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General discussion

Macbook Pro 2012 revamp?

Mar 18, 2011 7:04AM PDT

College student graduating soon. I want to take advantage of the student discount while I have it to buy a nice new macbook pro. Problem is, I hear that the line is going to go through a complete revamp in the next year. How likely is that to happen and is it worth the wait?

Discussion is locked

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Nobody knows
Mar 18, 2011 10:46AM PDT

Nobody knows. Apple likes to be very secretive. The last MBP refresh was supposed to be some major revamp according to a lot of rumors, and it turned out to be a fairly minor update, though some of the under the hood changes are pretty significant.

You can either be perpetually waiting for that next model, or you can just be satisfied with what there is now. And major revamps aren't always a good thing. The current unibody design has had a good couple of years of real world testing, and time for Apple to make some subtle tweaks here and there to fix issues that have come up. There are a lot of technicians out there who are very familiar with how to work on these systems, etc. If they overhaul the entire design, there's always a chance it will be very problematic in the beginning.

You want my advice, stop with all the grass is greener thinking and just buy something. Don't worry about what might come to pass, because who knows if it will or if it will be better. For all you know, you could get hit by a bus in 2 weeks, so you'd never get to see the revamped model, and would have denied yourself some enjoyment in your final days.

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fair statement
Mar 18, 2011 11:37PM PDT

minus the getting the hit by a bus, hopefully

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Yes.
Mar 19, 2011 2:00AM PDT

Look at the history and they revise the line constantly.

This is why some can't buy. My bet is 100% likely.
Bob

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Yes, but
Mar 19, 2011 5:32AM PDT

Yes, they do constantly revise the line. However, the 2012 revamp is supposed to be one of the bigger revisions, similar to when the old fully grey model got changed into the current unibody, sexy glossy design. A similar change, with a possible touch screen, is supposed to come next.

I'm eager to see what the new design comes out to be. I'm not waiting to have the best one. Waiting for the best one to come out would leave me in perpetual waiting and never be satisfied. I'm just hoping that Apple will redesign the model before I graduate so I can use my stuent discount to buy it Grin

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And with that out of the way.
Mar 19, 2011 6:29AM PDT

I hope you are seeing the VERY NICE Sandy Beach machines today.

The very best is yet to come would have a person in limbo forever.
I'm unsure how folk get out of that cycle.
Bob

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I doubt that
Mar 19, 2011 8:50AM PDT

I doubt that will see Apple putting touch screens on their laptops any time soon. Apple is a company obsessed with the overall experience of using a product, and if you've ever tried using one of those touch screen all-in-ones other companies make, you pretty quickly realize it's a novelty feature that not many people are going to actually use that often. Having to reach across the keyboard just isn't going to be a workable long term solution for most people. That's just a fanciful rumor which is quite probably a holdover from the days before the iPad was officially announced.

They may well revamp the design, but so long as it's a traditional clamshell sort of motif, I cannot see them adding a touch screen... Unless maybe they combined the iPad with MacBook Pro, and the whole top part of the top case became a giant touch screen. Which is at least a possibility, but I doubt it would be economical to do so.

All the reviews of the new sandy bridge models are quite glowing. Once some Thunderbolt products start hitting the market you'll probably really see those models come into their own. Feel free to hold off as long as you can, but I wouldn't go getting my hopes up too much... And you can always look at it this way... If you buy now, and they DO completely revamp the line, when your current system gets replaced, you'll be able to leapfrog all the early adopters.

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Agreed, for the most part
Mar 19, 2011 9:20AM PDT

I agree with how uneconomical and un-ergonomic it would be to require people to reach across the keyboard to use the touchscreen. I would love to wait till the new design comes out before buying the laptop, but i think i'll buy it before graduating so i can just be done with all the waiting and finally enjoy using the mac.

thank you for all the perspectives! Happy