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How Futureproof Are the New MBPs?

anirban

anirban

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 9, 2007
689
0
Houston, TX
Hello!
I am going to purchase the high end 15" MBP, and I was just wondering if anyone can comment on how futureproof the machine will be. Please do note that this is going to be my first mac machine, so I am completely oblivious to the pattern of system requirement changes that Mac softwares run through.

I am looking for this machine to last at least 3-4 years, without getting obsolete. Am I hoping for too much?

Thanks a lot!
 
anirban said:
Hello!
I am going to purchase the high end 15" MBP, and I was just wondering if anyone can comment on how futureproof the machine will be. Please do note that this is going to be my first mac machine, so I am completely oblivious to the pattern of system requirement changes that Mac softwares run through.

I am looking for this machine to last at least 3-4 years, without getting obsolete. Am I hoping for too much?

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
No.
 
I bought one of the 17" 2.33s a few weeks ago, I expect to get about 4 years of use out of it before selling it, easily.
 
It would surely last 3-4 years without problems.

What are you planning to do with it? If it is only for mail, iTunes, safari, etc. you won't have any problem for it to last 4 years, or even more.
 
If the past is any indication of the future, you'll get 5+ years out of the current MBP. Even if hardware morphs to touch in the next few years, the odds of Apple dropping system support for current hardware is unlikely. G3's from the late 90's will run 10.4, and although they likely won't be supported with 10.5, that was still around 8 yrs of support.
 
My 'new' 'book is three and a half years old and it blows people away at how modern it looks.

It runs heaps of app concurrently while burning discs, surfing et-cetera. It will only be upgraded when/after Leopard arrives for the OS and the extra screen real estate.

This is my sixth mac, fourth mac laptop and I say go for it. If you want to be sure, pay a bit extra for applecare 3 year warranty. The peace of mind is worth it.
 
Depends on what you use it for. Probably the most future-dependent part of the MBP is the CPU followed by the graphics card. The design of the CPU is about 10 months old (although there is currently nothing more advanced) but the graphics cards are the very latest. If you do gaming or 3D work then the MBP is probably the most future proof portable available. Going by previous Macs, I would say it will be supported for at least 5-6 years.
 
As stated above it will last you - BUT - there will obviously be further updates, the most notible being Solid State Hard Disk Drives and Blu Ray.

However, it may take up to 4 years for these to become implemented, although I would hope it was sooner!
 
Good to hear that the MBP will be lasting a while!

I will mostly be using it for photo-editing, using Photoshop. I will also use AutoCAD, by installing XP on a separate partition. Apart from that, mostly casual stuff such as personal video chats, email, photos, movies. I plan to plug the MBP to an external 20" monitor (Acer).
 
anirban said:
Hello!
I am going to purchase the high end 15" MBP, and I was just wondering if anyone can comment on how futureproof the machine will be. Please do note that this is going to be my first mac machine, so I am completely oblivious to the pattern of system requirement changes that Mac softwares run through.

I am looking for this machine to last at least 3-4 years, without getting obsolete. Am I hoping for too much?

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

Well it will be obsolete in 3-4 years but you can still use it for all the normal apps and such.
 
No doubt it will last 4-5 years, but the hardware will be outdated soon.

The GPU will be come obsolete in 1 maybe 2 years.

The CPU will be come obsolete in 1 year maybe 2 years.

Even though that hardware will be obsolete, it doesn't mean that the MBP will suck, because new CPUs and GPUs update fairly quickly. It would still be a pretty capable machine!
 
Though I have yet to get a mac, it seems that with them as technology increases, you actually see performance and capability increases. With Windows, the OS would expand and take over the computer. Consequently you would feel the need to upgrade after a some time. This will be less of a factor with Macs.

The only thing that will be a problem is that as technology increases, software demands will increase. You might have much higher resolution video (dealing with 1080p?) that will cause editing demands to be higher. Better effect will take more processing power. More advanced Operating System features and better games may also require more power.

However, you won't see the same drop off you will with a Windows machine. Since OSX is Unix based, it solves a lot of the troublesome problems of that Microsoft's OS has. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to expect 3,4 or even 5 years out of it.

The only real way that I can think of problems happening is if you are a big gamer. Games are continually adapting to what technology is available. They will expand and advance with the technology. With standard computing however, we seem to be slowing in our advancement. It just doesn't seem (to me anyway, could easily be wrong) that we have a lot of places to go. Besides games, how are we going to use all this power that were getting?

So in summary, I think the only thing that's going to force you to upgrade are the wide eye's you'll get looking at new technology (Solid State memory, Blu ray, mult-core processors, integrated 3G and 4G radios for anywhere Broadband, ect.).

BTW, I'm just about to purchase a MBP 15" as well. I just can't decide if I want the 2.2 or 2.4. My only real concern is the GPU. Anyway, good luck.
 
Thanks a lot for the replies!

I do understand that technology is never future proof, but when I said futureproof, I mean a span of 4 years, and now I know that the MBP will hold up (thanks to you all).

As mentioned before, I am a PC guy, and I had to do some major changes to several machines for them to run Vista. I just hope that I do not have do deal with those kind of issues with a MBP when I transition from Tiger to Leopard.

edit: Nope, I am not a hardcore gamer... I do enjoy the occassional games on the desktop, but the MBP will not be acting primarily as a gaming machine. It will however, be my most important tool for office/academic work- Photoshop, email, instant messaging, video conferencing, AutoCAD, MS Office suite, Matlab, PSPICE, and several other similar softwares.
 
anirban said:
Thanks a lot for the replies!

I do understand that technology is never future proof, but when I said futureproof, I mean a span of 4 years, and now I know that the MBP will hold up (thanks to you all).

As mentioned before, I am a PC guy, and I had to do some major changes to several machines for them to support Vista. I just hope that I do not have do deal with those kind of issues when I transition from Tiger to Leopard.
Click to expand...

You won't. The only real thing that I know of is that Leopard is 64-bit, but most processors out there now are 64-bit anyway. Also, it may still work with 32-bit. Not sure. I'm no expert though, anybody else know of any problems there might be?
 
i've actually been considering the same purchase as the original poster. i've been wanting to get a MBP for over a year now, and having saved up....and *tried* waiting for leopard to come out **sigh** it's getting to the point where my old laptop almost doesn't function anymore, and i have to just make the switch.

that being said...with this new update to the MBPs a couple of days ago....should we expect more upgrades to this comp at the upcoming WWDC? or even by the time leopard will *supposedly* come out?

i've been dying to get a new MBP but after having waited this long i don't want to jump the gun on some new update.
 
I'm also planning to a MBP except I intend to get the 17" one. I believe that this computer will be future proof for at least 4 years. I plan on keeping mine between 4-5 years. I suppose it'll differ between how you intend to use your laptop and what new technology comes out between now and then, but I would think it's a safe bet to believe that the new MBPs are good for at least 4 years.
 
bertpalmer said:
As stated above it will last you - BUT - there will obviously be further updates, the most notible being Solid State Hard Disk Drives and Blu Ray.

However, it may take up to 4 years for these to become implemented, although I would hope it was sooner!
Click to expand...

Like seriously, we cares about Blu-ray. I do not even see Dual Layered DVDs become affordable enough that I can easily make coasters out of them and throw away.... at this day and age.

Oh, and are there even such a thing as D/L DVD-RWs?
 
there's literally half a dozen threads asking: "will my laptop work in 5 years?".
think about what you are using your laptop for present-day, will those tasks change drastically in 5 years?
as for software, any updates to the line such as iLife08 will still do everything iLife06 does, with additional features. so essentially, no, the software will not become obsolete by 2010-2011.
 
How easy is it to perform minor upgrades on it, such as throwing in more RAM, replacing the hard drive, etc?
 
GanChan said:
How easy is it to perform minor upgrades on it, such as throwing in more RAM, replacing the hard drive, etc?
Click to expand...

RAM is pretty straightforward, easily accessible slots. The HD is a bit more complicated but doable by yourself. there are great step-by-step instructions and diagrams on MacFixIt.com
 
I have a 7 year old PowerBook G4 and it is running 10.4.9, latest version of Photoshop, etc... sure, my new MacBook blows it away and the PowerBook can't run on it's own battery anymore but it still hangs in there when I need it. Remember, a computer is only obsolete when it stop meeting your expectations, not when a new release comes out.

You could easily get 4-7 years, if not more, depending on what type of work/play you are doing.
 
bertpalmer said:
As stated above it will last you - BUT - there will obviously be further updates, the most notible being Solid State Hard Disk Drives and Blu Ray.

However, it may take up to 4 years for these to become implemented, although I would hope it was sooner!
Click to expand...

I would expect this from Apple within the next 12 months. Dell is already making SSDs a BTO option, and Sony is already shipping Blu-Ray drives in their portables. In fact, I would not be surprised if these updates were implemented shortly after Leopard or in the purported ultra-portable (Jan., '08?).
 
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