Macbook Pro updates are here! (Core i5/i7 on 15.4" and up)

[scootermaster]

Anything involving increased rez is going to be a BTO option, right? That suckssssss, for a number of reasons. Return policy sucks, (or is nonexistent), and here in CA, there's around $200 tax on these things. I was planning on going with Amazon.com, which turns out to be cheaper, even when considering the educational discount. Of course, amazon.com doesn't carry BTO options. Blarg.

 

[Kmax82]

There's a $200 tax in addition to sales tax, or that's what the sales tax comes out to?

 

[scootermaster]

There's a $200 tax in addition to sales tax, or that's what the sales tax comes out to?

Tax is 9.75%, so on a $2000 machine, yeah, it's about $200.

It's not the end of the world. But for the mid-level 15", it'd be, what, $1850 + $90 (hi rez) * 1.0975 = 2144 with the educational discount. From amazon, that system is $1929. Plus the [theoretical] hi-rez option, + $90, it'd be $2019. So that's in $125 savings that comes from not having to pay sales tax.

Except, best as I can tell, that computer doesn't exist -- and won't exist -- at Amazon. :-(

The sick thing is, without a sale, I could literally fly from Los Angeles to Portland (where there's no sales tax) in the morning, have a friend pick me up, take me to the Apple store, buy my laptop, hang out a bit in Portland, and then fly back to LA in the evening and IT WOULD COST EXACTLY THE SAME.

If I could find an airfare sale, I might even save $50+ or so. How crazy is that?

 

[GhettoFob]

Anything involving increased rez is going to be a BTO option, right? That suckssssss, for a number of reasons. Return policy sucks, (or is nonexistent), and here in CA, there's around $200 tax on these things. I was planning on going with Amazon.com, which turns out to be cheaper, even when considering the educational discount. Of course, amazon.com doesn't carry BTO options. Blarg.

Yeah that sucks, so basically $300 for the higher res. 🙁

 

[Kmax82]

The sick thing is, without a sale, I could literally fly from Los Angeles to Portland (where there's no sales tax) in the morning, have a friend pick me up, take me to the Apple store, buy my laptop, hang out a bit in Portland, and then fly back to LA in the evening and IT WOULD COST EXACTLY THE SAME.

If I could find an airfare sale, I might even save $50+ or so. How crazy is that?

Wow.. that's nuts!

Btw, here are some benchmarks, in case you were curious.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get/3

 

[Gamingphreek]

Just as an update...

On Saturday I went in 1 day after my 14 days were up at Best Buy. The allowed me to return it, but since nothing was wrong with the laptop, I had to pay a 15% restocking fee. UGH.

At any rate, they didn't have the Mac's in the computer and everyone was wondering when they were coming. I was walking around a little later and a sales person came up to me and asked if he could help. On a whim, I just asked him about the new MacBook Pro's.

He didn't know when they would be in, but he started to look them up in the inventory. He looked up all the shipping numbers with SKU's and we took those SKU's that corresponded with MacBook Pro's and plugged them in to the Best Buy website. The ones that didn't come up, were the new models.

Once we found a group of them, we looked and couldn't find the release date for them. But they did say they would be in the next day. He then went and checked the ad for the following week and nothing was mentioned. Finally, he got on his walkie-talkie and asked if they were allowed to sell the new MacBooks when they came in.

Well apparently they were in stock and there was nothing wrong with selling them - just nobody knew. He got the OK and I got to have the very first selection of their stock of the new MacBook Pro's.

I'm now $300 lighter (After restocking fee and $100 difference between the 2 models), but I am running on a brand new 15" Core i5 MacBook Pro 🙂 (Too bad Best Buy doesn't order the 1680x1050 screen model...thats the only thing missing)

-Kevin

 

[Kmax82]

Just as an update...

On Saturday I went in 1 day after my 14 days were up at Best Buy. The allowed me to return it, but since nothing was wrong with the laptop, I had to pay a 15% restocking fee. UGH.

At any rate, they didn't have the Mac's in the computer and everyone was wondering when they were coming. I was walking around a little later and a sales person came up to me and asked if he could help. On a whim, I just asked him about the new MacBook Pro's.

He didn't know when they would be in, but he started to look them up in the inventory. He looked up all the shipping numbers with SKU's and we took those SKU's that corresponded with MacBook Pro's and plugged them in to the Best Buy website. The ones that didn't come up, were the new models.

Once we found a group of them, we looked and couldn't find the release date for them. But they did say they would be in the next day. He then went and checked the ad for the following week and nothing was mentioned. Finally, he got on his walkie-talkie and asked if they were allowed to sell the new MacBooks when they came in.

Well apparently they were in stock and there was nothing wrong with selling them - just nobody knew. He got the OK and I got to have the very first selection of their stock of the new MacBook Pro's.

I'm now $300 lighter (After restocking fee and $100 difference between the 2 models), but I am running on a brand new 15" Core i5 MacBook Pro 🙂 (Too bad Best Buy doesn't order the 1680x1050 screen model...thats the only thing missing)

-Kevin

Cool.. well at least it worked out for you. I've seen so many times when Best Buy has said they have stock and then don't, or an employee says that they don't have stock and I find it on their shelves.. craziness..

 

[Gamingphreek]

Cool.. well at least it worked out for you. I've seen so many times when Best Buy has said they have stock and then don't, or an employee says that they don't have stock and I find it on their shelves.. craziness..

All of them were locked away under the display shelf and not put out yet. The manager told the guy to go ahead and sell them- but methinks he may not have had the power to do that 😉. Oh well 🙂 - I'm really happy with this one.

-Kevin

 

[randomlinh]

Meh, I am glad I didn't wait for the refresh, quite disappointing for 13" line. I bought A Sony Vaio 14" with i5 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM DDR3, 500GB HD, blu-ray, and nVidia GT330M 512MB for $900 back in January and I love it. I lose the longer battery and MacOS but next time I guess.

drrr... where'd you get this? I might have to rethink getting a small laptop.

I'd entertain upgrading my unibody MB 13" if they had a high res/low glare option on the new ones. 1280x800 does kind of suck. If I could get 1440x900 or 1680x1050 on this, I'd do it. I realize that's a bit too high res on a 13" screen for some, but for others, it's just fine.

THIS.

 

[freegeeks]

my new 15 inch MBP i7 - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD just arrived, never had the feeling that my old core2duo 13 inch macbook was slow but holy crap the new one is just blazing fast

 

[Printer Bandit]

my new 15 inch MBP i7 - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD just arrived, never had the feeling that my old core2duo 13 inch macbook was slow but holy crap the new one is just blazing fast

when did you get your old macbook? i got might in April 2008 and still think it's fast.

 

[freegeeks]

when did you get your old macbook? i got might in April 2008 and still think it's fast.

its a black plastic 13 inch macbook, not the unibody one, dont know when i got it, probably around 2008 also, i was very happy with it but performance wise my new MBP is not comparable which is normal i guess

 

[Printer Bandit]

its a black plastic 13 inch macbook, not the unibody one, dont know when i got it, probably around 2008 also, i was very happy with it but performance wise my new MBP is not comparable which is normal i guess

mine is the black plastic one too. good to know the new ones are faster.