

Apple to discontinue 17'' Macbook Pro? - super_mario
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/04/23/apple_predicted_to_discontinue_17_inch_macbook_pro.html

======
ScottBurson
I love my 17". It's my third 17" Mac laptop (the first one having been a
PowerBook, so you can see I've been using them for a while), and I'm very glad
I picked up a new one last year. Yes, it's a bit large at times, but against
that, it has plenty of screen space for development work -- I can pull it out
anywhere and work as effectively as I would at home.

Granted, programming is the only task for which I need this much screen room.
Otherwise the 15" would be fine.

I'm also glad it has the optical drive, which I still use on occasion. For the
15", I can see the sense of leaving out the optical, but the 17" should be a
desktop replacement, seems to me.

------
melling
I think there would be a big market for a 17" MBP that weighs 5.5lbs. Remove
the optical drive require an SSD. Of course, I'm waiting to upgrade to the
3.5lb 15" MBP.

~~~
icefox
I removed mine a few years ago and swapped in a extra SSD using
<http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/>

------
MoOmer
I don't think so. I think general consensus among the rumor mills is that
they're doing a staggered roll out, revising the 17" later this year.

~~~
AdrianRossouw
they've done that a few times in the past.

------
jawngee
Good gravy, I hope not. Xcode alone almost demands you have a 17", especially
if you are IB'ing up iPad. Not to mention Photoshop.

------
PaulHoule
I wish they'd come out with more RAM, for the work I do, 32GB would be sweet.

I like macbooks and I'd buy one if I could get one with enough RAM but I'll
probably get something bulky and ugly from Dell instead.

~~~
sciurus
Drifting off-topic, but look at the Thinkpad W series. When I evaluated
workstation laptops around a year ago they seemed nicer than the Dells, so I
got one for a project and have been happy with it.

[http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/w-series/w...](http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/w-series/w520/)

~~~
SkyMarshal
I don't know how well this carries over to the W series, but the T series are
pretty rugged. Drop test:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkSxdR-W0g>

------
chrislomax
My boss uses a 17" mac for design purpose. I think anything less than 17"
would be sub standard in his eyes. I'm sure a lot of other designers would see
it the same way if I am honest

------
jamesu
Speaking of large laptops, where are the 21" laptops?

------
gte910h
If they dropped 17", but upped the resolution of the 15" past that of the
current 17", I'd be fine.

------
jcnnghm
I hope they don't do this, it's hard enough to work with a 17" screen. I
usually run two windows side-by-side with BetterSnapTool. Carrying an external
monitor everywhere I go is impractical.

~~~
gte910h
The iPad 3 makes a beautiful second monitor. (App called Air Display).

------
no-espam
I would be happy if they added high resolution/retina displays on the 13" MBP
which I still prefer over the air for the simple reason I can replace the SSD
and memory.

------
duaneb
I don't think I've seen a 17" mac in around three years. See a lot of 17"
gaming laptops, but aside from editing video or photoshop, I'm not sure why
you would want something that big.

~~~
bdunbar
_I'm not sure why you would want something that big._

Heh. I remember the same argument against the added expense of a 15 inch
monitor.

Twice I lobbied my boss for a 17-inch mac, was turned down due to reasons of
cost.

Why? Because 'more screen' is better, be it terminal windows, emacs, or a
browser. Like a lot of guys, my laptop functions more as a portable computer
than anything else.

~~~
kls
Agreed I am a freelancer and I am always on the road, in a good deal of my
working situations I don't have the luxury of hooking my laptop up to a second
monitor. If Apple killed the MBP 17 it would suck of me. I understand that my
use case may be a niche and not the norm, but I would have to imagine there is
more than just a handful that have similar needs for the 17. If they kill the
17 I would probably look at building out a hackintosh system on a large screen
PC laptop rather than move down to the 17. I have been anxious for this
refresh, due to the fact that I skip a refresh so my 17MBP now is the
generation before the current offering, as such I can't upgrade past the 8GB
ram barrier which I am really starting to feel when running VMWare. I hope the
news is just rumor, because I could have already switched to a PC laptop with
a hackintosh set-up, but I have been grinning and bearing it knowing a refresh
was around the corner.

