And other things that are emerging. At least for a "Pro" machine, there seems to be a lot missing. The comments below the main story are quite telling. Anyway, not an issue either way for me, but rather interesting the backlash from the Apple faithful, particularly at these ridiculously high prices.
Has Apple actually lost interest in the high performance and connectivity needs of the "workstation" market, and gone "airy" on us completely? I do remember a time when Apple was the only game in town for high end graphics, photo and video work, game development too. Not any more it seems. Windows and high end equipped PCs do a heck of a job these days for a comparatively reasonable price. With so many hardware choices too...
I already have a USB3 external SD card reader, my previous computer didn't have an SD card reader, either. it won't bother me at all to not have a built-in SD card reader at all. I can understand why people might be unhappy about it, but if I had a choice, I'd rather have a CD/DVD drive built in than an SD card reader (something that still irritates me about my current MacBook Pro).
Some people don't like the fact they haven't made a 17" laptop in quite a while. I have one (the one without the SD card reader) and upgraded it to a more current MacBook Pro with a 15" screen when it didn't handle the files from a new camera. I thought I would hate going to a smaller monitor, but it wasn't a big problem - I primarily use a large separate monitor at home and on the road I like to have the lighter weight.
The only real problem I have at the moment is that after an almost 3 month road trip editing photos strictly on the 15 inch retina monitor on the laptop, I now want a better big monitor - amazing how poorly my 5 year old monitor matches up to my newer laptop's monitor. Do I get a 4K monitor that I think my computer will run, or upgrade the perfectly working computer to get one that will run a 5K monitor? The cost of the new computer is huge, plus all the dongles/ports I would have to get in order to continue a couple of old thunderbolt and USB3 external drives. Not to mention the monitor that's driving all this.
I can see that some day down the road I might have a problem with only having 16GB RAM available - at the moment 16 is fine, but I don't want to be in the same boat I was in with the 17" - no ability to add more RAM and not enough for Lightroom to manage the new camera's files.
It just doesn't think that what they've put into the computer is worth the upgrade - other than the ability to run a 5K monitor, I'm not sure this new computer offers me much that I don't already have. I think I'll skip this one, like I skipped the last update and get a 4K monitor my current computer can run. If they drop the price down the line sometime, I might re-think it though.
@fpmtngal I'd now agree with you after checking out more since my first post on the subject. Stick with what you have. A 4K monitor on your current machine sounds right for you. Don't pay too much, there are many excellent ones to be had for $400-$500. At least for PCs. You only need what the max resolution of your machine can support, so don't buy 3840x2160 unless your machine can do it. For photos especially, do consider a matte finish rather than a glossy one.
@frankhymus Now I'm beginning to think a little more fondly of the new MBP, it would be faster than what I have, and while I'd need cords, I already have cords. And maybe a 5K monitor would come closer to the retina screen the laptop has, which is my real beef.
No, I need to keep talking myself out of that shiny new computer, as long as I can be assured my current computer can run a 4K monitor, I'm not sure at the moment. I guess I should actually go look at the monitor I'm thinking of (it's a 27" Dell with a matte finish). I'm not going to do anything (including reading Mac boards) for a while and let the dust settle.
@frankhymus Just found out that my computer won't run a 4K monitor, so I'll stick with what I have for the time-being as the home improvement project I'm about to start has higher priority. I very well may upgrade to the new MacBook Pro later on though.
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Some people don't like the fact they haven't made a 17" laptop in quite a while. I have one (the one without the SD card reader) and upgraded it to a more current MacBook Pro with a 15" screen when it didn't handle the files from a new camera. I thought I would hate going to a smaller monitor, but it wasn't a big problem - I primarily use a large separate monitor at home and on the road I like to have the lighter weight.
The only real problem I have at the moment is that after an almost 3 month road trip editing photos strictly on the 15 inch retina monitor on the laptop, I now want a better big monitor - amazing how poorly my 5 year old monitor matches up to my newer laptop's monitor. Do I get a 4K monitor that I think my computer will run, or upgrade the perfectly working computer to get one that will run a 5K monitor? The cost of the new computer is huge, plus all the dongles/ports I would have to get in order to continue a couple of old thunderbolt and USB3 external drives. Not to mention the monitor that's driving all this.
I can see that some day down the road I might have a problem with only having 16GB RAM available - at the moment 16 is fine, but I don't want to be in the same boat I was in with the 17" - no ability to add more RAM and not enough for Lightroom to manage the new camera's files.
It just doesn't think that what they've put into the computer is worth the upgrade - other than the ability to run a 5K monitor, I'm not sure this new computer offers me much that I don't already have. I think I'll skip this one, like I skipped the last update and get a 4K monitor my current computer can run. If they drop the price down the line sometime, I might re-think it though.
No, I need to keep talking myself out of that shiny new computer, as long as I can be assured my current computer can run a 4K monitor, I'm not sure at the moment. I guess I should actually go look at the monitor I'm thinking of (it's a 27" Dell with a matte finish). I'm not going to do anything (including reading Mac boards) for a while and let the dust settle.