is now a bad time to buy a mbp

If you do not care about the latest and greatest updates go for it. savings are tremendous now.You will not go wrong.

Most. Rhetorical. Thread. Ever.

In what possible way could it be a good time to buy 8 month old hardware at the brand new price just as the replacement is coming?

Presumably you are hoping that someone has gained some insight to dismiss the rumoured update but no. We know new chips are coming at CES on the 5th of January that can be used in the MBP.

Even if the update doesn't come out until February, it's worth waiting for.

+1. Agree 100%.

Now is a terrible time to buy a Macbook pro.

In fact, while in an Apple store the other day, a customer was trying to figure out whether to buy the Macbook Air 13" or the Macbook Pro 13" and I told them they should get the Air because it's newer and because the screen resolution is better. (I don't work there, I just told them anyway :P)

I don't agree with the opinions expressed here.

I, too, was concerned with the "right time" or "wrong time" to buy a new laptop, some times ago. After a long and painfull hesitation period that lasted **several** months, I finally ended with a new 13" MBP last month. I'm very happy with it, even if I know that something better may come out during the following month.

Firstly, whatever which computer you buy, it will already be obsolete few months after. Just buy what you need WHEN you need it.

Secondly, we don't even know how much "better" the new MBP will be. And you could also wait more than what we expect. We simply don't know when and what Apple will release this winter.

Personally, I never buy the first version of a new computer generation, even when it comes from Apple. I'm not interested to be a beta tester and to be annoyed with all the bugs or problems that may appear on a whole new product.

In the case of the current MBP, the product has been well tested by all the happy folks out there since a pretty long time now. I knew what I was buying. Are you ready to buy a whole new product without knowing how it will behave after some months ?

Like what many people are saying, buy the computer you need WHEN you need it.

It will be a few months if you don't buy one just before the new one comes out.

Here's the logic that goes against buying when you need it as opposed to when it's been updated. If you buy the day before an update happens because it's just a rumour, in the space of the single day, you have just dropped 10% of the value of the machine and ended up without the improvements made since the last one.


Sandy Bridge processors are 15-20% faster, a Radeon 6x series GPU will be about the same as a 330M but more power efficient. The hardware AVC encoder is 2-3x faster than CPU encoding. That last addition is worth waiting months for. If you encode video clips, a 200% speedup is like jumping 2 or 3 generations of CPU in one go. They gave a figure of 400FPS encoding speed. A C2D MBP gets 100FPS on standard (non-H.264/AVC) MP4.


You still construct theories based on what we do know. We know the MBP hasn't been updated in 8 months going on 9. Ten months is the longest it has taken Apple to update the MBP in their company history. The laptop line makes up 70% of Apple's Mac sales so is very important to them. Intel is launching new chips that can go into the MBP at CES in under a week from now. Apple helped Intel with Light Peak and Intel demoed the technology running on a Mac system, I don't recall any other hardware manufacturer doing that ever.

This is one of the most certain updates I've ever heard of. In fact, I reckon Otellini will waddle out on stage in an awkward fashion, give a little speech, then pivot round and there will be the new MBP between his cheeks. So thin and light that it can be easily suspended in the drooping buttocks of an old man.


That's probably what the MBP owners who bought the 9600M GT cards in them said too. Every update is either a new CPU architecture, a die-shrink, a new GPU, a new motherboard layout, a new hard drive manufacturer, a different display panel or any combination. You just can't tell if a first revision will be any better or worse than subsequent ones. Is the 1st gen iPad having any issues? The 1st gen Mac Mini? The 1st gen iPhone? The 1st gen Mac Pro? Nope, but 3rd/4th/5th revision MB, iMacs and MBPs had issues.

"Ten months is the longest it has taken Apple to update the MBP in their company history."

ahh, yes true of MBP's but who here remembers the fabled G4 PB update ? lol
How many pages - was it 60 or something of agonised, torturous, bemoaned wailing ?
About 2 years worth of agony - roflmao

Apple's relatively speedy at updating these days ... anyhow I'm in the buy now only if you really, really need it camp.
If you can wait - then wait. Either way you can't be disappointed.
cheers

I would have to say yes it is a very bad time to buy. The potential is for a major update and frankly I don't see Sandy Bridge as being the major part of the update. Timing seems to be right for a major overhaul of the whole concept of a MBP.

Of course I and everybody else here has no idea what is up and thus are speculating, but there does seem to be a bit of convergence with respect to new technologies. Maybe these are not important to you thus a purchase now is not a problem.

Note a lot of people are assuming that Apple will update the MBPs first very early in the new year. That is very possible but they might also put things off a bit and update the iMacs first. The thing is you should not assume anyone suggested round of updates will happen.

Well, ideally they'd update the whole lineup of MBP->iMacs.

Marvin, I almost spat beer all over my MBP laughing when I read your last post. Are you drunk? I am, and your post resonated with me.

BTW, Otellini is Machiavellian, but he's steered Intel better than even armchair CEOs like us could do. He killed the P4, which is the best thing to happen to Intel, ever. Hopefully Itanium is next.

I must have been. Here is my illustration of the event for anyone needing a visual aid:




He's probably helping Intel onto success but some decisions are alienating a lot of people. The NVidia blockage, anti-competitiveness with AMD CPUs, holding back USB 3 for proprietary tech they likely won't share with AMD and a few other things.

In fact I see these issues as causing long term harm to Intel. Think about it AMD is rumored to have USB 3 coming in future chips sets and supposedly it is a better implementation.

Is the Pope Catholic?

Linky

Amd has had usb3 for over a year now...

Yes.

But if you don't really care about the update or just need a computer for day to day stuff, no. My friend just bought a new MBP....what would she do of she waited for a sandy bridge processor, a new gfx card, and SSDs or a no optical drive option? Check her email and facebook, and write a paper or two.