Purchased a cMBP today.

[doubleaa]

I purchased the base model cMBP 13" today for my wife. I know the Intel Haswell processor refresh is coming in the fall but I wouldn't be surprised if just the retina line is updated and the cMBP stays as is or goes away all together.

She is a teacher and at $999, I couldn't pass up the new $200 discount for education on these models. I considered the i7 at $1299 but decided to put the $300 in my own upgrades instead. For her use I doubt the i5 vs i7 would even be noticeable anyway. Going to put 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD in it myself next week. Will be a great notebook with those two upgrades.

 

[B...]

Great purchase! Have fun with it.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I was going to buy the same model if my 2009 hadn't decided that it still wants to be used. It may not have Retina, but the cMBP is a tried and true, very reliable machine! She can enjoy it for several years!

 

[NewishMacGuy]

It's a great machine, and unless she's the type that simply must have the newest, shiniest, yet totally unnecessary toy, she'll love it.

And you're absolutely right to go for the base model and do your own upgrades. I would top that upgrade list with an SSD (if she can make do with 256GB) or a hybrid (if she needs 750+GB of space). The 500GB size is no man's land, in that the SSDs are nice to have, but still a bit pricey in that size and up if you're trying to be frugal.

I would caution you that unless she's running VMs, it's highly likely that 16GB of RAM is completely unnecessary. For just running OSX, 8GB will be plenty. And I would guess that if she was running apps that were especially memory intensive, she would probably benefit form a more powerful machine than the base uMPB-13.


___

 

[leman]

For a teacher, a Macbook Air would have been a much better choice. Lighter, more real screen estate, faster and essentially the same price. But well, its your money

 

[sofianito]

IPAD retina combined with iWork for iCloud is another light alternative...

 

[thekev]

For her use I doubt the i5 vs i7 would even be noticeable anyway.

It's not a big difference anyway. At the point it starts to matter, it means the user should really be looking at quad core models. On notebooks the difference in prefix isn't very meaningful.

 

[alphaod]

For a teacher, a Macbook Air would have been a much better choice. Lighter, more real screen estate, faster and essentially the same price. But well, its your money

It would also be a more expensive. Non-upgradeable and it's certainly not faster.

 

[leman]

It would also be a more expensive. Non-upgradeable and it's certainly not faster.

With educational pricing, not that much more expensive. Upgradeability? Right, that straw hat argument ^^ The GPU is faster, the CPU is on par and the SSD in the Air is way faster than any SATA SSD you can buy. Not to mention the 12 hours battery. All that while being less than half the weight. Clearly a superior machine, no matter how you look at it, especially for somebody who has to be mobile (teacher).

 

[majkom]

It would also be a more expensive. Non-upgradeable and it's certainly not faster.

Well, for teacher, mb air is faster one... hyper speed SSD vs classic HDD is differenca maker... I doubt teacher typically push airs CPU to the limit.. in a nutshell, air is better machine for teacher.. (oh I forgot, air got higher resolution, as well)

 

[mslide]

Good move. The 13" cMBP is a great machine and is what I use. I can certainly see the SSD but I doubt a teacher would need anything close to 16GB RAM. The stock 4GB is probably more than enough unless she has to run a Windows VM or something (in which case, 8GB would be enough).

However, given the new MBA's battery life and SSD performance, I would have went with a 13" MBA unless 16GB RAM really is a necessity.

 

[ValSalva]

This cMBP is a great deal. It's upgradeable so in the future you can add more RAM or an SSD of your choosing. It's also a little more rugged than an Air. This Ivy Bridge model will be a great machine for years and years.

 

[azentropy]

Congrats...

With educational pricing, not that much more expensive. Upgradeability? Right, that straw hat argument ^^ The GPU is faster, the CPU is on par and the SSD in the Air is way faster than any SATA SSD you can buy. Not to mention the 12 hours battery. All that while being less than half the weight. Clearly a superior machine, no matter how you look at it, especially for somebody who has to be mobile (teacher).

Well, for teacher, mb air is faster one... hyper speed SSD vs classic HDD is differenca maker... I doubt teacher typically push airs CPU to the limit.. in a nutshell, air is better machine for teacher.. (oh I forgot, air got higher resolution, as well)

Everyone has different needs...

If you can live with 4gb of RAM (8gb Max which you have to get when ordering), without an internal superdrive (a lot of educational software is DVD based), without a kensington security port (kinda nice to have in a classroom environment), without built in ethernet (many classrooms are hardwired), limited storage space then yeah the MBA might be a better choice.

While the 13" MBA screen is larger and has a higher resolution, it is an inferior screen in terms of color saturation and viewing angles. The higher DPI, and smaller text, is also harder on the eyes for many. At best the screen is a wash.

leman - check your math, the 13" MBA isn't "half the weight" as the 13" cMBP.

Again, everyone has different needs...

 

[someguy50]

azentropy brings up an important point. The LCD has been inferior in the Air and I doubt that has changed in the new one.

Slightly higher resolution goes along with inferior quality everywhere else. My wife isn't a techie, and she can tell the difference. Most noticeable when looking at good pictures.

Though the SSD in the new Air is super sweet...