Waiting for MBP '12. need suggestion.

Hi.

I'm planning on waiting for the redesign of the mbp to buy it. i know i want to wait, so i'm looking for an alternative laptop to hold me until at leats april of '12 that will have good resell value at that time so i could use the money towards the new mbp. obviously a current mbp wouldnt be smart since, if they revamp it, everyone will want the new one. any suggestions? it does not have to be an insane laptop, just something that will carry me over to the new year for general use, but still have good resell return. (logically, something just released would be better, i think)

BTW, i know the 2012 revamp is all speculation, but i am confident enough that it is going to happen to want to wait for it.

 

Buy used or an older generation laptop. It will have already depreciated a lot and you will limit your losses.

It should also be something popular that many people will want or know about. I would recommend an older lenovo T series or Dell Latitude. It will depend on the deal you can get though. Something like a T400/T500 or newer or Dell E5400/E5400/6400/6500 or newer.

During December the T500 was selling for ~$375 new at CDW. That was a steal and you could probably resell it for the same in a year.

 

you can get c2d 13'' plastic macbooks for like $400-$500. People will probably still pay that next year if it's in good condition because lets face it, lots of people who purchase macs don't know or care much about the specs.

 

I'm thinking about the ipad 2. the 1st gen ipad seems to have very decent resell rates. plus, if i put a huge scratch on it or something that will make me not want to resell it, i probably wont mind keeping it along with the mbp. what do you guys think? is it possible to type out word docs n such with an ipad? (print? if not, email to print?)

 

The Ipad 2... That is a very personal choice as to whether that will be good for you. Given your situation, if you like the device, it could be a good choice.

 

I don't think an iPad 2 would be a good choice to trying to hold you over for a 6 months to a year waiting for a MBP refresh. Although you could open, edit, and save Word documents on it, you would need to buy an app to do that. You would essentially need to buy an app to do everything so the cost of an iPad 2 would increase. Additionally, native device printing is still rather buggy and nothing like what Apple was saying AirPrint was going to be. You essentially need to have a printer hooked up to a Mac and have that accessing a wi-fi network.

Instead, many manufacturers have come out with their own apps for wireless printing (the iPad and iPad 2 do not support wired USB printing). The main issue is that, in order to print, you need to hook the iPad up to your computer and sync the files over to the printing app. Then you can print them off of your iPad.

I have a first generation model and it goes everywhere with me. That being said, it is still a little clunky when it comes to office productivity. I take notes on it all the time during meetings and whatnot but I end up syncing those to my MBP and then printing them if need be. I also couldn't imagine typing out more than 2 or 3 pages with the iPad's touch keyboard. Don't get me wrong, it is one of the best touch keyboards out there (mainly due to the size of the display) but I don't think it beats a physical keyboard when it comes to typing out a lot of content.

So you would likely end up spending more than $1000 on an iPad 2 by the time you purchase accessories for it (you can get Apple's bluetooth wireless keyboard for typing out a bunch of content), apps, and go with a model that has enough storage allowing you to carry around more than 10 minutes of video content.

I think you would be better off going with an inexpensive notebook if you plan on typing a bunch of documents out. You could even go with something so expensive that you wouldn't need to sell it and you could actually use it as a media device hooked up to an HDTV. HP has their dm1z 11.6" notebook (it isn't a netbook) that starts at around $400 with pretty decent specs. Its resale value likely wouldn't hold that much but, at $400, it wouldn't be the end of the world if you had to end up eating that cost (especially if you continue to use it in the manner I described).

 

Thx for the feedback. I really should have pointed out that i do currently have a laptop. It is just falling apart, and i realize it is time to upgrade. It's thick, heavy, and kinda ugly. but the main problem is the portability of it. It is a 15 inch, but the battery is so short, that it is almost not even worth it to take it anywhere. that said, it works perfectly as a desktop replacement. It has a bunch of scratches and wear, but it works. So being able to type Word docs/print on an ipad is not a dealbreaker, but it is still something that is nice.

The more i look into the ipad, the more im leaning towards it. I just want to inquire with you guys to avoid spending $600-$700 on impulse.