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Wait Until 2012 for MacBook Pro REDESIGN?

M

modit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2008
340
37
Canada
I've been waiting since October '10 for the MacBook Pro refresh. I think it's coming in April but I don't mind waiting till June if it ships with lion, the free iPod touch student promotion and with SSD and no optical drive.

However, my feelings is that this year's update won't be getting a redesign with Liquidmetal or getting Lightpeak (USB 3.0 competitor) since it's about a year out for both.

If that's the case, should I just buy the new 2011 MacBook Pro or buy a discounted 2010 MacBook Pro and sell it for the 2012 version. Either way, I want the complete redesigned one; it's just which path is the least expensive to get it.

I really hope that a redesign happens this year. At least they should be dropping the optical drive.

Alas, speculating has killed a part of me inside. The wait for my first Mac continues :(
 
modit said:
I've been waiting since October '10 for the MacBook Pro refresh. I think it's coming in April but I don't mind waiting till June if it ships with lion, the free iPod touch student promotion and with SSD and no optical drive.

However, my feelings is that this year's update won't be getting a redesign with Liquidmetal or getting Lightpeak (USB 3.0 competitor) since it's about a year out for both.

If that's the case, should I just buy the new 2011 MacBook Pro or buy a discounted 2010 MacBook Pro and sell it for the 2012 version. Either way, I want the complete redesigned one; it's just which path is the least expensive to get it.

I really hope that a redesign happens this year. At least they should be dropping the optical drive.

Alas, speculating has killed a part of me inside. The wait for my first Mac continues :(
Click to expand...

Guess you need to take a step back and review your needs. If the current model does what you need, go for it - if not, wait. There is no need to always have the latest of everything - it's nice, but not a must.
 
The least expensive option for you will be to wait until the MBP of your dreams is available.

Until then, stick with what you have.
 
I love all you of you...Liquid metal this, liquid metal that. You only want it so you can say my laptop has LIQUID METAL. There is nothing wrong with the current design, buy it and take care of it and you wont have to worry about scratches.
 
0815 said:
Guess you need to take a step back and review your needs. If the current model does what you need, go for it - if not, wait.
Click to expand...

Don't tell me "Need it now = buy, Don't need it now = wait"...that's my line :p

I can guarantee my needs are like every University freshman (i.e. nothing much that even a 2008 MacBook Pro can do).

A better screen wouldn't hurt either.

greytmom said:
The least expensive option for you will be to wait until the MBP of your dreams is available.

Until then, stick with what you have.
Click to expand...

I have nothing :p I'm not naïve!

tjb1 said:
I love all you of you...Liquid metal this, liquid metal that. You only want it so you can say my laptop has LIQUID METAL. There is nothing wrong with the current design, buy it and take care of it and you wont have to worry about scratches.
Click to expand...

You read my soul...although LM has alot going for it so I'd like to enjoy the improvements.
 
tjb1 said:
I love all you of you...Liquid metal this, liquid metal that. You only want it so you can say my laptop has LIQUID METAL. There is nothing wrong with the current design, buy it and take care of it and you wont have to worry about scratches.
Click to expand...

Preach! That's all this board is full of man. It's like the Call of Duty Black Ops maps. 5 hours before the maps release all the current maps were fine. Then after they released 4 multiplayer maps all of a sudden the others sucked and no one wanted to play them. It's the same on this board. People crying sandy bridge and liquid metal just because they can.

Most of them won't be using the MBP with sandy bridge for anything other than facebook. You have a few professionals on here but for the most part it's just fanboys that want to say I have the new MBP. It's really annoying because this is a great board but all the BS threads have caused me to just get with a local MAC community and come here less. This board still gives great info and advice but it's so unorganized and you have to sift through tons of BS threads to find what you need.

For gods sake why has there not been a sticky for new MBP refresh speculation? Instead we have over 250 threads on the same subject. I really don't understand the mods here. Clean the clutter and the board would be a better and smoother experience.
 
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I don't think a full redesign is coming for a while though. They stuck with the last design for 6 or 7 years (carried over from the PowerBook G4). Plus, the current design gives them basically everything they want. I could see the LM change, but I'm not sure what would happen other than that. Maybe they'll ditch the optical in the 13" Pro, but I'm not so sure about that.
 
We are way ahead in design terms for a laptop compared to virtually everybody else.

Personally I don't see much wrong with the MBP case design, but USB 3.0 and OS X Lion would be nice of course. Just like the Power Mac G5 came up with a pretty universal case which lasted until now with multiple Xeon processors, I think the MBP case design is pretty solid.

If you want ultralight, that's what the MBA is for.

So let's keep what is a great case design and let the USBs pump out v. 3.0, 4.0 etc and ship MBP as it is with Snow Leopard if that's the latest at the time months from now, then Lion, and then OS X (whatever cat they come up with) for the next version. It's what is on the inside that counts after a great case design is put together and well received as it has been.

There is a lot of speculation about dropping the optical drive, as if it's a dead tech part like a Zip drive or Floppy, but again if you want to fully ditch optical drives, do it with MBA.
 
modit said:
I have nothing :p I'm not naïve!
Click to expand...

You've got something, or we wouldn't be enjoying this conversation.

But, if you really don't have anything and you are borrowing a friend's computer or posting from work, then buy the cheapest thing you can get your hands on until the design you'll be happy with shows up.

In other words, I'm not sure I'd go with a MBP at all right now, if my sole intention was to get rid of it the minute the design changes.
 
devilstrider said:
Preach! That's all this board is full of man. It's like the Call of Duty Black Ops maps. 5 hours before the maps release all the current maps were fine. Then afte......
.
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Finally a voice of reason. There are very very few people whose needs cannot be met by an existing MBP. With the 13" MBP the biggest seller, it seems obvious that it works well enough.

My 13" MBP is more than I really need. I have less than 40GB in use on a 160GB drive. It's 2.26 C2D, and is pefectly fine for what I do, which is probably similar to a large number of people. My wife uses an iBook G4 1.33 mhz with a gig of RAM for websurfing and e-mail and it is enough for her.

And look at all the early adopters from the other companies who got SB machines and now have to have them replaced. I'd rather have proven troublefree technology.
 
modit said:
You read my soul...although LM has alot going for it so I'd like to enjoy the improvements.
Click to expand...

What improvements? Stronger? Lighter? The aluminum unibody they use now is very light, probably only 20% of the whole computers weight. Its not very thick and I dont care what metal you use, if you make it as thin as Apple does to make the computer small and fit everything in then its going to dent or flex.

The screen has a high enough resolution, FW800 is fast enough and Sandy Bridge isnt bringing much of anything over the current Arrandale.

Cant you just be happy that the MBP is made out of aluminum, can be outfitted with a Hi-Res screen besides the 13", has a lighted keyboard, multitouch trackpad, built in bluetooth, great batteries, FW800, USB, SD Card, Ethernet, MDP, Line In and Out, CD Drive, Webcam, and good Speakers...oh and the updates Apple releases are useful and include something unlike the 400 Security Updates that Microsoft releases weekly.
 
tjb1 said:
What improvements? Stronger? Lighter? The aluminum unibody they use now is very light, probably only 20% of the whole computers weight. Its not very thick and I dont care what metal you use, if you make it as thin as Apple does to make the computer small and fit everything in then its going to dent or flex.

The screen has a high enough resolution, FW800 is fast enough and Sandy Bridge isnt bringing much of anything over the current Arrandale.

Cant you just be happy that the MBP is made out of aluminum, can be outfitted with a Hi-Res screen besides the 13", has a lighted keyboard, multitouch trackpad, built in bluetooth, great batteries, FW800, USB, SD Card, Ethernet, MDP, Line In and Out, CD Drive, Webcam, and good Speakers...oh and the updates Apple releases are useful and include something unlike the 400 Security Updates that Microsoft releases weekly.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it man. Nothing but improved looks and that's just a opinion that will vary from person to person.
 
tjb1 said:
What improvements? Stronger? Lighter? The aluminum unibody they use now is very light, probably only 20% of the whole computers weight. Its not very thick and I dont care what metal you use, if you make it as thin as Apple does to make the computer small and fit everything in then its going to dent or flex.

The screen has a high enough resolution, FW800 is fast enough and Sandy Bridge isnt bringing much of anything over the current Arrandale.

Cant you just be happy that the MBP is made out of aluminum, can be outfitted with a Hi-Res screen besides the 13", has a lighted keyboard, multitouch trackpad, built in bluetooth, great batteries, FW800, USB, SD Card, Ethernet, MDP, Line In and Out, CD Drive, Webcam, and good Speakers...oh and the updates Apple releases are useful and include something unlike the 400 Security Updates that Microsoft releases weekly.
Click to expand...

"Due to their non-crystalline (amorphous) structures, Liquidmetals are harder than alloys of titanium or aluminum used in similar applications. The zirconium and titanium based Liquidmetal alloys achieved yield strength of over 1723 MPa, nearly twice the strength of conventional crystalline titanium alloys (Ti6Al4V is ~830 MPa), and about the strength of high-strength steels and some highly engineered bulk composite materials."

"They retain a scratch-free surface longer than competing materials, while still being made in complex shapes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidmetal

I don't think we'll see amorphous metals used in this refresh, however, as you can see, they offer several benefits over your everyday aluminum. Sandy Bridge might only be a 10-20% increase in performance over Arrendale, but then again, not everyone who's looking forward to Sandy Bridge is using a 15" with an i7 in it. For someone like me who will be coming from a 2007 C2D, Sandy Bridge will be a much welcome increase in performance, not to mention a probable gpu update.
 
devilstrider said:
Preach! That's all this board is full of man. It's like the Call of Duty Black Ops maps. 5 hours before the maps release all the current maps were fine. Then after they released 4 multiplayer maps all of a sudden the others sucked and no one wanted to play them. It's the same on this board. People crying sandy bridge and liquid metal just because they can.

Most of them won't be using the MBP with sandy bridge for anything other than facebook. You have a few professionals on here but for the most part it's just fanboys that want to say I have the new MBP. It's really annoying because this is a great board but all the BS threads have caused me to just get with a local MAC community and come here less. This board still gives great info and advice but it's so unorganized and you have to sift through tons of BS threads to find what you need.

For gods sake why has there not been a sticky for new MBP refresh speculation? Instead we have over 250 threads on the same subject. I really don't understand the mods here. Clean the clutter and the board would be a better and smoother experience.
Click to expand...

PREACH, PREACH PREACH BROTHA!

I have been doing music prodction for almost 15 years and have lusted for a Mac for quite some time. I recently put the cash together to get something nice and ALMOST got caught up in all this refresh, sandybridge hype...then realised that what was available out there WAS AMAZING and there wasn't any reason to wait. Just popped the cash down on a 15", 2.66 GHZ i7 MBP and I sure as hell won't be looking back.
 
Dear OP

You have no proof that MBP will be redesigned in 2012. May I please see where you got this idea?

Might as well as wait for Pigs to fly.
 
I'm still waiting on 2011 MBP, and you're already talking about deciding between the 2011 and 2012 models?

Let's see what 2011 has to offer first.
 
Merkava_4 said:
What's going to be in place of the optical drive when they delete it? Empty space? :confused:
Click to expand...

another hard drive, better battery, discrete gpu, thinner macs? noone knows.
@OP, the least expensive option is to wait until the new ones are out , which will cost the same as these ones but be better. it's pretty obvious...
 
hcho3 said:
Dear OP

You have no proof that MBP will be redesigned in 2012. May I please see where you got this idea?

Might as well as wait for Pigs to fly.
Click to expand...

----->

hcho3 said:
Isn't the macrumors? Aren't we hear to speculate? Doesn't the person have the right to speculate?
No one can say? Do we live in North koera or China? This is a place with discussion and prediction. I am allowed to say w/e I want as long as I don't offend anyone.
Click to expand...
 
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I don't think the uMBP's are going anywhere for a while.
Apple tends to keep the design for devices for many years too.
 
Holding out for 2013's MBP. EPIC!!!!!! I'll just buy the 2011, sell it for the 2012, then just wait until the 2013...I can hardly wait!
 
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