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Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

Spot on, except for:

> Despite the many improvements, Apple is actually dropping the price on its flagship 15" MacBook Pro by $400

I would have been happy if the price had stayed the same or even gone up a bit. But the jump to $2k (which is $2,500 including AppleCare and tax) is a bridge too far.

I'll keep suffering with my butterfly keyboard until amazing futuristic features like HDMI and SD trickle down into the more affordable machines. /s

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$2K for the cheapest possible build. Add in a couple upgdades (1TB SSD, 32GB RAM) and it isn't hard to hit $3K+. There are great machines but a bit too pricey for my liking.

Three years ago, my COO bought a $5,100 MacBook Pro.

A virtual machine here or there for your spreadsheet and email apps and it really starts adding up.

The top end is now above $6k, though most of that is down to the $2k you drop on an 8TB SSD.

I think the price point sets the stage for a lower cost offering in the $699-$1299 range that will not be branded as "pro" and will likely have more of the eco cores and incredible battery life.

it's called the macbook air

$699 Macbook is not happening. The $1000-$1500 range is filled by the Macbook Air and the 13" Macbook Pro (which really doesn't deserve the Pro tag).

I guess something has to give when you ship a laptop with a chip larger (and on a smaller, more expensive node) than a $1k high-end GPU.

That thing's transistor count is insane

It’s a fine price for the quality of machine. In my opinion, people simply haven’t reckoned with the fact that they only need an M1 Macbook Air, which is competitive with Windows machines above its price point.

I agree that most people (myself included) only need an M1 MBA. Problem is, that machine has two ports, one of which is for charging. Even the M1 MBP only comes with this limitation.

You shouldn't have to upgrade past the base Pro machine — and shell out an extra $800 — to get more than one spare port (and 'fancy' stuff like HDMI and SD).

That is a fair point.

Waiting for review. Price should be comparable to performance. If Apple machines are expensive but perform comparable to $3.5k over-configured laptops, then it's a good deal.

$2000 is for the shrunken 14".

It's $2500 for the 15".

On such machines, I wonder what is the sweet point. If you work seriously, you’ll be on your desk, large screen, separate keyword. If you are in the train, you’ll prefer the smaller screen.

The real problem is, it became normal to have “padding: 300px” in webapps.

I haven't used a 14", but that may be the sweet spot. That's why it's taken the $2k price point. I like the portability of the 13", while the 16" can be cumbersome on an airplane.

The 13" I have now is adequate, but I miss the extra screen real-estate I had with the 15/16". The 16", especially, was really a treat.

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