Re: OK, I get it
He presumably wants a 15" MBP. The 15" with just two USB C ports (a.k.a the completely, totally, utterly, useless one) starts at $2000. The 15" with four USB C ports (a.k.a the merely useless one) starts at $2400.
The new MBPs have only two or four ports; All the 13" units only have two ports. Just two ports makes them useless for pro ops.
The ports in question are USB C/Thunderbird 3 ports. In order to connect anything, anything at all, which is not fitted with a USB C plug, you need an adaptor. There is no Ethernet. There is no FireWire. There is no old-style USB. There's not even a power plug, one of the four (or two...) ports is going to be needed for power. Adaptors are required for everything. I have a multitude of old-style USB devices: external optical drives (including one from Apple, which I suspect will not work with the new MBPs), external hard drives, USB thumb drives, scanners... there are times when I must connect to a USB printer for one reason or another. Now I need adaptors. Certain networks around here are deliberately walled off from the wireless networks (security. You may have heard the term) and so I must have Ethernet. I need an adaptor.
The CPU in the 13" units tops out at a two-core 2.4GHz i7. This is not a 'Pro' system. The RAM on all of them tops out at 16 GB. The $2000 15", in addition to only having two ports, also maxes at a 2.2 GHz quad-core i7, marginal at best, with Intel graphics, again marginal at best. The $2400 15" is a 2.6 GHz quad-core i7, better than 2.2 but not earthshaking, and has an actual video card, a Radeon Pro 450, again not earthshaking but better than Intel video.
it's not even debatable: a 13" MBP is not a 'Pro' system. A 15" MBP is just barely a 'Pro' system. I currently have a 5-year-old Windows laptop which has a 2.2 GHz quad-core i7 (a good CPU for 5 years ago) and only 8 GB of RAM. But it's got three USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI. It also has a battery which was never great and is now worse. However, I understand that a significant percentage of the new MBPs are already having battery problems. 4 hours or less instead of the promised 10, that kind of thing.
Sorry, man, but just on the specs there's no way that I'd buy a new MB. I might buy one of last year's version. They have ports, and working batteries.
I do hope that this clarifies things a little. Or you could go to Apple's site and have a look at what they actually post there.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
