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Is the new Macbook the 13" MBP killer?

y260 said:
Well, No, I got my mbp 13" 4 weeks ago for 1199 with an education discount...
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That is really weird, because that is what the Customer support rep was telling me. She said there was no change in price. If that is the case then why the hell did they charge me 1299 with the education discount?

Doesn't matter really, good thing i caught it and was able to convince the rep to return the difference.
 
apolloa said:
How many people use FireWire these days?
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Quite a lot of us. Remember all the complaining when they dropped Firewire from the MacBook? It makes a big difference in backups and accessing movies and music on external drives.
apolloa said:
And just exactly how many people do you know that isn't an apple geek who puts 8 gig of ram in a 13" laptop?
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Anyone who wants performance in a very compact and portable notebook.
apolloa said:
No idea what Market the 13" mbp is aimed at now because if your a pro then you would no doubt opt for at least a 15" machine?
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Not necessarily. As I said, many want something very compact, but with horsepower. And for something so compact, having the option for a SSD is important.

As I said, the MacBook wins on price... alone. It's a good choice for anyone pinching pennies and who wants an entry-level notebook. For anyone who wants and needs the many other features that the MBP offers, along with the portability of a small notebook, the MBP 13" makes sense.
 
God, I think I'm turning mad.

So I got a new MBP 13" last week. Got that vibration issue, all packed to send it back and get a replacement... now I see... THIS.

It's the same f**** thing! SD slot? Firewire? Glowing keys? Metal case? Nice. But not 250 Euros (= $373 ) nice. Seriously, where does Apple spend that price difference? Is it really aluminum or did they mean "platinum"?

+ a default 250GB harddisk instead of 160GB (that would be another 45 Euros upgrade for the MBP), which is actually a pretty nice replacement for 2 slots I never use and glowing keys.

I know, some of you are photographers, video editors, etc. But for someone like me (poor student who likes apple's interface design), this choice is almost ridiculously easy.

The next notable model is the 15" model which has major hardware upgrades and an anti-glare option (+45 Euros again). Oh, what's the price difference there? 700 Euros (= 1046,99 US$)??? And that's the model without the extra graphics card. Thanks, but no thanks.

I know price isn't everything. That's why I get a Mac when I could get the exact same (or better!) hardware even 300 Euros cheaper than even that new "amateur" MB.

For 95% of users, however, the MBP 13" has just become irrelevant. Case closed for me.
 
GGJstudios said:
Quite a lot of us. Remember all the complaining when they dropped Firewire from the MacBook? It makes a big difference in backups and accessing movies and music on external drives.

Anyone who wants performance in a very compact and portable notebook.

Not necessarily. As I said, many want something very compact, but with horsepower. And for something so compact, having the option for a SSD is important.

As I said, the MacBook wins on price... alone. It's a good choice for anyone pinching pennies and who wants an entry-level notebook. For anyone who wants and needs the many other features that the MBP offers, along with the portability of a small notebook, the MBP 13" makes sense.
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Not one vaild argument there. A Pro would never settle for a 13" screen most have 17", I don't know anybody who uses firewire hard drive setups because USB is so universal, the hdd point is useless too as there is nothing stopping you install one in the new Macbook and for a lot less money too no doubt.
And if the option for SSD is important, how come Apple don't offer 7200rpm options for the HDD then on the MB Pro?
As for the memory card slot, again get an adapter.
Trust me, the 13" MB Pro will either be scraped or have a major internal upgrade next year to justify itself and all you lot will be praising the path they choose.
 
apolloa said:
Trust me, the 13" MB Pro will either be scraped or have a major internal upgrade next year to justify itself and all you lot will be praising the path they choose.
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Arrandale may only be the start. Anyone think there will be a resolution increase? 4 GB RAM and larger HDD are a given.

I wonder if the 13" MacBook Pro will go to Intel integrated graphics, which means that the MacBook would have better graphics than the low-end MacBook Pros.
 
GGJstudios said:
Not necessarily. As I said, many want something very compact, but with horsepower. And for something so compact, having the option for a SSD is important.
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There would be nothing stopping a user from putting an SSD into a Macbook themselves. While it's not an order option like it is for the MBP, it would be pretty foolish to pay the Apple price for things like RAM or a SSD anyways.

I also agree with others about the supported RAM argument. I can't think of any usage for 8GB of RAM on a 13 inch machine, other then the bragging rights factor. It's simply overkill. Maybe in 3-4 years it would be useful, but at that point the processor and integrated video would be just as great as a hinderance.
 
lumpi said:
God, I think I'm turning mad.

So I got a new MBP 13" last week. Got that vibration issue, all packed to send it back and get a replacement... now I see... THIS.

It's the same f**** thing! SD slot? Firewire? Glowing keys? Metal case? Nice. But not 250 Euros (= $373 ) nice. Seriously, where does Apple spend that price difference? Is it really aluminum or did they mean "platinum"?

+ a default 250GB harddisk instead of 160GB (that would be another 45 Euros upgrade for the MBP), which is actually a pretty nice replacement for 2 slots I never use and glowing keys.

I know, some of you are photographers, video editors, etc. But for someone like me (poor student who likes apple's interface design), this choice is almost ridiculously easy.

The next notable model is the 15" model which has major hardware upgrades and an anti-glare option (+45 Euros again). Oh, what's the price difference there? 700 Euros (= 1046,99 US$)??? And that's the model without the extra graphics card. Thanks, but no thanks.

I know price isn't everything. That's why I get a Mac when I could get the exact same (or better!) hardware even 300 Euros cheaper than even that new "amateur" MB.

For 95% of users, however, the MBP 13" has just become irrelevant. Case closed for me.
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makes me wonder why you got the MBP anyway? The specs. were still pretty close without the retool.
 
apolloa said:
Not one vaild argument there. A Pro would never settle for a 13" screen most have 17", I don't know anybody who uses firewire hard drive setups because USB is so universal, the hdd point is useless too as there is nothing stopping you install one in the new Macbook and for a lot less money too no doubt.
And if the option for SSD is important, how come Apple don't offer 7200rpm options for the HDD then on the MB Pro?
As for the memory card slot, again get an adapter.
Trust me, the 13" MB Pro will either be scraped or have a major internal upgrade next year to justify itself and all you lot will be praising the path they choose.
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No one said anything about a "pro settling for a 13" screen". First of all, who are these "pros" to which you refer? Many people want a 2nd computer that's extremely portable. For example, I would like having something compact I can carry for road trips on my Harley. The SSD doesn't have issues with vibration that a hard drive does, and a 13" would fit better in a bag than a 15". When I'm on the road, I don't need a huge screen. If I want to connect it to an external monitor, I can.

You may not know anyone who uses Firewire, but this forum and the world is filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who do. It doesn't matter that USB is universal. It's universally slow, compared to FW800. My external hard drives all have USB and FW connectors, so I can use them any way I choose. But FW800 makes a big difference for what I do, as it does for many others, whether you happen to know them or not. The MBP gives you a choice; the MacBook does not.

Apple does offer 7200 rpm drives for the MBP... just not for the 13". They offer the SSD instead. For SSD, the MBP gives you a choice; the MacBook does not.

The bottom line is there's a place for both the MacBook and the 13" MacBook Pro. Some will prefer one, some will prefer the other. The only argument that doesn't hold water is that the MacBook is better than the MBP on anything other than price.
 
GGJstudios said:
The bottom line is there's a place for both the MacBook and the 13" MacBook Pro. Some will prefer one, some will prefer the other. The only argument that doesn't hold water is that the MacBook is better than the MBP on anything other than price.
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Still don't agree with your argument, but on this point the Macbook is the better value machine, I expect they are both exactly the same board as well, just lacking the firewire and memory card slot. Will it return to the number 1 selling Mac? Maybe, but the new iMacs are a hell of a spec now.
 
apolloa said:
Still don't agree with your argument, but on this point the Macbook is the better value machine, I expect they are both exactly the same board as well, just lacking the firewire and memory card slot. Will it return to the number 1 selling Mac? Maybe, but the new iMacs are a hell of a spec now.
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I think I have to agree with you somewhat. However, the display is probably going to be superior on the MBP than the MB, even though you won't find Apple documenting it. On paper, the MB is not far from the MBP.
 
I don't think it will 'kill' the MBP but it's a more economical option for people who don't use laptops for much more than surfing the net or writing papers.
I'm happy with my 13" MBP; I have more faith in the aluminum build and make good use of the SD card slot. But the specs do seem closer than they should be and that makes me happy because I'm hoping it means that the next MBP update will be really nice.
 
NC MacGuy said:
makes me wonder why you got the MBP anyway? The specs. were still pretty close without the retool.
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Fair point, and to be honest, I'm asking myself the same question now. It only gives even more weight to my former rant, though.

I guess, as I said before, hardware specs aren't much of an issue for me. Gigahertz, Megabytes... nice to have, but I seriously stopped caring about laptop performance years ago, at least for small, 10 to 20% increments as seen for processors between models now, for example. Nice to have, not need to have.

But it was (was!) a factor. As I said, there are still "nice" upgrades in the MBP 13" version. There were even more nice advantages before.

I could get incredible laptop hardware for half the price (and that "half the price" doesn't even strike me as much of an exaggeration) if I just got a Windows machine. But I still like Apple's design and functionality. So there are wholly different factors... The multi-touch trackpad... surprisingly huge deal for me... 7 hour battery... even bigger deal. On top of that I still get a lot of the minor, nice-to-have upgrades in hardware.

I'm not saying nobody in the world needs a MBP 13" right now. I'm pretty sure the differences are a huge deal for many (especially those missing the additional ports).

But look at Apples laptop range: You essentially got 4, maybe 4.5 model choices and minimal customization options (mostly regarding basic RAM, HD upgrades). So far, the increments made sense in a "best balance" way, but compare that to the dozens of options you get from other companies...

Enter 13" MB... suddenly, out of the 4 basic models (7 if you count the minimal hardware choices for the 13" and 15" MBP models... ) two are, by most reasonable standards, identical! At the very least not nearly different enough to justify the hundreds of euros/dollars price differences. That's all I'm saying.

I just feel that, objectively, the MB 13" can be called a "13" MBP killer". Not for everyone, but for most people, that's a fair statement.
 
^^^^ Understood.

Actually the best deal is a refurb. MBP which is same price as MB.

I don't think the MB will "kill" the MBP. It may force Apple to up the ante so to speak to keep sales strong. Good for the consumer. Maybe finally they'll listen and give us a screen option -MATTE PLEASE APPLE!
 
dooyou said:
Since a few weeks, I want to buy a 13" macbook pro. But now they had released a new macbook with no differences in compare to the 13" mbp. Okay one is plastic and the other one has the great unibody case.

but is it worth? Also no matte screen that I was hoping for.
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As I have REPEATEDLY stated over the summer this 13" aint no pro as this new Macbook mearly highlights. I hope all my detractors are haniogntheir heads in shame for slating my thread "13" MBP Aint A Pro".
 
For me it was simple...

If the 2.53 became the entry level MBP then I would have gone for it because I thought the aluminum case, higher clocked processor and 4GB RAM would justify the extra $200.

But the Macbook now has everything the MBP has specwise minus the backlit keyboard, aluminum enclosure and firewire/SD. I'm ok with that. That's not worth the extra $200 for me.
 
NC MacGuy said:
Having had two MBs, I'll never buy plastic as long as there's an option.
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I hate to agree with you but...I agree.

When I 1st heard of the new white macbook coming out today I was excited, primarilly since I've always loved the White Macbooks. I had the original one and loved it to the bitter most extreme...

I've had the 13inch MBP for 2 months now and love it immensely. Personally, this is huge for me to say since this entire summer I debated whether to get the 13inch MBP. I kept coming on MacRumors asking if the aluminum model would easily get dents or mess up or w/e.

My original and first Macbook (the white one) traveled with me everywhere on a daily basis; from school, to work, to China, to Japan, to Chicago, Los Angeles, NY, etc...it never broke or messed up...and I was rough w/ my macbook throwing it violently in the back seat of my car...so you can understand how hesitant I was when I bit the bullet and got the 13inch MBP.

If I needed a new Macbook today, as I did 2 months ago...I'd easily go for the new white macbook that came out today...seeing as I've used my Firewire port no more than 2 times since I've owned a Mac for the past 4 years....

...But, i'm sure other 13in MBP owners will agree that there is no justifying getting a slightly heavier and bigger white macbook than an aluminum 13inch MBP that has a backlit keyboard (which has come in handy numerous times typing in the dark), SD card slot (always an extra 8GB card in there) and *can't believe i'm gonna say this...* the aluminum over the white poly-plastic...

I love the white macbook look....but with the 13inch aluminum MBP I'm just as rough with it as I was with my old whitebook and the aluminum does not scratch at all. at all. at all. With the whitebook I probably would've replaced the casing twice by now..

I mention all this cause I was seriously considering calling apple to take back my current 13in uMBP and I swap it for the new white macbook...but with bigger and heavier sizes, no thanks...

...but again, if I had a clean slate and had to make a decision, i'd go with the new white macbook.... but I do love the backlit. LOVE IT.
 
Once you go Lit keyboard, you can't go back. No tilting your screen to see your keyboard. The screen and speakers are better too. Plus the 13" MBP is 2 oz. lighter !!!!
 
shambo said:
NOT the 13" for professional work, which is what my argument has always been.
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oh Shambo, isn't it about time for you to take another trip somewhere with no internet connection and give the rest of us a break from your Psycho-Babble for a few weeks?
 
shambo said:
NOT the 13" for professional work, which is what my argument has always been.
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And that argument has been ridiculous for exactly as long as you've been making it. There are plenty of professional tasks that the 13" MBP can handle just fine.
 
shambo said:
NOT the 13" for professional work, which is what my argument has always been.
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You have a very limited view of what "professional work" is. The 13" MBP works just fine for many professionals in many fields. Not every professional needs dual 40" displays, 22TB hard drives or octo-core processors. The old, tired argument about the MacBook Pro not being appropriate for professional work depends entirely on what kind of work a professional is engaged in.
 
shambo said:
NOT the 13" for professional work, which is what my argument has always been.
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It really depends on what you call "professional". I could easily see many photographers choosing the 13" because it is more portable and the use of the SD slot. If all of what you consider is the graphics card, then you are only considering only a few professions.

Many people use Firewire as evidenced by the amount of complaints due to its removal. Drobo just added Firewire 800 because it was the #1 customer request.

I, for one, could never bring one of those white MB to work because it looks too childish.

The truth is that the Macbooks have always had a period when they approached the specs of the Pro and many have questioned if it was worth the price just for graphics card. Then the new MBPs came out and it restored order again.

I get the feeling that we'll see some kind of minor update across the MBP line. It'd be nice if a minor update included the Nvidia Ion chipset with the far better graphical performance and a faster processor.

As of right now, they do represent a great value. If you don't think the 13" is worth the price, then don't buy it. For me, I can't see myself buying a white MB. It seems too chidish.
 
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