Apple Rumormongers needed: New Macbooks Soon?

October 27, 2006 11:24 AM

New Macbooks? Am I right in thinking that every one of Apple's new intel line products have been updated except the Macbook? I know that the Mac Pro and Xserv have not, but they were released later, so that's ok. The iMac, the Mini, and now the Macbook Pro have all received nice quiet little bump-ups in specs that make a considerable difference. A little more within...

Can we expect a revision for the Macbook in the next few weeks. I've checked around on a few of the rumor sites such as http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ and the macbook is showing 164 days since the release.

After averaging the update/release date averages of the iMac, Mini, MBP, and the Macbook to come up with the average of 161.75... which leads me to think that we will be seeing updated macbooks sometime next month.

What do you think? What will the specs be? Would the single stick of 1 gig Ram be standard like the MBP? Processor upgrade? Or will the distance between the consumer and pro level devices continue to grow?

I know this isn't a rumor site, but there are macheads here, help a college kid make a decision of whether to wait it out for the new macbooks or to get a refurbed one now for $949?

posted by eleongonzales to computers & internet (15 comments total)

Some folks think the Merom (Core 2 Duo) Macbooks are right around the corner. Since the current Macbooks just got a negative speedbump owing to heat issues, the idea of using a lower-power-consumption chip must be very attractive to the dev team right now.

But Apple has traditionally gone to great lengths to make sure its consumer-grade laptops (MacBook) didn't compete directly with the professional ones (MacBook Pro). So they may cripple the processor with a slow bus or something. Everyone's rather curious how that's going to play out.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:41 AM on October 27, 2006

Hold. HOLD HOLD HOLD.

Any number of sites will tell you that you should hold on this.

I'm maybe biased on the hold - I'm slightly salty that my six-week old 17" MBP is now 39% slower than the new models, according to Apple. I should have paid attention to this page before I bought, especially when it said "UPDATE COMING". Sadly, the call was too strong, and I wanted it now.

If you are a huge hacker, definitely hold. However, if you're just the writing papers, web searching type, you probably won't notice the difference and should grab a good deal with the new models come out.
posted by plaidrabbit at 11:42 AM on October 27, 2006

Do you think they will update the graphics? I think the macbooks now are right near the bottom of vista's requirements, is that right? Not that I plan on running vista much, but I'll need it for testing and the perpetual windows only task that drives me crazy. Well at least that is becoming less frequent...
posted by eleongonzales at 11:47 AM on October 27, 2006

Macbooks are the base consumer line. I doubt they will be getting Core 2.
posted by mphuie at 11:58 AM on October 27, 2006

The MacBook Pros desperately needed a bump because there was little to justify the much higher price over the MacBooks beyond the graphics card.

I think a lot of people were surprised that the MacBooks came with Core Duo, and Apple would be unlikely to close the gap between them and the Pro again.

If cost is a concern, the MacBooks are a great deal. You might not be able to run the full Aero glassy UI, but that would hardly get in the the way of using Vista itself. I use a MacBook as a Windows development machine with VS2005 running under Parallels, and it's more than fast enough.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 12:08 PM on October 27, 2006

For the record, the link that ikkyu2 posted about the presumed "negative speedbump" uses Rob Enderle as its only source, who is famous for being so consistently misinformed and simply wrong about Apple and the Mac platform. I wouldn't believe that for a second until someone else confirms this.
posted by mikel at 12:14 PM on October 27, 2006

I agree with the rumor skeptics. Apple is surely relieved to have the pro/non-pro speed difference restored, and won't be in any rush to nullify it again. Notice that the mini has been on the core duo for several months after the iMac was bumped to core 2 duo. (Also, I checked the string of links to rumor sites above and couldn't find any front page stories on coming MacBook updates; deep links, please!)

I say buy, that hardware is probably (finally) in a reliable state now. And the core duo is fast.
posted by Doctor Barnett at 12:32 PM on October 27, 2006

Thanks for the heads up, but going on apple's update cycle (similar to the mini single core now being dual core standard) aren't the macbooks due for some sort of upgrade? Be it integrated graphics, more standard RAM, or increased processor speed?

I am having trouble justifying the bottom end macbook for $1100 with tax as a student, when I could get a dell with the same processor, no RSS, no discoloring, and no stlye or OSX (which does make a difference) for $350 to $400 less. That's a freaking desktop PC right there or a good chunck of a mac mini...
posted by eleongonzales at 12:35 PM on October 27, 2006

Pay no attention to Rob Enderle, that man is seriously without clue.

One thing about the Dells is that they come with a lot of extra crap loaded. Whenever I do a system restore, I spend a good hour removing software. They're not bad computers, but Dell is not entirely on your side in this deal.

Apple would like to extract some more cash from you, and thus they give you trials on some apps I think should be included (the word processor and Quicktime), but everything installed on the system is entirely for your benefit. No crap you need to remove at all, and nothing that interferes with your normal computer usage in any way.

But, as a student, you can pay for a lot of hours removing software with $400. :-)

I think the go/no-go decision for me would be what the machines cost with a 3-year warranty. 3 years on a Macbook is $250.

I wouldn't worry overmuch about the CPU, by the way. The GPU is much more of a problem, and there's no sign that will be fixed anytime soon. For almost any normal app, the Core Duo is fantastic. It's probably only in games that you'd want more speed (unless you get into heavy scientific work), and the built-in GPU is so poor that it won't game well no matter what CPU you have.
posted by Malor at 12:56 PM on October 27, 2006

Thirding that the "negative speedbump" thing is at best speculative.

That being said, I'd at least wait another month to see if they do a simple chip swap on the MB. If they don't do it before Thanksgiving, I'd go ahead and buy the current model (the lab I work for owns one, and I have to say it's a really nice machine).
posted by myeviltwin at 1:10 PM on October 27, 2006

Back in August, rumor sites (and people on AskMe) were claiming new MacBook Pros were "just around the corner", but they didn't show up until this week. If you're going to hold, be prepared to wait a similar amount of time, possibly until January MacWorld Expo, possibly later.

Basically, deciding to hold is just as big a commitment as buying now and hoping for the best. You're stuck with possibly weeks of waiting for Apple.
posted by cillit bang at 2:35 PM on October 27, 2006

I just bought mine and I'm absolutely smitten with it (the middle Macbook model), and while I might be miffed if Apple choose to release their new models any day now, that's just how the industry works. I waited six months before getting this, I could not wait any longer!
posted by PuGZ at 2:40 PM on October 27, 2006

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I'm going to hold out as I just picked up an old G4 at an auction and I think that will be able to hold me over. I hope they update the graphics though!
posted by eleongonzales at 9:45 AM on October 30, 2006

Blush. Core 2 Duo MacBook. So much for basing anything on the Mac Mini Gimpy.
posted by Doctor Barnett at 8:32 AM on November 8, 2006

Bam!

So it's 13.3", not 15"; the graphics is inferior to the Pro, and it has a new kind of keyboard. The MB will only take 2GB of RAM but the Pro will take a total of 3G. And it's plastic, not metal.

But they didn't cripple the bus; it *is* a core 2 Duo (20% less power / heat), and everything else looks good. Buy it! Buy it
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:54 PM on November 8, 2006