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Planning on buying a MacBook Pro? Wait until later this week

by Chris Rawson Feb 20th 2011 at 6:00PM

Consider this a public service announcement: if you're in the market for a MacBook Pro, right now is about the worst possible time to buy one. Wait at least until this coming Thursday, February 24. Multiple indicators point to the MacBook Pro line being refreshed on that date.

We heard in December that the MacBook Pro line will be upgraded in the first half of 2011, and the current lineup started seeing supply shortages in late January. Over the past couple weeks, we've heard from multiple sources that the MacBook Pro will be upgraded in March, possibly as early as March 1 -- later reports have bumped that date up to later this week. After an initial production hiccup, Intel has shipped its next-gen "Sandy Bridge" processor, all but certain to debut in the forthcoming MacBook Pro update. Multiple reports from various sources point to supply shortages of the current MacBook Pro and new model numbers showing up in inventory databases.

Now, AppleInsider reports that third-party dealers have been told to expect sealed shipments from Apple, expected to arrive as early as tomorrow. All of this points to imminent upgrades to the MacBook Pro -- possibly significant upgrades, as the new Intel processors are supposed to be much more powerful than the current lineup. Additionally, it's possible the new MacBook Pros may include a new "high-speed connection technology" based on Intel's Light Peak, with data transfer speeds far exceeding those of USB or FireWire.

Even if you're not interested in these new bells and whistles and believe the current MacBook Pro would suit your needs, it's still worth waiting until the new models debut later this week, because the current lineup will almost certainly be heavily discounted. Watch this space or this one if you want to pick up one of the current models on the cheap after the new models launch. Take our word on this, if you buy a MacBook Pro before Thursday, you're going to want to kick yourself later.

Update: If you've seen this post too late and have already taken the plunge on a new MacBook Pro at this worst of all buying times, there's still hope. You can return the product within 14 days of your purchase for a full refund, and Apple no longer assesses restocking fees if you do so. If you're far outside of that 14-day grace period, you're pretty much out of luck; if you're only a day or two beyond it, you might be able to get a manager at your local Apple Store to work something out with you as long as you're nice about it.

Update 2: It looks like Apple has the right idea this time around; several tipsters wrote us and said Apple's instituted a 3-5 day shipping delay on MacBook Pros. This could mean that if you order a MacBook Pro today, you'll end up with one of the new models expected to debut on Thursday, but the safe bet is still to hold off on a purchase until the new models come out.



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Consider this a public service announcement: if you're in the market for a MacBook Pro, right now is about the worst possible time to buy...
 

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NICK

You might want to wait because gas prices are going up.

February 24 2011 at 4:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
glenn

Bought a MBP 13" about late November. Love the damn thing sooo much, but wondering if I shouldn't try and sell it online (ebay) & get a new one. It would be easy to just simply import my data from the HDD I upgraded (Hybrid Seagate XT) and just migrate to the new drive, wipe old one, remigrate (import assistant or some such).

That I know I would be willing to do. But I guess it is a wait-and-see if I want the upgrade. Thoughts? If sandy bridge, I am very tempted to wait about a month & see what people are saying & upgrade yay/nay accordingly.

February 22 2011 at 8:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike946

Some readers are confusing MacBooks and MB Pros.
But my real message is that Apple has mitigated in these periods of transitions before. Several years ago I bought a MB Pro at exactly the wrong time thru the online store. Without any shipping delay notices, and before any announcements of an upgrade, Apple sent me an email saying that they had upgraded my order to the new model AND the somewhat reduced price for my selection, and there might be a short delay in shipping date. Apple absolutely did not have any obligation, other than ethical, do this. Apple is what it is.

February 21 2011 at 7:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
heaven_above81

hi, i am a new mac user and just but macbook pro 15" feb. 08 and i just seen this post, i did a financing for 18 months, and bought software with it too and i am loving my mac now its way better than the few laptop i used before, could i return this mac although i am on apple financing?

February 21 2011 at 3:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to heaven_above81's comment
neutra

Releasing new laptops on Steve's birthday! How nice! He'll be 56 on Thursday Feb 24.

February 21 2011 at 12:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
em

Hey, ok. So I just got a new macbook pro. I called mac like wtf w/ the faulty processors?

They said that the sandybridge version was the one with the defect and sandybridge was not used in the current macbook pros.

Investigating I went and looked at the original Intel press release on the issue: http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/01/31/intel-identifies-chipset-design-error-implementing-solution

quotes:
"The [faulty] chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge."
"The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 *quad* core based systems."

On the specs it says the macbook pro has the fastest *dual* core processor (that yields a "virtual quad core")... So are the mac book pros fine then? Or should I haul to the post office before my 14 days are up? Or am I mis-reading something?

The processor is my main concern on the new purchase, though... that light peak thing seems pretty sweet.

February 21 2011 at 11:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to em's comment
em

Here, to see if your MBP has the defected chip go to your system profiler, look at the serial-ATA, if you have series 5, you're ok, if you're series 6, that's the one with the defect. Here's the intel link:
http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/processors/chipset.htm

February 21 2011 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

Dang. I just bought the 2.8GHz with Anti-glare last week. Thanks for pointing out the return policy. If the new MBPs are that much nicer i'm definitely going to make sure I swap to get the latest and greatest.

February 21 2011 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

I've been waiting for a few weeks now for the new MBP's to be released. I'm leaving for a two-week business trip to england on friday and there is nothing I would love more than spending my long plane ride becoming more acquainted with my lovely new laptop.

February 21 2011 at 10:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Robert

For me, lightpeak would be the most exciting part of any revision. I'm not doing a lot of processor intensive tasks so I'm not excited about Sandy Bridge in the least.

And in a dark home theatre, glossy screen = good. In a brightly lit office, glossy screen = Bad.

February 21 2011 at 9:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jason

The glossy screens definitely suck, and will definitely be there, so there can be the $150 up-sell to the hi-res good quality screen. :)

February 21 2011 at 7:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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