After my 2015 retina MBP was stolen earlier this year, I've been patiently waiting for this year's MBP release to upgrade. But after seeing what Apple released last week, I'm gonna pass. I'm fully switching to Linux now (been using it for some months now while waiting) and I'll be picking up some other laptop.
At the minimum, I expected Apple to deliver a laptop with this year's CPU and an nVidia GPU (CUDA compatibility is what I need) that can do VR. As it stands now, Apple under-delivered on both fronts. Not only that, but the new MacBook Pro also has a much worse keyboard than last year's rMBP. If I wanted to type on glass, I'd pick an iPad or type on my phone. Using new MBP keyboard for more than few hours will hurt after few hours.
To add insult to injury, Apple's pick of a weak AMD GPU that doesn't meet even the lowest VR requirements was the final nail in the coffin. Why they even included a discrete GPU when the one they picked is so damn useless is beyond me. It's sad that none of the Macs meet the lowest requirements for VR. Not even their desktops.
Then comes the cost. New MBP is incredibly expensive. Not only is the MBP way more expensive than previous models, but all the ports that I use will cost me an extra $300 in damn dongles. That's totally insane and I can't justify it because I'm a student.
Apple's quest for thinness over all else has completely destroyed the Macintosh. They don't seem to care how a laptop performs and what people use them for and all they care is how thin something is and how little ports it has. It's now pure form over function.
After SJ died, Apple's now being lead by people who look at Apple's products through an Excel sheet. I bet they view removal of ports and introduction of over a dozen expensive dongles as a way to boost their profits as well.
VR/AR should be right in Apple's wheelhouse, they should be owning this:
* new and innovative but not perfected yet
* UI/UX oriented
* creative worker oriented
I'm hoping that their version of getting it right is just taking some time b/c it's not easy, but even so they could have made an intermediate step like SJ's ROKR phone that was a pre-cursor to the full-fledged iPhone [1]. At least equip MBP's and desktops with VR-capable hardware, before rolling out Apple's full-fledged integrated VR capabilities sometime later.
Well, it's not a laptop. I picked up a used i5 based desktop PC with 16GB of RAM and an nVidia 1060 card for $450. That was my budget. I was saving the money and planning on buying a new MBP. Now I have no idea what laptop to get. I might as well pick up the cheapest used ThinkPad for $250 since I have a fairly decent desktop.
I'm into graphics now and Macs seems to be useless for serious graphics work given the sad state of GPUs and drivers for macOS.
