Need Laptop Advice

[mashed pumpkin]

So i have a 2010 macbook pro and love it but its time to get a new device. I am purchasing it between Jan and Feb and need some help. I was looking at the new macbook with the 1.3ghz for which i found for around 1600$. I use my current laptop for web surfing, heavy media, and would like to lightly get into some picture editing( i got a new camera) but nothing heavy. i have seen people say that the power of the new macbook is weak so i was thinking what about the Macbook Air 13.3? I would get another macbook pro but i would only want the 15 inch which are in my opinion too much money. Do you think its worth paying basically 2000 for a 15 inch?
Lol i know its a lot so i will break each question i have down

1. Opinion on 2015 macbook w/1.3GHz?
2. Do you think getting the macbook air 13.3 or macbook pro is a better deal for what I am looking for?
3. Is the 15 inch macbook pro worth the money ?

 

[LittleLuth]

Have you thought about a 13" rMBP? Display on the Air is awful, 15" is pricey and while it can likely do everything you want, the rMB might lack in processing power if you want to do semi
-serious media/photo editing. 13" rMBP is a powerful workhorse with a great display and solid specs.

 

[mashed pumpkin]

Have you thought about a 13" rMBP? Display on the Air is awful, 15" is pricey and while it can likely do everything you want, the rMB might lack in processing power if you want to do semi
-serious media/photo editing. 13" rMBP is a powerful workhorse with a great display and solid specs.

I have thought about getting another 13 inch pro but I feel lk o either want something really skinny and sleek(nMB or MBA) or a wider screen wit the 15 inch rMBP. You think I'm being to picky? It's only because I have a 13 inch pro but I know the new ones are ALOT slimmer then what I have. I think if I can find a new rMBP for under 1850 I should get it.

 

[maflynn]

I'd avoid the 13" MBA, I think overall you can do better with a 13" MBP and the dimensions are not that far off the MBA, both in terms of weight and size. The MBP gives you a faster processor, better GPU and a much better screen.

As for the 15" MBP, that's really the best you can get, you get a better GPU (then the 13" MBP) and the CPU is quad core, so it will do anything you throw at it.

I have a 15" MBP and I love the size and power it has to offer, but that comes at a price, a steep price.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

As the others have said the 13 inch rMBP is your best compromise for power and portability with a great screen.

Remember you get 14 days to return it if you don't like it give it a go.

You don't say where you live or what SSD size you would like but under $1800 should be easy to do on the 13 inch pro hell you might get a 15 inch for that.

 

[maflynn]

Remember you get 14 days to return it if you don't like it give it a go.

during the holiday season you actually have a lot longer, and so there's definitely some incentive to buy now and try it out for a month.

 

[RedCroissant]

I personally think that you should either consider the 2012 cMBP and upgrade it later (because it will accept 16GB RAM, it has USB 3.0, and is a better machine).

The fact that the 2012 cMBP still outperforms the "new" dual core M MacBook tells me that the macbook (although pretty) isn't the right machine. Even the MacBook Air is light and fun, but still not powerful enough and it's not upgradeable. So if you want it to be a good investment as far as the MBA is concerned, you'll need to upgrade the RAM which makes it more expensive than a more powerful 13" retina.

Even the 2015 13" rMBP though is only a 1 generation newer CPU than the 2012 cMBP and the addition of a SSD makes the 2012 a better purchase.


If you want the best machine though (and you might have to go to Craigslist), look for a 2012 15" MBP. That one has a quad i7, upgradeable to 16GB RAM, and with RAIDed SSDs, that machine would outperform everything but the Mac Pro and the newer 15" rMBP.


So these are my recommendations:

1. 2012 15" cMBP


2. 2012 13" cMBP

These now should be comparably priced since the 15" would be used. The 13" is still being sold and updated (as far as the OS is concerned) by Apple. And if you watch the sales, you might catch the 13" priced at $899 again the way that it was for Black Friday and even for part of last week.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

My wife has a 2010 Macbook which I upgraded last week with an SSD. Oh boy. Now it is snappier then my 2013 rMBP !

Maybe you should try the same. The upgrade was pretty easy.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I personally think that you should either consider the 2012 cMBP and upgrade it later (because it will accept 16GB RAM, it has USB 3.0, and is a better machine).

The fact that the 2012 cMBP still outperforms the "new" dual core M MacBook tells me that the macbook (although pretty) isn't the right machine. Even the MacBook Air is light and fun, but still not powerful enough and it's not upgradeable. So if you want it to be a good investment as far as the MBA is concerned, you'll need to upgrade the RAM which makes it more expensive than a more powerful 13" retina.

Even the 2015 13" rMBP though is only a 1 generation newer CPU than the 2012 cMBP and the addition of a SSD makes the 2012 a better purchase.


If you want the best machine though (and you might have to go to Craigslist), look for a 2012 15" MBP. That one has a quad i7, upgradeable to 16GB RAM, and with RAIDed SSDs, that machine would outperform everything but the Mac Pro and the newer 15" rMBP.


So these are my recommendations:

1. 2012 15" cMBP


2. 2012 13" cMBP

These now should be comparably priced since the 15" would be used. The 13" is still being sold and updated (as far as the OS is concerned) by Apple. And if you watch the sales, you might catch the 13" priced at $899 again the way that it was for Black Friday and even for part of last week.

A few issues with this,

Firstly the chips are 2 generations (1 for the 15 inch) out of date so despite your nonsense and the difference being only about 10-20% new chips are much better performers which give far better battery life and are far cooler.

Secondly and more importantly in the case of the 13 inch the graphics are about 100% better and the 650M dGPU has issues with failure, so a 3 year old 15 inch is looking like a bit of a timebomb.

Thirdly the PCIe SSD's are a lot faster than SATA 3, thunderbolt 2 allows 60Hz output to a 4K screen thunderbolt one does not, forcetouch is now becoming an apple standard.

Fourthly the OP clearly cares about size and weight and the rMBP is far slimmer and lighter to carry around, for both of the sizes.

Fithly by the time you have upgraded the cMBP with SSD and RAM you are almost at the price of a brand new laptop that is not 3 1/2 year old technology.

Lastly and by all means most importantly why would anyone choose to miss out on the retina screens in favour of a more than 3 year old laptop. The retina screens are brilliant, low glare, great viewing angles and Text is like reading print.

 

[RedCroissant]

A few issues with this,

Firstly the chips are 2 generations (1 for the 15 inch) out of date so despite your nonsense and the difference being only about 10-20% new chips are much better performers which give far better battery life and are far cooler.

Secondly and more importantly in the case of the 13 inch the graphics are about 100% better and the 650M dGPU has issues with failure, so a 3 year old 15 inch is looking like a bit of a timebomb.

Thirdly the PCIe SSD's are a lot faster than SATA 3, thunderbolt 2 allows 60Hz output to a 4K screen thunderbolt one does not, forcetouch is now becoming an apple standard.

Fourthly the OP clearly cares about size and weight and the rMBP is far slimmer and lighter to carry around, for both of the sizes.

Fithly by the time you have upgraded the cMBP with SSD and RAM you are almost at the price of a brand new laptop that is not 3 1/2 year old technology.

Lastly and by all means most importantly why would anyone choose to miss out on the retina screens in favour of a more than 3 year old laptop. The retina screens are brilliant, low glare, great viewing angles and Text is like reading print.

The 13 inch is 2 generations and the 15 inch is one gen back, true. However, what I said was not nonsense. And define better performance because the 5th gen actually puts out more heat than earlier generations and is one of the main causes for the smaller percentage in performance increase over previous generations.



The graphics are better in the retina machine for sure and the ability too utput to 4k is great. I also think the display is awesome but not worth it in my opinion to go with the 13 inch retina when I can make a 13 cMBP outperform it for less money. And upgrading the 13 rMBP to the point where the cMBP is no longer a reasonable choice makes the 13" rMBP too expensive for what you get and at that price point I would go with a 15" rMBP. And right now the 15" rMBP with Integrated graphics is only $1849 at Best Buy.



There were some instances of failure but not that many and the 2012 15" is still a better buy in my opinion.



PCIe 2.0 SSDs are faster than SATA 3 HDDs for sure, but that's only if you compare the speeds of an SSD to a HDD. But PCIe 2.0 SSDs versus SATA 3 SSDs is the same. And the benefit of the 2012 is that there are 2 SATA connections which allows for more expandability and the ability to create your own RAID that drastically outperforms the PCIe 2.0 flash-based SSD in the retina machine.



It is slimmer but not that much lighter (only 1 lb). So yes I did read that the OP cares about size and weight but I think the OP also cares more about performance of the machine than it seems by the original post. My original response and recommendations are still the ones that I would make first and then my number 3 would be the 15" rMBP. And that machine weighs more than the 13" cMBP.



And yes that's true that you're "almost" at the price of a brand new laptop.



rMBP: $1,499

2.7GHz dual i5

16GB RAM

128GB SSD



cMBP: $1,454

2.5GHz dual i5

16GB RAM

2 x 240GB SATA 3 SSD



Those prices are pre-tax totals but upgrading the cMBP is less expensive and I think a better investment due to the capabilities of the machine.



The reason why I would choose to miss out on the retina screens is because they are not THAT awesome so that the retina becomes the primary reason to purchase a machine. I get that they are low glare and all the benefits that come with them, but I want a Mac to last as long as possible and for me to be able to do as much as possible with them. That's not to say that I would never buy a rMBP; because I would. I just want them to be much more powerful than the cMBP before I commit to buying something like that instead of buying something that is only an incremental upgrade. Once they have PCIe 3.0 or higher, then I would seriously consider upgrading, but not when a cMBP can have 2 SSDs in RAID and double the R/W of the rMBP.

I have thought about getting another 13 inch pro but I feel lk o either want something really skinny and sleek(nMB or MBA) or a wider screen wit the 15 inch rMBP. You think I'm being to picky? It's only because I have a 13 inch pro but I know the new ones are ALOT slimmer then what I have. I think if I can find a new rMBP for under 1850 I should get it.

OP,



the 15" rMBP with 256GB SSD and integrated graphics is only $1,849 right now and the 15" rMBP with 512MB SSD and dedicated graphics is only $2,300.



So they're both on sale now and if you're leaning at all toward the 15" due to the quad-corinees, then now might be the perfect time.

 

[Beachguy]

All of these comments are giving excellent advice, but the final choice is you, and how you wish to balance all the aspects of a new computer. You may wish to simply check the stock available, decide which of the ideas best applies to you, and check out what they have here:

http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

Fact is, you can't go wrong with Macs. Personally, my 2011 MBA has a fine enough screen for me, and so does my 2012 MBP. For others, anything short of retina is not acceptable. We're not the ones spending money and buying, and not the ones looking at the screen. Look at your options, compare to what is there, and buy one. Then enjoy your new Mac!