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Good idea to buy a 13" Macbook Pro in the next couple of weeks?...

T

tonyjk78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2009
2
0
My several-year-old PC recently died of a hard drive failure, and all I'm left with is my six-month-old netbook (Asus 1000HA, 1.6 ghz atom, 1gb ram, 160 hdd, windows xp, etc). I'm about to enter college, and feel I'll really be needing a proper laptop.

I'd like to capitalize on this and get a (refurbished) macbook pro 13, but I'm worried that I'd be buying right on the cusp of new hardware releases or price drops (or even just upgraded hardware) - especially with the holiday season coming soon, and windows 7's release imminent. I'm probably overthinking this, but, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
 
Don't worry, now's a great time. They updated the MacBook Pros just a couple months ago and we're just closing the back-to-school season. Now's a better time than any. (Unless you want to wait to the next upgrade, but I'm betting that won't happen til March.)
 
Arrandale is tempting (and, being an utter noob to the mac world at this point and having only a passing interest in hardware, completely new to me), but unless it's likely to come out within the next month, I'll have to pass it up. I don't think I could go more than a month on just a netbook.
Thanks for the help, again. Now, would you have any recommendations about the refurbished thing? Is the significant price difference at all reflected in the actual product?
 
refurb is the way to go. they are same computers, have the same warranty. the only difference is it may come in just a regular brown box. asides from that, there is almost no reason to get a new one.

Its kind of like a car, new cars are horrible investments, but who doesnt love the smell and being the first driver.
 
Don't forget to look into the Education Store discounts.....
:cool:

EDIT: It appears that the education discount doesn't apply to refurbished.
 
Intel seem to upgrade their mobile processor architecture roughly every two years.

If you buy a laptop now, you'll be buying it only a few months before the next update.

Personally speaking, I'd wait. Unless you definitely need something more powerful than your netbook for college.
 
Honestly, I would get one now. I just did :). There are some benefits to getting a machine with architecture that has been worked on for a while. They most likely will have a bunch of bugs in the first revision of the next macbook pro. There usually are :).

My MBP 13" 2.53ghz is awesome. I think it will be fine for a long time :)
 
The best time to get a new Mac is when you need one. But if you don't need one - and are buying anyway - then wait for Arrandale!
 
mikes70mustang said:
Youll never be ahead of the game. Just get one, or wait, its a gamble, but if you need one, get one.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If you truly need one now, get one now. If you don't, then wait.

If apple releases a new product soon, it wouldn't necessarily be the best thing to rush to the apple store and buy it the same day. I'd wait and check news sites and this forum for a bit to see if there's any defects, AGATAs or shortcomings with the new model.

Wait much longer than that, and you'll be wondering if Cupertino will then shortly release a newer, better product with improved features at the same or lower price point.

Let's also say the OP buys a new mbp now. A new model release won't make a current rig run any slower or diminish its capacity to run current software.

(AGATA: Apple Giveth, Apple Taketh Away)
 
My opinion (which obviously isn't a popular one :rolleyes: ) is to save save save and get the 15" bad boy.
 
ziggyonice said:
Don't worry, now's a great time. They updated the MacBook Pros just a couple months ago and we're just closing the back-to-school season. Now's a better time than any. (Unless you want to wait to the next upgrade, but I'm betting that won't happen til March.)
Click to expand...

I agree, i doubt Apple will change the design visually and it will probably just be a spec bump or something that you probably wont notice the difference
 
The main question is, do you need it now or not? If you need it in a months time, then buy it in a months time. At least that way your warranty will last longer even if the price doesn't drop :)
 
I'm considering buying but I am giving myself until November, I do not need one at all but would like one. My wait, I'd like to see if they toss on the matte option for the 13"s.
 
shambo said:
My opinion (which obviously isn't a popular one :rolleyes: ) is to save save save and get the 15" bad boy.
Click to expand...

Oh, thanks for the help. No one knew you liked the 15" and hated the 13". Good thing you cleared that up for us all. Maybe you want to start a new thread about it, just in case.
 
tonyjk78 said:
My several-year-old PC recently died of a hard drive failure, and all I'm left with is my six-month-old netbook (Asus 1000HA, 1.6 ghz atom, 1gb ram, 160 hdd, windows xp, etc). I'm about to enter college, and feel I'll really be needing a proper laptop.

I'd like to capitalize on this and get a (refurbished) macbook pro 13, but I'm worried that I'd be buying right on the cusp of new hardware releases or price drops (or even just upgraded hardware) - especially with the holiday season coming soon, and windows 7's release imminent. I'm probably overthinking this, but, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I tried this a couple of times. What happened to me was the "rumored" updates never happened. But then it was 2 months later, and there was a fresh set of rumors, and you're back waiting and wondering again.

What's the point? What are they really going to change?

The latest 13" MBP has FW800, and RAM up to 8GB. Also an SD card slot. What are they going to add?

They're not going to suddenly ship them with anything faster than a 5400RPM drive, so who cares the size upgrade -- you'll still want to replace it. Maybe the CPU speed will move from 2.26 to 2.53, but that difference is pretty minor.

If they drop the price $100, who cares? The new ones will still be more expensive than a refurb, so now what? Wait another 4-8 weeks for the refurbs of the new ones to show up?

Wait if you want. I got my new (to me) from refurb last week for $999, and I'm loving it. It's a great product.
 
Surely said:
Don't forget to look into the Education Store discounts.....
:cool:

EDIT: It appears that the education discount doesn't apply to refurbished.
Click to expand...

Refurb discounts are also better than edu discounts, at least on the 13".
 
Just think of all the folks here using antiquated technology. They do the same things as everybody else yet seem pretty content.

That being said, I'd wait till 2069 when macs will be nuclear powered and have blu-ray.
 
Good time, especially for refurb..

I would say it's a good time to buy a Macbook Pro 13.

1, They were updated in June, it's the latest Mac model to have been updated. I'm sure if Apple will update any computer before christmas it'll be any of their desktop computers.

2, If you want to get a refurb, it always takes a while before they come out. The 13¨ Macbook Pro was updated in June, but they didn't start popping up in the refurbished section until August. It usually takes a couple of months or so before the computers begin to sell as refurbs.

3, When the 13¨ will update, I doubt it'll be a major update. Overall Apple usually don't go crazy with their updates, and in any case, the last update was pretty major as they took it from being just a Macbook to a Macbook Pro. I doubt there will be any major hardware or designchanges in the next update.

4, If there would be a major change in hardware, it's usually not a good idea to get the first model anyway. I got the very first Macbook in 2006 when it came out, and I had quite a few issues with it. People I know who waited for the second model have not had any of these problems.
 
Apple usually updates once in the summer, (usually) just before the back-to-school season, and again in January, right after the Christmas rush. Now, you're in the middle.

Windows 7 will be coming out, and HP has a nice laptop that's wicked fast, coming out in october, that looks just like a Macbook. but it'll have Windows 7 on it.

As far as mac's go, though, now's as good a time as any to buy. The new intel architecture coming out won't make much difference. I have a MBP from early 2007 and it still works just as well as the current generation. Maybe it's a little slower, but not in any way that I would notice.
 
I'd just get one now. The rEfresh on MBs (now MBPs) was 3 months ago and it was a nice upgrade.

Any refresh coming in the next few weeks isn't likely and, if it does happen, isn't likely to be substantial.
 
trip1ex said:
I'd just get one now. The rEfresh on MBs (now MBPs) was 3 months ago and it was a nice upgrade.

Any refresh coming in the next few weeks isn't likely and, if it does happen, isn't likely to be substantial.
Click to expand...

Not according to this:

https://www.macrumors.com/2009/09/15/analyst-imac-and-macbook-updates-coming-within-weeks/

Perhaps the design will only slightly change (if at all), but the upgrade to the internals may be a little more significant.

Plus, the rumored lower price-point may make things a little more interesting.

The MB line doesn't appear to be dead just yet.
 
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