MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch

Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by macNchz on Monday October 18, 2021 @04:51PM (#28911558)

I've been a Mac user since the 90s and a long time apologist for the Apple premium... I understand and have generally been totally fine paying for design, fit and finish, longevity, and attention to detail that's hard to come by elsewhere. That said, the absurd markups on storage and memory have always been REALLY aggravating to me, and were a factor in my decision to build a desktop machine instead of getting another Mac last year. It's not even a question of affordability, it just rubs me the wrong way. $400 for +16GB of RAM in 2021?? Nonsense.

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Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by r00fus on Monday October 18, 2021 @08:42PM (#28913663)

Did you hackintosh? Because I sure as hell am not running Windows and Linux is great for VMs/containers/servers but doesn't run all my local software.

If you don't mind Windows, lots and lots of cheaper options. But you already knew that.

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Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by macNchz on Monday October 18, 2021 @10:17PM (#28914153)

I installed Ubuntu and Windows, and set up a Mac VM in case I needed it, but haven't really used Windows or the Mac VM. I do use a lot more VMs than I used to–having lots of cores, RAM, and fast NVMe drives it has opened my eyes to a different way of using the computer.

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Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by fastball on Monday October 18, 2021 @08:01PM (#28913388)

What do you normally pay for 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM?

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Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by macNchz on Monday October 18, 2021 @10:11PM (#28914119)

Supply chain issues complicate things a bit, but if I'm searching correctly the list price for Micron modules is ~$50 or less per 16GB.

Ultimately, though, my beef with their pricing is not really about this specific release which obviously uses cutting-edge components, but about Apple's general approach to pricing these upgrades. They'll happily sell you old tech with the same crazy markups. You can still buy a new 27" Intel iMac with 8GB of RAM and the option to upgrade to 16 for $200. That's just a normal 8GB DDR4 SODIMM, which you could instead order for $29, and it installs in about 15 seconds.

I get that businesses need margins to survive, but Apple's stinginess and customer unfriendly price structure with storage and memory has been going on for a long time and just really bothers me.

I like their products! Just let me spec it such that it deserves the "Pro" label without feeling like a chump.

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