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 the future of the MBP 13 dead?
- Thread starter surjavarman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Personally, I think that they should keep the 13 inch MBP but they will really, really have to improve it in the next iteration. Hard drive (more storage), higher amounts of RAM, and a lot of ports are the main reasons why the MBP is still around; well that and the higher processor.
The MBP line should stay... it's interesting that they dropped the MBs (never thought they'd do that) but it does make sense. There are a lot of things the current MBAs can't do though and they know a large portion of us (people who actually get things done on our laptops) can't get something like the Air due to size and port constraints alone.
I think that the next upgrade of it will be a lot better; think a higher stock HD, 6 gigs of baseline RAM, and a higher resolution screen. Those are a must IMO to have it continuously compete with the MBA.
The MBP line should stay... it's interesting that they dropped the MBs (never thought they'd do that) but it does make sense. There are a lot of things the current MBAs can't do though and they know a large portion of us (people who actually get things done on our laptops) can't get something like the Air due to size and port constraints alone.
I think that the next upgrade of it will be a lot better; think a higher stock HD, 6 gigs of baseline RAM, and a higher resolution screen. Those are a must IMO to have it continuously compete with the MBA.
The 13" MBP is almost dead - once flash becomes cheap enough, say goodbye. 
I sense a lot of Air hatred and envy here. Apple isn't interested in the DIY upgrade types, and for serious work, the 15/17" will be the ones with the extra ports. Prepare to be disappointed time and again if you're hoping for anything half decent in a 13" MBP of the future. This might be the last 13" MBP too possibly.
Face it - the 13" MBP right now is the basic "starter" Macbook, ie. the bottom of the pile. Thus it sells, cause its cheap, but people keep buying stuffs
so pushing the bulk of them onto 13" Airs might not be all that hard for Apple to do.
I sense a lot of Air hatred and envy here. Apple isn't interested in the DIY upgrade types, and for serious work, the 15/17" will be the ones with the extra ports. Prepare to be disappointed time and again if you're hoping for anything half decent in a 13" MBP of the future. This might be the last 13" MBP too possibly.
Face it - the 13" MBP right now is the basic "starter" Macbook, ie. the bottom of the pile. Thus it sells, cause its cheap, but people keep buying stuffs
so pushing the bulk of them onto 13" Airs might not be all that hard for Apple to do.Definitely all of them. But then again, most people who have a PC formulate the argument of price/performance or it being over-simplified. Of course I'm strictly talking about the people who hate Apple products for no logical reason though.
You might want to take a look at Apple's marketing literature for the Air.I sense a lot of Air hatred and envy here.
...
Face it - the 13" MBP right now is the basic "starter" Macbook, ie. the bottom of the pile. Thus it sells, cause its cheap, but people keep buying stuffs
I wouldn't say the MBP 13 is anywhere near dead but I would like to see it be more respected by Apple. I think sometimes it's considered "the cheap option" meaning you'd only buy if instead of a 15 or 17 because of money issues. This is not the case as some people just like the feel and size of it more than the 15's. That being said it should be able to get features like hi res, antiglare, and a quad core option as well.
It's dead just like the future of the rest of the pro. You may not like it or it may not not sense but that is the direction apple is headed. I'm reading a lot of you responding emotionally but you guys need to be real.
But lets be honest here. Unless you need hdd space, then there is no need to get a MBP. Lets see.
1) Optidrive? Who is using a CD in 2011 anyway? And the average Joe isn't going to remove it to replace it with an optibay.
2) Power? Well would we really notice a big difference between the two with their latest processors? I don't think so.
3) Ethernet port? Everyone is using wifi anyway nowadays and btw its easily fixable anyway.
4) Price? A MBP equiped with a 128gb SSD from apple is a whopping $1449! Compare that with the $1299 MBA13 128gb.
5) RAM? I doubt anyway would need more than 4gigs of ram. I have a MBP and I am never going to upgrade the MBP to 8gb. Its just not necessary.
Combine that with the pros of the MBA (higher res display, lighter) and you have to be a complete moron to still go for the MBP.
I happen to fall in the category thats need capacity. I have a HDD+SSD with combined capacity of over 1TB and I haven't found a way to get rid of this addiction for capacity but I know that the MBA is the future. So I do want to have a solution for in the future.
1) Optidrive? Who is using a CD in 2011 anyway? And the average Joe isn't going to remove it to replace it with an optibay.
2) Power? Well would we really notice a big difference between the two with their latest processors? I don't think so.
3) Ethernet port? Everyone is using wifi anyway nowadays and btw its easily fixable anyway.
4) Price? A MBP equiped with a 128gb SSD from apple is a whopping $1449! Compare that with the $1299 MBA13 128gb.
5) RAM? I doubt anyway would need more than 4gigs of ram. I have a MBP and I am never going to upgrade the MBP to 8gb. Its just not necessary.
Combine that with the pros of the MBA (higher res display, lighter) and you have to be a complete moron to still go for the MBP.
I happen to fall in the category thats need capacity. I have a HDD+SSD with combined capacity of over 1TB and I haven't found a way to get rid of this addiction for capacity but I know that the MBA is the future. So I do want to have a solution for in the future.
There will always be a market for highly spec'd 'portable workstation' type laptops....and this is where the pro exists in the market. It may not be Apple's largest market anymore, but it is an important one. Given that OSX is the OS of choice for photographers, graphic designers etc etc, it would stupid for Apple to abandon that market entirely.
They may one day figure out a way to shove a discrete graphics card and a powerful quad-core processor into a ultra-thin body, but there will always be a place both size and price-wise for the MBA and the MBP.
Discrete graphics card? Quad-core processor?
That's why I got the Pro.
Granted the 13 inch MBP does not come equipped with these, so I get your point in that regard. But there are people out there who still want/need a highly spec'd machine
edit: 8gb of ram goes a long way when running virtual machines. 4gb for windows and 4gb for OSX. Most people don't need it, but its folly to make a blanket statement that no one would need it.
I should have bought a MBA 13" since I already have an iMac for my important needs, but I like my MBP because I plan on getting a 1TB HDD. That's about it. I don't want to carry an external with me so the 1TB is excellent.
^ agree with these last two. There will always be a need for a higher performing portable... the 15 and 17, but it seems like the 13 will be dumped in favor or the 13 Air... if i had to bet.
Check how many thousands have been sold on Ebay.
I paid the extra to get the i7 on the MBP just because I felt like it, buying a slower chip is against my religion.
Gigabit Ethernet is a must for engineers and IT professionals.
Then there's also the lack of a digital audio out, so I'd have to run an external sound card to run my DAC/Amp and headphones.
This is the same 128GB SSD that's less than half the speed of current SATA3 aftermarket drives
Many people use VMs frequently these days, and just a few apps can use 4GB.
No, sorry but just no. There are different requirements for different people, I couldn't get through one workday on a MBA if my life depended on it.
Hey I could always carry around an external hard drive, an external USB ethernet adapter, an external USB sound card, and a USB hub to make it all work. How portable indeed.
I was talking about the MBP13!!! If it wasn't obvious. Also this topic is about the MBP13 and not the 15 or 17 inchers. I was comparing the MBA13 with the MBP13. Jesus
And how many sane people actually run virtual machines.
And how many sane people actually run virtual machines.
So if you're needing a Windows only app while doing something under OSX, like say Citrix XenCenter, would you go to a netcafe, or try to control your servers via smoke signals?
Its 2011, virtualization has been commonplace for half a decade.
Prediction:
13 in MBP will be sunset
17 in MBP will be slimmed down loose opitcal drive - but keep a standard 2.5 HD and ports
15 inch is the question. Will there be a single 15 inch hybrid (light / no optical but still has ports / some pro features) or two models one air one pro.
13 in MBP will be sunset
17 in MBP will be slimmed down loose opitcal drive - but keep a standard 2.5 HD and ports
15 inch is the question. Will there be a single 15 inch hybrid (light / no optical but still has ports / some pro features) or two models one air one pro.
I do because I travel a lot for work, work from home, and starting business school/MBA in the fall.
I'm a financial analyst and do A LOT of excel work, and though there is a Mac version of excel, its a pain in the *** to use, and the shortcuts, which are key to me being able to work efficiently, are completely different. Many flat out don't work. We're taught to never touch the mouse when doing any financial modeling in excel...you can see why its important that excel operate exactly the way it would on a windows machine for me.
I also happen to do freelance photography and videography work and OSX is a far better choice in that regard....if only because it can natively handle RAW files!
So I have a real need for both OSX and Windows, and I use virtual machines very regularly.
Does that make me insane? or does the world revolve around your own wants, needs and uses? does that make you close-minded and perhaps a little self centered?
The point is, people have different wants and needs in their laptops, and it would be stupid for Apple to approach a very diverse marketplace with a very limited scope of products. There is, and always will be, a market for the pro.
My expectation is that the 13-inch pro will get a significant boost in performance....possibly dropping the optical drive to make room for a quad-core processor and discrete graphics card....at least as an option. Otherwise there really wouldn't be a place for both the 13 inch air and the pro to co-exist in the market without cannibalizing one another (mostly at the expense of the 13 inch pro).
Last edited:
I can't believe that Apple will shut the MBP-13 down. Even I do not have it, a lot of my friends have. And I have to say that MBA-13 looks and feels fragile in comparison with MBP-13.
p.s.: The only shortcoming of the current MBP-13 is its screen resolution.
p.s.: The only shortcoming of the current MBP-13 is its screen resolution.
Last edited:
Well, I have a 2010 MBP 13" and a 2010 MBA 13".
The Macbook Pro is a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo machine outfitted with 8GB of RAM, but I kept the HDD stock 320GB since I already have an external 1TB drive for storage of essential data.
The Macbook Air is the base machine with 128GB SSD and 2GB RAM, and 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo. I do plan on getting a thin and slim USB drive for storage on this device. Seems like it'll be necessary as my photos pile up.
For the most part, my usage under OSX actually feels a lot faster on the MBA, and running multiple softwares in the CS5.5 suite concurrently is a lot more responsive on the MBA versus the Pro. Battery life on both actually top out the same, and the only instance when I felt that the Pro was a better choice was when I was experimenting with Panorama features in Photoshop.
I am extremely against virtual machine because none of them works that great. There is always some sort of quirk that would prevent them from being awesome. So I do Bootcamp instead.
Turns out Air does Bootcamp a lot better than Pro. It boots a lot faster (literally just flashes the logo once), it opens apps a lot faster, and better yet, its battery life is also better under Windows 7 than the Pro. Pro clocks in at 3:45 - 4:00 whereas Air clocks in at 4:30 - 5:30. The slower CPU actually helped. I can work on documents, test my softwares, and play games just fine, and all of those tasks are equal to MBP for the most part save for playing games.
So at the end of the day, I find that the Macbook Air does everything I need it to. I don't think the MBP is obsolete, but like many have said, it perhaps needs some extreme makeover next year. I think the kicker is that the performance of the Air is easily overlooked until one takes a closer look at it. It's not always about CPU, RAM, or GPU... otherwise, I'd suggest that the MBP 15" is a better alternative to the 13" since upgrading the 13" would eventually bring it close to 15" price point.
The Macbook Pro is a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo machine outfitted with 8GB of RAM, but I kept the HDD stock 320GB since I already have an external 1TB drive for storage of essential data.
The Macbook Air is the base machine with 128GB SSD and 2GB RAM, and 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo. I do plan on getting a thin and slim USB drive for storage on this device. Seems like it'll be necessary as my photos pile up.
For the most part, my usage under OSX actually feels a lot faster on the MBA, and running multiple softwares in the CS5.5 suite concurrently is a lot more responsive on the MBA versus the Pro. Battery life on both actually top out the same, and the only instance when I felt that the Pro was a better choice was when I was experimenting with Panorama features in Photoshop.
I am extremely against virtual machine because none of them works that great. There is always some sort of quirk that would prevent them from being awesome. So I do Bootcamp instead.
Turns out Air does Bootcamp a lot better than Pro. It boots a lot faster (literally just flashes the logo once), it opens apps a lot faster, and better yet, its battery life is also better under Windows 7 than the Pro. Pro clocks in at 3:45 - 4:00 whereas Air clocks in at 4:30 - 5:30. The slower CPU actually helped. I can work on documents, test my softwares, and play games just fine, and all of those tasks are equal to MBP for the most part save for playing games.
So at the end of the day, I find that the Macbook Air does everything I need it to. I don't think the MBP is obsolete, but like many have said, it perhaps needs some extreme makeover next year. I think the kicker is that the performance of the Air is easily overlooked until one takes a closer look at it. It's not always about CPU, RAM, or GPU... otherwise, I'd suggest that the MBP 15" is a better alternative to the 13" since upgrading the 13" would eventually bring it close to 15" price point.
dsio has already done a good job of pointing out the flaws in your argument. Just to add a couple:
1. The color gamut of the Air is awful compared to the Pro.
2. Try working on some large Photoshop files on the Air, with 4 GB of RAM, compared to a Pro with 8 GB RAM. Zero contest.
3. How expandable is the Air? Right, not at all. Buy a new one in a year or two.
Hence, you have to be a complete moron to get an Air.
dsio has already done a good job of pointing out the flaws in your argument. Just to add a couple:
1. The color gamut of the Air is awful compared to the Pro.
2. Try working on some large Photoshop files on the Air, with 4 GB of RAM, compared to a Pro with 8 GB RAM. Zero contest.
3. How expandable is the Air? Right, not at all. Buy a new one in a year or two.
Hence, you have to be a complete moron to get an Air.
Not necessarily a moron. I would gladly trade my MBP for an Air now, but my situation is different because of my iMac as my main now. I'm a student and traveling around with an Air seems like a great advantage. For students and average users, the specs on it are more than enough. But for power users, no contest.
I may be crazy but I want a 15" as a secondary to my iMac
Not really. They've already replaced the White MacBook and if they had really wanted a replacement, the 13 MBP would have gone too or it wouldn't have been refreshed at least.
MBPs offer much more than a MBA in the current state. Ports, higher CPU power, access to actual GPUs (though I think this year's model uses Sandy Bridge's only...?) and especially (easier? you cant even touch the MBA) upgradeability. The MBA has nearly everything soldered in.
If you want to close the gap a bit, just add a SSD to your MBP
MBPs offer much more than a MBA in the current state. Ports, higher CPU power, access to actual GPUs (though I think this year's model uses Sandy Bridge's only...?) and especially (easier? you cant even touch the MBA) upgradeability. The MBA has nearly everything soldered in.
If you want to close the gap a bit, just add a SSD to your MBP