Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

I'm looking around for a new work setup for a software development environment. I can choose freely both for software and for hardware and since I like macOS and use it myself for quite some time the choice seemed obvious.

My problem is, for a decent upgrade both in RAM and disk space I have to go for a $2199 model (the new MacBook Pro touch bar with 16GB RAM and 512GB disk) which seems to leave almost no budget left for anything besides the monitor.

So, having said this, I do have a question: do you believe that this year's MacBook Pro is worth this value? I'm willing to give up some things from my setup (likely a usb-c dock that I'll buy on my own later for example) if it really means I'm getting a laptop that's worth it.

The primary reason I'm inclined to go with this year's model is the T2 chip that I believe to be of significant value for its added security during boot, Touch ID, disk encryption and camera and microphone processing. This is something I personally value but I wasn't able to find much technical reviews about this chip that would prove its worth to me.

I don't particularly care for the touch bar (I admit it may be useful, but in my opinion they should've only added it above the function keys and only if it didn't mean a great bump in price) so, apart from the reason above I'd be open to choose another model.

What's your opinion on the current MacBook Pro offering?

PS: I do have to say though that all their pro hardware seems to be very overpriced for their current offerings and even though I love their products I have to admit that if I really were in the market for a personal laptop, I'd have a very difficult time choosing myself between a Mac or a PC.

My decision came down to a few things:

1.) I hate the touch bar and you can pry the function keys out of my cold, dead hands. (I like saying that.)

2.) To get an MBP that will provide enough power for me, I'd need to upgrade to a touch bar only model.

3.) MBPs are seriously expensive.

4.) There are other, really good machines that can run real operating systems and provide all the power for a fraction of the cost.

5.) To get an MBP with similar performance to those other machines, I would have to pay approximately $1,000 more. If I invested that money in an RESP (a registered educational savings plan, it's a Canadian thing), I'm pretty sure my girl could afford an extra semester in University.

I’m delighted with iMac. The monitor is amazing, and it has quite a bit more horsepower than a comparable Mac laptop.

I would much rather have purchased 2 MacBook Airs for the price. (I do web development and the MacBook Airs are surprisingly fast for my purposes.)

But more likely I’ll go with something like a Lenovo next time. With Apple much less willing to honor its warranties I don’t feel anchored to its computers, which I used to love, anymore.

(1) combing a no-fuss GUI and the ability to run most major proprietary apps with a UNIX underpinning. If you also want to combine that with multimedia work (serious photo and video editing, graphic and print design, DAW work, Linux is a no-player, you need either Windows or OS X. Yes, there's Inscape and a few other tools, but only outliers use them and you'll be missing on almost all major tools and commercial products).

(2) some not-found-elsewhere niceties in the hardware (great trackpad, fine display, sturdy all-one metallic, construction, top-notch SSDs, no-fuss sleep/wake, nice latch, great aesthetic, and such).

(3) works nicely as an ecosystem of products

(4) Finally, it's in resale value.

It's value is not and has never been in bang for the buck or big performance.

And it has lost points regarding (2) through the loss of magsafe (another handy exclusive feature), worsening of the keyboard, and drop of some handy ports.

>PS: I do have to say though that all their pro hardware seems to be very overpriced

Some of it is (e.g. Macbook Air/Mini/etc are long in the tooth, at this point you're paying just for the privilege of using OS X, which many don't care about that much). But their costlier models are not really overpriced, they're just high-end.

I often look to get a comparable machine for Windows, and when you add the same things from machines from Dell, IBM, Razer, you get at the same price range very soon. I'm not talking about some custom rig desktop with faster cpu and gpu, but about getting something comparable at all levels (their top of the line laptop machine, comparable monitor, ssd, construction, etc).

For me it's still worth it. I like OS X, do lots of programming work (some native, some remote thru SSH), lots of multimedia with Adobe apps and DAWs, hate tinkering (and even more so hardware tinkering and custom rigs), and don't mind paying a premium for something I use 10+ hours each day. I also don't work with .NET, in which case I'd use Windows.