Help me decide.

[ChrisN]

Ok, well I have been looking at the 15" MBPs for quite sometime and especially refurb since they have great deals and today I saw the MBPs and wow I am amazed. Last gen base MBP for 1299! I really want the sd card slot and the better battery for really for 1299 is the extra battery and sd still worth it.

I wanna know if I should get this or wait, I wanna hear what last gen people say about their battery life because I like the better battery a lot.

ChrisN

 

[Bill Gates]

The SD card slot is not what it seems. It's actually a con when comparing the current models to the previous ones. The previous 15" model had an ExpressCard slot, and for $20 you can find a nice card reader that will fit flush with your MBP and read SD, MemoryStick, and others, essentially everything except CompactFlash, which requires a different adapter due to CF cards' width. With that said, you can mark the SD card slot off your list.

The previous base model has a dedicated GPU, which is far superior to the integrated 9400M (which the previous model has in addition to the dedicated GPU). In summation, it all boils down to the battery. The previous model has excellent battery life even though it's not quite as good; I can get 5 hours surfing the web on my previous-model 15" MBP. If you block Adobe Flash advertisements you can add a lot of battery life. Buy what suits your lifestyle and budget.

 

[ChrisN]

The only thing keeping me from purchasing this right is the battery but since you said you get 4-5 hours I think that is fine. Also, in a couple years when I will be on the road more I can just give this to my family and upgrade to a newer one.

Thanks for the input,

ChrisN

 

[thegoldenmackid]

William was onto something regarding the SD slot, it's a large misconception.

 

[Bill Gates]

The only thing keeping me from purchasing this right is the battery but since you said you get 4-5 hours I think that is fine. Also, in a couple years when I will be on the road more I can just give this to my family and upgrade to a newer one.

Thanks for the input,

ChrisN

Or just buy a second battery, if that's the only problem with the machine in two years. Don't forget that you have that option, even if it's not ideal.

 

[ChrisN]

I do work that uses sd cards so I constantly get new ones and import them and use the photos so I thought that the sd card slot will help but I already have one at home.

 

[ChrisN]

I also remember the other reason why I wanted to get a newer one, I wanted to someday put in 8gb of RAM and use it and the one I am looking at can only recgonize 6gb right? I guess that really doesn't matter but I don't know.

 

[Bill Gates]

I also remember the other reason why I wanted to get a newer one, I wanted to someday put in 8gb of RAM and use it and the one I am looking at can only recgonize 6gb right? I guess that really doesn't matter but I don't know.

If it's a previous-gen 2.4GHz, 2.53GHz, or 2.8GHz model then it is limited to 6GB of RAM. 4GB modules are currently prohibitively expensive. What do you need 8GB of RAM for anyway?