Apple Macbook specs bump & price drops

[joshhedge]

Hi guys. So after seeing the updated Price points and spec changes, is it worth it to grab the 15in Retina 2.7 with the school discount for a grand total of 2,600? Or just wait another 6 months for Haswell? From my understanding, Haswell will have the biggest impact in the 13 inch because the 13 inch has no discrete GPU. But the 15 inch seems like to wont benefit from it that much because maybe power consumption and battery life. Please shed some info on this because I am interested in purchasing just trying to find when the best time to buy is.

If you need it now, get it. Great machine, you will not regret it. Haswell will definitely be a good step forward but by no means is the current rPro underpowered.

 

[Tyranicus]

Hi guys. So after seeing the updated Price points and spec changes, is it worth it to grab the 15in Retina 2.7 with the school discount for a grand total of 2,600? Or just wait another 6 months for Haswell? From my understanding, Haswell will have the biggest impact in the 13 inch because the 13 inch has no discrete GPU. But the 15 inch seems like to wont benefit from it that much because maybe power consumption and battery life. Please shed some info on this because I am interested in purchasing just trying to find when the best time to buy is.

If you need it now, get it. Great machine, you will not regret it. Haswell will definitely be a good step forward but by no means is the current rPro underpowered.

I agree with this. Haswell will be an upgrade, but I have no regrets about purchasing my 15" Retina two months ago. It's the best laptop I have ever owned.

 

[Pia]

Hi guys. So after seeing the updated Price points and spec changes, is it worth it to grab the 15in Retina 2.7 with the school discount for a grand total of 2,600? Or just wait another 6 months for Haswell? From my understanding, Haswell will have the biggest impact in the 13 inch because the 13 inch has no discrete GPU. But the 15 inch seems like to wont benefit from it that much because maybe power consumption and battery life. Please shed some info on this because I am interested in purchasing just trying to find when the best time to buy is.

Looking at the prices and BTO options, the difference between base model 15" Retina and the 2.7 is $600. Of that, $300 comes from SSD 256->512GB, $200 comes from memory 8->16GB, and the remaining $100 buys you the marginally faster processor. Depends on your needs if these make sense, but for most people the base model would be the right choice. I'd personally get the base model with the SSD bump. $300 savings is nothing to sneeze at, regardless of whether discount shaves a few percent off.

 

[Syrome]

Thanks for the update guys. I just don't want to buy a 3,000 laptop and have it lag or not be worth it. Has apple fixed most of the issues since launch? In talking about keystroke lag, Scrolling lag in Safari, Ghosting issues on some models? Any input would be helpful. Thank you!

 

[Tegeril]

I never experienced keystroke lag, Apple replaced my entire display upon discovery of ghosting problems and I don't think the bad LG panels are going out anymore, and scrolling lag is a Webkit change. A software update will help or you can browse with a webkit nightly.

 

[Kadarin]

Thanks for the update guys. I just don't want to buy a 3,000 laptop and have it lag or not be worth it. Has apple fixed most of the issues since launch? In talking about keystroke lag, Scrolling lag in Safari, Ghosting issues on some models? Any input would be helpful. Thank you!

Bought mine at the start of January, and not seeing any issues. 15" rMBP, 2.6, 16GB.

 

[luv2liv]

when will they adopt touchscreen?

i find it hard to believe none of their pc have touchscreen when Apple is probably the company to bring it to the general public.

was at best buy and was amazed almost 80% of the Windows machines are touchscreens.

 

[joshhedge]

when will they adopt touchscreen?

i find it hard to believe none of their pc have touchscreen when Apple is probably the company to bring it to the general public.

was at best buy and was amazed almost 80% of the Windows machines are touchscreens.

Why?

 

[luv2liv]

Why?

selecting/playing music at a party, for instance. sometimes you just dont want figure out where the cursor is, and start scrolling around and pecking at the song. its much more natural to just wipe with your finger and double tap at the art album

 

[JavaMomma]

selecting/playing music at a party, for instance. sometimes you just dont want figure out where the cursor is, and start scrolling around and pecking at the song. its much more natural to just wipe with your finger and double tap at the art album

iPad?

I have an old iPad 1 loaded with music works good for parties people can just pick it up scroll around select what they want and with AirPlay it's awesome. Better then passing around a laptop.

 

[TheStu]

iPad?

I have an old iPad 1 loaded with music works good for parties people can just pick it up scroll around select what they want and with AirPlay it's awesome. Better then passing around a laptop.

Heck, forget that even, you could set it up such that anyone with an iDevice can just play the music on their devices. Assuming you trust their taste.

 

[MrX8503]

How long did it take for them to adopt Sandy Bridge? Ivy Bridge? I doubt Haswell will be any different.

I believe apple was first to have sandy bridge and SATA III in a laptop.

 

[hellfire88]

So can someone verify the main improvements that Haswell will bring? Are they mainly:

- Improved battery life
- 2x performance increase or so of the integrated graphics over the current Intel HD 4000
- Faster CPU performance (obviously)

If that's mainly it, then the Haswell's would benefit the Macbook Air's and 13" rMBP's the most. Heck I think a 13" rMBP with Haswell will be great.

Having said that then, for current 15" rMBP owners the improvements will not be as noticeable since the 15" already has a discrete GPU (nVidia 650m) and the Core i7 Quad-core Ivy-Bridge's are already pretty beastly?

I think the earliest Apple will release Haswell Macbooks is probably Sept/Oct 2013, so I got a 15" rMBP a few weeks ago, and with my "internal summary" of the Haswell improvements above are my own justification that I won't regret not waiting for Haswell lol

 

[JackBurton]

So can someone verify the main improvements that Haswell will bring? Are they mainly:

- Improved battery life
- 2x performance increase or so of the integrated graphics over the current Intel HD 4000
- Faster CPU performance (obviously)

If that's mainly it, then the Haswell's would benefit the Macbook Air's and 13" rMBP's the most. Heck I think a 13" rMBP with Haswell will be great.

Having said that then, for current 15" rMBP owners the improvements will not be as noticeable since the 15" already has a discrete GPU (nVidia 650m) and the Core i7 Quad-core Ivy-Bridge's are already pretty beastly?

I think the earliest Apple will release Haswell Macbooks is probably Sept/Oct 2013, so I got a 15" rMBP a few weeks ago, and with my "internal summary" of the Haswell improvements above are my own justification that I won't regret not waiting for Haswell lol

Hopefully the new MacBooks will also be equipped with the new 802.11ac wireless standard.

 

[Tegeril]

FWIW, I've also switched to browsing with the Webkit Nightlies (it calls itself Safari when it is running and has all the settings from Safari) and the scrolling performance is amazing.