Buy Macbook Pro now or wait?

[mayo_capone]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice. I'm going back to school after a six year venture into the world of professionals and I've decided to get a 15" MacBook to bring to school, the base retina model. The thing is, I'm going in vacation next week and would love to bring it along for the flight. I don't want to jump and buy it only to get crushed when the Haswell update comes out and my brand new laptop is a generation behind.

School starts August 12 and I want it at least a week early to get acquainted with my first Mac. Should I just jump now or wait until the last possible moment?

 

[TheStu]

The answer is always to wait until the last possible minute

 

[Eug]

I would wait, but there's no guarantee you'll be able to get a new one by early August. Still, I would wait. The big benefits would be Haswell, PCIe SSD, and 802.11ac, and maybe Thunderbolt 2.

Note also that it would make sense to get it once you are actually officially a student. That way not only do you get your student discount, which is significant, you also can take advantage of the Back to School promotion, which is a $100 iTunes gift card.

 

[Koing]

I'd wait.

Koing

 

[manly]

In my opinion if you're going to wait a month, you should consider a commitment to waiting for the refresh.

 

[Joe1986]

Definitely wait, the Haswell chips are a significant upgrade.

 

[Mixolydian]

I'd wait (though it's rather hypocritical for me to say that since I just bought a new iMac a couple weeks ago - which I will sell when the Haswell version comes out)

 

[vailr]

See whether renting for a month or two would be cost effective.
Rent-a-Center (or similar) may have Mac laptops for rent. Or: get a cheap Snow Leopard laptop machine off of eBay, to tide you over until the updated 2013 Haswell laptops get released.

 

[mayo_capone]

Sounds like the consensus is wait. I guess I knew but just didn't want to, I have been very eager to get my laptop ever since I decided on the mbp. The battery life gain from Haswell on the air is too big to ignore for the pro. I don't think I can rent a computer then buy when the new ones are released. I'm going to med school and don't expect to have time to deal with much besides studying.

 

[Joe1986]

If you want to get familiar with OSX in the meantime, check out some youtube videos.

Good luck with med school, do you have a specialty you're looking at?

 

[vailr]

Buy used:
http://www.cowboom.com/Computers/Ap...ce_low&store=fixed&query=&view=grid&keywords=
Then re-sell once your Haswell laptop becomes available.

 

[mayo_capone]

It's hard to imagine what specialty I will go into. Most people change their minds when they do have an idea but I have no clue. I will probably pursue whatever I am best at in rotations.

If I do buy used and resell, what kind of hit could I expect to take?

 

[Subyman]

I'd certainly wait until you get your student email. Last year I got ~$200 off a MBP + $100 coupon for Itunes/Appstore. The bad news is Apple probably won't update the lineup until after the back to school promos for obvious reasons.

 

[Eug]

The bad news is Apple probably won't update the lineup until after the back to school promos for obvious reasons.

Not true. They've often updated the lineup before the promo was over in previous years. And IIRC, they update the promo to include the new machine.

 

[Eug]

Next-Generation 15-Inch MacBook Pro Shows Up in Benchmarks

Primate Labs' John Poole tells MacRumors that Geekbench does collect GPU information, and that this machine does NOT appear to have a discrete GPU in addition to the integrated Iris 5200 graphics from Intel. Poole notes that it is possible that Geekbench could have failed to pick up the presence of a discrete GPU, as Primate Labs is still working out issue with that feature of the software, but that all testing so far has indicated that Geekbench should see the discrete GPU if it is present, even if it has been turned off for the benchmarking run.

 

[mayo_capone]

Saw that earlier. It doesn't look like a good sign for a release soon since it was running an early build of Maverick, I would think that might indicate they won't release MBP until Maverick is finished (october?). Could mean the opposite though, the hardware is done and they are testing the OS.

I for one am all for the 5200 replacing the discrete GPU as long as it can power the retina display. I don't particularly play games anymore and would take the extra battery life, and maybe a price drop?

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Wait if battery life is at all important to you.

 

[bearxor]

Yeah, I'll be really disappointed if they drop the dgpu from the 15" models.

The Iris Pro in the 13" models will be fantastic though.

 

[Black March]

Wait, no doubt about it. Price will go down, specs will go up. So buying right now is nothing other then stupid.

Actually, if you're buying an MBP. I seriously think that you should try to borrow or rent a cheap or old computer until the new version arrives. Because right now it's right at the end of a cycle. My personal guess is a new release somewhere in september though.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Definitely wait, the Haswell chips are a significant upgrade.

In the Macbook Pro side? Not so much, right? Over IVB the perf gains are limited. I thought all the gains were in the ultrabook lineups.

I mean, don't get me wrong - 802.11AC and better battery life would rock, but I don't really have battery issues with my IVB rMBP.

 

[mavere]

I mean, don't get me wrong - 802.11AC and better battery life would rock, but I don't really have battery issues with my IVB rMBP.

I forgot what rMBP battery figures were like, so I dug up the Anandtech ones.

A couple months ago, I'd have thought those numbers were pretty decent. Now, as I'm considering a new laptop, they just seem a bit sad. Haswell rMBPs can't come soon enough.

Edit: It looks like the Nvidia GPU and (most likely) the associated cooling will be removed from the chassis, which should leave a lot of extra space for a larger battery...

 

[RampantAndroid]

I forgot what rMBP battery figures were like, so I dug up the Anandtech ones.

A couple months ago, I'd have thought those numbers were pretty decent. Now, as I'm considering a new laptop, they just seem a bit sad. Haswell rMBPs can't come soon enough.

Edit: It looks like the Nvidia GPU and (most likely) the associated cooling will be removed from the chassis, which should leave a lot of extra space for a larger battery...

That assumes they pull it out...which would actually surprise me. I believe Intel's best iGPU right now cannot outperform the overclocked GT650m found in the IVB rMPB.

 

[mavere]

That assumes they pull it out...which would actually surprise me. I believe Intel's best iGPU right now cannot outperform the overclocked GT650m found in the IVB rMPB.

Well, there's been a lot of speculations here and there. The ones I trust seem to say so, and recent leaked results seem to concur:

Primate Labs' John Poole tells MacRumors that Geekbench does collect GPU information, and that this machine does NOT appear to have a discrete GPU in addition to the integrated Iris 5200 graphics from Intel.

Lastly, even though Iris Pro isn't amazing in games, the GPU holds its own (and then some) in OpenCL and video rendering performance. With Apple being Apple, or at least with OSX being OSX, I think it's obvious which set of benchmarks is more relevant for their decision makers.

 

[TheStu]

A few years ago they had a 15" MacBook Pro that only had onboard graphics, and then you could get the upgraded model with a dGPU. Maybe they are going to do the same here? It would be strange for them to drop the dGPU from the 15"

 

[bearxor]

Ha! I totally forgot about that. It was the GF9400 release, right?