MacBook Pro 13" 2012 Model to buy or not?

[Peafreen]

Apple is still selling this model and I know it will go away soon. It would be more cost effective to get the features I want to keep as I really want to be able to keep all the apps I have, loads of music in iTunes and iPhoto stuff, etc. Right now I have over 550 GB used on my current MacBook Pro with about 200 GB. Plus the new drives aren't that big and are VERY expensive. Also, wouldn't have to purchase extras like a DVD drive. I don't know if it has a card slot or what ports it has as it's not listed on their site.

Should I wait to see if the flash drives will come down in price with new versions coming out? I think they will most likely still be quite expensive.

 

[MCAsan]

I have a 6TB library of music, documents, photos, and movies. It is backed up by TM to a speerate 6TB drive.

Naturally I never try to carry that library around. I have hundreds of CDs of music I have iTunes put on my iPhone. I have iTunes put lots of photo collections (out of Lightroom) on my iPad. I take the iPad to club meetings and other events to share the photos when/where it it would be a PITA to have a laptop to try to pass around.

 

[meson]

Peafreen,

If the cMBP fits the bill for you, go for it. It's a great machine and I know it because I am typing on one now. It appealed to me because I could keep the connectivity that I still use without a bunch of dongles, and will get upgraded in the near future.

I will note that the spinning hard drive makes me wait a little more that I would like at times, but that will be rectified with an SSD. With 256GB SSDs now retailing at ~$100-$150, I think you are still a couple years out from getting 1TB-2TB drives in the $200-$300 range, but they will come.

After an SSD upgrade and a bump in ram to either 8GB or 16GB, I can see this machine fitting my needs for long time. With 5 to 6 year old machines still being relevant for day to day use, I don't see these machines being significantly limited by the hardware for quite some time.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Well I bought mine with 1 TB flash. Very expensive. If you can wait then wait. Price will for sure come down. Other options are external disks or maybe SD cards with dedicated content? Or as others have mentioned the standard 13 MBP is still a great machine.

 

[Meister]

I don't know if it has a card slot or what ports it has as it's not listed on their site....

.... You can not be serious!?

If you need a DVD drive and want the option to have loads of storage in your macbook the cmbp is an excellent choice!

 

[jbachandouris]

Unless they discontinue it, it's not going away 'soon' as the Haswell Macs are not scheduled to ship until 2015 (speculation, of course).

As for SSD's, I recently noticed a 1TB SSD for $400. Although that's not 'cheap,' it's the best deal I've found as $400 is the 'sale' price of the 500+ GB version.

 

[capathy21]

Apple is still selling this model and I know it will go away soon. It would be more cost effective to get the features I want to keep as I really want to be able to keep all the apps I have, loads of music in iTunes and iPhoto stuff, etc. Right now I have over 550 GB used on my current MacBook Pro with about 200 GB. Plus the new drives aren't that big and are VERY expensive. Also, wouldn't have to purchase extras like a DVD drive. I don't know if it has a card slot or what ports it has as it's not listed on their site.

Should I wait to see if the flash drives will come down in price with new versions coming out? I think they will most likely still be quite expensive.

The cMBP is still a great machine. That being said, there are some real advantages to going with a rMBP. Display quality, reduced weight, and overall speed of the machine due to PCIe SSD etc. I guess it just depends on how important it is to carry all of your media with you at once. Either way you go, it's going to be expensive to have enough storage for everything without using external storage.

 

[Cassady]

MacBook Pro 13" 2012 Model to buy or not?

Have one of them - so obviously biased!



I'm in the Academic world. I do plenty of writing. I do plenty of research. I have plenty of windows open at a time, inside my Information Manager (DTPO), throw in Bookends (Reference Manager), Scrivener (writing programme) - Safari with plenty of tabs open, Mail, MS Office Word, Parallels 8 running MS Win 7... It handles all of that, in its stride.



Fire up Camtasia, and convert a large screencast to video - and the fans hum along nicely. That and batch OCR'ing hundreds of PDFs through a Hazel 3.0/PDF Pen Pro combination, are the only times I've managed to get them to make a noticeable noise...



That on a stock-standard i5. BUT - I have been able to upgrade. So I'm running 16GB RAM. And I have my OS on a 480 Crucial SSD, with the original HDD in the optibay, for my media.



For MY purposes, and as my 1st Mac - whereas I lusted over the thinner design of the MBA, I have never regretted going for the cMBP - particularly given how easy the upgrades have been, especially to my pocket!



The Retina screens are amazing. But weigh up what your needs are. 8GB 512 GB SSD will not be cheap, no matter which way you cut it -- unless you land a sweet 2nd hand deal, but even then, you'd only want to look post 2011...



They might discontinue the cMBP soon. But as the last of the truly-upgradeables, I will be very sad to see them go...



And when the time comes for the upgrade - well, I don't even want to think about that... Suffice it to say, I'm already putting money aside...

 

[Peafreen]

MacBook Pro 13" 2012 Model to buy or not?

Thank you everyone for your comments. I went ahead and ordered the 13" MBP 2012 - I weighed everything I was thinking about and what I wanted and decided this will be a great machine for the next couple of years and will give me time to see what happens in the future with the new laptops. I added a few upgrades which were not that expensive and it has everything I'm used to and familiar with. I'm sure I will love it Thanks again.

 

[meson]

Enjoy your new machine!