Help! MacBook Pro/retina: should I wait?

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Help! MacBook Pro/retina: should I wait?

My mid-2008 MacBook Pro was stolen out of my living room last week (via a break in), which was a huge bummer. But I've had it for five years and was considering an update in the next six months or so and all of my data was backed up on a 1 TB external drive the night before.

I'm a multimedia journalist fresh out of college (i.e. I don't have a lot of spending money) who does lots of portrait and wedding work in Lightroom 4 and photoshop CS5.5, occasional simple video work in final cut express and live type (with basic knowledge of after effects), and graphic design work in illustrator. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be doing more video stuff once my internship is up in August.

My previous machine was upgraded to 4 GB of RAM and had a 200 GB hard drive that, due to the photos, was constantly filling up. It also had a 2.3 ghz processor and I upgraded to Mountain Lion.

I've decided that the quad core of the 15-inch will probably be worth the investment. Because cash is tight, I'm looking at the June 2012 refurb standard MBP 2.3 ghz i7, 500 GB HD, 512 MB graphics card, 4 GB RAM ($1,449) which I would potentially upgrade to have 16 GB RAM and a 750 GB 7200 rpm hard drive (or SSD once they come down a bit in price. My concern with this machine is whether or not the graphics card will be enough and whether or not the standard res screens will be phased out (is retina the future?). I'm also looking at the June 2012 MBP with retina display, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD hard drive, 2.3 ghz, 1 GB graphics card ($1,599). My concerns with this machine are the lack of upgradeability, the smaller RAM and the lack of a disc drive. Will 8 GB of RAM be enough? I was getting along with some difficulty with 4 GB. But the price on both are good considering their full prices brand new. Despite the beautiful screen, I've also read that lots of people have had lots of issues with the retinas.

I've also heard that apple is set to release updates to the MBP lineup at WWDC on June 10th. Is it worth it to wait until then and see what happens?

Thanks for the thoughts.

Posted on May 28, 2013 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

B.Hook Author

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May 28, 2013 10:21 AM in response to B.Hook

Forgot to include this: will the prices go down on 2012 models as a result of the introduction of the 2013 ones?

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Answer 2

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 28, 2013 10:26 AM in response to B.Hook

Hi B,

The best time to buy a computer is when you need it. It sounds like you need one now for your work . . . .

All of your reasoning is sound. If you follow the forums here, you'll see there are thousands of posts about MBPr problems. In my memory, it may be one of the most problem plagued portables Apple has produced. Given all that and your price constraints, the non-r refurb you've described sounds like a good bet IF you need it now. If not, waiting to see what happens at the WWDC might be interesting. 😉

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Answer 3

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 28, 2013 10:27 AM in response to B.Hook

B.Hook wrote:

Forgot to include this: will the prices go down on 2012 models as a result of the introduction of the 2013 ones?

If history is an indicator, probably not, at least through Apple. Also consider that the refurb selection changes frequently, for better or for worse, depending on what you're looking for.

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