When to upgrade? (2011 mbp w/ SSD)

[ls1dreams]

Hi all,

I'm debating when to upgrade my 2011 MBP (upgraded to 8gb/256gb SSD). It does the job now, but I'm considering a few things that would be nice:

1. Retina screen especially
2. Better battery life (my 13" 2011 with a brand new battery gets only around 5-6hrs)
3. Weight savings (about a pound)
4. (minor) 802.11ac
5. (minor) USB 3.0 ports

What other things are upcoming? For me, the 2 main items I'm waiting on are:

1. An intel cpu with iris graphics that have hardware HEVC decoding (which seems to be the next generation). That way, I can repurpose the laptop as an HTPC later
2. Waiting for Apple to make the base SSD 256gb at least. Currently the jump to a bigger SSD adds $300, which is absurd given that you can buy 512gb SSD's now for $110.

Anything else worth watching/waiting for? Just trying to justify a $1300 purchase or so. 2011 was a good year to purchase because it was the first version with sandybridge, which was a big leap over core2duo.

Looking at single core performance of a 2011 i5 vs 2015 i5, it's 2143 vs ~2900, so only a +35% increase in performance over 4, almost 5 years now.

 

[Ih8reno]

Well only you know the answer whether you need to upgrade. I myself have an early 2011 Macbook Pro with 16gb of ram and 240gb ssd. Does everything I want/need it to do. If your cannot accomplish any tasks you need it for then by all means I say upgrade.

 

[T5BRICK]

It does the job now

There is the answer to your question. If the computer you have does the job you need it to do, then you shouldn't upgrade. When it stops doing the things you need, then it's time to upgrade.

What other things are upcoming? For me, the 2 main items I'm waiting on are:

1. An intel cpu with iris graphics that have hardware HEVC decoding (which seems to be the next generation). That way, I can repurpose the laptop as an HTPC later

I just read a couple of articles and rumor has it that Skylake CPUs will have hardware HEVC decoding. I didn't do any further reading to confirm this.

2. Waiting for Apple to make the base SSD 256gb at least. Currently the jump to a bigger SSD adds $300, which is absurd given that you can buy 512gb SSD's now for $110.

$1299 gets you 2.7GHz/8GB/128GB and $1499 gets you 2.7GHz/8GB/256GB. Maybe you're not in the US?

Either way, I am guessing that apple will bump the SSD size to 256GB soon. I mean, that's what the base rMB ships with, why wouldn't they include the rMBP.

Anything else worth watching/waiting for? Just trying to justify a $1300 purchase or so. 2011 was a good year to purchase because it was the first version with sandybridge, which was a big leap over core2duo.

Looking at single core performance of a 2011 i5 vs 2015 i5, it's 2143 vs ~2900, so only a +35% increase in performance over 4, almost 5 years now.

I bought the early 2015 13" rMBP earlier this year and it is fantastic. My last mac was a 2009 13" MBP, and this thing just destroys it in every measurable way.