By Graham K. Rogers

I looked at a rumour yesterday that appeared to use a photograph from a Chinese Apple store, with new MacBook Pro models listed and revised prices. I noted then that this appeared to be speculation, and that appears now certainly to have been the case as the MacBook Pro lines have indeed been updated and instead of the three new 15" notebooks, there are still two as before.

MacBook Pro - Image by permission of Apple

The 15" Macs now have 16 GB RAM as standard, while the 13" versions still come with 8 GB (the basic MacBook Pro still keeps its 4 GB module). Models in the US Store are the same as here.

Prices in the USA are reported to be unchanged apart from the top of the line MacBook Pro 15" Retina display model, which now has a 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and has also dropped in Thailand from the earlier 86,900 baht to 84,900 baht.

I last compared these models (with others) back in April. At that time, when VAT was factored in to the prices - most models were slightly cheaper here. US prices are not quoted with taxes included, but in most states there is a sales tax. In countries like Thailand, Singapore and the UK, taxes are included in the price, making them appear far more expensive than they are in real terms.

As most prices were unchanged, I looked again at the top 13" MacBook Pro, now with 2.8 GHz i5 (before 2.6 GHz) still priced at 59,900 baht in the Apple Store for Thailand. I deducted the VAT to give 55,981 Baht, then converted that figure to $US. That was $1,759.02 whereas the US price of the same computer is $1,799 giving slightly less of an advantage ($60.05 before) as the currency rates have changed.

I also examined the newly priced 15" MacBook Pro at 84,900 baht (previously 86,900 baht). This now has a 2.5 GHz Intel i7 quad-core processor. Deducting VAT of 7% gives 79,345.79 which converts to $2,493.19. The price in the US Apple Store is shown as $2,499, so again, the comparison is favourable.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.