I am quite happy with my 2012 air. Im not going to invest in a 13 inch rmb. My air is awesome and I love it.
Also, you don't enjoy the retina when your laptop is connected to an external display, which is a common use case for me.Ditto.
$1300 vs $1700
The difference is the
Retina display
processor 1.8 vs 2.0 GHz
I'm so torn.
Animations and the UI aren't as smooth as the Macbook Air is. Games will be ever harder to play because of the insane resolution + iGPU,
Thx for responding guys. I currently have a 11" late 2010 model MBA. I am really wanting the 13" rMBP but man i feel like there were some compromises made to get something out the door. However, Im almost certainly going to see performance improvements over my 11" late 2010 model MBA...if Anandtech is to be believed. The 13" MBA seems like it is a good performer too and in some cases even better with the lack of a retina display though it does come with an I7 if I want it to... This is a hard decision to make...
I would by the low end rMBA or a 8GIG MBA both 13"
Im not a gamer so no worries from that standpoint at this time. I am a web developer though...
Thx for responding guys. I currently have a 11" late 2010 model MBA. I am really wanting the 13" rMBP but man i feel like there were some compromises made to get something out the door. However, Im almost certainly going to see performance improvements over my 11" late 2010 model MBA...if Anandtech is to be believed.
I am in a very similar position also. In all honestly, I just think the 13 rMBP isn't ready yet. If you are like me, and are expecting to use this computer 3+ years, the rMBP will not be enough. It is absolutely insane to have an iGPU power 4 million pixels.
I was coming from a 2010's MBA (13", 2.13, 256) and the rMBP is really nice. It is a step forward, though I have to admit the MBA was fast enough for my purposes already, so I don't really notice too much of a difference.
There is probably some minor trade-off in terms of UI performance compared to a 2012's MBA, but you do get the screen and that's totally worth it. And it is nothing that reduces your productivity at all. It'll last fine for a few years, I'm not afraid of that at all. If you don't have to make the switch now, wait for the next generation, though it could of course take up to Q3 2013.
If you need to buy a new mac now, I wouldn't completely disregard the rMBP, though. It's fine, really.
Do you hook into a monitor sometimes as well?
Don't Forget that the rMBP suffers from image retention. The MBA don't so you will be able to resale it next year and get the next generation and hopefully glitch free retina
IPad, iPhone?I have this years' MacBook Air 13" and I am very fond of it, but the only reason I've chosen it over 13 rMBP is because right now, the rMBPs have terrible value for the money ratio. The situation with the current retinas is 100% in compliance with a rule I developed from my own experience with using Apple's products in recent years, which I live by: "first generation of an apple product usually sucks, so always wait for the second generation".
Most recently, I am started planning on purchasing the iPad Mini 2 (hopefully it's gonna get a retina display and maybe even an A6 SoC)
I am pretty sure, Apple will drop cMBPS from its product line no later than next year and the price of rMBPs will fall to a reasonable level. Along with Haswell CPUs and next-gen Intel GT graphics (because I really don't expect 13" Retinas to get a dedicated GPU anytime soon) it will make a perfect computer for me.