Buy Retina 13" now or wait?

Consensus seems to be that it would only be a minor update to processor speed and not really anything to get excited over or delay for.

I've not read of any imminent update on the board or in any of my Mac magazines.

Barney

If you need it right now get it, but as its been said nothing to hold your breath for is expected so might as well get it now.

I really don't think an update is imminent. I think a Retina 12" Air will come out over the summer before the Pros are refreshed.

These 13" Pros have a lot to offer, so I'd buy one now if you need to.

Im in the same boat. As much as I would love to buy a new retina, I'm holding out for Broadwell, but also IGZO.

I hope this summer/late spring we see new ones, but I doubt it.

If you need confirmation that the Late 2013 rMBP's are good then I can safely say yet, they're fabulous. Any improvement in a near future version will be a processor update with some improved battery life, with the possibility of higher maximum ram, but I doubt it. 16GB is good enough for most people and the cost of the upgrade would be huge.
Get it

Gman021 said:

Im in the same boat. As much as I would love to buy a new retina, I'm holding out for Broadwell, but also IGZO.

I hope this summer/late spring we see new ones, but I doubt it.

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It's so funny to me that people need/want an item on the market but they "hold out" for something coming 6-8 months down the road. Do you not realize that 8-12 months after that, the tech you held out for will be outdated again. There is no sense waiting for anything. If you need the newest, then buy the newest and then sell and buy the newest again when it's refreshed.

It's the same thing with Applecare. Most people don't realize that they could just stop buying Applecare and for a tad bit more money sell their current MBP and buy the newest one every year.

accountforit said:

It's so funny to me that people need/want an item on the market but they "hold out" for something coming 6-8 months down the road. Do you not realize that 8-12 months after that, the tech you held out for will be outdated again. There is no sense waiting for anything. If you need the newest, then buy the newest and then sell and buy the newest again when it's refreshed.

It's the same thing with Applecare. Most people don't realize that they could just stop buying Applecare and for a tad bit more money sell there current MBP and buy the newest one every year.

Click to expand...

Interesting idea -- and pretty much true. I had a Powerbook for nearly 6 years then got a 2010 13" Core2Duo. Once the 13" got the Sandy Bridge upgrade a few months later, I sold the '10 for the '11 without taking much of a financial hit.

accountforit said:

It's so funny to me that people need/want an item on the market but they "hold out" for something coming 6-8 months down the road. Do you not realize that 8-12 months after that, the tech you held out for will be outdated again. There is no sense waiting for anything. If you need the newest, then buy the newest and then sell and buy the newest again when it's refreshed.

It's the same thing with Applecare. Most people don't realize that they could just stop buying Applecare and for a tad bit more money sell their current MBP and buy the newest one every year.

Click to expand...

Your assuming that the increase in technology is linear. The broadwell has potential to be much more significant than Haskell. We'll have to wait and see

Gman021 said:

Your assuming that the increase in technology is linear. The broadwell has potential to be much more significant than Haskell. We'll have to wait and see

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I doubt it will be 'significant' ... nothing like what we saw going to Sandy Bridge w/ the MacBooks. There hasn't been a whimper about what lies ahead for the MBP line, therefore it is a fine time to buy this generation.

Buy a refurb now..512/16 at $1699
Then if a late 2014 update or early 2015 is what you want

You can then sell yours still under warranty too

Just a thought

Gman021 said:

Your assuming that the increase in technology is linear. The broadwell has potential to be much more significant than Haskell. We'll have to wait and see

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Who cares if it's linear or not? Does the price change if it's not linear? Not normally. The principles are all the same. You can sell every year and be out very little money. Waiting for new technology is completely dumb. It's a never ending waiting game.

accountforit said:

Who cares if it's linear or not? Does the price change if it's not linear? Not normally. The principles are all the same. You can sell every year and be out very little money. Waiting for new technology is completely dumb. It's a never ending waiting game.

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The fact that the price doesn't change, as in go up, is clearly a positive. The Broadwell RMBP has much more to offer than just broadwell.

There won't be any substantial changes to the 13" rMBP until late this year - when Intel releases its new CPUs. If you are interested in having more RAM, you will need to wait until 2015 when DDR4 will become widely available.

Gman021 said:

The fact that the price doesn't change, as in go up, is clearly a positive. The Broadwell RMBP has much more to offer than just broadwell.

Click to expand...

Now you can tell the future?

You don't get the point. The new rMBP could come with a supermodel as well. There is still no sense in waiting for something 6-8 months down the road. Buy the current model, enjoy it, use it for what it is (a tool), and then sell it and buy the new one whenever it comes out.

Or don't buy it, continually come to this forum for the next 6-8 months wondering what is to come, buy the broadwell after all that waiting, and then regret your purchase one month after you buy it because there is a new rumor about "pornwell" that will be released early 2015.

If you want a trouble free computing experience now would be a good time to get a Oct 2013 rMBP because the initial hardware and software bugs have been pretty well worked out.

If you want a smaller and lighter rMB then you'll likely have to wait until late 2014 when a rumored 12" rMB Air may be available.

If you need it now buy it now. If you don't a bit of waiting won't hurt!

In all likelhood there is no update coming in the 1Q or even 2Q of the year so buy now, otherwise wait until the fall of 2014 for the Broadwell machines.

I doubt any new machines are announced before WWDC in June.

accountforit said:

It's the same thing with Applecare. Most people don't realize that they could just stop buying Applecare and for a tad bit more money sell their current MBP and buy the newest one every year.

Click to expand...

Very interesting thought. I've been holding off on AC until I got closer to the deadline. Will have to look hard at this calculation then.

~~~

On topic, one other factor to consider is the cost of SSD storage should continue to fall -- 256gb may become the 13" entry level standard and the cost for 512gb may become more reasonable -- if larger storage is important to the OP.