I've got a 2015 MBP, and unfortunately after constant use every day for the last 5 years, the screen has started to flicker, and I've finally had to admit that I need more RAM for things like Docker/Vagrant. Although the amount of spec you get for your money has always been a bit of an insult from Apple, the latest 13" line-up (not a fan of bigger sizes) seems insane.<p>My current laptop cost around £1200 new (5 years ago), and came with a 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM. The current cheapest 13" MBP costs £1300 and sports a tiny 128GB SSD and still 8GB RAM.<p>If I select the 3rd (of 4) most expensive laptop, which has a reasonable CPU (albeit 8th gen), then bump the RAM to a realistic 16GB, and the SSD to 512GB, the price is £2179, which is insane. From Dell I can get the same spec, with a 10th gen CPU, for about £500 less.<p>I've used Mac for the last 18 or so years and would consider myself a Pro user, but it feels like madness to spend over £2000 on a machine that's on an older spec CPU than most competitors, for a lot more price.<p>If anyone from Apple is reading this, screw you for making the emoji bar mandatory and not giving the 13" MBP a physical escape key.
As of three years now my MBP 2015 is running ChromeOS so my next laptop would be probably something like Pixelbook Go (2 pounds, decent keyboard, 16GB)<p>But since ChromeOS can run on just about anything (I use as a spare laptop ChromeOS on $100 Thinkpad x230) I really do not have to worry about upgrading MBP 2015.<p>For the sake of the planet I will probably go for anything available 2-nd hand with decent screen.
As a lifelong Mac user, it seems 2015 MBP was "peak Apple" and I've also been frustrated with more recently released machines.<p>This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but - I built a desktop Hackintosh for flexibility, repairability, extensibility. It dual-boots Ubuntu, for now. I'm migrating off of macOS gradually, and looking at Thinkpads for laptop.
Also, as a secondary question, is there any physical difference between a US MBP, and a UK MBP, other than the charger? The same £2179 laptop in the US (with taxes) comes to £1792. I have some family in the US that visit annually, so a saving of almost £400 would be nice.