, regular USB 3 ports. You could go older but there's no need unless you want a DVD drive. And you'd sacrifice CPU performance and maybe memory capacity. Alas, it seems the Apple official Refurb store sold the last of their 2015 MBP models earlier this year. The earliest ones I see now (in US/UK/HK stores) are 2016 models.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    The MacBook Pro actually had two Thunderbolt 2 ports, not Mini DisplayPort.
    - rahimnathwani 8y ago
      You are correct. But they're backward compatible with Mini DisplayPort. The only cables I've seen people plug in to them are minidp to {DVI, HDMI, DP}. External hard drives are mostly USB3, and I don't know anyone with an external GPU.
  - katbyte 8y ago
    I got a 2015 pro new from the apple canada online store in feb this year
  - prawn 8y ago
    You could swap out the DVD drives for a second hard drive. But that era MBP was a bit underpowered IMO. I had a great 2012 before the keyboard started failing. Now enjoy a 2015.
jnwatson 8y ago
I’d argue even further. The 2015 MacBook Pro was the best laptop ever. The keyboard, the screen, the power, the OS made it an amazing machine. Nothing has come close since.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  But it presumably still lacked a TrackPoint, so how could it be the best laptop ever? ;)
  - inawarminister 8y ago
    This. Just moved back from my 2014 rMBP Pro to a 2012 Thinkpad X220 for the trackpoint and keyboard. Shame about the display but eh there are external FHD displays when you really needs to. Retina screen and trackpoint is going to be amazing when I upgrade to a X1 sometimes I guess haha.
    - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
      Do you have an IPS display for your X220? It doesn't increase the resolution, but it does make it much better. (The X220 is pretty easy to swap the screen on too.)
      - inawarminister 8y ago
        No I don't, but I am looking to swap the TN display with a FHD IPS screen, as mentioned in [0], but sadly there are very few aftermarket kits around these days last I've checked. [0] https://hackaday.com/2016/08/26/making-a-thinkpad-great-again/ https://hackaday.com/2016/08/26/making-a-thinkpad-great-agai...
        _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
        I have a couple of the FHD mods from here ( https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640 https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640 ), but they took quite a while to get to me, and by then my enthusiasm for experimental soldering had waned, but sometime I will try. But even just swapping in an 1366x768 IPS panel for the TN panel of the same resolution makes a great difference. And those you can find fairly cheaply.
nicoburns 8y ago
Indeed, I consider myself lucky that I happened to by a Macbook in 2015. Hopefully by the time I need to upgrade they'll have sorted things out again. Otherwise I may have to go for a windows pc next time.
zokier 8y ago
Fun comparison; for all their efforts to reduce the physical size of the device Apple has managed to shave whole 2.5 mm from the thickness. To get that, they have needed to drop ports, compromise keyboard, and reduce battery size about 15% (99.5 Wh -> 83.6 Wh). I don't know what sort of bubble the product manager or whoever lives in that makes that a reasonable tradeoff. Sure, it might seem neat on paper that they have reduced the height 13% and total volume 18%, but in practice, well...
- 3rd3 8y ago
  Compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 6th Gen they’re just one mm thinner, but much worse keyboard & ports config and 20% worse battery life. I guess it’s exactly one mm too thin. The Lenovo also weighs 1358-1126=242 grams less. And then there is also the silly TouchBar...

2015 is the latest best macbook pro.

by nambit 8y ago

2015 is the latest best macbook pro.

have you ever repeated that line in an Apple store or any other tech shop? it turns into the twilight zone with the rebuttals they come up with. mostly it is related to the sells and extrapolating that to consumer satisfaction.

cr1895 8y ago

Would you mind elaborating a bit? Why 2015, as opposed to something a bit older or newer? I’m considering getting a MacBook but I’m thoroughly uninterested in a new(ish) one.

abrowne 8y ago
The 2015 was the last of that body style, so it has the latest "guts" (CPU etc) with the previous keyboard and ports (USB-A, HDMI, Magsafe). Plus, with the non-mechanical touchpad, there's room for a slightly larger battery¹. 1: "The 2015 revision brought the modern Force Touch trackpad and used the space savings to increase the battery to 99.5 Wh, just under the 100 Wh carry-on limit for most commercial airlines" from Marco Arment, https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever
rahimnathwani 8y ago
2015 MBP 15" retina has the older, more reliable, keyboard, magsafe power, decent CPU and adequate GPU, HDMI, 2 mini-DP, regular USB 3 ports. You could go older but there's no need unless you want a DVD drive. And you'd sacrifice CPU performance and maybe memory capacity. Alas, it seems the Apple official Refurb store sold the last of their 2015 MBP models earlier this year. The earliest ones I see now (in US/UK/HK stores) are 2016 models.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  The MacBook Pro actually had two Thunderbolt 2 ports, not Mini DisplayPort.
  - rahimnathwani 8y ago
    You are correct. But they're backward compatible with Mini DisplayPort. The only cables I've seen people plug in to them are minidp to {DVI, HDMI, DP}. External hard drives are mostly USB3, and I don't know anyone with an external GPU.
- katbyte 8y ago
  I got a 2015 pro new from the apple canada online store in feb this year
- prawn 8y ago
  You could swap out the DVD drives for a second hard drive. But that era MBP was a bit underpowered IMO. I had a great 2012 before the keyboard started failing. Now enjoy a 2015.

jnwatson 8y ago

I’d argue even further. The 2015 MacBook Pro was the best laptop ever. The keyboard, the screen, the power, the OS made it an amazing machine. Nothing has come close since.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
But it presumably still lacked a TrackPoint, so how could it be the best laptop ever? ;)
- inawarminister 8y ago
  This. Just moved back from my 2014 rMBP Pro to a 2012 Thinkpad X220 for the trackpoint and keyboard. Shame about the display but eh there are external FHD displays when you really needs to. Retina screen and trackpoint is going to be amazing when I upgrade to a X1 sometimes I guess haha.
  - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    Do you have an IPS display for your X220? It doesn't increase the resolution, but it does make it much better. (The X220 is pretty easy to swap the screen on too.)
    - inawarminister 8y ago
      No I don't, but I am looking to swap the TN display with a FHD IPS screen, as mentioned in [0], but sadly there are very few aftermarket kits around these days last I've checked. [0] https://hackaday.com/2016/08/26/making-a-thinkpad-great-again/ https://hackaday.com/2016/08/26/making-a-thinkpad-great-agai...
      - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
        I have a couple of the FHD mods from here ( https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640 https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640 ), but they took quite a while to get to me, and by then my enthusiasm for experimental soldering had waned, but sometime I will try. But even just swapping in an 1366x768 IPS panel for the TN panel of the same resolution makes a great difference. And those you can find fairly cheaply.

nicoburns 8y ago

Indeed, I consider myself lucky that I happened to by a Macbook in 2015. Hopefully by the time I need to upgrade they'll have sorted things out again. Otherwise I may have to go for a windows pc next time.

zokier 8y ago

Fun comparison; for all their efforts to reduce the physical size of the device Apple has managed to shave whole 2.5 mm from the thickness. To get that, they have needed to drop ports, compromise keyboard, and reduce battery size about 15% (99.5 Wh -> 83.6 Wh). I don't know what sort of bubble the product manager or whoever lives in that makes that a reasonable tradeoff. Sure, it might seem neat on paper that they have reduced the height 13% and total volume 18%, but in practice, well...

3rd3 8y ago
Compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 6th Gen they’re just one mm thinner, but much worse keyboard & ports config and 20% worse battery life. I guess it’s exactly one mm too thin. The Lenovo also weighs 1358-1126=242 grams less. And then there is also the silly TouchBar...