Conundrum
Since it doesn't make fiscal sense to have my Mac repaired—the estimate being only a couple hundred dollars less than the cost of a new machine—I am now faced with finding a replacement.
At the time I bought it four years ago, my machine was the top of the line: 3 GHz i7, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD…so obviously I'm going to want something similar.
Apple is still offering all models of the 2015 MacBook Pro (MagSafe, multiple ports, retina display), but with a refresh imminent, it's hard to say for how long they'll be available. With Ben's education discount, I can get a 2.7 GHz i5/8/512 for $1559. If I want to bump that up to a 3.1 GHz i7, the price jumps to $1829. Both of these are custom orders, so I can't just walk into an Apple Store and go home with one.
And this is where the conundrum comes in.
I can get the 2016 non-Touchbar model (2.4 GHz i7/8/512) for $1899. This would also be a custom order. For the same price I can get the Touchbar model with a faster processor (2.9 GHz i5/8/512)…and it's in stock.
When the Touchbar Macs came out last year I was immediately enthralled, but despite the "cool" factor, I still do question the ultimate usefulness of the feature. And then there's the whole loss-of-ports thing. How much of a problem that would ultimately be for me is probably overblown since the only items I connect via USB A/B are my Time Machine and occasionally my phone—and USB C to USB A/B adapters are readily available.
It's all kind of academic at this point since I can't do anything about this for a couple weeks. Let's just call it a birthday present to myself.
Thankfully I have Ben's old 2010 MacBook to use in the meantime. After several extremely frustrating hours I think I've finally beaten it into enough submission that it's now properly syncing messages with the phone and only occasionally prompting me to enter my Apple password to validate a piece of purchased software.
ouch