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What is a "good" price for a 15" macbook pro?

purbeast0

purbeast0

No Lifer
i'm about to start on a pretty big development project that is going to be in iOS, and i'm hoping that it is going to hit it really big. i'm currently developing on a hackintosh, and while it's decent, i'm debating ponying up and getting a real macbook pro 15". and i'm justifying it due to the product hopefully taking off lol.

if i get one, i'm going to just go all out and get one of the best ones.

i see the high end one on their website is $2500.

i'm just wondering what the lowest reasonable price i could expect this to get down to if i look hard enough or wait a while. my sister can get it for $2230 through her job, which seems pretty decent, but I was wondering if there is a chance of it going even lower elsewhere.

i know apple products rarely go on sale but i figured i'd ask you guys about it anyways.
 
Artdeco said:
http://appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/

What specs are you wanting?

At that price point, just avoiding paying taxes is a win...
Click to expand...

I mean I figure if I'm going to get one, might as well get one that is going to last a while. The one thing I don't care about is graphics cards. But it will primarily be for development as well as f'ing around.

also, other than being a year older, what is the difference between the 2014 and 2015 models that have the same specs?
 
Depends on the specs you need.

Apple sells refurbished laptops too. Perfect condition and full warranty for a nice discount.

Me? I bought mine on ebay. Huge dent on the side but I saved a ton of money.
 
Rakehellion said:
Depends on the specs you need.

Apple sells refurbished laptops too. Perfect condition and full warranty for a nice discount.

Me? I bought mine on ebay. Huge dent on the side but I saved a ton of money.
Click to expand...

Hmmm thanks that might be the route to go. I'll look into it.

The problem I ran into with my old hackintosh (Dell Inspiron) was that the hardware got too old to update to latest version of OSX. I'm assuming this may happen eventually with this one (HP ProBook 4540s). I have Yosemite running fine on here, but upgrading can be kinda scary sometimes.

But if I get a MacBook that is from like 2014, I shouldn't have any issues upgrading to future versions of OSX right? I hate how Apple requires that kinda stuff sometimes. Like I needed to be able to dev for iOS 9, which required Xcode 7, which required Yosemite. So that forced me to upgrade from Mavericks.

Luckily it went very smoothly, but it is always risky to upgrade. I always make a Time Machine backup though so at least all my code is safe.

Does anyone know what is actually different between 2014 and 2015 models that have the same specs? Is it just a GPU difference?
 
purbeast0 said:
The problem I ran into with my old hackintosh (Dell Inspiron) was that the hardware got too old to update to latest version of OSX.
Click to expand...

Had a XPS M170 with 10.5 (Leopard). 10.6 (Snow Leopard) booted with a clock problem.
Attempts with later version proved frustrating. Laptop still works but needs the battery replaced.
 
Last edited:
purbeast0 said:
Hmmm just googled and that track pad seems extremely gimmicky. After looking I think the 2014 models make more sense pricewise and feature wis.
Click to expand...

I have a macbook with the new trackpad and it's not bad, if you're looking to save cash definitely not a feature you need to have.

I have the 2014 model and it's smoking fast.
 
purbeast0 said:
Hmmm just googled and that track pad seems extremely gimmicky. After looking I think the 2014 models make more sense pricewise and feature wis.
Click to expand...

I have a retina MB with that trackpad, it's slicker than whale sh!t, no dead spots, it's great.
 
purbeast0 said:
Hmmm thanks that might be the route to go. I'll look into it.
Click to expand...

I would recommend their refurbished models (directly from Apple) as well. I would probably also add AppleCare to the mix. IMHO, the best move with Apple stuff is to buy a refurb with AppleCare and after two years sell it with 1 year of AppleCare remaining.

Used Apple machines usually get a pretty good price and with a year of AppleCare remaining, it would be easy to sell allowing you to move on to newer hardware.

-KeithP
 
KeithP said:
I would recommend their refurbished models (directly from Apple) as well. I would probably also add AppleCare to the mix. IMHO, the best move with Apple stuff is to buy a refurb with AppleCare and after two years sell it with 1 year of AppleCare remaining.

Used Apple machines usually get a pretty good price and with a year of AppleCare remaining, it would be easy to sell allowing you to move on to newer hardware.

-KeithP
Click to expand...

Interesting. AppleCare is just their warranty service where they will fix anything that goes wrong with it no questions asked? I'm not big on warranties in general so I'm rather skeptical about it. I haven't had one for any of my iphones since iphone 4 and never had an issue.

My buddy just got a top of the line macbook pro at the Apple store and he got a $300 discount (10%) because he said it was a gift for his brother from graduating from college lol. He also said they have an 18 month no interest payment plan you can do, which is also very tempting.

On a kind of side note, does anyone know how much Hackintoshes are worth? I have the HP ProBook 4540s that I bought a couple years ago but it has a Windows 7 Partition and OSX Yosemite on the other. Wondering how much I could offload this for.

EDIT:

Do they have refurbs in store? The inventory on the website for 15" refurbs is bad, there is only 1, and its not the size HDD I want.
 
Last edited:
Set up an alert with these guys, and have your CC ready when you get an alert, they go fast

https://www.refurb.me/us/
 
purbeast0 said:
i'm about to start on a pretty big development project that is going to be in iOS, and i'm hoping that it is going to hit it really big. i'm currently developing on a hackintosh, and while it's decent, i'm debating ponying up and getting a real macbook pro 15". and i'm justifying it due to the product hopefully taking off lol.

if i get one, i'm going to just go all out and get one of the best ones.

i see the high end one on their website is $2500.

i'm just wondering what the lowest reasonable price i could expect this to get down to if i look hard enough or wait a while. my sister can get it for $2230 through her job, which seems pretty decent, but I was wondering if there is a chance of it going even lower elsewhere.

i know apple products rarely go on sale but i figured i'd ask you guys about it anyways.
Click to expand...
I was surprised, but this model was $1950 on eBay (buydig was the seller) last week. The listing didn't last long.

Your sister's price is pretty good, a little lower than the .edu discount and a little higher than the Apple employee price.

Personally I'm holding out for Skylake and hoping the iGPU 15" rMBP will be good enough. I feel it's a bit crazy to be spending $2k+ on a laptop these days.

Just in case someone doesn't believe me. 🙂
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBo...ina-Display-MJLT2LL-A/321895344958?rmvSB=true
 
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rugby said:
GPU and the new force touch trackpad I think.
purbeast0 said:
Does anyone know what is actually different between 2014 and 2015 models that have the same specs? Is it just a GPU difference?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I believe they juiced up the PCI-e storage throughput even more in 2015, but in the real world nobody is going to notice the difference between a 3s app load time and a 2.3s app load time.

Here's a deal on the 2014 model with discrete GPU:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1464948/
 
Yeah I saw that deal on slickdeals earlier. That seems like a pretty solid deal, I'm contemplating getting that. I won't get the 18 months no interest from Apple if I get that though lol, which would be nice.
 
Are you looking for 8 GB or 16 GB of memory? 256 GB SSD, or 512 GB SSD?

The one I have (15" 2013 15" Core i7 Retina model) has 8 GB and 256 GB, and it cost me $1,800 new back in 2013. I bet I could still sell it for $1,200 now. The only thing that really irks me about it is the lack of a built in Ethernet port. The WiFi where I work sucks, and the dongle is annoying to use.
 
ultimatebob said:
Are you looking for 8 GB or 16 GB of memory? 256 GB SSD, or 512 GB SSD?

The one I have (15" 2013 15" Core i7 Retina model) has 8 GB and 256 GB, and it cost me $1,800 new back in 2013. I bet I could still sell it for $1,200 now. The only thing that really irks me about it is the lack of a built in Ethernet port. The WiFi where I work sucks, and the dongle is annoying to use.
Click to expand...

i'm looking for the 15" with 16gb of ram and 512gb of ssd space.
 
also, what is the deal with apple care? it just extends your warranty to 3 years instead of 1? does it offer additional coverage or something like if you drop your laptop and it shatters they will replace it no questions asked? just usually not a fan of these warranties but everyone says that apple care is worth it.
 
purbeast0 said:
also, what is the deal with apple care? it just extends your warranty to 3 years instead of 1? does it offer additional coverage or something like if you drop your laptop and it shatters they will replace it no questions asked? just usually not a fan of these warranties but everyone says that apple care is worth it.
Click to expand...

Apple Care Plus has damage protection with a deductible. Personally, I never bothered with it because I can repair my own computer.
 
Just for doing iOS development I don't see how there's going to be much of an issue with a considerably older machine. E.g. my 2011 MBP 15" has a quad-core i7, discrete 1GB GPU, 16GB of RAM and would have an SSD if I cared to spend the time to put one in and copy everything over. I think they're currently selling for less than $1000 on CL and eBay. No it's not "Retina" but it is the high-res option (1680x1050) which IMO is more useful for a coding machine than Retina anyway (more text fits on screen at native res vs. 1440x900 apparent resolution with Retina display).

Not to mention the RAM and HDD/SSD are both cheaply and easily upgradeable.
 
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