Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Buying MacBook Pro now vs. Waiting

C

contraband

macrumors member
Original poster
I'm having a really hard time! The geek in me really, really wants to pick up a MBP for college now, but I keep telling myself that maybe they'll release a smaller Pro model.... I was goofing around with my friend's 15" the other day, and the screen and everything seemed fine, it made me envious... It wasn't too heavy either, and I don't really plan on taking it to class every day. We even took it around in his car and it seemed perfectly sized/hefted! MacRumors says it's been ~90 days since the last hardware refresh, and historically it's ~180 days between updates, so it's a 50/50 there. They're just so nice looking, and I need to pick one up eventually anyway. University starts in a little less than a month, and if I wait that means I'll have to use a relatives laptop for a month or two, which sucks.

What do you guys think I should do? Get one now, or just sweat it out for what may or may not bring a smaller size? The more I think about it, the less I want to wait, I'm beginning to think a couple inches might not make that much of a difference after all...
 
i don't think the MBP will get a redesign until January 2008 at the earliest. if you need one now, get it now. whether you buy now or in 3 or 6 or 12 months, the technology will be roughly the same and will last roughly the same amount of time.
 
I'm in the same boat except I have no problem waiting since I'd like to have Leopard included and buy either a refurbished last gen or a new MBP depending on any new features.
 
I agree. Waiting for Leopard might make some sense, if the $60 or so that Leopard will cost you (as a student) will make a dent in your budget. I don't think it's realistic to expect any sort of form-factor changes to Apple's pro portable lineup and the Intel roadmap doesn't give any reason to expect groundbreaking updates any time soon.

I think the most likely case is that we'll see a tiny speed bump, maybe to 2.6GHz in early 2008 and potentially LED backlighting on the 17" flavor. Nothing worth waiting for. Now is a good time to buy a MBP, I think.
 
As far as the waiting is considered, the switch to Leopard isn't bothering me much. $60 is still $60, but if I waited it would only be to hold out for drastic hardware revisions, which apparently won't happen any time soon. Maybe it would be a good decision to just buy now and get situation asap.
 
I'm also in the same boat as you contraband and ricgnzlzcr..

I am gonna wait until after the 5th of September in case they announce the precise leopard release date - unlikely but possible. This will allow you to pick up a free (plus postage) copy of leopard when it lands in October.

Worth waiting a couple more days just in case. The next scheduled event after that is the Paris Apple expo but they don't historically release new products at this event apparently.

Now seems like a good time to buy as the long shipping times seem to be decreasing as the problems with the screens subside (Apple store in Oz is back to 2 weeks leadtime from the 3 weeks a couple of weeks ago). With a lot of people waiting until October for leopard and a possible speed bump supply may dry up again rather quickly in October.
 
Get one, you won't regret it once you do. You could wait forever for updates or be happy with your purchase, the decision is yours.
 
well, due to other reasons I couldn't pick one up before the 14th of september *anyway* so I have to wait until then regardless. I'm pretty sure that nothing will be announced between now and then, though.
 
Yep, now is a good time to buy. Wait for the 5th, and if there's no news of anything to do with MBPs, buy buy buy.
 
PCMacUser said:
Yep, now is a good time to buy. Wait for the 5th, and if there's no news of anything to do with MBPs, buy buy buy.
Click to expand...

I bet that the press meeting on the 5th will have nothing to do with the MacBook pro from the fact they just refreshed the line with faster chipsets and a new graphics chip, but that is in my opinion.
 
The 5th event looks like an ipod only event for me. I'm just wondering what the next update of the macbook pro's will look like since I can't see anything significant in the close future.
 
The only real concern I'd have is going to be the compatibility factor. If you buy now and get Tiger, you can rest assured that any app you want to get will be 100% compatible with your present OS. However, you may want to wait a bit after getting Leopard -- in any event -- before installing your apps, just to be sure there isn't some stupid compatibility glitch.

If you think you might regret missing out on some (probably token) CPU clock bumps, well... Remember, anything less than 15% improvement is below the human awareness threshold, and probably anything less than 25% is not worth the price premium you'll pay for it.

Now, on the other hand, if you're maybe thinking the graphics card will be bumped again and you're anxious about that, then you might want to wait a bit. CPU speed (within the bounds of reason) is not a significant factor where games are concerned; graphics card capability is.
 
MikeTheC said:
Now, on the other hand, if you're maybe thinking the graphics card will be bumped again and you're anxious about that, then you might want to wait a bit. CPU speed (within the bounds of reason) is not a significant factor where games are concerned; graphics card capability is.
Click to expand...

Aside from size, this was maybe the second big part of it. But, I was thinking about it, and the current graphics card really meets all my needs. I'm not very up to snuff on the latest and greatest, but if it can run games like Counter-Strike Source (my friend's 2.4ghz runs it perfectly, he says), then I'm completely fine with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back