User Review From 2009 to 2018: A MBP Upgrade Story

Introduction

I've been using a Mid 2009 13 inch MacBook Pro since well.. 2009 for my design and development work.

I picked up the base model (2.26Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 160GB HDD, Geforce 9400M) and upgraded it to 8GB RAM from a Gskill Kit and an 80GB Intel 320 Series SSD a year down the line. Suffice to say it's served me well enough to be my daily driver till 2016, after which i'd have to do most of my work on my office Desktop (Windows / i5 3550/16GB RAM) my office 2016 13" MacBook Air, or my desktop at home.

Since OSX plays better with our tech stack (Windows and Docker just don't seem to get along well at the moment) I decided this year it was time to go big or go home. Although i initially wanted the 32GB RAM version, i pulled the trigger on the 16GB version and haven't been having any problems so far.

The Specs/The Good/The Bad

Here's what the 2018 MBP comes with
CPU: Core i7 Coffee Lake i7-8750H (6 cores, 12 threads) at 2.20Ghz
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz
Graphics: Intel UHD630 / AMD Radeon Pro 555X 4GB VRAM
Storage: 256GB SSD
Display: 15.4" 2880 by 1800 Retina Display

The Good
  • Ridiculously fast for my tasks (Adobe CC/Sublime/Docker)
  • Faster than my 3rd Gen i7 desktop at home / 3rd Gen i5 desktop at work in a portable package
  • Much more thinner than the 2009 unibody MBP design
  • The trackpad... oh that trackpad. Also, its huge
  • The display is pretty bang on for color accuracy
The Bad
  • The Space Gray finish seems like it'll scratch easy
  • The lack of SD Card slots. I'm no pro photographer, but damn was it easy on my earlier MacBook to just plug that SD Card from my DSLR in and import things into Lightroom. I'm okay with the #donglelife for most things, but a lack of this on a supposed "Pro" machine really bums me out
  • Why oh why did they get rid of MagSafe? The Thunderbolt/USB-C ports are great, and i love the fact that you can charge the thing from any of the 4 damn ports, but man, if you trip on that wire, your machine is going to go flying across into the abyss

Benchmarks?

Not really into them, here's all i have
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The Pictures

This is my first review/writeup per se, so ill be editing and adding to this as i make more notes. Right now this is all my scattered brain could think of. So enjoy the pictures, folks!

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Cost was a pretty big burn in the pocket, 1,99,999, heh. Keyboard seems fine till date, the keys are mushier than a colleagues 2017 rMbp, I’m guessing that’s from the extra layer of protection they’ve added since the last keyboards kept messing up.

Also I’m making sure I don’t eat and type and drop crumbs on the keyboard anymore :)
 
Cost was a pretty big burn in the pocket, 1,99,999, heh. Keyboard seems fine till date, the keys are mushier than a colleagues 2017 rMbp, I’m guessing that’s from the extra layer of protection they’ve added since the last keyboards kept messing up.

Also I’m making sure I don’t eat and type and drop crumbs on the keyboard anymore :)

Hey there, I have also purchased the exact same model that you mentioned after using a 2012 MacBook Pro (the old one still works, but is sluggish when it comes to heavy duty tasks). I have bought two items that have made the transition (USB-C ports and the new keyboard) easier.

The first item is a keyboard protector. It is almost transparent and you can see the lettering on the keyboard even without the backlight on. So I guess it is pretty good. And even on typing furiously on the keyboard, it doesn't move the slightest (this is without pasting the adhesives). So I give full five ***** for this. Here's the link in case you need it:

https://www.amazon.com/UPPERCASE-Gh...stcover+premium+ultra+thin+keyboard+protector

The second item on the list is a USB-C hub. Sure it's all nice that you can charge from both the directions, but there are times when I still miss the old "legacy" ports. I tried looking up on Amazon and after lots of googling, I came to one conclusion. They are eye-wateringly pricy. Any proper USB-C hub (2 USB 3.0 ports, SD and TF card reader, 1 HDMI port and 2 USB-C ports (one supports Thunderbolt 3)) costed between $60-100. Then came one of the longest searches of my life! :D After so many days, I found a hub that has all the above ports for a fraction of the price (around 19 USD). Note that it is from a Chinese seller on eBay and you will get the parcel only after 20 days. But I did test it quite extensively with all the ports running simultaneously. I am pleased to report that after around 3+ hours of continuous usage, all it did was get a little warm (which is totally acceptable (just read some of the reviews from HyperDrive, the exact same hub as this for a cool $99 :D )). If you still want the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/7in1-USB-C...var=453085010930&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Do let me know how it goes!

Regards.
 
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