It’s a bad time to buy a new laptop — here’s why – Business Insider

A
concept of what the next MacBook Pro could look like by 3D
renderer Martin Hajek.
Martin
Hajek

It’s back to school season, which means laptop manufacturers
around the world are salivating at the prospect of students
gobbling up new notebooks.

Let’s deflate that a bit: If
there’s any way you can hold off on buying a new laptop, do so.
You might have to wait a few extra weeks, but all three of the
major operating systems are due for some significant
upgrades.

Apple: a major MacBook Pro update is
rumored

For Apple fans, a

radically updated
MacBook Pro

is
looming. Reports suggest it’ll be the most significant overhaul
to the series in years, with a slimmer design, USB-C ports, a
fingerprint reader, and a secondary OLED display that’ll replace
the usual row of function keys. Though it’s not totally clear
when it’ll arrive, the wave of recent rumors suggest it won’t be
long.

Those function keys might be
controversial, but if you want Apple’s best, you have no real
choice but to wait. The

12-inch
MacBook

should be good
to go for the foreseeable future, but that’s an iffy sell even
without a replacement on the way. Meanwhile, the MacBook Air and
its non-1080p display are looking more outdated with each passing
month.

Windows: faster processors coming

On the Windows side, the newest
generation of Intel Core processors, codenamed Kaby Lake, is
coming soon. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said the 7th-generation
chips started shipping back in July, and on Tuesday confirmed
that they’ll be available in devices this fall. Earlier in the
week, Energy Star inadvertently
leaked forthcoming
Lenovo laptops with Kaby Lake as well.

Kaby Lake won’t be a massive
upgrade over the existing Skylake — it only exists because Intel
had to push back its more advanced Cannonlake chips to 2017 — but
it’s supposed to allow for smoother graphics and 4K video
performance. A

demo

at this week’s Intel Developers
Forum touted as much. Plus, in general, it’s always good to
futureproof your laptops as much as you can.

The Google Play Store
running on Chrome OS.
Business
Insider/Jeff Dunn

Android apps coming to Chromebooks

Finally, Chrome OS will formally
support the Google Play Store starting next month. That means
Chromebooks will have Android apps.

We

took a
peek

at how that’ll
work in June — in short, it seems very likely to improve Google’s
machines, especially when they’re offline.

There’s a

bunch of existing
Chromebooks

that’ll
support the Play Store when it goes live, but

very
few

of those manage to
find a good balance between price, performance, and having a
touchscreen, which is important when you’re about to add
thousands of touch-enabled apps.

And again, futureproofing. If you
don’t want to settle, it might be worth waiting and seeing how
OEMs approach Chrome OS’s brave new world.

To be clear: If you

just bought

a new laptop, don’t feel too bad.
Kaby Lake isn’t a game-changer, and you might not have bothered
with Android apps anyway. If you’re in need of an upgrade,
though, see if you can tough it out for a little bit
longer.