Skylake MacBook Pros coming in March?
Can’t wait to upgrade from my mid-2012 15 inch retina MacBook Pro. Anyone else here waiting?
I was waiting, but the kids needed laptops for the start of school. So, no. I am definitely not waiting.
Maybe I will buy a new MacBook of some description in three years’ time. Or not. Whatever they will be they won’t be Skylake.
The Forbes article section on the 13 inch MBP seems to be uniformed of the fact that the next dual core i7 the 6567U 28w Skylake processor that was announced in September 15, is still not available. CPU-World seems to now think it will have March availability, so therefore May or June release date for a new 13 in model. This information is out there, - poor journalism Mr. Forbes.
So far the low power 15w Skylake processors are the ones in the wild. The quad cores are now out too, the i7 6770HQ was available from late January, so a new 15 inch MBP is quite imminent, like within 3-4 weeks based on past performance.
Are there bigs leaps and bounds expected with these new laptops? I’ve recently been given a 2012 13" Macbook Pro (i5 2.5GHz) and compared to my 2009 13" Macbook Pro C2D 2.26GHz, I can honestly say that there isn’t much between them in CPU speed for day to day stuff.
The 2012 has USB3 which is nice, but other than that they’re pretty much identical.
Yes please!
I have a 2013 15" rMBP and my Wife and Son have 2011 MBA’s with Core i5’s 4GB RAM. All have SSD’s and for most use there isn’t much difference between them, but then these days we aren’t anything approaching power users.
Part of me is still used to the olden days of constantly upgrading machines every other year, the last few were an '09 17" MBP, ‘11 13" MBA then back to a larger 15’ rMBP (I’d have bought a 17" if it were available). Today I have little or no need/desire for a new machine.
For lots of people the reality these days is that unless you’re changing form factor you have a machine that looks and feels much the same as your old one and probably performs just as well in day to day tasks. Unless you have high CPU/RAM needs and you’re getting a step up it’s hard to justify.
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I have a 13" late 2013 rMBP. I would find it very hard to justify upgrading to a new model of the same form factor as The_Hawk mentions. I would definitely look at the 12" Macbook if they added some more ports and made the CPU a bit beefier, or if they put Retina in the 11.6" Macbook Air. I would buy an 11.6" Macbook Air tomorrow if they put Retina in it, I just love the size and form factor of that machine, but once you go Retina it’s very hard to go back. I use my partners MBA or our imac and the the screens are just horrible. First World Problems 
I was updating something on the kids 1st gen iPad Mini this week and realised just how sucky the screen is compared to retina screens in the later models. (Not ot mention how much the CPU struggles compared to more modern devices).
I don’t know that I could go down to the 11" MBA or even the 12" MacBook. 13" was nice enough, but I like my screen real estate (and run 1920x1200 on the 15" rMBP).
Alas with our dollar I’m afraid of what the prices will be of these new MacBooks. My early 2011 is just about due for an upgrade but I’m teetering on the brink of buying a Dell instead for better bang for buck. I’ll wait to see what eventuates with these though - if it turns out there’s fewer ports and even less upgradeability I’m afraid my Mac days might be over.
Unfortunately it’s looking increasingly likely I’ll be forced back to Windows. If my mid-2007 iMac bites the dust staying with Apple will be difficult to afford.
Some of those XPS machines look very attractive… one of my work mates is looking at one and when you put it next to an Apple it’s hard to justify the new MBP.
If apple releases a 17inch version I be very tempted. Can’t see that happening so will stick with my 2011 17inch MBP for a few more years
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I was thrown to find out the 12-inch MacBook (1152 x 720) has a lower res than the 11-inch Air. (1366 by 768). It was noticeably less unless I jumped up one scaling notch, which still looked great, but no where near as good as true retina pixel doubling. Such a pity it couldn’t at least keep the 11-inch res as a minimum but pixel doubled! The vertical height lost is a killer.
I have always been a native res only sort of person and couldn’t stand anything else but was happy with the 15" running non native (Which I played with before buying one).
So I’m now running one notch up on my 15" rMBP and can’t say as I can notice the different and FAR prefer the more real estate of the pretty (which I can’t see!).
I have used a 15-inch retina before, with the one notch up like you, and enjoyed it. I never felt it was fuzzy or anything, and loved the real estate (was like a 17-inch!). But that said, whenever I dropped it down to standard, it felt much nicer. 
Just tried it again now and maybe I’m blinded by the loss of screen realestate but everything feels waaaay too big and cramped.
That said, I realised I’m actually running two notches up (which is all the way up) at 1920x1200 (so the same res as was on the 17" MBP), so dropping down to only 1440 x 900 (which is the retina display) really does lose alot of space. I probably would have used the retina res if it was based on a 1680 x 1050, but at 1440x900 that’s the same res as on the 13" MBA… but on a 15" display. such a waste.
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Having recently purchased both the 11 and 13 inch MBa, I would stay I really like the size of the 11 inch machine, but the screen is terrible. Overall the 13 inch MBA is the best all rounder. I think I would even get it over the current 13 inch rMBP. The price and performance of the 12 inch MacBook makes it an instant write off. Not even worth looking at.
The rMBP are really sufferig poorly now in comparison to the dell xps and HP spectre x360. I just bought the spectre as well. Trackpad isn’t as good as rMBP, but when is a Windows trackpad as good? Other features when combined with price make up for it.
I agree it’s not suitable as a primary Mac (for most users) but as a road machine it’s pretty much perfect as long as you’re not compiling or rendering in your hotel room.
I think it would be equally valid to say the MBAs are an instant write off for the screens.
I have an 11-inch which I only use on the road.
I bought and tried to love a 12-inch. In the end I returned it as I couldn’t get past:
- lower usable res (albeit clearer)
- no thunderbolt so no easy gigabit ethernet
- it’s noticeably slower (especially if you open MS office!)
- the keyboard isn’t great if you can actually type and type a lot
- the trackpad is awful
So wasn’t an option for me. But then, I’m a tech nerd! I have a few clients with them, and they love them. But none of them are doing more than email etc. on them (and both run Windows 10 on them actually!). I think if you need to plug anything in, IMHO it’s not worth the trade off (and the clunky breakout cables to charge and use peripherals at the same time make it less portable in my view).
I don’t find the 11-inch screen too bad. I guess the screen jarrs (sp?) a bit if you’re used to retina, but I’m not. I have the old school 30-inch cinema display on my Mac Pro at home, so I’m not spoiled by retina yet. Don’t think I’ll be replacing this set up anytime soon. If Apple release a Thunderbolt 3 Mac Pro and matching Retina 27-inch display I may be tempted… 
My wife just killed our 2009 Unibody 13" with a glass of water. Reading up on currently available replacements and likely new models I think I’ll just get a second hand 2012 model of the same thing again. Not a lot of reason to get a newer one that you can’t upgrade memory and disk on and is mostly used for Office, Web and email.