QUOTE "But the criticisms are valid, especially the attitude of Apple to go for chic design at the expense of utility."
Quit with the sour grapes about the review. Yes, the rounds per minute is silly, but if you go back and read the reviews on these same forums, particularly the early ones, her basic criticisms are widely agreed upon. Making the 2012's slimmer or lighter while giving up the built in ODD was a costly mistake IMHO and of many others as stated in these forums.
I had to include an external ODD in my order to input audio not available on line and Turbotax and lots of other non Apple stuff but help Apple hold the cost by probably $25.
It's hard to find a good reason for the 5400 drives.
Closing the 21" to adding RAM by the owner IS dumb.
It's still a great update and my order was placed on 12/18 for a 27" 8GB 3TB FD 680MX-BUT.......
I would have preferred a 21", but 1TB isn't enough for my music and photos, and with the growth of software, IMHO 8GB isn't going to be enough RAM fairly soon, but Apple wants an arm and a leg for RAM anyone else sells for far less, and the 21" is closed anyhow.
Same for growth of processing of game graphics and the GPUs.
The FD is an admission by Apple that they should be using more SDD already.
They're the technology leader - right? Well they used to be
That's why I've been using Macs since my first Little Mac in 1984 - through about a dozen of the things - up to now anyhow.
So, for the sake of a 5 mm edge and a few pounds of irrelevant weight, I get suckered into spending about an extra $800. OK, amortizing it over the years, I'll enjoy a great machine, but it wasn't necessary.
I think the review is generally on target.