Which MacBook Pro To Get?

[jyl]

Mac heads, want to give me your opinion on this?

Getting a refurb MacBook Pro 15" for my daughter. She is a junior in college, working on dual degrees in journalism and digital art. Her laptop is a MacBook Air that she's had since high school. It is perfectly fine for journalism but with only 4 GB RAM it is proving too wimpy for the digital art stuff. She has a 12.9" iPad Pro that she uses as her main carry-around computer and drawing tablet; she'd it as a second display and drawing tablet for the MBP.

So the choices are:

A. Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released May 2015
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
256GB PCIe-based flash storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
Intel Iris Pro Graphics

B. Refurbished 15.4-inch Macbook Pro 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 with Retina display - Space Gray
Originally released October 2016
Touch Bar with integrated Touch ID sensor
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display; 2880-by-1800 native resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory
256GB PCIe-based onboard SSD1
720p FaceTime HD Camera
Radeon Pro 450 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory

What do you think? Daughter leans toward A because she doesn't want to buy and carry around adapters. B is a little thinner/lighter, and somewhat more performant but I don't know how much she'd notice the performance differences, since she's doing Photoshop etc rather than lots of video rendering. I am a little worried about the new keyboard's durability. The price difference is only about $300.

[varmint]

The idea of doing graphics on a laptop screen gives me a migraine. Try talking her into an iMac.



Any five year old machine is going to handle photoshop fine. It’s things like maya, final cut and after effects that need newer machines. And then you have to be really pushing it.

[nota]

for PS b is better faster processor and better grafix card a has none

I would buy her a ipad to carry around or a cheap macbook air if she must have a mac
and a real w10 desk top pc i7 with a good m/b with 4 slots of ddr4 memory
and a fast grafix card for PS that can do 4k [not a Vgames card]
and 4k tv in about 40'' for a monitor
all up for less then a 15'' macbook pro

there once was a PS apple tie in but no longer needed and no advantage
apple quality is a myth
they are cheap china built junk using china sourced parts and labor
you can build a equal fast machine for 1/2 the apple tax costs

[nota]

or a hackintosh on a i7 desktop

[stomachmonkey]

Actually the 2015 box comes with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X.

All Mac laptops and a lot of Windows laptops come with two GPU's.

On Macs one is an Intel run of the mill card while the other is a higher end AMD.

They dynamically switch based on load and power. When on battery with a light load they'll use the low end low power Intel chip but when you do something that puts a load on it will switch to the high end card. When plugged into a wall they'll pretty much always use the high end card.

Photoshop will use the GPU for tasks so it is a consideration.

The difference between the two AMD cards is minimal, the only place they really differ is video composition where the 450 is about 50% faster.

FWIW I always spend the budget on laptops, buy as much as you can afford but my requirements are generally higher than the typical consumer.

She'd be fine with either box so it really just comes down to a) save $300 b) deal with adapters.

I think in her situation the 2015 box probably fits the bill better.

EDIT: One thing to consider, Apple end of lifes a product 6 years from date of first sale. Meaning if she keeps it a long time and it breaks after 6 years they will not fix it, goes out to a 3rd party repair facility. Not a big deal, just an FYI.

[jyl]

I thought iMac 27" too, but she doesn't want a desktop right now. Her room in a shared house at college is tiny, her desk is even tinier, she doesn't have space for a desktop, and her room is really cold - so she does most of her work in libraries or coffee shops. So she's very much a laptop person at this stage in life. If it turns out she needs a big monitor, we can always get her an external one.

As for Mac vs PC, I'm mostly a Mac person now. I use Windows at work and in a Parallels VM on my MacBook Pro. But if I have to be her tech support, I'd rather she be on a Mac . . .

[stomachmonkey]

In college, higher probability it takes a walk.

Get the cheaper box, it's what she wants anyway.

[jyl]

Makes sense. Ok, ordering the '15.

[stomachmonkey]

Ahh ****.

I misread that, thought the 2015 was the 2.5 not the 2.2.

The 2.5 has the AMD card, the 2.2 does not.

Sorry.

Are you looking on Apple refurb store?

Only $150 difference between the two.

https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/15

[jyl]

The ones with the AMD GPU are all the '16 models that only have USB C ports, right?

I'm kind of hung up on the ports thing. For a college girl, acquiring a bunch of port adapters is a meaningful expense and remembering where she put them is another issue . . .

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

The ones with the AMD GPU are all the '16 models that only have USB C ports, right?

I'm kind of hung up on the ports thing. For a college girl, acquiring a bunch of port adapters is a meaningful expense and remembering where she put them is another issue . . .

For a 2015 you need to find one with the 2.5 CPU. 2.2 does not have the AMD GPU.

Out of stock on the Apple site, you could try checking every day since inventory changes.

Amazon has them but I don't recognize the vendors.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00XZGUL8W/ref=olp_f_refurbished?ie=UTF8&f_all=true&f_refurbished=true

[mepstein]

I always bought new for my kids because they get a student discount.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

For a 2015 you need to find one with the 2.5 CPU. 2.2 does not have the AMD GPU.

Out of stock on the Apple site, you could try checking every day since inventory changes.

Amazon has them but I don't recognize the vendors.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00XZGUL8W/ref=olp_f_refurbished?ie=UTF8&f_all=true&f_refurbished=true

Ok, I get it now. I'll look for the 2.5. Thanks for pointing this out!

[jyl]

Daughter is very happy with her MBP 2015 15" 2.5 16 512. Duet Display to connect to her iPad, Adobe CC, Backblaze, she's in business.

Now I wish I had one . . .