Black Book and New Aluminum Macbook and When to buy?

Hello, I am getting ready to go to college next year and I so we are looking to get a macbook. The problem is I believe that the best deal now would be to get a refurb Black Macbook off of the apple store as it is cheaper and I think I like it a little better than the new Macbooks. But I am not sure if I should wait as there is a while until I will need it and a newer macbook may come out which would lower the price of the new macbooks making them an option as well.
Anyways I am just wondering recommendations on which to buy and when, my range is pretty much any of the macbooks now or future. I appreciate the opinions.

It becomes a 'need' vs. 'want' issue. I am in need of a laptop in the next couple weeks, which means I will be getting a macbook although I would like to wait for snow leopard. In your case, if you already have something that can get you through until July or so (before the fall semester), I would just wait for the latest and greatest.

The older black MacBook like the white one is still a very good machine for university work. Refurbished machines are fully warranted by Apple and you can even buy Apple Care to extend the overall warranty two more years.

Having said that, if you're not going to be off to school until Fall 2009, it might be better to wait and see what Apple will have new by then, if anything. Keep in mind even if they don't make improvements to the MacBook line by then, you can always purchase a refurbished aluminum MacBook. The newer aluminum MacBook is more powerful with faster memory and much better graphics. (great for games)

Regards.

Thanks I think we will wait as really the need is not for some time. Snow Leopard sounds nice also.

You could always wait to get an even better deal on that Black MB. Or even refurbished Alu MBs will start showing up.

You can always check the University's book store if they're an Apple retailer... At the end of the year they're always doing sales to make room for the newer stuff. I was able to get a 2.5 MBP (earlier 2008 edition) for a good price. I know the "Blackbooks" were going for $999 brand new.

You may also want to wait till just before you start to get one as by then you'll likely have your student ID issued to you by then, and you can use that to get the Education discount at the Apple store.

I got really frustrated/annoyed by how badly the Black MacBook showed fingerprints. I've got the 2.4 Unibody MacBook now and absolutely love it.

empty_noise said:

You may also want to wait till just before you start to get one as by then you'll likely have your student ID issued to you by then, and you can use that to get the Education discount at the Apple store.

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You probably can get an iPod and a printer out of the discount. I think it would be best to wait, I waited and am very happy that I did. Also at some point you will want to get snow leopard and the newer ones will have it pre-installed, that could save you a hundred bucks.

dabears34 said:

You probably can get an iPod and a printer out of the discount. I think it would be best to wait, I waited and am very happy that I did. Also at some point you will want to get snow leopard and the newer ones will have it pre-installed, that could save you a hundred bucks.

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You likely won't have to spend the hundred bucks to get Snow Leopard...
not for the first few weeks of Snow Leopard's release anyways.

When Leopard was released, many of the Apple Stores still had macs in stock with Tiger pre-installed on them. So they opened the box in store and repacked it a "Mac OS X Leopard CPU Drop-in DVD," that would allow you to install Leopard once you've set up your new mac with Tiger. So I got to see both the Tiger and the Leopard start movies all in the same day.

Likely they will pack something into the box that will allow to you to do a free upgrade to Snow Leopard once its out.

Also, Apple had the Up-To-Date program running, if you had Tiger and you bought your mac on or after the 1st of October, the month Leopard was released, you were eligible to a $9.95US upgrade to Leopard.

It is very likely Apple will start up the Up-To-Date program again for a limited time after Snow Leopard's release which would allow you to upgrade to Snow Leopard at a discount.


Also, anytime there is an upgrade to any mac line, a faster processor for example, they would be trying to push out the old stock, at a discount. The machines on display will be the newest and latest release. If you ask, they may have some of the old release models in stock and that will have an "End of Life" discount on them. So you'll save a few hundred dollars vs getting the latest model.

So when I got my MacBook in Dec of 2007, the Late 2007 revision had just come out a month ago on the 1st of Nov, the Apple store I went to still had the Mid 2007 model in stock, so I picked that up at a $350 discount from the "End of Life" sale price.

Add that together with my Education discount:
MacBook: End of Life Sale Price = $1099
.Mac Membership: $109 - $30 = $79
AppleCare: $299 - $81 = $218
My price before tax: $1396

Price before tax of the then newest release of the Macbook line: $1449

[All prices listed in Canadian Dollars]

i have a black macbook and i love it. i didnt care for new macbook with the alum body touchpad at all. in fact i think it sucks. i will take a real button any day. i would get the blackbook if i were you and save money.