Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The Future of the rMBP

S

semiauto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
38
0
Okay,

So as I prepare to make a final decision on whether I am going to get the 15" rMBP or cMBP, I was wondering what everyone's thougths are on the future of the the Retina Macbook Pro. I think we can all guess that the cMBP will be faded out like many a Apple products, and Retina will become the standard.

Do you think that next years model (assuming it will be announced at WWDC2013) will be a significant improvement (like going from iPad 1 to iPad 2)?
I know that as far as screen resolution and physical dimensions go it probably can't get any better than it is now, but is this first generation rMBP just a "beta test" of what's to come?

I guess my overall reason for posting this is to ask whether or not this first gen rMBP would be a smart purchase for someone looking for a dependable and long lasting purchase (like 4 years of college).

Thanks.
 
Not likely to make any major changes in the hardware, certainly wont make any case changes. but you can bet there will be software updates in ML to further optimize the rMBP. You're pretty safe to buy one now.
 
This is what I want to believe as it is what I want: Around October - November 2012 Apple will update all their MacBook offerings to all have retina displays, also will lower some prices as the volume production is getting better and better.
Aiming for the holiday sales.
 
depends on what you're doing. if you work with graphics, an external monitor is a must seeing as no adobe applications have been updated for retina and probably won't for quite a long time.

no point in getting retina display if all you do is browse the net/listen to music/write word documents etc etc. everything on the internet will generally look worse (except text) on the RMBP. if you need windows for college, no VM's are currently retina-friendly (despite what parallels claims) even and will just render windows poorly.

some people will argue that spending $3000 on crisp text display is worth it alone. if thats something you agree with, then by all means.
 
McGiord said:
This is what I want to believe as it is what I want: Around October - November 2012 Apple will update all their MacBook offerings to all have retina displays, also will lower some prices as the volume production is getting better and better.
Aiming for the holiday sales.
Click to expand...

No they wont. They don't have the ability right now to put a large enough battery into the 13" pro to add retina to it yet, not to mention the Air. It's extremely unlikely the Air's will get retina anytime soon. Heck the 15" system has performance issues driving it, can you imagine trying to drive it with an Air?
 
Last edited:
stevelam said:
depends on what you're doing. if you work with graphics, an external monitor is a must seeing as no adobe applications have been updated for retina and probably won't for quite a long time
Click to expand...

Exactly, my main purpose for buying rMBP is to run programs like FCP, Lightroom, Adobe Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Supposedly, Adobe is suppose to update CS6 Suite around Sep. - Oct. but if they don't I will be pissed if I buy a rMBP. But, unfortunately I cannot predict the future...
 
Last edited:
stevelam said:
no point in getting retina display if all you do is browse the net/listen to music/write word documents etc etc. everything on the internet will generally look worse (except text) on the RMBP.
Click to expand...

I think you are underselling the quality of the text. The improvement for text is dramatic and if you spend a lot of time writing and reading on your computer this is not a small point. As a professor who writes and grades on my laptop for long stretches, the quality of the text on the rMPB alone made it a worthwhile purchase for me.
 
gentlefury said:
It think the future "is" retina display. Once Samsung releases their low power consumption high res panel the airs will be updated.
Click to expand...

Yes the future is retina, and a lower power version of the panel will be a necessity for the air to get it. Or a much higher cap. battery in a smaller space. But you still have the problem of less than stellar performance on the beast of a machine that the 15" is, like i said can you imagine trying to drive a retina display with an air?
 
squeeks said:
Yes the future is retina, and a lower power version of the panel will be a necessity for the air to get it. Or a much higher cap. battery in a smaller space. But you still have the problem of less than stellar performance on the beast of a machine that the 15" is, like i said can you imagine trying to drive a retina display with an air?
Click to expand...

I don't know what you're talking about. The rMBP is powerful as hell! Runs better than my 60lbs Mac pro!
 
stevelam said:
depends on what you're doing. if you work with graphics, an external monitor is a must seeing as no adobe applications have been updated for retina and probably won't for quite a long time.

no point in getting retina display if all you do is browse the net/listen to music/write word documents etc etc. everything on the internet will generally look worse (except text) on the RMBP. if you need windows for college, no VM's are currently retina-friendly (despite what parallels claims) even and will just render windows poorly.

some people will argue that spending $3000 on crisp text display is worth it alone. if thats something you agree with, then by all means.
Click to expand...

The rMBP can be had for a lot less than $3000. And for that you're getting a lot more than just a screen. You're getting a portable workstation as well.

There's several of 'firsts' here for a portable
Mac, the switchable resolutions that look good, and the multiple external monitors on a laptop.

Before you had to choose your screen resolution at purchasing time, now you can change it on the fly. For me that's a huge bonus, as sometimes I need the screen space and sometimes I prefer a larger GUI.
 
These are difficult times for those of us looking to update our systems.

Retina is clearly the direction Apple has taken and if you're looking at a laptop that will accompany you down the road for the next 3 - 4 years a cMBP is clearly not an option. On the other hand, all we have available to us is an expensive 15" model, which, if you're looking for a portable machine with plenty of storage, is a compromise. Anyone on these forums who claims that the base model with its 256 GB of storage is "more than enough" is talking nonsense. Lugging around an additional hard drive or accessing files via NAS is inefficient and inconvenient. The last time I accessed a 150 MB movie from my home network from a public WiFi location it took 15 minutes to download.

If you can hang on for another season I'd recommend waiting until the next generation rMBPs become available. We may even have a 13" model before Christmas. Haswell will provide a 250% performance increase in IGPU vs. the current HD 4000, and flash drive prices will have dropped to affordable levels. By that time, web sites and applications will have caught up with the higher resolutions. And IPS panel production should reach a mature level as well, with less chances of quality issues.

If you must buy now, a 13" MacBook Air is probably the best solution, and will easily carry you over until the time when more options are available to us.
 
GekkePrutser said:
The rMBP can be had for a lot less than $3000. And for that you're getting a lot more than just a screen. You're getting a portable workstation as well.

There's several of 'firsts' here for a portable
Mac, the switchable resolutions that look good, and the multiple external monitors on a laptop.

Before you had to choose your screen resolution at purchasing time, now you can change it on the fly. For me that's a huge bonus, as sometimes I need the screen space and sometimes I prefer a larger GUI.
Click to expand...

The ability to switch resolutions is nice. Too bad it directly affects performance and quality. But really, you're still on a tiny 15" screen no matter the resolution. Doing any sort of graphic work on such a thing is going to be a pain compared to an external monitor.

Any laptop is a "portable workstation". Not sure how thats a specific benefit to the RMBP.

And yes sure, you can get the RMBP for around $2400 base model with varying tax.
 
gentlefury said:
And your point is? The graphics don't lag as a result...I would call that a success!
Click to expand...

AZREOSpecialist said:
Isn't that why users overclock their GPUs on the Windows side? I don't understand why this is news, or a negative.
Click to expand...

the POINT is you guys want apple to bring retina to the 13" machines when the 15" is barely powerful enough to run it, i don't know what is so hard to understand about that.
 
No one is asking why Apple doesn't release a classic MBP with retina display?

I don't care about the new design and thinness of the rMBP. If someone wants a thin design then he should get an MBA. I want my ethernet port, my optibay to put another hdd, and a retina display with a powerful gpu :D. I believe it is technically feasible. This is the direction I would love Apple to take for the 15" portable desktop replacement...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back