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Honestly, I'm afraid to upgrade!

R

RJCP

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2011
434
40
So, I have a late 2008 MB alum. which I'm thinking of upgrading to a 13" rMBP.

Honestly, I'm afraid to upgrade. My latest experiences with apple haven't been great... From several replacements of my iPhone 5 due to issues ranging from screen flickering, overheating and poorly assembled clicking displays; through to my several replacements of iPad air until I finally got a decent screen, I have to say that I'm a bit afraid to take the plunge into a 13" rMBP.

Anyone would like to share their experience with this machine? I've played with it in store and I really like the device. I'm just afraid I'm getting myself another bag of hurt! I've read about display issues, creaking while opening and closing the device... I dunno! My current MB has been a trooper (and my first mac) and I've tweaked and upgraded it over the years so that it still performs well, but I'm finding the screen less and less satisfactory after interaction with retina displays very frequently.
In terms of part failure, I only had to have the battery replaced after 3 years because the original one got swollen, and had to replace the fan last year. Other than that, this computer has been some of the best spent money ever. I just want to make sure that the new one lives up to my expectations
 
RJCP said:
So, I have a late 2008 MB alum. which I'm thinking of upgrading to a 13" rMBP.

Honestly, I'm afraid to upgrade. My latest experiences with apple haven't been great... From several replacements of my iPhone 5 due to issues ranging from screen flickering, overheating and poorly assembled clicking displays; through to my several replacements of iPad air until I finally got a decent screen, I have to say that I'm a bit afraid to take the plunge into a 13" rMBP.

Anyone would like to share their experience with this machine? I've played with it in store and I really like the device. I'm just afraid I'm getting myself another bag of hurt! I've read about display issues, creaking while opening and closing the device... I dunno! My current MB has been a trooper (and my first mac) and I've tweaked and upgraded it over the years so that it still performs well, but I'm finding the screen less and less satisfactory after interaction with retina displays very frequently.
In terms of part failure, I only had to have the battery replaced after 3 years because the original one got swollen, and had to replace the fan last year. Other than that, this computer has been some of the best spent money ever. I just want to make sure that the new one lives up to my expectations
Click to expand...

If you already upgraded to a SSD and maxed out to 8GB RAM, you'll get basically two things on a 13" rMBP: processing power (gaming, video editing, raw image editing over 10MP) and a big-res screen.

I presume you're more interested on the screen. I just bought a 15" rMBP and I'm on the second screen replacement. If you have an Apple Store nearby and can return it as many times you want, go ahead.
 
I have the 13" 2.4ghz model, and it's been just fine! A good upgrade from my mid-2009 13" MBP. The display is perfect, and I've had no issues with creaking (that mainly affects the 15" models anyway). I did have the freezing trackpad and random beachballs, but those have been fixed with the Mavericks upgrades.

I can understand being afraid when you've had problems with other devices. My mid-2009 MBP had its share of issues just before and after AppleCare ran out. But the nice thing about Apple is that they stand behind their products if the issue is widely known. By this point they are well aware of the problems people are having with the new rMBPs. In any case, the 13" model is fairly solid, and the chances of getting one plagued with issues are low.
 
I've had no problems with mine, and I like it. On the other hand, if you don't need to upgrade yet, don't (I was upgrading from a 2004 Powerbook running 10.5, so a lot of things were unusable/insecure/unreasonably slow, etc.) It's true that some people have had problems, and there are some annoying Mavericks bugs. If I still had a 2008 Intel laptop that worked well, I'd still be using it.
 
marivaux said:
I've had no problems with mine, and I like it. On the other hand, if you don't need to upgrade yet, don't (I was upgrading from a 2004 Powerbook running 10.5, so a lot of things were unusable/insecure/unreasonably slow, etc.) It's true that some people have had problems, and there are some annoying Mavericks bugs. If I still had a 2008 Intel laptop that worked well, I'd still be using it.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, that's fair enough. My main drive to get it now is that a friend of mine is working at apple, so I can get it with a discount. He doesn't know how long he's gonna be there and I wanted to take advantage of his family and friends discount while I can.
I really don't feel the need to upgrade (except for games), but if my laptop decides to start acting up and he's no longer at apple, I'll have to pay full price for a new one and well... When one can save, one saves!
 
I've received my 15" rMBP on the 6th of January (placed the CTO order on Christmas Day), and since I've received it, I have had no problems with the screen or any other issues, for that matter. It looks perfect to me.
 
RJCP said:
Thanks guys, that's fair enough. My main drive to get it now is that a friend of mine is working at apple, so I can get it with a discount. He doesn't know how long he's gonna be there and I wanted to take advantage of his family and friends discount while I can.
I really don't feel the need to upgrade (except for games), but if my laptop decides to start acting up and he's no longer at apple, I'll have to pay full price for a new one and well... When one can save, one saves!
Click to expand...

You have a 2008 machine, that's going on 6 years depending on wham you bought the machine. I think you can easily justify the purchase of a rMBP at this point - especially since you can now get a discount. Why not take advantage of that sooner then later when it might be too late.
 
swerve147 said:
Then there's no reason to upgrade to the 13" MBP. It's not going to run modern games well at all.
Click to expand...

It is certainly going to run games MUCH better than his 6 year old macbook. I use my 13 inch Macbook to play games and most current games run well on low to medium and older games run very well.
 
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