Ask HN: Get an old 13in MBP or new 13in MBP? The battery is more important to me than Thunderbolt.
Consider the Air. At least the full-spec one ($1800) is fine for web dev (some Eclipse/XCode as well) and the form factor is unbeatable.
New MacBook Pro series
141–150 of 359 posts
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason I wasn't hoping for that is because I intend to stuff a 512 GB aftermarket SSD into my next MBP and I'd rather not pay through the nose for Apple's upgrade option.
They are only charging $1100-$1200 for the upgrade. Where are you getting a high-quality aftermarket 512GB SSD for much less than that (forget that you have to install it yourself)? edit: pricing differs slightly depending on model
Is hard drive replacement in an MBP really difficult enough to warrant any mention when high-end SSDs are in play?
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#143TL;DR A year and a half after quad core i7 mobile processors become available (and two and half years after the first quad core mobile processors were released), the MBP gets them.
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#144Will you be able to get a MBP with a builtin 3G-adapter yet? No? Ok, I'll just go back to Dell then. Edit: While my comment may come off trollish, this is a requirement for me when buying any mobile gear. That Apple still doesn't provide this for their top of the line laptops still baffles me.
3G? What about 4G?
I'm a little irked that there's no system bus [1] slot, into which I could install a 3G/4G combo card.
However, in the past, I've turned out to be unwilling to spend the extra money on the dedicated hardware and extra subscription. I'd rather have a (nowadays quite tolerably small) USB dongle that I can use on any laptop or even a battery-powered wireless access point [2] than the sleek convenience of something built-in that only supports what was available when I bought it.
[1] e.g. ExpressCard, though, since the 802.11 on the pre-unibody generations appeared to be mini-PCIe, I do wonder if there's hope for a combo wifi/wwan card, even aftermarket.
[2] I'm a huge fan of the Cradlepoint PHS-300
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#145hmm - you need to go to 1799$ before you end up with a half decent graphics card and 2199$ for a decent card. Compare it with a Dell XPS 15 Sandy Bridge - $1049 for i7 2620M, 1920X1080 display, nVidia GT525 Optimus card, HD Camera. For a first time possible mac buyer (me) - is it well justified ?
I'm also interested in becoming a 'first time mac buyer'. As such, I have some questions:
- Do these offer a significant enough improvement over the last generation to justify not buying a refurbed older model? - What's the real conceptual difference between the three models? I know it's not just screen size - how do they differ in intended use case? - I want a laptop I can lug around everywhere and curl up on the sofa with as well as sit at a desk. Is the 17" too big for that?
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#146Consumer laptops where the OS sees 8 processors. Now is a really good time to pick up Clojure, Erlang, Haskell, Scala and see what the fuss is all about.
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never plan to upgrade from 13" to 15"/17". For me the main feature of a laptop is the small form factor and the 13" is just really neat in that respect. I have my desktop for when I need more power.
Why not get the Air then?
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#148I just bought a MacBook Pro last month. Why can't they announce these kinds of updates so us poor fools don't get caught with old tech.
Because they want you poor fools to buy up their remaining stock.
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#149hmm - you need to go to 1799$ before you end up with a half decent graphics card and 2199$ for a decent card. Compare it with a Dell XPS 15 Sandy Bridge - $1049 for i7 2620M, 1920X1080 display, nVidia GT525 Optimus card, HD Camera. For a first time possible mac buyer (me) - is it well justified ?
Your configuration is about $1600, not $1049. Did you actually try to configure it? http://d.pr/jSut+
You did the 2720QM instead of the 2620M he specified, and added a few extras (windows ultimate, 750gb hdd, etc). What he claimed is almost true, except he missed that the $1050 model's display is not 1920x1080, you have to pay an extra $150 for that.
Re: New MacBook Pro series
#150TL;DR A year and a half after quad core i7 mobile processors become available (and two and half years after the first quad core mobile processors were released), the MBP gets them.
The first ones ran hotter/used more power than the case was designed for.