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Is this a bad purchase?
- Thread starter karlie
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Not at all. It's not out of date, it's the most popular laptop for college kids right now, and will def last u 4 yrs. Consider the air too, the portability makes it really good for college.
Its only a bad purchase if you don't need the machine.
The classic MBP gives you an optical drive, ethernet port and the ability to upgrade the ram and storage.
I'd say its a good purchase, while its true Haswell will bring better battery performance, faster CPU and GPUs, if you need to buy one now, your hands are more or less tied.
The classic MBP gives you an optical drive, ethernet port and the ability to upgrade the ram and storage.
I'd say its a good purchase, while its true Haswell will bring better battery performance, faster CPU and GPUs, if you need to buy one now, your hands are more or less tied.
Yup, if you need one, it's not a bad purchase. I'm sure you've done the research, but be sure to compare w/ the non-retina MBP and Air just to be sure the retina will suit you best personally. I just bought a rMBP for college myself. 
You will be fine and you purchase the product is not satisfying your satisfaction is bad buying. So buy only those products which you are mentally satisfied.
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You will be fine and you purchase the good is not satisfy your satisfaction is bad buying.
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You will be fine and you purchase the good is not satisfy your satisfaction is bad buying.
I just bought a 13" non-retina and don't feel like I made a bad decision.
I feel like it might be at least another year or two before retina becomes standard on MBP's. And I don't need retina on my MBP anyway. I just put in an SSD and upgraded to 8GB of ram that I had sitting around.. and the total cost was about $1400.
I feel like it might be at least another year or two before retina becomes standard on MBP's. And I don't need retina on my MBP anyway. I just put in an SSD and upgraded to 8GB of ram that I had sitting around.. and the total cost was about $1400.
From a different perspective, thinking back almost 5 years to when I bought my 2008 uni-macbook pro and then seeing how well it is performing now, definitely one of the best purchases I ever made. New stuff is always coming out so you have to get used to the fact that you won't always have the fastest processors or best GPUs. Do that and you can't go wrong! Buy and enjoy.
Without knowing your budget and computing needs, it's a bit of a shot in the dark, but as you're considering a 13"MBP, we'll take that as a general guideline. I would take a good long hard look at the new 13"MBA as well. Compare it carefully, spec by spec to the 13"MBP. Price wise the Air will be a bit more, but for that, you'll have SSD storage (huge plus, imho), Haswell with Intel5000 graphics, better screen resolution (1440x900 vs 1280x800), industry-leading battery life, and the better size/weight of that Air.
The MBP on the other hand, will give you a lower price, a faster processor (although not Haswell), an optical drive, more storage on the standard version, and upgradeability. Why not go to an APPLE store or BB, if any of those are reasonably near you, and try them both out? If you can hang on a bit longer, see what happens when the new rMBPs come out. There's that possibility the MBPs might be discontinued, so that could save you some $$.
If you want it right now, to get ready for school, you can't go wrong with either the 13"MBP or the new 13"MBA, but my admittedly subjective, personal choice would be the new 13"MBA.