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Upgrade from 2011MPB to 2015?

B

BRISTOL86

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2015
18
2
Hi All

I currently have an early 2011 2.2Ghz i7 which I purchased back when I used to game a fair bit and do video and photo editing, which I no longer do any of. Pretty much just web browsing and office type work now.

I'm considering selling it and replacing with a refurbed 2015 13" to get something a bit smaller and lighter, however I'm wondering whether I'm doing the right thing...

I think it'll cost me around £300 to change (hoping to get about £750 for my 2011 model as I've upgraded the HDD to an SSD as well as having had the logic board and display replaced just last year).

What do you think? Is it actually worth changing, when pretty much the only real tangible difference for me is going to be about the size and weight of the unit? I never take it out of the house so I'm struggling with the rationale for a change! I think part of me just wants something new and shiny....!

Cheers
 
I would wait until later this year, Apple will probably update the Macbook Pro. I also have a 2011 Macbook Pro and I'm waiting for the new ones, they are rumoured to come with Touch ID, OLED touch panel above the function keys, possibly new colours, new professors, graphics and all of that good stuff :D
 
BRISTOL86 said:
What do you think? Is it actually worth changing, when pretty much the only real tangible difference for me is going to be about the size and weight of the unit? I never take it out of the house so I'm struggling with the rationale for a change!
Click to expand...

The 13" rMBP is certainly more portable than your old 15" MBP. You'll also have a faster SSD, better battery life and a Retina display.

You're going to be giving up a decent amount of processing power though. But you don't seem to need it anymore according to this:

I used to game a fair bit and do video and photo editing, which I no longer do any of. Pretty much just web browsing and office type work now.
Click to expand...

I think part of me just wants something new and shiny....!
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that we MAY be seeing new Macs soon. If you want the shiniest and newest Mac, you may want to wait.
 
Depends on your real needs.

As I'm also on a 2011 MBP w/added SSD, I was blown away by the SSD speeds on my wife's used-but-new-to-us 2013 MBP at > 600MB/sec read and write rates, and my buddy's top end 2015 MBP hits > 1TB/second with it's 4 lane PCIe...which is crazy fast.

An updated 2015 dual-core MBP is slower computationally than your quad-core i7, but is within spitting distance via geek bench anyways...real-world usage may differ, but it's not 'slow' in comparison unless really banging on the CPU with many apps or heavier computational apps making use of more threads, etc.

As noted, we're due for a refresh 'likely' this fall. How much of a real performance boost will be there remains TBD - I do expect 'new and shiny' and e.g. updated USB3.1, TB3...but likely only an incremental overall performance boost. (compared to e.g. when Core2Duo or i7s were launched vs their predecessors).

YMMV - buy it if you want it and you probably won't be disappointed unless you expect to get 'new model envy' a few months later.
 
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