Should You Wait For Sandy Bridge MacBook Pros? Pro and Con (Mostly Pro)

AppleGazette notes that pent-up demand for a MacBook Pro refresh is building, especially following Intel’s revelation last week of a controller chipset flaw affecting their new Sandy Bridge CPU family that’s expected to be used in the next Pro models, which will result in production delays. So the conundrum for folks looking to buy a new MacBook Pro is whether to wait impatiently, or just buy one of the current models, which are no slouch.

The big imponderable of course is how much different the next revision machines will be from present offerings. Will it be in the same form factor with a Sandy Bridge speed bump and perhaps some other tweaks, or a complete redesign taking its cues from the new MacBook Air? I think the probabilities there are pretty much a tossup. The current unibody enclosure is less than 2 1/2 years old in its 13” and 15” iterations, and it’s barely two years for the 17-incher. On the other hand, Steve Jobs did say last October that the new MacBook Air spelled the future of the notebook.

Then there’s the matter of SSDs. Personally, I’m of a mind that the SSD cost/capacity equation is still unattractive compared with conventional HDDs, especially the new hybrid variants. I appreciate the SSD’s advantages, but it’s not mature, commodified technology yet. That said, I’ll be surprised if SSD availability is not expanded with the next MacBook Pros, but will be even more so if HDDs don’t remain standard kit on at least some models, with availability across the board.

Whether the next MacBook Pro will retain an internal optical drive is another matter of conjecture. I think that transition is inevitable eventually, and could happily get along with an external optical drive for the amount I use them anymore, but I’m in no rush.

So the pros and cons are debated. My two cents? If you’re not absolutely desperate to get a new laptop or upgrade your present system, keep your powder dry and wait. The Intel issue should be rectified by the end of April with production resuming, and I’ll be very surprised if the new MacBook Pros are delayed beyond June.

And if you can’t wait, don’t feel too badly when the new Pros do debut later this year. That dynamic happened to me when I bought a late 2008 model aluminum MacBook in March, 2009, and Apple released the more desirable 13” MacBook Pro four months later. The little MAcBook has been an excellent computer, and I’ve really had little to complain about with it. The present-generation Pros are superb machines that can serve your well for years to come.

blog comments powered by Disqus