A couple weeks ago when Best Buy had their 10% open box special and RZ triple points, I bought a 13" MBA that didn't even have a battery cycle on it. Works great and all and seems to suit my needs. My out-the-door price after tax, coupon, and RZ certs earned was $875.
I am still tempted by the 13" rMBP and with the recent price drop, the Apple refurb site has the 128 GB version for $1269 and the 256 GB version for $1359. My main deterrent in the past was lag, but I read recently that these nightly webkit updates have pretty much fixed it. Previously when I tried one side-by-side against a MBA, the lower spec'd MBA seemed faster because it didn't lag.
I have Discover card and with the 5% cash back on top of the 1% standard cash back, it wipes out the tax for where I live if I go the Apple Refurb route. I am still well within my return window for the MBA back to Best Buy.
So...., while it seems like a sweet machine that I want, is it worth almost $400 to upgrade to the 128 GB 13" rMBP or a bit under $500 to go to the 256 GB 13" rMBP? At the moment, I only use about 60-65 GB of space on my MBA since I have a home server PC for all the media files.
To go to 13" 128 GB rMBP from my current 13" MBA:
Thanks for your feedback. I added a poll as well.
UPDATE: As noted below, the Apple Refurb I received had a free upgraded processor (i7 2.9)! The bullets above remain the same, except the processor is now about 26% faster than my 13" MBA was. Woohoo!
I am still tempted by the 13" rMBP and with the recent price drop, the Apple refurb site has the 128 GB version for $1269 and the 256 GB version for $1359. My main deterrent in the past was lag, but I read recently that these nightly webkit updates have pretty much fixed it. Previously when I tried one side-by-side against a MBA, the lower spec'd MBA seemed faster because it didn't lag.
I have Discover card and with the 5% cash back on top of the 1% standard cash back, it wipes out the tax for where I live if I go the Apple Refurb route. I am still well within my return window for the MBA back to Best Buy.
So...., while it seems like a sweet machine that I want, is it worth almost $400 to upgrade to the 128 GB 13" rMBP or a bit under $500 to go to the 256 GB 13" rMBP? At the moment, I only use about 60-65 GB of space on my MBA since I have a home server PC for all the media files.
To go to 13" 128 GB rMBP from my current 13" MBA:
- $400 more
- Retina display
- 7% faster processor (per 64-bit GeekBench scores)
- 4 GB more RAM
- HDMI port
- 2nd Thunderbolt port
- Weighs 0.6 lb more
Thanks for your feedback. I added a poll as well.
UPDATE: As noted below, the Apple Refurb I received had a free upgraded processor (i7 2.9)! The bullets above remain the same, except the processor is now about 26% faster than my 13" MBA was. Woohoo!
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