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Shall I buy a new MacBook Pro this year or wait for an update?

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Shiggy

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After the Windows 10 update first resulted in a fatal system error, leading me to format my entire HDD and OS, Windows 10 is still rendering my current notebook basically useless (constant crashes, having to take out the battery 10 times to have the notebook start after putting it into standby mode, battery lasting only 4-5 hours instead of 7 hours, not connecting to my Wi-Fi router anymore, extreme slowdown). With that in mind, I cannot really be bothered to put Windows 7 on my 5-year-old notebook again and am instead looking into buying a completely new notebook. Not just because of Windows 10 but also because my student friends around me all have trouble with their Windows ultrabooks (extremely short battery time, crashes), I am looking into an Apple notebook.


My main notebook uses and needs:
- Office
- Browser
- Indie games (most of them are also Mac-compatible)
- Portability (13" display and low weight)


So is an update for the MacBook Pro series expected for this year? Is the current one good enough or would the update be a major one? I could wait until February 2016.


Please no Surface Pro suggestions. That device is not suited for my needs, I find it rather useless as a tablet due to the lack of apps, and for me it would be significantly more expensive than a MacBook Pro.
 
Shiggy said:
Please no Surface Pro suggestions. That device is not suited for my needs, I find it rather useless as a tablet due to the lack of apps, and for me it would be significantly more expensive than a MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

Fine.

Buy a Surface Book.
 
I wouldn't wait. I've worked for an Apple seller, and the best recommendation I can make is search Best Buy open box items by area. Very often you can use it alongside coupons and save yourself a ton of money.
 
If you can wait through February, wait it out. If nothing is announced by then, get the latest model. If you can't wait, just get the latest retina model.

MacBook Pros will last you a while. I'm on my 6th year and it's still going strong.
 
Good Job Bob said:
What would really be worth waiting for is a new MacBook Air design with Retina.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Unless you have the disposable income, the MBP Retina is no more or less an inconvenience.

If money isn't an issue, and you want something light where your dollar doesn't match up to performance? Go for it.
 
The 13" Retina MBP is among one of Apple's best products right now. My sister just got one, and I got the chance to use it. Absolutely fantastic. That said, if you can wait it out, you might want to. It really all depends on just how badly the wait will be for you.... but you certainly can't go wrong if you buy it now.

Avoid the non-retina models however.
 
If you need it, get it.

Take a peek on Mac Buyers guide, to see if it's worth waiting, say a few weeks, but otherwise I generally recommend getting something that you need.

Why?

Because you can win or lose in the waiting game. Sure you might get latest tech, or speed bumps with an update for the same price, but you might also get a redesign with less features.

I will admit that the old model probably would still be available if that were to happen, as retailers may have stock.

In addition though, I'm in a country where the price for Apple products fluctuate according to.exchange rate. A few weeks ago all the MacBook pros took a 20% price hike. That's what can happen here for waiting.

I bought my 2012 iMac in 2013 around June. Rumours suggested an update at the time, I waited until wwdc passed and after nothing happened just pulled the trigger. Still have that machine and it runs super well. That October they updated it by removing the dedicated graphics, and a slight bump in processor (mostly for battery life enhancements that mean nothing on iMac).

Then no updates to the model for 2 more years.


The last thing I will say about waiting, is that getting a new model has its own caveats. They will be new production run machines and potentially untested hardware for the longer term.

Established models have a higher chance that bad components are weeded out.
 
INST said:
Fine.

Buy a Surface Book.
Click to expand...

3 hours of battery life don't sound that great for the tablet thingie. Even then, it's currently not announced for the Asian region and I'm not gonna pay the European price.


Sanjuro said:
I wouldn't wait. I've worked for an Apple seller, and the best recommendation I can make is search Best Buy open box items by area. Very often you can use it alongside coupons and save yourself a ton of money.
Click to expand...

I get the student discount plus I'd either get it from Singapore or buy it myself in Hong Kong. Those discounts are much more significant than any price decreases I've seen here in Europe. Even the used 2013 models with a similar configuration are worth more on Ebay right now than what I would be paying in Asia.


Sanjuro said:
I disagree. Unless you have the disposable income, the MBP Retina is no more or less an inconvenience.

If money isn't an issue, and you want something light where your dollar doesn't match up to performance? Go for it.
Click to expand...

Yup, I think the MBP is better value. Retina screen, HDMI port included.


Sophia said:
The 13" Retina MBP is among one of Apple's best products right now. My sister just got one, and I got the chance to use it. Absolutely fantastic. That said, if you can wait it out, you might want to. It really all depends on just how badly the wait will be for you.... but you certainly can't go wrong if you buy it now.

Avoid the non-retina models however.
Click to expand...

RastaMentality said:
I'm waiting for the Skylake/Type-C model but I'd recommend it's probably best you just get it now.
Click to expand...

I could either get it in December or in February. It's more of a question whether it will come out by February but I realise Apple is more secretive than I would have guessed (not following PC hardware at all).
 
Shiggy said:
I get the student discount plus I'd either get it from Singapore or buy it myself in Hong Kong. Those discounts are much more significant than any price decreases I've seen here in Europe. Even the used 2013 models with a similar configuration are worth more on Ebay right now than what I would be paying in Asia.
Click to expand...

Yeah, got for it. If you were in the states that is what I would recommend though. I purchased my 2014 MBP Retina for $850 if I recall, which would be dumb to pass up. At the time I just needed a new laptop to finish up school.
 
If you get the 13" non-retina, then upgrade to 8gb ram. I used a 4gb MBP for several years and it was almost not enough. The memory compression feature in Mavericks helped but did slow down the computer noticeably (but not nearly as slow as using the paging file).

Also, get a SSD, they're so cheap now that's it's stupid not to have one. When I dropped my old SSD into my mac boot times went from over 2 minutes to 22 seconds.
 
The last update was in march, so you'd be waiting 6 months for the new one. Not really worth it considering they'll more than likely just be marginal updates.
 
Shiggy said:
3 hours of battery life don't sound that great for the tablet thingie.
Click to expand...


Hold on, you said you were not interested in the tablet. When used with its keyboard ( and dGPU) it is a completely different story. Lacks of apps? It's the Windows platform.... Its in the title that you want a MacBook. Might as well not answer those that suggest a non Mac product at all.



Buy what you need now. These happy feelings of having the latest and greatest on launch wears off very quickly. There is nothing really a new Mac couldn't do that a previous Mac already does software wise within the last 4 years.
 
QualityPixel said:
If you get the 13" non-retina, then upgrade to 8gb ram. I used a 4gb MBP for several years and it was almost not enough. The memory compression feature in Mavericks helped but did slow down the computer noticeably (but not nearly as slow as using the paging file).

Also, get a SSD, they're so cheap now that's it's stupid not to have one. When I dropped my old SSD into my mac boot times went from over 2 minutes to 22 seconds.
Click to expand...

Would 8GB be enough? My current Win10 notebook has 4GB and the HDD seems to be more of a bottleneck.


MarsMartin said:
Hold on, you said you were not interested in the tablet. When used with its keyboard ( and dGPU) it is a completely different story. Lacks of apps? It's the Windows platform.... Its in the title that you want a MacBook. Might as well not answer those that suggest a non Mac product at all.
Click to expand...

I don't see a need for a touch screen unless it's a tablet with good apps. Should have been more specific.
While the SurfaceBook does look somewhat good, it has features that I don't need and is significantly more expensive than the MacBook Pro I would buy. Not to forget I got really burnt by Windows 10 and have no intentions to buy another of their products (while all my friends and family are still happy with their 2-5-year-old MacBooks).

When looking at the MacBook Pro and comparable configurations of Windows PCs, the Mac premium isn't that high with the Mac discounts I could get.
 
I'm waiting personally.

I don't need one immediately (my late 2010 MBA is still doing good), and I don't want to kick myself if there's a major revamp in Feb/March.
 
The MacBook Pros (13") just got the "Force Touch" trackpads this year, so it's unlikely there will be another major change next year besides updated internals, which probably won't be a huge performance gain.

I say go for it. 13" w/ 8GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD is the way to go, in my opinion. Should last you a good long while for what you want to do with it.
 
Shiggy said:
After the Windows 10 update first resulted in a fatal system error, leading me to format my entire HDD and OS, Windows 10 is still rendering my current notebook basically useless (constant crashes, having to take out the battery 10 times to have the notebook start after putting it into standby mode, battery lasting only 4-5 hours instead of 7 hours, not connecting to my Wi-Fi router anymore, extreme slowdown). With that in mind, I cannot really be bothered to put Windows 7 on my 5-year-old notebook again and am instead looking into buying a completely new notebook. Not just because of Windows 10 but also because my student friends around me all have trouble with their Windows ultrabooks (extremely short battery time, crashes), I am looking into an Apple notebook.


My main notebook uses and needs:
- Office
- Browser
- Indie games (most of them are also Mac-compatible)
- Portability (13" display and low weight)


So is an update for the MacBook Pro series expected for this year? Is the current one good enough or would the update be a major one? I could wait until February 2016.


Please no Surface Pro suggestions. That device is not suited for my needs, I find it rather useless as a tablet due to the lack of apps, and for me it would be significantly more expensive than a MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
WAIT for Skylake Iris. It's a noticeable jump from Broadwell Iris.

Spork4000 said:
The last update was in march, so you'd be waiting 6 months for the new one. Not really worth it considering they'll more than likely just be marginal updates.
Click to expand...
Skylake Iris is not marginal.
 
As the other guys have said, if you wait for February or March, you'll be in for a nice update.

But that's 3 or 4 months.
 
brian577 said:
Are they really that bad? I'm thinking about getting one next year, rather have the storage, the ports and the optical drive.
Click to expand...

They have 3 years old processors and graphics, you don't want that.

@op
I would never buy a MBP right now, the skylake refresh is just too close and 2 generations above what's current
 
Waiting is worthless. The gains aren't noticeable. Furthermore, go for a refurb and save yourself some money. Check refurb.me for a complete listing of the Apple store refurb stock.
 
Sophia said:
The 13" Retina MBP is among one of Apple's best products right now. My sister just got one, and I got the chance to use it. Absolutely fantastic. That said, if you can wait it out, you might want to. It really all depends on just how badly the wait will be for you.... but you certainly can't go wrong if you buy it now.

Avoid the non-retina models however.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. I can't wait to get mine maxed out in a few months.
 
Good Job Bob said:
What would really be worth waiting for is a new MacBook Air design with Retina.
Click to expand...

I do not understand, and never will understand, why anyone would want a Retina Macbook Air.

1) I love my Macbook Air, but the screen isn't exactly great. It's not IPS. It has crappy viewing angles. It's not terrible by any means, but resolution is DEFINITELY not the first thing I would fix.

2) Y'know what I love about the Macbook Air? That despite being ridiculously small, it's actually not underpowered. As long as you're not doing heavy duty video editing or photoshop work, it'll do pretty much anything you want it to, quickly. Do you know how you COULD make the Macbook Air underpowered? By making it push twice as many pixels!

I won't even go into battery life, weight, etc. Yes, the 12-inch Macbook Air has great battery and is really light despite having a retina screen, but Apple made a LOOOOOOT of compromises to get there, and the resulting machine is pretty terrible.
 
I strongly advise you check the Apple official refurb store. You can get brand new rMBPs that have expensive options added on for less than the base model. I have bought my last three laptops off the official Apple refurb store and all three have been stellar, with no issues whatsoever. And I got stuff like a 512gb SSD and a 2.8 ghz i5 model for way less than the standard price.

The resale value means if you keep it in great condition you can make back a lot of what you paid after a year or 18 months or so. Makes the idea of buying a new one a lot more affordable.
 
i'm waiting for the MBP to be refreshed with skylake and usb-c ports. basically because i'm in no rush and it'll be just a second computer. if you need it now and don't mind not having skylake/usb-c then sure get it now.
 
I got a refurbished Retina MacBook Pro late 2013 model in July last year (2.6 GHz Intel Core i5, 512gb SSD, 8GB ram). I'm glad I went for the larger SSD rather over more ram, 8gb has been fine.

If I am not paying attention and use it as normal then I easily get 5-6 hours battery life. If I turn off Dropbox, lower the brightness a couple of notches and use Safari instead of Chrome then I easily get 9-10+ hours.

My only complaint is that sometimes it can take 20-30 sec to reconnect to my WiFi after having it sleeping with the lid closed for a while. This always strikes me as odd when my phone/tablet seem to connect instantly.

You wanted it for:
office, browser, indie games, portability - it does all of those very well

A newer one might have slightly longer battery life or play "AAA" games a bit better - is that worth waiting 6+ months for?
 
Decided not to wait. Ordered the one with 256GB for 1020€, regular student price is 1550€. Don't think I can get a similar deal anytime soon as I won't be meeting the right people.
 
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