I would say between BB and the Apple store, whichever one has the best price or financing.
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What should I do now [regarding rMBP purchase]?
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I would say between BB and the Apple store, whichever one has the best price or financing.
It's about price and fastest refund if I have to send it back. I'm in NY for a week and I would need immediate refund if I find any dead pixel on my new Mac...
In that case best buy there customer return service is amazing at least where I am. No hassle.
No complaints whatsoever. You're buying from the source, so you'll be dealing with salespeople who are trained by Apple and know their business. It'll be busy in the store, but generally they're well staffed and helpful.
I have no comment about Best Buy. Some people love BB. I've personally had a few terrible experiences with them (one so bad that I stopped shopping there completely) but that's just me. Your mileage will definitely vary. I've never shopped at B&H, but their online service is very fast.
"Plugged in most of the time"? That thing has 7 hours of battery life for crying out loud. That's freaking awesome battery life and there's no guarantee the Haswell will have significantly more without sacrificing processing power.
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Buy it directly from Apple. You have 14 days to return it if there's anything wrong with it.
I didn't say that the IB machines had bad battery life. I just asked how important it was to him. And yes, if someone is going to leave it plugged it all the time, Haswell (and IB even) battery life is wasted, so go for IB. If he said battery life was very importan more is better than less, so get Haswell.
Thank you for the advice. I ended up buying a retina MacBook Pro yesterday at the Apple Store. A little bit more expensive, but I wanted to have the guarantee of an experience with no issues at all when buying a laptop at this price, so I chose to pay the additional premium for buying at an Apple Store.
I ended up going for the 15" low end model, with a 2.4 GHz quad-core i7 processor (I could have bought the higher end model, to be more future-proof, but this one was already expensive enough - anyway, I know I'll end up buying a new computer in the next three years, so I learned that this future-proof thing doesn't work very well with me). I almost went with the 13" retina model, which was the one I was intending to buy. But then the 15" was just a little bit heavier, and the screen seemed to provide some additional and valuable real estate area, which is something important to me. Plus, there's the more powerful processor and the dedicated video card that may end up being useful (and it also makes up for the absence of Iris). It was just shining there, and I couldn't resist it. I found it to be a better value overall.
I wished it was powered by Haswell, as battery life is something important to me. However, Haswell is not going to be available before I leave the US, and this specific model is particularly expensive in Brazil, where it runs for nearly US$ 5,000 and nobody actually buys it. I wouldn't buy it in Brazil even if had a Haswell processor, as I couldn't justify spending more than the country's yearly minimum wage on a laptop.
So far, I found the machine to be just great, the best piece of hardware I've ever owned. It has a beautiful screen, a great keyboard and trackpad and plenty of power to do everything I want and even more. The battery will not last me the whole day, but it's actually very good, and I haven't yet plugged the charger since I've bought it. No issues so far. Although it is just a little more powerful than my latest laptop, it just blows it away in every sense. Absolutely great.
I ended up going for the 15" low end model, with a 2.4 GHz quad-core i7 processor (I could have bought the higher end model, to be more future-proof, but this one was already expensive enough - anyway, I know I'll end up buying a new computer in the next three years, so I learned that this future-proof thing doesn't work very well with me). I almost went with the 13" retina model, which was the one I was intending to buy. But then the 15" was just a little bit heavier, and the screen seemed to provide some additional and valuable real estate area, which is something important to me. Plus, there's the more powerful processor and the dedicated video card that may end up being useful (and it also makes up for the absence of Iris). It was just shining there, and I couldn't resist it. I found it to be a better value overall.
I wished it was powered by Haswell, as battery life is something important to me. However, Haswell is not going to be available before I leave the US, and this specific model is particularly expensive in Brazil, where it runs for nearly US$ 5,000 and nobody actually buys it. I wouldn't buy it in Brazil even if had a Haswell processor, as I couldn't justify spending more than the country's yearly minimum wage on a laptop.
So far, I found the machine to be just great, the best piece of hardware I've ever owned. It has a beautiful screen, a great keyboard and trackpad and plenty of power to do everything I want and even more. The battery will not last me the whole day, but it's actually very good, and I haven't yet plugged the charger since I've bought it. No issues so far. Although it is just a little more powerful than my latest laptop, it just blows it away in every sense. Absolutely great.
You got the 2013 model right?
Agh.. I almost don't want the 2012 15" refurb now.So much for a refurb. I've been researching a lot of scary stories about tons of scratches and dents on refurbs..
Where are you reading this? I thought Apple refurbs usually have the outer pieces replaced with new parts and mostly it is the internals that are taken and repaired from used or returned devices.
Well I deliberately searched for "macbook pro horror stories". I guess I'm just being paranoid, but I don't want to find any dirt, scratches, dings, or dents on a $1,599+ product.
It doesn't say in their refurbished page that the outer shell is replaced, but I've heard it is.. >_<
An Apple Employee I talked to some months ago told me they replace the outer shell of the machine.
And stop looking up horror stories! Sit back, play some games, and get off the forums/internet! You're scaring yourself to death about this computer. An Apple Employee I talked to some months ago told me they replace the outer shell of the machine.
I love getting new tech.
I was much worse about my iPhone 5.
I love getting new tech.
I was much worse about my iPhone 5.
Don't worry same here...
Before I got my first iMac, I read all these problems about them... Yellow Tint, slight whistling noise, 'noisy HDD', etc. etc. I stopped reading the forums about a month or two and then got my iMac... Kinda forgot all about the problems when I received it and it was pretty much perfect.
I love getting new tech.
I was much worse about my iPhone 5.
Just forget about it and buy the laptop. If for some reason there are any issues, just take it back. Can't you choose to pick up at the store and see it before you take it?
I wish things in Brazil were simple as they are in the US. In Brazil, you have 7 days to take back the product if it has any problem, provided that you purchased it online. If you purchase it at the store, you're probably out of luck and you'll have to rely on the warranty of the manufacturer, which is usually terrible.
Not even a question. Get one while you are in NYC.
Most people are complaining about the screen on the MBA and raving about the battery life. The two are completely correlated. Yes, the new rMBP will see improved battery life, but not by a huge amount, maybe 20% at the most.
The processor speed bump is marginal 10-15% and the graphics performance will see a similar improvement.
So what, you will be one generation behind. But that is only one year. Use the savings to upgrade a year sooner next time, in 2016 rather than 2017. unless you believe that the computers double in value each year, i think you have already justified this to yourself...