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Any chance the rumoured ultraportable will be cheaper than/equal to a BlackBook?

daneoni

daneoni

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 24, 2006
12,025
1,930
Im in the market for a notebook as i realised i cant live on a desktop alone and need mobility for school. I tried to get a 12" PB on ebay but the ones available are either marred (where the seller is trying to dump it on someone who doesn't know better) or the decent ones want you to pay £600 or more, which is the price of a MacBook which is vastly superior

So i've been leaning towards getting a MacBook since it'll allow me run VMWare which is a bonus. I almost pressed the 'place my order' button at the Apple store (today is the last day to order in order to get it before christmas) but something kept holding me back saying "wait for the ultraportable".

Generally i'm not a fan of UPs because they tend to be a little too underpowered i.e sacrifice performance for portability but i guess i'm trying to give Apple the benefit of the doubt in this case to see what they come up with. Also i have a powerful desktop already so my performance demand can be relaxed a little this time

Anyway, the only reason i'd get a UP is if it was the same price or cheaper than the the current BlackBook. I dont care for penryn until Montevina is out so SR/Merom is fine for me.

Is there any chance this will be the case or will it be like other ultraportables which seem to charge and arm and leg. Basically is it possble for the UP's price to not exceed £999 and also would it be powerful enough to handle VMWare and basic Aperture?
 
If it has the Pro name in it, which everyone seems to say it will, it will definitely be more expensive than the Blackbook.

Flash storage will jack up the price, I think 64GB SSD is something like a $600 option on Dell Laptops.

If your budget is only ~1500, pull the trigger on the Macbook and get 4GB of RAM.

Tracer
 
About as much of a chance that the 12" Powerbook was cheaper than/equal to the high-end iBook.
 
Well I'm starting to think this thing is not going to be an "ultraportable" at all. I think it's just going to be a 13 inch MBP which would probably be priced at around $1799...and it's going to weigh about as much as a regular Macbook.
 
MarlboroLite said:
Well I'm starting to think this thing is not going to be an "ultraportable" at all. I think it's just going to be a 13 inch MBP which would probably be priced at around $1799...and it's going to weigh about as much as a regular Macbook.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the reality-based community. It's easy to fall into all of the wishful groupthinking so present on the forums here, but in the end, looking at things logically instead of greedily will make it a lot easier to make sound purchases. If people want to delude themselves that Apple will cater to their bank accounts and technolust by offering high-end technology at budget prices, let them. In the meantime, decide what you want, save up, and get it. It's not nearly as glamorous as wasting time talking about 64gb ssd Macbook touches, but there's far less self-deception that way.
 
It wont be cheaper ( if its even true) but it might not be much more expensive, there was less that £100 difference between the 12" powerbook & the high-end ibook.
 
Tracer said:
If your budget is only ~1500, pull the trigger on the Macbook and get 4GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Oh I don't know...

Suppose the OP's budget is a tad flexible? Suppose the new mbp starts at $1700? If it's got what he wants, he might change his mind no?

My advice for anyone in the middle right now is to hold on. Apple has a way of surprising everyone.

MarlboroLite said:
and it's going to weigh about as much as a regular Macbook.
Click to expand...

It will definitely weigh far less than a macbook. Remember, aluminum is much lighter than plastic. The current macbooks are only .4 lbs lighter than the 15" mbp, and the mbp is reasonably larger in terms of volume. I'd bet that if the new mbp is made of aluminum (which is what we should assume since the rest of the line is) then I'd venture to guess that the weight would be around 4 lbs (possibly less, depending on internals).

That matters a lot to some people. ;)
basesloaded190 said:
good choice, i dont think there is any chance that if there is a new ultra portable that it will be under 1800
Click to expand...
It will probably be $1800 (or rather $1799).

For some, this will be real bad news, because the one product they were looking to replace was the 12" iBook (which was very student friendly).
 
$1800 is about £895 by direct conversion which buys a MacBook plus change. This is direct conversion however.

When you add the rip-off britain tax the price will probably be around £999/£1099 or or higher.

Also any idea what processor these things will use. Im guessing the low-end Penryn, which is a 2.1GHz/3MB L2 Cache chip but even that i'm not sure of because these processors can get hot and in a UP, heat is very important. But then again its a 45nm chip so....

I also doubt they'll use Flash, it might be a BTO but i'm guessing it'll come with a 100/120GB 1.8 HDD.

Ok now i'm theorizing too much.
 
It'll be the macbook mini... you wait! and the mac mini will get an update to have a screen and multitouch... and the iMac will be renamed the Mac. :p

Nah... I don't really think that but I hope that apple can keep the price on the subnotebook (if it even exists) sub1500!
 
Yours are all voices of reason. But what if this turns out to be a futuristic luxury item and is priced at the high-end of the 15" MBP spectrum?

Besides, I think there is a significant market segment that would be willing to pay EXTRA to SHRINK the MBP shrink without sacrificing its Pro qualities. All that Apple needs to do then is add some spectacular, luxurious features to efface any residual impression that the one could be, in effect, paying "more for less".
 
HAH!! I know the exact price of this mythical laptop. In 12 different countries, no less! And ship dates!

But I won't tell you. You'll just have to wait, peasant!

MWAAA HAH HA HA
 
Macula said:
Yours are all voices of reason. But what if this turns out to be a futuristic luxury item and is priced at the high-end of the 15" MBP spectrum?

Besides, I think there is a significant market segment that would be willing to pay EXTRA to SHRINK the MBP shrink without sacrificing its Pro qualities. All that Apple needs to do then is add some spectacular, luxurious features to efface the inconvenient truth that the one would be, in effect, paying "more for less".
Click to expand...

That is a very real possibility, and it all hinges on just how "amazing" this notebook turns out.

If, for example, it has Flash, no optical drive, weighs less than 3 lbs, has the LED backlit screen, is thin, and boasts a special processor, and an 11" screen, then I can see it being above $2500.

Then again, this is just hypotheticals; I advise no one get their hopes up.
 
If you are on the fence ... wait. Even if you end up going with a normal macbook, if apple does release a 13inch mbp or an ultraportable or whatnot that you don't feel inclined to buy... chances are the sr macbooks will be in the refurb store by then... AND i bet there will be quite a few places to get a normal macbook cheaper as a lot of people may end up upgrading to the new ultraportable/mbp .... so either way you save some cash, which could be used for extras, fun toys or ram ram ram! :)
 
I'd recommend you just get a "Blackbook" now, especially if you are already against ultra-portables. The MacBook line was recently refreshed and offers very good value for the money, in my opinion. I just got my brand new "Blackbook" yesterday and it's amazing. Very quick, quiet and can run all the apps I throw at it w/o a hitch.
 
Why pay the $125 Black tax?

Don't get the BlackBook, unless you really want the black colour. If you want your MacBook to be black, then it's worth the extra $$.

Now, if you get the 2.2 Ghz White MacBook and upgrade the HD to 160 GB, it is equal to the BlackBook in specifications (except for the colour). You can then use the $125 that you save (it only costs $75 to upgrade the HD from 120 to 160) on buying 4 GB of RAM from newegg or memoryamerica or crucial.

Then your MacBook will kick ass.
 
JAT said:
HAH!! I know the exact price of this mythical laptop. In 12 different countries, no less! And ship dates!

But I won't tell you. You'll just have to wait, peasant!

MWAAA HAH HA HA
Click to expand...

Of course you do. Did you know that Santa Claus also exists? Oh and bigfoot was abducted by aliens yesterday while I was talking to the easter bunny and her friend the tooth fairy...

:eek:
 
Just got off the phone with Steve...

Here's the scoop. It's (the U.P.:apple:) going to be a cross between an iPod Touch and a MacBook, will have a 10" screen, and will sell for $899.00. It will be called the MacTablet and will sell like ketchup at a fishfry! This is kind of hush hush so please keep this to yourselves.
 
Whatever will be released will definitely be accessible to the general public ; i.e. if it is more expensive than the blackbook it won't be by much. It will probably be around 1800 - but who knows? I highly doubt the baseline model will go for more than $2K.
 
way77 said:
Here's the scoop. It's (the U.P.:apple:) going to be a cross between an iPod Touch and a MacBook, will have a 10" screen, and will sell for $899.00. It will be called the MacTablet and will sell like ketchup at a fishfry! This is kind of hush hush so please keep this to yourselves.
Click to expand...


LOL Shhhhh, you forgot to tell them that if they can't keep it to themselves they should start a new thread with part of your info to induce more speculation.;)
 
CalBoy said:
Oh I don't know...

Suppose the OP's budget is a tad flexible? Suppose the new mbp starts at $1700? If it's got what he wants, he might change his mind no?


It will probably be $1800 (or rather $1799).
Click to expand...

My budget is £920 btw. Anything more and i'm not interested.

Surely said:
Don't get the BlackBook, unless you really want the black colour. If you want your MacBook to be black, then it's worth the extra $$.

Now, if you get the 2.2 Ghz White MacBook and upgrade the HD to 160 GB, it is equal to the BlackBook in specifications (except for the colour). You can then use the $125 that you save (it only costs $75 to upgrade the HD from 120 to 160) on buying 4 GB of RAM from newegg or memoryamerica or crucial.

Then your MacBook will kick ass.
Click to expand...

Im not really a fan of the white hence the reason im going black
 
daneoni said:
My budget is £920 btw. Anything more and i'm not interested.
Click to expand...

I don't really know UK pricing, so I can't advise you any further. Just remember that the Dollar continues its downward spiral, so there might be a readjustment in Apple's pricing when the macbook pros are updated that might work out in your favor. ;)
 
JAT said:
HAH!! I know the exact price of this mythical laptop. In 12 different countries, no less! And ship dates!

But I won't tell you. You'll just have to wait, peasant!

MWAAA HAH HA HA
Click to expand...

Exactly. Everything posted in this thread so far is just far-fetched speculation. I won't believe anything unless it comes from a reputable source (9to5mac recently, or others) 1 or 2 days before it's release date, anything before that is just a daydream.
 
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