Please, Please - Don't Buy the 13-inch MacBook Pro

Apple recently updated its 13-inch MacBook Pro, but kept the older, slower, thicker cousin around because people keep buying it. Please don't.

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What? The reason people buy the fatbooks are because they're USER-UPGRADEABLE.

Some people like upgrading their machines to get real work done instead of ogling the razor-thin edge (which isn't even that thin). And if you think less than 5 pounds is heavy, boy, do I have news for you...

 

I will never bought a MAC anyway, but is 5 pounds considered too heavy nowadays? I used to lift three times as much in books during primary school... geez with today's people.

 

During law school my backpack could sometimes weigh 40 lbs. Doesn't mean I want to own a 40-lb laptop.

 

I don't blame them for still buying the older model.
Not only it can be upgraded if bought with a lower configuration but that optical drive space can house another hard drive!

 

The non-Retina MBP 13 has a hefty Apple tax (i.e., when it's compared to, say, a Lenovo T430 with an i5 processor and a 900p screen, it has nearly a 40% price premium. The rMBP 13 does not have an "Apple tax"; when compared with a high-resolution 128-gb-SSD-equipped Windows ultrabook like the Yoga 2 Pro, it's right on par. That suggests to me that, within the OSX world, the rMBP 13 offers good value and the MBP 13 has an inflated price. If you need OSX and you need an onboard optical drive, you may not have any other choice, but that doesn't change the fact that you're getting fleeced.

 

Yeah, I see very little reason for people to choose the MBP 13 over the MBA 13, or for a bit more money, the rMBP 13. Most MBP 13 users aren't planning to upgrade any components any time soon.

 

My main point (which admittedly could be clearer) is that if you want a user-upgradeable laptop, don't buy that one. There are a number of PCs which offer a much, much better value. The delta is a lot smaller, imo, on the retina-equipped models.

 

The thing that bums me out is the graphics on the old 13 inch MBP. Even if they threw a basic Haswell part in it with the HD5000 i'd be content.

The lack of upgradability on the retina models is a bummer but understandable given how thin they are.

 

I rather a laptop be a little thicker so it can be upgraded though.

Edit: Isn't the 15.4" MBP Retina about as thin as the M3800?
I heard they both are 18 mm thick.

Some guy posted pics of the M3800 here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...35359-dell-precision-m3800-owners-review.html

 

i'm not exactly sure if you just really hate apple laptops, but I mean, wouldn't the suggestion be buy a refurb cmbp13 because those offer a much better value? Why would a PC laptop be an alternative? Do people shop laptops with an open mind on operating systems? I choose to believe consumers make up their mind on operating systems and then shop for laptops.

 

Yes

If I want OS X, the old 13 inch IS the notebook to buy for upgrade-ability alone.

The Original article is silly.

 

No, I'd recommend buying the refurb retina models, because there are only two things that you can really upgrade on the fatbooks - the hard drive and SSD (the optical tray can be swapped out, but that's not what most people buy), and the retina models already come with pretty great SSDs.

Most importantly, the majority of people who buy the old models ARE NOT buying them for upgradeability. They're buying them for the DVDR, and most people who buy it for that reason simply never use it.

 

But some people do, in fact, still need optical drives. They're in common usage in the legal industry as a way of sending and receiving document discovery (probably the primary form of document discovery in major metro areas), and if you've got kids, there's a good chance you have a massive stack of kid's movies on DVD. Also, some games require a disc in the optical drive to play if you didn't buy it from a service like Steam (this is true of my copy of Mass Effect 2). I routinely use the optical drive on my Vaio F.

 

Which is fine, but regardless, those people are a distinct minority, and we both know people buy computers for things they think they need, but really don't.

Still - now that optical drives are phasing out, I wonder if we should do another article about taking your media with you. Despite the legal ramifications, and the fact that software has been around for ages, I'm sure people still have stacks of DVDs, and new PCs without ODDs.

 

People who need optical drives in 2013 are in the distinct minority, but so are non-retina MBP buyers. I suspect that even though these uses are rare among laptop buyers as a whole, they're pretty common among people buying the MBP 13 in 2013.

Analogy: the vast majority of computer users never use a digitizer stylus. Does that mean that people who buy a device with a stylus (like the Duo 11 or Surface Pro) are buying something they don't need? Probably not. They're a niche customer buying a niche product. I think the same is probably true of people who are buying the MBP 13 nowadays.

(Note: that doesn't let Apple off the hook for the fact that the device is otherwise very poor value...the optical drive is justifiably to blame for the thickness and weight, but there's no reason to have a screen that low-resolution on a device that expensive).

 

mbp buyers a distinct minority?

the 13 mbp was the best selling mac for a long time

 

Yeah, but I suspect that's not the case anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Air lineup dominating MacBook laptop sales, with rMBPs coming in second and optical-drive MBPs a very distant third.

 

Pompously stupid article. Written by as if the only customers are typical students who email , surf the web or watch videos. Get an Air in that case. Apple is doing a great disservice to audio visual pros who want highly spec'd larger notebooks like 17 inch with optical drives. Any pro musician knows that CD mixes are far preferable to mp3s. Some clown telling me my business is pretty galling. Apple is losing market share in its MAC business and Samsung is eating its lunch on the phone side. Its going to get worse if they don't get rid of Cook, a fashionista good enough bean counter who is leading Apple towards mediocrity and irrelevancy.

 

The sales have shown that many people happily give up what the Pro line is known for. Look at the Retina Pro , no disc drive , insanely hard to repair or upgrade , etc. Since normal Pro models haven't been given a refresh , they might actually just be discontinued.
I think most people who do audio and video editing moved on to superior Windows based machines.

 

Apple keeps selling them because their profit margin is likely higher on the old version vs the retina.

 

Eventually outdated technology becomes more expensive (see DDR2).

Lots of people are happy with outdated technology especially if it has an Apple logo on it.

 

Well, there are plenty of other OEMs to buy from, at least. If this is the direction Apple wants to go in, then that's fine with me (whether they go broke or do alright with this new direction).

But anyway, you're not just limited to mp3 as a digital format, you know. There's a decent amount of lossless digital formats out there, such as FLAC and ALAC.

 

Lots of people think that Apple makes the best laptops on the market , so in their eyes if Apple were to change direction there would be no other laptops that meet their needs.

 

Welp, I guess they still have tablets at least. Those clever enough to do even the tiniest bit of research in such an event would still do fine with other OEMs.

 

At least the older model has DVD and a user replaceable drive. The video's worse, but then the video's terrible on the new model anyway, sooooo...

 

I don't blame them for still buying the older model.