I'm reminded of how nice it was that the NSX was out of production when I was shopping - no weighing any of this "buy now vs. later" stuff!
I dont know, I think some people are discussing this on the NSX 2.0 forum. Do I wait for a 2nd year so the new bugs are sorted out? What if its like the GTR though and MSRP keeps jumping up drastically every year? But maybe if I wait I can get it for below MSRP :biggrin:
Also I have a slight sense (deserved or not) that Apple is going cheapish on components as time goes on, trying to maintain or increase margins and/or broaden their supply base w/o risking too much with one supplier while keeping prices somewhat stable with each new introduction of improved technology.... Each of my Apple purchases for 1st gen items have had quality problems that got fixed later and were big hassles. 2006 Mac Pro graphics cards, iPhone 4 antenna, iPad 1 wireless issues that required apple to replace the entire iPad.... I have this constantly reinforced feeling that newer is not necessarily better with Apple...
I obviously can't claim to know the truth here but from a design/engineering standpoint all I see is Apple pushing the envelope of what's being done in the industry (machined metal cases, integrated antennas within a metal chassis, high dpi screens, sapphire instead of glass, ways to reduce size/weight by shaving off fractions of a millimeter, class leading battery performance, finger print scanners, the best trackpads, and just generally absurd levels of build quality and tolerances. I could keep on elaborating but all I see is a company that is obsessed with *trying* to do better, and certainly not taking the easy route out. Like every other company, they have their faults, but I suspect that they're problems caused by trying to do too much rather than pad their margins. For the record, despite the Cupertino address and what probably came off as fanboyism, I dont work for Apple (just thought I should mention that).
So I stopped at the Apple store today and realized a few things that were pretty eye-opening since I really hadn't spent a lot of time researching this stuff online. Are any of these surprises to anyone else?
- There's really not much of a size/weight difference between the 13" MBA vs MBP w/retina: 3 lbs vs. 3.5 lbs.
The gap narrowed here a lot when the MBP retinas decreased .25" in thickness over the non retina versions. The big differentiator used to be that one had an optical drive and one didnt, now thats out of the way its just the lower power CPU
- The current MBP's w/retina have flash-based storage like MBA's. I thought only the MBA's had SSD's.
The entire line has moved to SSDs (thankfully) aside from the iMac which still has just the optional SSDs/fusion drive. The Macbook pros got it standard with the retina update and the mac pro with the new gen redesign
- With Dropbox or iCloud drive type syncing, 128GB is really a lot for the person who's not going to rely on their laptop as their only computer.
Dropbox still stores its files locally so I wouldn't think of it so much as a place to offload files. If you happen to already have a MBP/Air and ran out of SSD space this is a pretty convenient way to offload media files and other things that don't need SSD speed:
http://www.transcend-info.com/apple/jetdrivelite/
- 11" is just too small unless size is the highest priority. 12" MBA w/retina this fall? I'd rather have that extra 1" screen size. 13" versions also allow the SD card for extra storage vs. 11 inchers.
I think Microsoft felt the same since they bumped up the screen size of the new surface 3 tablet
- 9 hours MBP w/retina vs. 12 for MBA - both are just incredible especially compared to the 1.5 hour battery I've been used to with my Toshiba work laptop for the past 2 years. If I'm working at a laptop for longer than 9 hours between charges more than 1x a month, please someone help me find new or different hobbies. It seems some pre-2013 versions are to be avoided due to the significant battery performance upgrade in the 2013 Haswell's & beyond.
With the 15 inch retina all I need to do is fire up the dedicated GPU or have a few too many chrome tabs open and that 8 hour battery life drops to 3 easily. Your workflow and what you have open greatly affects what battery life you get. The battery life still is remarkable though. Just reboot into windows and watch it drop...
- Both the MBA & MBP w/retina have 4BG base memory, which is really a lot for a light/average user. Stepping up to 8BG is just a $100 upgrade. I remember when 1 or 2GB was standard and 4GB seemed incredible. I'm finding it awful easy at times to get caught up thinking 4BG is not enough and 8 is a must, but that just doesn't make sense (I think) unless that laptop is someone's sole workhorse.
It's still pretty easy to use up 4gb of ram doing basic things, although having an SSD and presuambly the mavericks memory compression helps mitigate some of the slow page file problems you would've seen in the past
Retina screen is officially a must for me after today. And, it's getting easy to find a base 4BG 128BG 13" MBP w/retina for around $1050 to $1200 shipped w/o tax but w/o apple care. Basically both the base MBA & MBP w/retina offer similar specs for a $300 difference, with the key differences being the Retina screen & processing power upgrade and slightly lower battery life for the MBP w/retina.
So - $1000 base MBA vs. $1300 base MBP w/retina before any ongoing discounts, and even less at macmall or apple refurbished & others...) For average use, can anyone chime in for why anyone should wait at this point and pass up some nice 20-25% savings?
Edit: Oh yeah - for me I think it'll be be MBP +retina. I'm OK with "only" 9 hours of battery life for an extra $300 of retina display and a slight uptick in performance, and the MBA really isn't that much lighter.
Edit#2: I tend to keep 5+ programs & windows open simultaneously…so now I think 8GB ram is the way to go. Get it while you can since it's not upgradeable and only $100, even though sticking with only 4GB and putting up with occasional cache-ing to the 128g flash wouldn't be that big of a deal since caching to a flash drive is a hell of a lot faster now than caching to an HDD was.
The 13 MBP-retina vs the air really is a weird one. Once you're spoiled by the screen it really is hard to go back, but that aside its just a matter of use. The performance difference between the two is pretty large IMO, but like you said, most won't use it. If you just used word processors and web browsers then you really would get so little utility why not have better battery life and something slightly easier to carry? Those users are probably more apt to notice that it looks a lot lighter and has to be charged as infrequently as an ipad. If you're actually doing things that use a little bit more power then the story flips. Definitely get the extra memory... 4gb really isnt much. One more note, I think the MBPs are using faster SSDs than the MBA as well.
