New Photos of 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Show Battery Layout, Ports, and More [Updated]

Sacird said:

Someone needs to tell Ive these things are WAY too fat. That is disgusting look how fat that is. Hoping it would be even thinner and perhaps just lose all ports besides the power of course so we could get it thinner. Total letdown.

Oink Oink

Actually the magsafe is bulky as well, just remove it, maybe use mats for charging or something? I don't know these Apple machines.... I can't even lift them.

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The next model will be so thin that it won't even have a power port. It will come charged from the factory.

Scottsdale said:

I am shocked to see two Thunderbolt ports along with an HDMI port in this 13" rMBP. In my opinion, along with the pricing suggestion of $1699, this means there will be a discrete GPU in the 13" rMBP.

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Wow, people are desperately grasping at straws for a tiny glimmer of hope that there will be a discrete GPU.

Guess what. Not gonna happen, with all those batteries, and soldered RAM, simply no room.

.

If someone has this laptop available enough to take pictures; why do they take the most obscure ones and never show more than a snipit of the device? Seems odd to me. I can see a quick snap from a factory floor, but this looks like it was taken in a livingroom and close enough with enough time to get close ups of specific parts.

Just seems odd.

no HDMI, no deal


oh wait... lol

iChrist said:

Wow, people are desperately grasping at straws for a tiny glimmer of hope that there will be a discrete GPU.

Guess what. Not gonna happen, with all those batteries, and soldered RAM, simply no room.

.

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I wonder how it will deal with multiple displays. Will it be like its bigger brother where it can output to 3 displays simultaneously not counting the internal? Or will you be limited to something like 2 displays at a time

iChrist said:

Wow, people are desperately grasping at straws for a tiny glimmer of hope that there will be a discrete GPU.

Guess what. Not gonna happen, with all those batteries, and soldered RAM, simply no room.

.

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I can agree with you until I see two Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port. How does an Intel HD4000 drive the native Retina and three external displays? It will take a 650M to drive them, will it not?

I was convinced Apple would only include the Intel HD4000 until I saw that port configuration. I don't get what else it could mean? Apple only allows one TB port to work for display? Or either a TB or HDMI port can work, but not both simultaneously with displays connected?

I just don't see the same concept of two 27" ACDs, a Retina native display, and a 1080P HDMI display all driven by an Intel HD4000.

Please explain what the port configuration means. I completely agree that there isn't much room for a dGPU, but I am not an computer science engineer. Less the optical drive, and the same thickness as the 15" rMBP, and there is no way for a dGPU?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

KylePowers said:

It's coming it's coming it's coming!

And does the inclusive of two Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port point to a discrete GPU?

Can an HD4000 really push three monitors by itself?

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You don't need two TB ports to drive two TB monitors. One is intended primarily for the Ethernet or Fireware adaptor. My Mac Mini has only one Thunderbolt port and guess what? I'm sitting in front of two Thunderbolt monitors right now.

I don't know what an HD4000 can or can't push, but people using an HDMI aren't necessarily using it at the the same time as another monitor and people using a thunderbolt aren't necessarily using it at the same time as an HDMI.

Scottsdale said:

I can agree with you until I see two Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port. How does an Intel HD4000 drive the native Retina and three external displays? It will take a 650M to drive them, will it not?

I was convinced Apple would only include the Intel HD4000 until I saw that port configuration. I don't get what else it could mean? Apple only allows one TB port to work for display? Or either a TB or HDMI port can work, but not both simultaneously with displays connected?

I just don't see the same concept of two 27" ACDs, a Retina native display, and a 1080P HDMI display all driven by an Intel HD4000.

Please explain what the port configuration means. I completely agree that there isn't much room for a dGPU, but I am not an computer science engineer. Less the optical drive, and the same thickness as the 15" rMBP, and there is no way for a dGPU?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

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Yup, when I see the port layout this is exactly what i'm thinking. And then I see the picture with the heatsink, where it has two. I'm quite sure it is for the cpu and dgpu.

Very excited about the retina display! But very scared of not being able to upgrade RAM. The very first thing I do when I buy a MacBook Pro is upgrade the RAM :\

Tankmaze said:

Yup, when I see the port layout this is exactly what i'm thinking. And then I see the picture with the heatsink, where it has two. I'm quite sure it is for the cpu and dgpu.

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Very exciting thoughts, bring on the dgpu, gon make this a real nice product!

Patriot24 said:

I hate to dip into the "what would Steve have done?" territory, but it seems obvious to me that HDMI never existed on a Mac until after Steve Jobs was out of the picture. Perhaps it was something that the engineering team always wanted to include, but was held back by Jobs?

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agree. that's why they used a mdp port, it's much more esoteric and less mainstream than the joe-sixpack leet gamer's hdmi port.

pgiguere1 said:

Thunderbolt is needed if you want DisplayPort/DVI/VGA or a FireWire/Ethernet adapter. Since all those end the chain, that would not leave room for a Thunderbolt accessory like an external Thunderbolt drive if there was a single Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt drives aren't popular right now as they don't offer significant performance improvement over USB 3 external mechanical hard drives. Mechanical hard drives account for the vast majority of external hard drives right now. Once SSDs will become cheap enough, people will start considering external SSDs and that's where Thunderbolt will come handy, offering a significant speed boost over USB 3.

If the past is any indication, current designs should last around 5 years. At the rate at which SSD prices are decreasing, I think it's reasonable to think that some of the people who spend $2k+ on a laptop right now are the kind of people who are likely to buy external SSD sometime in the next 5 years.

A failure for me would be to be unable to use FireWire and an external display at the same time on my rMBP. I'm glad I can.

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For external drives esata offers a much better solution than thunderbolt. (direct connection to the system bus and native boot support, it also doesn't require a separate translator interface between the drive and the thunderbolt cord as the signal is sent out as sata all the way through) Esata can also be combined with a usb port. There are literally like no thunderbolt accessories. The ones there are are way to expensive. It is a failure.

Looks like they're now allowing for the trackpad to be serviced separately from the top-case. Win.

2 Thunderbolt ports and HDMI, now that would bea great combination and actually make hunderbolt more useful. I just hope thy have good GPU(s) in it.

I'll wait for the refurbished rMBP's to come out next year.

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Patriot24 said:

I hate to dip into the "what would Steve have done?" territory, but it seems obvious to me that HDMI never existed on a Mac until after Steve Jobs was out of the picture. Perhaps it was something that the engineering team always wanted to include, but was held back by Jobs?

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Nope. Steve was still very much alive and knew they were putting HDMI into the Mac Mini when it was introduced in June 2010.

blackhand1001 said:

For external drives esata offers a much better solution than thunderbolt. (direct connection to the system bus and native boot support, it also doesn't require a separate translator interface between the drive and the thunderbolt cord as the signal is sent out as sata all the way through) Esata can also be combined with a usb port. There are literally like no thunderbolt accessories. The ones there are are way to expensive. It is a failure.

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...yet Thunderbolt is still faster than eSATA, and combines the PCIe and DisplayPort protocols. It was important to maintain backward compatibility with mini DisplayPort since that's the main video output on Macs.

What would have been your solution? Adding 2 eSATA slots in addition of the existing mini DisplayPort? No way Apple could find room for one of those in the rMBP, let alone two of them. They couldn't fit one in the 15" cMBP that was thicker so...

I don't understand your hate on Thunderbolt. It's smaller and faster than eSATA and uses the same connector as the video output which would have been needed anyway. eSATA is obviously too big for Apple's standards and it's not like you find that much consumer-level eSATA accessories in stores either. Yes there are some external hard-drives but 95%+ of people just use USB drives.

Like I said Thunderbolt drives will catch on when SSD prices will go down and it'll be viable for average prosumers to buy external SSDs. Until then you can still benefit from triple external display support, which you couldn't do with eSATA.

Nice! But the $1699 price tag is still saddening I hope among all the rumors that one is not true

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dugbug said:

Well it may be the new Samsung

(I kid I kid)

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Or HP?

Menge said:

Very excited about the retina display! But very scared of not being able to upgrade RAM. The very first thing I do when I buy a MacBook Pro is upgrade the RAM :\

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Buy Apple upgrade then, you have no choice if you are going to buy this MBP.

CausticPuppy said:

The next model will be so thin that it won't even have a power port. It will come charged from the factory.

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LOL, maybe we can use WIFI signals to charge the machine then.

Looks like Apple will be integrating the power button into the keyboard for all their laptops now... Makes sense, I guess: Saves space, looks cleaner, unifies everything.

mrsir2009 said:

Looks like Apple will be integrating the power button into the keyboard for all their laptops now... Makes sense, I guess: Saves space, looks cleaner, unifies everything.

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This is neat, as the CD eject button is not necessary for rMBP, why don't we let the power button take over that.

Scottsdale said:

I can agree with you until I see two Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port. How does an Intel HD4000 drive the native Retina and three external displays? It will take a 650M to drive them, will it not?

I was convinced Apple would only include the Intel HD4000 until I saw that port configuration. I don't get what else it could mean? Apple only allows one TB port to work for display? Or either a TB or HDMI port can work, but not both simultaneously with displays connected?

I just don't see the same concept of two 27" ACDs, a Retina native display, and a 1080P HDMI display all driven by an Intel HD4000.

Please explain what the port configuration means. I completely agree that there isn't much room for a dGPU, but I am not an computer science engineer. Less the optical drive, and the same thickness as the 15" rMBP, and there is no way for a dGPU?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

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Thunderbolt can also be used for other things though, such as adaptors for legacy ports and TB external hard drives

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HarryKNN21 said:

This is neat, as the CD eject button is not necessary for rMBP, why don't we let the power button take over that.

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True - Every mm is precious

Hdmi?

Haven't been able to read all the posts but I'm looking at the photo with the HDMI port and the return key has enter at the top of it. I don't remember every seeing a MAC anything with a return key like that. I've seen ultra books with that same key text however. Not to mention why would they include a HDMI port when that would definitely cut into sales of the thunderbolt adapter to HDMI, there is an adapter right?

I don't want to hear anything about revolutionary cooling if there's no dedicated GPU. This is absolutely a slap in the face if its just running a HD4000.

Sony put a quad 2.1 with a 1080p display in a 2.5lb package.

How about the standard 13" with a dedicated GPU. Why all the excuses Apple? Surely there's enough room in that case for one without the ODD.

Looks like Apple still thinks the Pro 13" needs 12 hours of battery life Vs a powerhouse with 6-7.

Someone that needs that kind of battery life should not be looking at a Pro machine. Thats where low power consumption notebooks excell. Encoding and other power diving applications will drink battery's regardless.

72 hours to ultimate appreciation or absolute disgust.

FrizzleFryBen said:

While I'm sure it will be more than we think it should be....you have no clue what the price will be, other than a rumor.

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You certainly do have clues. You can be pretty sure it will cost more than a non-retina 13" MBP and less than a 15" rMBP. That there is a clue.

AidenShaw said:

Links?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html?pagewanted=3

"Intubated, when he couldn’t talk, he asked for a notepad. He sketched devices to hold an iPad in a hospital bed. He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. And every time his wife walked into the room, I watched his smile remake itself on his face.

For the really big, big things, you have to trust me, he wrote on his sketchpad. He looked up. You have to."

AidenShaw said:

Perhaps because he was suffering pain that was only bearable because of the opiates that were being dripped into his bloodstream.

Not really the best environment for creating 10 year roadmaps.

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The guy battled sickness for many years, I'm sure many grand plans were noted prior to, during and after receiving treatment and / or pain relief.

Besides, sometimes great thoughts and ideas come from altered states.

Maybe you could try cheering up with a nice red and a Xanax.

Sorry to hijack..