(Another) buy MBP or wait

[147798]

My '09 13"MBP needs to be updated, but I've been holding out. My bottleneck is mainly processor.

I can wait a bit longer, but my dad needs a new computer for his e-mail and browser, so I could buy him a new one, but he only does e-mail and news reading, so I could get myself a new one, and give him my old 2009.

Question is what to do. My budget comfortably is around $1100 --

• mid-2012 13" refurb, and up the RAM and HDD (I have about 750GB storage used on my current 2009 -- video, and photos mainly). I could move over my current drives from my 2009 to the 2012. Maybe $900 all in, but no retina.
  
• 2015 15" refurb retina from mac store with only 256GB SSD for $1600-1700. But not enough storage. External storage would be needed, driving up my cost because I'd need to get the drive, enclosure, cables and what have you. I could also get those SD card slot drives, but I use the SD drive for camera photo loading, so that's a pain.
  
• 2012 15" retina from macsales with 1TB SSD for around $1500 in "good" condition.

is the 15" and retina worth the $600-800 extra...

• or, buy my dad a used MBA for like $500-600 and wait for new MBPs, but I can't imagine the storage situation will improve.

Lastly, I am a little leery of buying an older machine, as I want to use the new macOS-based Siri. Would they rule out the older machines from that for some reason, say within the next 2-3 years?

 

[Cougarcat]

Siri will run on any of those laptops, so that's not an issue. Apple is not going to suddenly rescind Siri support in a future update.

Personally, I would just get your dad a MBA and wait, especially if you're thinking of keeping the laptop for a similar length of time. I don't think the storage situation will improve either, but there's always a chance that they will drop the 128 and go 256/512 like the MacBook.