Buying a new MBP.
 

So, a recent speed bump.

I'm looking for a new 13" MBP, but not desperate, so have time.

Buy now, or wait for the newer processor and maybe a new casing?

Any thoughts and/or insights appreciated!

I've said before that the last of the old MBPs is still a good run for your money. If you still need FireWire and Ethernet, and a DVD drive, then it's got lots going for it.

If a Retina screen outweighs those, then I would go with what is available now.

What are you planning to do with your MBP? For most uses -- including fairly heavy Creative Suite stuff -- then the present days models are more than good enough, and the extra 5% or so that the next model will provide is not going to be make or break.

I think benwiggy is correct about these pluses to the MacBook Pros. If you're in no rush, then maybe it's worth waiting to see if there's a pre-holiday season refresh. But if none of those qualities are of particular value to you I recommend an Air. It's lighter, has better battery life, and can handle with ease everything you've said elsewhere about your computer usage. And if you're willing to wait, there are rumors—always take with salt—that Apple may release a 12" Retina Air.

The lines have more or less all been refreshed recently and will not see updates until next generation of processors are available (there late) and perhaps some will get a design refresh, end of the year or beginning of next year.

In the recent refreshes Apple has nipped at the prices and boosted some default configurations and processor offerings.

I think the Retina 13 and 15 depending on your needs are really good systems. Its true that the ram has to be ordered at time of purchase and the SSD size while replaceable is also good to choose up front.

If your going to get an SSD and 8 to 16 GB of Ram the the 13 inch Retina is not much different price then the still available 2012 13 Inch Pro after you add upgrades to the 2012 (the exact difference depends on the size SSD and Ram you need/desire).

The 2014 Retinas do have a number of advantages in performance and come in i7 variants.

I of course like that 2012 has more upgradability but the 1 pound loss in weight in the Retina, additional ports and faster cpu/gpu speeds are worth it.

***** As far as when to dive in depends what your driving now and what your needs are.

I have 3 Macs at home. A 2010 13 with 8GB of Ram and SSD, A 2007 Macbook which is on its last legs, and my work 2013 13 Inch Retina.

If you have 2007 to 2010 Macbook/Macbook Pro the new machines are 2 to 3 times faster in CPU and potentially in GPU without counting the Quad Core 15 inch machines.

You may have noticed I have not recommended the Airs. There .5 pounds lighter then the Retina. They are slower, tend to have a smaller base Ram/SSD configuration and have less ports and do not come in 16GB ram option. Having Dual Thunderbolt and an HDMI port can be helpful in NOT running out of ports or resorting to a Dock. Most will sometimes want to use a Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adapter and drive an external display.

All that said the Airs are still around 2-3 times faster then 2010 and older machines and are at least $200 less then the Retina and so are more competitive with the 2012 price wise after adding SSD and Ram to the 2012.

Lastly do not forget that the 15 Inch Retina is same weight as the 2012 13 Inch and priced very close to the higher end 13 Inch Retina.

Some confirmation of what I posted.... Probable introduction of Some new machines by Year End and 1st and 2nd quarter availability for the whole line of Broadwell chips.


http://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/11/...ll-processors/

My reticence regarding the new Airs is the lower RAM configuration, in case a 16Gb BTO option is in the works and more ports would be nice. The SD card slot on the Pros would get some work, now I have a decent camera, hopefully.

I have time on my side, as a I don't often need a Mac on the road now and will take the 15" lump if absolutely necessary, so I'm trying to look ahead in terms of future-proofing.

I know it's a bit of a "what do you need it to do?" question, so just looking to keep it useable for 4-5 years. I got the older 15 MBP at such a cheap price that it takes care of my redundancy needs for a while and I can afford to look at something newer for my POS needs.

Having set up and used 100s of the Airs, Retina 13 and 15 I find the 13 Inch Retina and its 16GB option the sweet spot in what it offers. The 15 too is interesting not even BTO the default is now 16GB of RAM and its 4.4 Pounds same as 2012 13.

I recommend the 15s to People who need more screen real estate On the the Go or want the Quad Core and or Dedicated Video Card in the now higher end model. The 500GB is the default on the higher End Model anyway making the price a wash with the lower 15.

I have read more on which Broadwell chips will be out when. Only the lowest power sipping end parts perhaps even Sub-Air aka Microsoft Surface sort of thing will be available by the end of the year. The higher performing parts will be 1st to Second Quarter of 2015.

Totally agree about waiting if you have no need, things get better every year. I have been replacing my 2010 now for about 2 years. Kids and work leave me little time for use of my own computers:) That is really more question of money of course. I always find better uses for the money until the need is paramount.

The 13" Air also has an SD Card slot. As for ports, well, I can't see the machine footprint allowing for more, nice as that would be. RAM: I'd welcome 16GB if it were available, as I'm certain most of us here would, but having only 8GB hasn't caused me any issues with my Air in the year I've had it.

I can certainly respect the 4–5-year lifespan expectation. I operate similarly, and I don't see any reason today why I'd come up short with the Air I have.

As for the CPUs, maybe it's Intel, maybe it's Apple, maybe it's both companies, but I *feel* like history suggests getting initial generations of Macs with new CPUs leads to shortcomings. Namely, it *seems" as though those machines aren't as well optimized by the OS and that they are quicker to be cut off by later versions of the OS. But that's just my sense and may not be accurate.

So, would it follow that any casing redesign will follow the chipset availability? Part of my future-proofing is keeping it saleable, if there's no immediate family member getting it, so a newer style casing would be preferred.

I'll hang on for a few months then. Mind you, it's a blast from the past when I haul this 15" thing onto my shoulder, having had the 11" Air for four years.

Broadwell is Just another update of the iseries. It will not be totally new until the next Generation.

The extra ports I speak of are 2nd Thunderbolt and HDMI port. It allows you to drive a Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adapter and Monitor and or External TB storage. USB3 Ports on all systems make this less crucial, but Apple Ethernet adapters are TB. Plenty of USB3 ones work with Macs you just have to load the drivers.

As to form factor. Only really Apple knows. Were all just guessing. Is it a 12 Inch Air. All Airs with Retina. Changes to 13/15 Retina who knows. Those would be in ** Mid 2015.

As to 8GB vs 16GB. I like 16GB but not seen a perceptible difference, not have I measured. Of course comparing a Quad Core machine to Dual Core brings its own differences and new 15s only come with 16GB of Ram.

I would say if you were a DTP or Video Editing Pro, 3D Modeling etc the more RAM the better for the rest of us its a toss up. The 13 Inch Retina does have the 16GB option one of the reasons besides ports I recommend it.

Seems like a 13" Air is my best bet then, with 8Gb BTO. With any luck, there might be a 16Gb BTO by mid-next year. I've not really kept track of how far behind the Pros the Airs are from a RAM viewpoint. I'd forgotten about that model having the SD card slot. ��

Is it just me that thinks that the bezel on the Air is ugly and pretty dated now?

I don't see it that way, but this is obviously a subjective consideration.

Very subjective, agreed.

I don't recall it changing since the introduction of the Airs, has it?

Other than the white trim being black now, it doesn't look like it has.

Original 2008 Model: http://www.engadget.com/gallery/the-...#!slide=697944

My ill-informed presumption is that the display specs determine much of how the top half of the machine is designed.

So, apart from getting thinner, pretty much the same.

I know it shouldn't affect the buying decision (and I won't let it) but 6 years is a fair while in the computer business. Fingers crossed on the BTO RAM options next year then. From what I have read on here over the years, it beats processor speed and it's more of an issue now that it's soldered on. That smacks of built-in obsolescence to me.

Well, it's a design that doesn't have much room for dramatic changes unless key components—many of which come from third parties, like the display—are dramatically redesigned. As for the RAM, my understanding is that the soldering is part of the space-saving effort, and since the machine is so small, any extra space allows for more battery.

Do many other computer makers solder the RAM onto their smaller machines then? I don't really keep up with what PC makers are doing, tbh.

Screen-wise, the next gen must surely be retina, no? It doesn't make much difference to me, being document-focussed, but another nice spec to have for future resale purposes.

I don't follow other PC makers, either, so I have no idea. A quick search now shows at least a 2012 netbook (Asus) with soldered RAM and forum threads elsewhere with people asking why this is so common on netbooks and ultrabooks.

Inevitable progression, I suppose, if we want these ultra-portables. Fortunately, I still have my 15"-friendly Crumpler bag.

I have heard it said that 8Gb of RAM represents some sort of "sweet spot" under OS X's new memory management: 4 being too little and 16 being entirely unnecessary unless you're using VMs.

(I have 16s in my Macs, though.:p)

Interesting. MBP (8,2), with 16Gb is sitting here doing not much (1 x Preview window, Cal, Mail, Contacts, Notes, 9 x safari tabs, Messages and a single Excel sheet) and I'm using 6.3Gb.

I also have 23 million page faults in a VM that I didn't know I had!

Is the i7 much of an improvement over the i5 then?

Dual Core i7 are 15 to 30 Percent faster generally ( [Depends on which i5 and i7 even within same generation] Quad Core in 15 inch) is around 2X Faster.

Yes Apple with Airs and Retina ushered in Ultrabooks (the copies). These tend to have Soldered Ram to save space on sockets and allow for denser packaging in general.

Of course having options is nice there just BTO now. Apple while charging a bit of a Premium as do all manufactures is not totally out of line. It was nice to be able to do it later when prices came down or a process shrink allowed for denser modules aka when we could go from 4 to 8 or 8 to 16 in recent times. That said systems could not aways handle the new modules, not addressing all of it etc.

Moot point now its soldered in all but some Mini and iMac.

Here is Geekbench... Be sure to Click on 64bit Muli Core Tab

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

There are also test in bare feats.com and macworld, etc.

Remember that not all programs are Multicore aware and some top out at how many cores can be used. That said. Having at least a Quad Core is usually very helpful as Applications and OS have more to work with and most can and do take advantage of it.

Note too that Apple and others tend to bundle sometimes a good thing More Ram, More SSD Size, Better CPU/GPU in the higher end i7 configurations.

Sometimes it really is a free lunch adding 1 or 2 of these tops the price of the higher end model which may include it. If the options really do not make sense there not even offered, you will find them bundled in the higher end configuration.

And while I use to think Apple's choice were a smudge less flexible try looking at Dells for example there Gosh Awful. They for example just speaking of RAM, SSD and CPU not going in the terror of Monitor resolution choices on Win7 vs Win 8 machines..

You will find that there XPS15 selling for around $1700 to $2200 but offering almost no configuration options. Zero Ram options, no SSD except a Combo of an HD and small semi useless mSata 32gb. In order to get something similar to a Retina 15 you have to jump to a M3800 precision workstation starting for around $2500 and it does have good configuration options but again their tiered into Preset packages which then can be modded some.