It was a tough decision.
Do I buy a MacBook Pro during Apple’s Back to School promotion and get my son’s education discount plus a $100 iTunes card? Or do I wait for the new MacBook Pro to be released later in the fall?
I researched, I asked my fellow writers on MyMac.com, I reached out to the 3 Geeky Ladies Google+ Community (please, join us, by the way!) The consensus was to wait.
So I waited.
And waited.
Finally, on October 22, 2013, the new MacBook Pros were announced. And I was disappointed.
I knew what I wanted: 13 inch screen, 8GB RAM, 750GB HD, just like the 2012 models, only with a Haswell processor and Retina screen. But those were no longer available. The base model was 4GB RAM, 500GB HD. Sure, I could upgrade the RAM and HD, but I would be buying last year’s MacBook Pro. The new model’s had the Retina display and better processors, but no hard drive as I knew them. Now all MacBook Pros had solid state drives (SSD) that were much more expensive.
How could I justify spending close to $2000 for a laptop with less space AND no optical drive? Yes, I’m one of the few people left on this earth that burns CDs every now and then. Plus I watch DVDs on my computer. The price difference would be about $500, not exactly chump change.
Now you can see how this was a tough decision.
After much internal debate I laid out the facts to my non-technical husband. I was honest with the pricing and how SSD is actually preferable and faster than a regular hard drive. He felt it would be better to pay more now and get the latest and greatest. No sense in buying last year’s model that’s outdated even before I buy it.
I knew I married him for a reason!
It’s been eight days with my new 13 inch Retina MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
The speed difference is amazing! To be able to open multiple web pages in a matter of seconds makes my heart sing! And the Retina screen is just gorgeous!
Since I still have a fully functional 2008 MacBook I can use that optical drive if I need it, so I don’t miss it on this MacBook Pro. Spinning beach balls are still a problem with iTunes, but I think many people started having that issue with the iTunes 11 update.
Mavericks is a big jump from Snow Leopard so I’m still getting used to new behaviors, like no more Save As in TextEdit, where I’m writing this article. I haven’t opened GarageBand or iMovie yet; surprises still await me.
I admit the transition was a bit bumpy; I migrated my data over and a few applications, like Entourage for my ISP mail, did not play nice. With the help of wonderful people from MyMac.com and Twitter I was able to get things sorted out and settled. I’m spending even more time in front of the computer, if that’s even possible!
It was a tough decision, but I made the right decision in the end.
(This article is cross-posted to the3 Geeky Ladies web site.)
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