Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is it a good time to buy new Macbook Pro?
- Thread starter esharon
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Only Apple knows for sure. Their history indicates there is the possibility of a minor update to the latest Intel processors. That said, if you need one now, get one now. The updated processors will provide a slight speed increase and slightly longer battery life.
I would say it is a good time, but only because the design refresh scares me lol. The reason being is its more than likely going to be a huge change in terms of what ports they will offer. With thunderbolt 3 around the corner the refresh will probably happen next year. Since thunderbolt will use USB-C and Apple has already embraced USB-C to USB-A adaptors it safe to assume that they may get rid of USB-A ports all together. This would make all of my external devices un-usable with out that adaptor. It would give them the ability to make the MBP thinner if possible. But I'm skeptical about the whole thing,
In my case I need a laptop pretty soon. Selling my MBA to go with a MBP because I need more resolution. I don't care much about a slight performance increase from a different chipset -- mainly going to be using this for VMs on the go. But a design refresh... that would probably make me feel some regret, hah.
I'd say getting a Pro now is pretty safe.
The performance gap between the 15"s Haswell and the possibly upcoming Broadwell/Skylake is marginal.
Unnoticable for us common folk, even.
At least if you get the 15" with the AMD GPU, as I understand it the integrated GPUs are getting a nice performance bump with Broadwell and even better with Skylake.
So it might be worth the wait if you're not getting the discreete graphics.
I don't have any data to back these claims, though, pure hearsay.
Apart from minor CPU concerns, you get a laptop that is well into it's ...fourth (?) iteration.
It is by now a well known machine with few faults left to sort out.
Built to last, powerfull, beautiful, elegant, reliable and simple.
So I'd say that it's a pretty solid purchase.
As for the 13", it just got bumped to Broadwell so it's even safer.
Might be a Skylake bump coming, but I wouldn't worry; the performance gains won't exactly blow your trousers off.
The performance gap between the 15"s Haswell and the possibly upcoming Broadwell/Skylake is marginal.
Unnoticable for us common folk, even.
At least if you get the 15" with the AMD GPU, as I understand it the integrated GPUs are getting a nice performance bump with Broadwell and even better with Skylake.
So it might be worth the wait if you're not getting the discreete graphics.
I don't have any data to back these claims, though, pure hearsay.
Apart from minor CPU concerns, you get a laptop that is well into it's ...fourth (?) iteration.
It is by now a well known machine with few faults left to sort out.
Built to last, powerfull, beautiful, elegant, reliable and simple.
So I'd say that it's a pretty solid purchase.
As for the 13", it just got bumped to Broadwell so it's even safer.
Might be a Skylake bump coming, but I wouldn't worry; the performance gains won't exactly blow your trousers off.
For virtualization, go with the BTO 16GB MBP, preferably with the 1TB SSD, because it is quite fast. Since VMWare Fusion doesn't have all the tricks that VMWare Workstation does for overcommitting VMs, having the RAM available is a must.
Don't worry about SSD size for speed on the 2015 inch ones they are all 4 lane PCIe and all blisteringly quick.
It's never a good time to buy a MacBook Pro, there's always a newer, better one coming out. 
Seriously, though --it all depends on where you are starting from (and what you need).
The May 2015 release is hardly a "silent" update. Upgrading from a 2012 15" rMBP got me Thunderbolt 2, 4x faster flash storage, faster wi-fi, faster discrete graphics (AMD), far superior integrated graphics (Iris Pro), significantly improved battery life, and last, but not least, the awesome Force touch trackpad.
However, owners of the late 2013 and mid 2014 models would do better waiting for the next edition (presumably with Skylake processors).
Want a hard-and-fast-rule? Always buy just after a new model release, but NEVER just before a new model release. (MacRumors Buyer's Guide really helps with this.)
Seriously, though --it all depends on where you are starting from (and what you need).
The May 2015 release is hardly a "silent" update. Upgrading from a 2012 15" rMBP got me Thunderbolt 2, 4x faster flash storage, faster wi-fi, faster discrete graphics (AMD), far superior integrated graphics (Iris Pro), significantly improved battery life, and last, but not least, the awesome Force touch trackpad.
However, owners of the late 2013 and mid 2014 models would do better waiting for the next edition (presumably with Skylake processors).
Want a hard-and-fast-rule? Always buy just after a new model release, but NEVER just before a new model release. (MacRumors Buyer's Guide really helps with this.)
You won't feel much regret.
remember VM's present an archetype "computer" setup to host the VM. You get what they preset basically to the VM so they won't know about the actual hardware. Why stuff in VM's tends to work really good....they get a very stable base to build off of. Its not like a physical where for a worst case its the latest CPU/MObo, running years old video, sound,network, etc cards for driver fun mixed with what abilities they have.
Push comes to shove its the cores (I7 has more, and I use them to run several Linux vm's at one time) and the ram (now soldered in) that matters imo. Between usb3 or thunderbolt you have drive space options that aren't so bad.
The whole wait till the new architecture....I am leery of waiting for vaporware until released (and it is vaporware until released in my view). You don't know its schedule, you don't know in this case if Intel is tweaking their numbers for marketing. The key to new architectures can be they have to be coded for to make full advantage for it. You will get some "free" boosts from the basic setup of course. Its takes a dev to tear apart the new tech spec docs and code for it to make it run really good though.
But that's me as a hobbyist coder. I can get my code to run faster no hardware changes required. My secret....I revisit old code and revise it better as I learn to build a better mousetrap as it were. I could in theory for C based (or fortran if I used it) code drop down the cash for intel compilers/libraries as well for some advertised boosts as well.