I’ve got the 2018 model, 15” with most specs maxed out. It’s been a wonderful daily driver for my development work. If you liked your 2017 then it’s the same machine, just with better internals, so you’ll probably feel exactly the same about it.

I think the i9 used to run into some throttling and performance issues. I'm not sure if that's been fixed yet - in general an i7 might be better bang for your buck in a laptop anyway since you're going to struggle no matter what with a laptop to take advantage of an i9

For what it's worth, my day job just involves writing code. I'm not doing anything too fancy on it at all.

If I do get the MacBook, should I go for the i7 or the i9? Assume that the cost difference in making the leap is half (I can get about a 40% reimbursement on the total cost).

I consider it bad capitalism. A kid if possible. But I understand if you need to hit compile on an iOS app

Follow up: I got the 2019 i7.

Thanks for the feedback.

No. Get a Dell.

If I get a Dell I'd have to opt for a Hackintosh. There are just too many little things in MacOS that I find are important to me and they're really difficult to replicate across in GNU/nix.

I find this is a fair point. No need to do another rant about Apple.

The one thing to consider (I am sure you do) is just what kind of non-Apple-hardware you could get for the same amount of money you are willing to spend. The difference is the entrance fee for Mac software. I am not a Mac user, but both Linux desktop and Linux-on-Windows got quite mature in the last years