Wait for Broadwell or upgrade now at a discounted price?

[evacchi]

I have a mid-2012 13" MBA 128GB that I was planning to upgrade with a 13" rMBP 256GB; because my university takes part to the Apple On Campus initiative, I can get a 10% discount on the price tag (basically, I'd get AppleCare for free), but I'll be eligible only up until the end of my PhD (Oct, 31st 2014).

Now, considering Broadwell is being pushed forward to the end of the year, I'm wondering whether is that worthy to wait for it and (probably) pay the full price tag, or if I shall go ahead and upgrade now that I can both get the discount and sell my MBA at a fair price.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

While Boradwell offers a slightly faster CPU, better battery life and all the things that come with those updates, the current model is quite potent, thus you should buy now and use that deal, if the current specs of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display satisfy your computational needs.

 

[Praxis91]

IMHO, going from Haswell to Broadwell is not nearly as dramatic as going from Ivy Bridge to Haswell. If you don't really need the laptop now, wait. Otherwise, you can get the Haswell and just sell it when Broadwell comes out.

 

[evacchi]

While Boradwell offers a slightly faster CPU, better battery life and all the things that come with those updates, the current model is quite potent, thus you should buy now and use that deal, if the current specs of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display satisfy your computational needs.

well it would be an upgrade in any case, first of all the MBA is just 1.8GHz i5; moreover, I would go for the 256GB + 8GB RAM model, which is also an i5 2.9GHz. The MBA has worked quite well so far; I basically just do Java programming and some light gaming (once in a while); the upgrade would be certainly welcome, even if my machine is still serving me well.

 

[Count Blah]

IMHO, going from Haswell to Broadwell is not nearly as dramatic as going from Ivy Bridge to Haswell. If you don't really need the laptop now, wait. Otherwise, you can get the Haswell and just sell it when Broadwell comes out.

Really? I've experienced both IB and Haswell. The difference between later IB and Haswell is negligible, unless your main concern is battery and getting an extra couple seconds on the copying of multi-gig files.

If anything, the iGPU of broadwell will be a major step up, and well worth the difference.

But for the OP, get a refurb from the apple store. You'll save more than 10%, and still get a full apple warranty.

 

[RMXO]

Yeap get one now and wait to see what Broadwell offers. If it's a worthy upgrade then sell old one for minor loss.

 

[Joelist]

The late 2013 MBPs do have a pretty good jump in both performance and battery life. It's part Haswell, part the PCIe SSDs and part that Iris is a big jump in graphics performance over its predecessors. Of course, the best Iris jump is with Iris Pro, but you have to get the 15 inch model for that.

 

[evacchi]

But for the OP, get a refurb from the apple store. You'll save more than 10%, and still get a full apple warranty.

Well, I don't know where you are from, but here in Italy a refurbished 13" rMBP (feb 2013) 256GB costs € 1259 on the Apple Store.
With the AoC discount I could get the new 256GB model for € 1345 right now (AppleCare would be discounted too at € 174,46)

(All prices are VAT included)

EDIT: just out of curiosity, how would Broadwell compare in terms of battery life?

 

[bradleyjx]

EDIT: just out of curiosity, how would Broadwell compare in terms of battery life?

Intel demo'd prototype Broadwell silicon running about 30% more efficiently than it's Haswell equivalent. That's in the ballpark of what I remember the Ivy Bridge -> Haswell efficiency gains.

I'd expect an Air which went from 7hrs->12hrs last update would be able to get into the 14hr range with Broadwell; Haswell introduced a ton of new efficiencies for making light-workload computing much less battery-draining, which Broadwell isn't directly improving upon. (at least, nothing's been announced...) Also, you're probably starting to deal with other components of the computer (i.e. display) taking a disproportionate amount of your battery charge, compared to the processor.

 

[Robster3]

I have a mid-2012 13" MBA 128GB that I was planning to upgrade with a 13" rMBP 256GB; because my university takes part to the Apple On Campus initiative, I can get a 10% discount on the price tag (basically, I'd get AppleCare for free), but I'll be eligible only up until the end of my PhD (Oct, 31st 2014).

Now, considering Broadwell is being pushed forward to the end of the year, I'm wondering whether is that worthy to wait for it and (probably) pay the full price tag, or if I shall go ahead and upgrade now that I can both get the discount and sell my MBA at a fair price.

I would wait for Broadwell then wait and see what's next. If you can wait 10 months you don't need it. Have a holiday

 

[Praxis91]

Really? I've experienced both IB and Haswell. The difference between later IB and Haswell is negligible, unless your main concern is battery and getting an extra couple seconds on the copying of multi-gig files.

If anything, the iGPU of broadwell will be a major step up, and well worth the difference.

But for the OP, get a refurb from the apple store. You'll save more than 10%, and still get a full apple warranty.

I was mainly thinking about battery life. I didn't think of the iGPU end of it to be honest (as in the iGPU in Broadwell vs Haswell)... then again dGPU will beat iGPU every time, but it would definitely be better for someone that wants a base model.

 

[pTacRP]

No disrespect meant but if you're gonna have a PhD by the time the new ones are introduced you can probably afford full price just saying

 

[Jaben3421]

IMHO, going from Haswell to Broadwell is not nearly as dramatic as going from Ivy Bridge to Haswell. If you don't really need the laptop now, wait. Otherwise, you can get the Haswell and just sell it when Broadwell comes out.

I think you have that backwards.

 

[Redskinsfan10]

I have a mid-2012 13" MBA 128GB that I was planning to upgrade with a 13" rMBP 256GB; because my university takes part to the Apple On Campus initiative, I can get a 10% discount on the price tag (basically, I'd get AppleCare for free), but I'll be eligible only up until the end of my PhD (Oct, 31st 2014).

Now, considering Broadwell is being pushed forward to the end of the year, I'm wondering whether is that worthy to wait for it and (probably) pay the full price tag, or if I shall go ahead and upgrade now that I can both get the discount and sell my MBA at a fair price.

I'd buy now.

 

[dusk007]

Intel demo'd prototype Broadwell silicon running about 30% more efficiently than it's Haswell equivalent. That's in the ballpark of what I remember the Ivy Bridge -> Haswell efficiency gains.

I'd expect an Air which went from 7hrs->12hrs last update would be able to get into the 14hr range with Broadwell; Haswell introduced a ton of new efficiencies for making light-workload computing much less battery-draining, which Broadwell isn't directly improving upon. (at least, nothing's been announced...) Also, you're probably starting to deal with other components of the computer (i.e. display) taking a disproportionate amount of your battery charge, compared to the processor.

No it is not like Ivy -> Haswell it is like Sandy to Ivy.
Haswell jump in efficiency was due to a single soc design that brought platform power down (really low idle power), the efficiency of Haswell isn't all that great. A standard quad core barely runs any longer than Ivy equivalent.
Due to the Single SoC it was a 50% efficiency gain.

Broadwell won't bringt idle power down much more, so overall battery life will not improve as much. Just at medium load it will be able to last longer while doing the same work. Plattform power will not improve much for the Dual Cores. The Quad Cores are supposed to move to a single Soc design, so the 15" may get much more maximum battery life. The 13" may get an hour more in these low load battery life scenarios.

For comparison sake Intel claimed up to 38% efficiency gain for 22nm Ivy over 32nm Sandy Bridge. Now check how much battery life improved back then.

 

[maflynn]

I'd take the discount now and get it. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush as they say. With the Broadwell chipset purported to be delayed until fourth quarter, we have no idea when Apple will release an update. I'd say in this case its better to play it safe.