Apple 15" MacBook Pro (2015): I'm Not Buying It
So Apple finally updated their high-end laptop, the 15" MacBook Pro (MBP), which previously was using the same graphic chip as the 2013 MBP. It looks exactly the same as the previous MBP – the design goes back to late 2012 when Apple updated the MBP lineup to Retina displays and removed the optical drives from the chassis. Unfortunately, they upgraded to an AMD Radeon R9 M370X, which is based on the 3-year old Cape Verde design (GCN 1.0). Performance has increased from the nVidia 750M, but Adobe users will lose nVidia's CUDA acceleration in GPU-accelerated Creative Cloud applications like Photoshop and InDesign.
Partial list of CUDA and OpenCL apps: http://create.pro/blog/open-cl-vs-cuda- ... orld-face/
Storage speed has increased substantially (a claim of 2.5 times the previous MBP's performance), battery capacity has increased by an hour to a 9 hour runtime and the trackpad has been updated to the creepy-sounding Force Touch. This is a partial, incremental update – the rest of the computer remains the same: display, wi-fi, Bluetooth, keyboard, I/O ports, etc.
I have mixed feelings about the update. Overall, system and graphics performance has increased while the CPU has stayed the same. This is obviously a stopgap product until either a suitable Intel Broadwell or, more likely, Skylake-generation platform becomes available (late 2015 or early 2016).
Intel's recently-announced Broadwell Core i7-5950HQ only offers an approximate 5% performance improvement despite the transition to the 14nm process... perhaps battery life will improve to a greater degree. The 5950's integrated Iris Pro Graphics 6200 promises a larger improvement in GPU performance, although this might be somewhat redundant in a dual graphics MacBook Pro. If graphics are not your focus, the integrated graphics MacBook Pro will seem like less of a compromise.
Skylake, Intel's next generation architecture, might offer much larger improvements in processor performance (a claimed potential 35% here): http://www.maximumpc.com/intel-broadwell-dt-core-i7-5775c-review/
It is more than likely that Apple will include some of the new technology from the new 12" MacBook – possibly the butterfly keyboard switches and button layout, fanless heat management, terraced and contoured battery design, USB 3.1, and the faster memory of the recently-updated 13" MacBook Pro (using 1866MHz LPDDR3 instead of 1600MHz).
To effectively evaluate the 2015 15" MBP, you have to know why you are buying it. It is a lot of money to spend on a laptop, effectively more than twice or more what you could spend on a basic laptop (yes, even a MacBook) at $1,000. It is faster, of course, in some applications, and Apple upcoming OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) promises to further improve performance and efficiency.
The 15" Retina display's resolution is 2880 x 1800, which falls short of the lowest definition of 4K resolution (UHD television will be 3840 × 2160, DCI movies will be 4096 × 2160). While impressive and color-accurate, the current Retina displays will not allow you to edit or view 4K recordings in native resolution fullscreen. Also, storage is (still) constrained at 1TB... if you need more storage than that in a MacBook, you are out of luck. Look at investing in a portable hard drive – Western Digital has just announced their My Passport Ultra series, which includes a 3TB drive. Memory is still constrained at a maximum of 16 GB of RAM. Intel's CPU documentation indicates that the Core i7-4980HQ is capable of addressing a maximum of 32 GB.
If you are a power user, you pay attention to these details because they matter in your work or play. The next 15" MacBook Pro will probably use a completely different chassis, but the 2015 update is unsurprising and lacklustre, given Intel's delayed, staggered Broadwell release and the GPU manufacturers' 3-year holding pattern on the 28nm TSMC process.
For a more balanced perspective (i.e., written for a general audience), check out Laptop Magazine's review: http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-retina-15-inch-2015
MacWorld UK has also published an excellent review with useful benchmarks: http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/macbook-pro-15in-2.5-review-3612671/
Ars Technica published a nice writeup of laptop computer history: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/06/from-laptops-that-needed-leg-braces-to-laplets-engineering-mastery/
Notebookcheck.net has some comprehensive measurements and benchmarks as well: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-15-Mid-2015-Review.144402.0.html
P.S. I'm waiting for Skylake/Cannonlake (2016+) generation Macs for lots of non-CPU reasons...
1) battery chemistry continues to evolve – faster, plug-free charging and longer run times
2) nVidia and AMD will transition to a newer 16nm/14nm process – higher performance, longer run time, architectural improvements and new features (e.g., native HEVC/H.265 encode, HDMI 2.0 output for high-res displays)
3) IPS displays will get faster and more accurate (color/contrast) – G-Sync/FreeSync laptops are on the way, but it remains to be seen whether 144 Hz TN or IPS displays will be used
4) stacked NAND SSD (see Samsung 850 Pro for reference) – increased capacity and endurance
5) 802.11ac MU-MIMO – faster bandwidth for multiple users on a single router/access point
6) PCIe 4.0 – increased system bus speed
7) 32 GB DDR4 RAM – lower power, increased bandwidth, reduced latency
8) Thunderbolt 3 – higher 100W bus power, increased speed
9) Native USB 3.1 support – ditto
10) smaller, lighter chassis with thinner bezels like the new MacBook
Bonus points: lower prices, increased durability of vulnerable components like the keyboard and screen
Super bonus points: Apple puts a 10TB helium Fusion drive in the next Mac Pros or iMacs and make them user-serviceable (and ditto for RAM)
