laptop envy
My MacBook is over 6 years old. After 3 years I upgraded it myself (for $130), quadrupling both the hard drive storage and the RAM. To 1TB & 8GB. This inexpensive upgrade kept me happy with my MacBook for at least 3 more years.
I bought my first Apple product, an iBook, in late 2004. I was dumping my Windows desktop for something smaller, because I was moving into Tod's tiny tiny Rockville house. Also, I'd heard so many people say that OS X was way better than Windows. I quickly decided they were correct. I was happy with my iBook for a bit over 4 years, then I upgraded to this MacBook and gave my iBook to KWC.
I don't think I've ever waited so long to buy a new computer in my adult life. I remember buying a 386 in 1992, the first time I ever carried a balance on a credit card. I upgraded to a Pentium two or three years later, and probably upgraded my desktop once more before law school, and again after law school. It is possible I upgraded the motherboard myself one of these times, I worked as a computer guru back then and could do all my computer upgrades myself. I liked skipping every other chip and waiting until a chip was a year old before buying it, so thrifty I was.
But now it has been 6 years! I've skipped a lot of chips!
My laptop works fine, mainly I just use it for browsing, emailing, and managing my media collection. I also use it to do my taxes, and my spreadsheets. I have my Xbox consoles for heavy-duty gaming, I'm not much interested in playing games on my laptop. I'm not a "power user"; I don't edit videos or run huge statistical datasets. I rarely try to "photoshop" images these days, simple photo processing & storage is all I do
As my laptop works fine, I'm not feeling like I must upgrade. And upgrading to a new Apple laptop that matches or exceeds my hard drive storage and RAM is either impossible or very expensive, because Apple has switched to solid-state drives.
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Still, I'm pondering whether to get one of the new MacBooks that comes out next month, or one of the newly-updated MacBook Pros. If I must equal my hard drive storage and/or double my RAM, then I must get a high-end MacBook Pro. If I can settle for 512GB SSD & 8GB RAM, I can get either.
Both have retina displays, which would be an upgrade for me, and both have SSDs that would improve performance over my old-fashioned spinning hard drive. The MacBook is 12", a bit smaller than the 13" I have now, the MacBook Pro is 13". The MacBook is way lighter and has a power-saving chip, but only one port that must be used for all things: power, USB, hardwire ethernet, video. The Pro has plenty of ports, and an SDXC expansion slot.
The price difference isn't much if I compare 512GB SSD & 8GB RAM models ($200 more for Pro). Would I want the lighter one, or the slightly larger one with more ports?
But if I'm getting the MacBook Pro anyway, why not splurge $700 extra for the 1TB & 16GB model? If I'm going to use it for 6+ years, then the price/year difference isn't much. And if I end up using it for something more demanding, I don't have to buy a new one.
But based on my current usage pattern, I'm probably OK with the new MacBook and don't need the extra stuff in the MacBook Pro.
But based on my current usage pattern, I'm OK with the MacBook I already have!
So, I wait, I spend $1600 for new MacBook or I spend $1800-$2500 for new MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, I back up my laptop's hard drive every couple weeks.
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OK, discussed all this with Tod at lunch, all the different price points, options, differences.
I think I'm going with the MacBook Pro, 512GB & 16GB, for $20008GB, for $1800.
I bought my first Apple product, an iBook, in late 2004. I was dumping my Windows desktop for something smaller, because I was moving into Tod's tiny tiny Rockville house. Also, I'd heard so many people say that OS X was way better than Windows. I quickly decided they were correct. I was happy with my iBook for a bit over 4 years, then I upgraded to this MacBook and gave my iBook to KWC.
I don't think I've ever waited so long to buy a new computer in my adult life. I remember buying a 386 in 1992, the first time I ever carried a balance on a credit card. I upgraded to a Pentium two or three years later, and probably upgraded my desktop once more before law school, and again after law school. It is possible I upgraded the motherboard myself one of these times, I worked as a computer guru back then and could do all my computer upgrades myself. I liked skipping every other chip and waiting until a chip was a year old before buying it, so thrifty I was.
But now it has been 6 years! I've skipped a lot of chips!
My laptop works fine, mainly I just use it for browsing, emailing, and managing my media collection. I also use it to do my taxes, and my spreadsheets. I have my Xbox consoles for heavy-duty gaming, I'm not much interested in playing games on my laptop. I'm not a "power user"; I don't edit videos or run huge statistical datasets. I rarely try to "photoshop" images these days, simple photo processing & storage is all I do
As my laptop works fine, I'm not feeling like I must upgrade. And upgrading to a new Apple laptop that matches or exceeds my hard drive storage and RAM is either impossible or very expensive, because Apple has switched to solid-state drives.
-----
Still, I'm pondering whether to get one of the new MacBooks that comes out next month, or one of the newly-updated MacBook Pros. If I must equal my hard drive storage and/or double my RAM, then I must get a high-end MacBook Pro. If I can settle for 512GB SSD & 8GB RAM, I can get either.
Both have retina displays, which would be an upgrade for me, and both have SSDs that would improve performance over my old-fashioned spinning hard drive. The MacBook is 12", a bit smaller than the 13" I have now, the MacBook Pro is 13". The MacBook is way lighter and has a power-saving chip, but only one port that must be used for all things: power, USB, hardwire ethernet, video. The Pro has plenty of ports, and an SDXC expansion slot.
The price difference isn't much if I compare 512GB SSD & 8GB RAM models ($200 more for Pro). Would I want the lighter one, or the slightly larger one with more ports?
But if I'm getting the MacBook Pro anyway, why not splurge $700 extra for the 1TB & 16GB model? If I'm going to use it for 6+ years, then the price/year difference isn't much. And if I end up using it for something more demanding, I don't have to buy a new one.
But based on my current usage pattern, I'm probably OK with the new MacBook and don't need the extra stuff in the MacBook Pro.
But based on my current usage pattern, I'm OK with the MacBook I already have!
So, I wait, I spend $1600 for new MacBook or I spend $1800-$2500 for new MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, I back up my laptop's hard drive every couple weeks.
-----
OK, discussed all this with Tod at lunch, all the different price points, options, differences.
I think I'm going with the MacBook Pro, 512GB & 16GB, for $20008GB, for $1800.