Apple Debuts new MacBook Pro and iMac with up to 8-cores

[OtinG]

Apple has quietly debuted new MacBook Pro 13" and 15" models and iMac 21.5" and 27" models with up to 8-cores.

I haven't checked out the iMacs yet, but here is just a quick look at the prices for the MBP 15" with 8-cores:

Base Model 8-Core MacBook Pro 15-inch $2799

• 2.3GHz 8-core 9th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz
• Retina display with True Tone
• Touch Bar and Touch ID
• 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
• Backlit Keyboard - US English

Premium Model 8-Core MacBook Pro 15-inch $6549

• 2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• Retina display with True Tone
• Touch Bar and Touch ID
• 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB of HBM2 memory
• 4TB SSD storage
• Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
• Backlit Keyboard - US English

The premium model is too costly for my budget!

The MacBook Pro 13-inch models start at $1,299 with a 2.3GHz Dual-Core Processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, and 128GB Storage. The premium, fully loaded model is $3,499.

The MacBook Pro 15-inch models start at $2,399 with a Touch Bar and Touch ID, 2.6GHz 6-Core Processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz, 256GB Storage. The premium, fully loaded model is $6549.

[OtinG]

New iMac Models

The iMac 21.5-inch models start at $1099 with a 2.3GHz Dual-Core Processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, 1TB Storage. The premium, fully loaded model is $3,478.

The iMac 27-inch models start at $1799 with a Retina 5K Display, 3.0GHz 6-Core Processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz, 1TB Storage. The premium, fully loaded model is $5,378.

[pwalker8]

Yea, the fully loaded models can be quite pricey. I just bought a MacBook Pro back in January and an iMac 5K about a year ago, so no more Macs for me this year. I generally get 4 or 5 years of use out of my Macs.

[kyteflyer]

I'm still using a mid 2010 macbook, and a late 2012 mac mini, both of which have had RAM upgrades, and the Macbook an SSD (I really need to get one for the mini)... I have not been able to justify buying any new Macs in recent years. financial challenges, and the fact that both my macs do what I ask of them. When that no longer happens, I'll look again, but it will be refurbs and the second hand market I'll be shopping in.

[OtinG]

I’m using a MBP mid 2014 and a Mac mini late 2012. I’m not sure if I will ever buy another Mac though as the prices are way too high for what you get. I might have to go back to a Windows PC in a few years, as much as I don’t want to.

[kyteflyer]

Its frustrating. Sometimes I think Tim Cook has lost his way, and that Jonathan Ive has way too much influence over decisionmaking. Of course I could be quite wrong, but what I am seeing is a move back toward the elitist nature of the Mac, which existed prior to the move to OSX and then Intel. I recall paying $1850 AUD for my emac which was very basic. and then $1500 for my 12" ibook. Also very basic. No way could I have afforded the Pro models. Even those were hideously expensive by comparison with PC laptops and desktops at the time. But, I had a good job and didnt bat an eye. Now, its different. But the prices keep going up, and in Australia, of course, we are also at the mercy of the exchange rate, which is currently under US70c.

The most basic MBP: $1899
The most basic iMac: $1699
The most basic Mini: $1249

I imagine Canadian prices would not be too far different, since our dollars seem to be close in terms of exchange with USD.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

but what I am seeing is a move back toward the elitist nature of the Mac

That's always been a fundamental part of their branding. They've always been the computer that's not for the hoi polloi. You're not just buying a tool, you're buying something that's part of your personae, part of who you are and that's what branding is all about.

If I were to criticize them it would be for sticking with Intel. I rebuilt my pc last month and finally switched to AMD and my machine has 16 cores, 32 threads/logical processors.

[OtinG]

By the mid-1990s Macs were a joke, and they had too many lines of them including the education line, consumer Line, and business line, etc. The only glimmer of hope was when Apple briefly licensed the hardware to 3rd party manufacturers. Prior to the Intel 80486 processor, the 680x0 line of processors had an edge, but the 80486 was better than the 68040, and Apple’s Motorola processors never caught back up. Then they switched to those awful RISC processors before eventually switching to the Intels. At least with the Intel processors we can run Windows on our Macs. Not sure what AMD would allow, but I do remember when Intel left them in the dust back in the lated 1990s and early 2000s. Intel does seem to have lost its way now though.

[pwalker8]

Actually the last time I priced them out, MacBook pros tend to compare favorably with similarly featured Windows laptops so there isn't really an Apple premium. Of course, you do have to compare similarly featured laptops, not the el cheapo ones that are slower and use a couple of generation older chip sets. Where Apple tends to jack up the price is with memory. You can get memory a lot cheaper elsewhere. Fortunately, most Apple laptops and iMacs are up-gradable by the user.


Right now, we are seeing incremental changes in laptops and desktops, just like we have been seeing for a number of years. Most people won't see a measurable difference in models over the space of 3 or 4 years. The biggest difference is that laptops are getting smaller and not as heavy. We are also seeing solid state disks and improved screens.

Tim Cook is a supply side guy, not a consumer guy. I have my doubts about him really understanding why people buy Apple products. Steve Jobs got it. Tim Cook, not so much.
He's hanging Apple's fortunes on services. It can work though I am highly skeptical of their upcoming video service.

I saw a good analysis of the TV app that is on the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV devices, soon to be out on Windows devices. Consumers really need an app that is going to tie all their streaming services together. Apple's TV app could be that app. Unfortunately, all the streaming services are more interested in grabbing every penny they can, so no one is cooperating with anyone else. It's really too bad.

[OtinG]

You are forgetting one important detail as far as desktops go. It is easy to build your own Windows box, and cheaper. If you are buying off the rack then the prices might be similar, but you can certainly build a WinBox cheaper. That is what I did in the 1990s and early 2000s. Okay two details: You can modify a WinBox and repair it yourself, not so easy to do that with Apple computers.

[hollowpoint]

The base model has some good hardware specs and would be a good developer laptop where I work--it's an option for us. But for that price I'd expect at least 32GB RAM and 1TB ssd. I recently did my work laptop upgrade and went with Windows over a MB pro.

[OtinG]

I worked in the software industry for over 25 years (Computer Associates, IBM, BMC Software, etc.) and we never had a choice of which OS to use. I wasn't a programmer though. It was almost always Windows, and it was never Mac OS. At IBM it was mostly Windows too except when I worked with the AIX people. At Computer Associates we still used DOS into the early 1990s as most of the apps were DOS apps, and a few were Apple PC-DOS, and one was Mac OS, but the publications staff used DOS exclusively until we switched to Windows 3.1x. The only time I ever got to use a Mac was when I briefly worked at the US Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s. I had a Mac SE for that job. That was the first and last time I ever had a Mac at work, though I had Macs at home from 1985 until they got too sucky in the mid-1980s when I finally switched over to Windows--reluctantly I might add. I came back to Macs in 2011 and much prefer them to Windows PCs.

Bottomline was we used what the companies told us to use. Most companies I worked for bought computers based on bean-counters making huge deals with computer manufacturers like Dell. IBM was the exception because they still manufactured their own computers. In the late 1990s we got laptops that would ultimately be sold off to Lenova. But never, not even once, did any of our development staff get top of the line computers at any company I worked for. Not even close. If Pentiums were all the rage, we would get 386s and 486s and they would be at best midline models. Most of us had top of the line computers at home though, so using the work computers was frustrating.

[hollowpoint]

Originally Posted by OtinG

and we never had a choice of which OS to use.

Well, that's no fun! Those pesky corporate tightwads.

I work at a company whose software you've used. We get a choice of MB Pro or a nicely/similarly configured premium Windows laptop, usually one of the Surface laptops and maybe one other option. For hardcores, there's also a desktop workstation with Xeon processors. And, if needed, you can also go to your mgmt and make the case for an exception. Usually the hardware options we get are the latest, but not the absolute most premium model (maybe a step or two down from that). So, we could not get the 6K one you listed, but the other one is an option. Because our work is now very cross-platform, many users especially developers will choose a MB Pro over a Windows laptop.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by hollowpoint

Well, that's no fun! Those pesky corporate tightwads.

I work at a company whose software you've used. We get a choice of MB Pro or a nicely/similarly configured premium Windows laptop, usually one of the Surface Pro's and maybe one other option. For hardcores, there's also a desktop workstation with Xeon processors. And, if needed, you can also go to your mgmt and make the case for an exception. Usually the hardware options we get are the latest, but not the absolute most premium model (maybe a step or two down from that). So, we could not get the 6K one you listed, but the other one is an option. Because our work is now very cross-platform, many users especially developers will choose a MB Pro over a Windows laptop.

That would have been nice, but the companies I worked for always seemed to treat the development department like the stepchild they really didn't want around but had to keep, especially the publications people! Even the programmers had outdated equipment. I remember one of the programmers had an old VGA monitor that was so bad she could barely read the code on it. She finally got so frustrated that she bought a monitor herself and brought it to work to use. In those days, the companies pretty much figuratively chained us to our desks and made us work 60 to 80 hour weeks. This was long before the modern tech giants like Google came along.

[hollowpoint]

I do remember that state of affairs (outdated hardware/software) at a large insurance co that I worked at within the Berkeshire Hathaway group. Damn I hate insurance companies!

Another thing that's changed, at least where I work, is nobody needs as much LOCAL hardware as we used to. Just a few years ago, it was not uncommon for me to have a laptop, a workstation, maybe a server or two, and two or three older desktops all hooked up and sitting around my work area. Now, we've virtualized EVERYthing. So everybody even devs has one, maybe at most two computers in their area, but we're doing everything on the server/cloud platform. You need a new server, you just spin up a VM, containers, or make API calls directly to some dedicated backend service.