Should I buy a MacBook Pro with/without retina display?

Constancex said:

I'm going to start college soon and wondering is it worth it to get the retina display? All I'm going to do on it, is use it for homework and web surfing.

Also, what printer should I get? Are all printers compatible with macs?

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If that is all you are going to use it for, perhaps a Macbook Air is more up your alley.

Constancex said:

Also, what printer should I get? Are all printers compatible with macs?

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Pretty much any printer available in retail channels will work for you. If you narrow down your list to a few, you can verify Mac compatibility at the manufacturer's web site.

MacBook Air would be fine for your uses.

But if you're really looking for an MBP, I'd suggest the one with the retina display (assuming money isn't an issue). You can scale the resolution to that higher of the standard MBP, which means more screen real estate to have windows side-by-side (browser + Word, for example), which is super ideal for college.

However! Wait until the MBPs get upgraded to Haswell before buying one, if you can. If you can't wait until then, then I'd highly suggest the new MBA.

No.

I'd also say an Air would do fine. All the retina display is for most people is a want item. Their isn't much advantage. I'd put the saved money towards other upgrades or peripherals.

As far as printers go. From all my clients experiences Brother makes the absolute most reliable consumer grade printers.
HP has really let quality slip. A lot of the new HP's jam a lot, the ink is insanely expensive and difficult to get reliable third party ink and the network printers lose connection to computers often.
Canon and Epson are decent nothing remarkable.

Only you can answer if a retina display is worth it. To me, it is. To others it might not be.

velocityg4 said:

As far as printers go. From all my clients experiences Brother makes the absolute most reliable consumer grade printers.

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Brothers are also great because consumable costs are lower. On their laser printers, the drum unit and toner cartridges are separate pieces, so you pay less per toner refill. The downside is eventually you do have to replace the drum unit too, but by then (depending on your print output) you might even be better off replacing the whole printer. Brother laser printers -- which include the drum unit and starter toner -- can be had extremely cheaply.

notjustjay said:

Brothers are also great because consumable costs are lower. On their laser printers, the drum unit and toner cartridges are separate pieces, so you pay less per toner refill. The downside is eventually you do have to replace the drum unit too, but by then (depending on your print output) you might even be better off replacing the whole printer. Brother laser printers -- which include the drum unit and starter toner -- can be had extremely cheaply.

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I know we're going OT, but laser printer>ink jet every time except for photos. You can store a laser printer for years and bring it out and start printing again like it was yesterday. Whilst an ink jet will readily dry out it's ink in a month or two after installing it. So even if you only printed 10 pages in 3 months, you're still going to end up paying $4 per page as your $40 ink cartridge is now dried up.

notjustjay said:

Brothers are also great because consumable costs are lower. ...

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Knowing that HP quality has slipped, I bought the OJP 8600 for the lowest cost per print (per Consumer Reports) in addition to the fact that I had to have a color printer. The cost of color laser printers is still fairly high so despite my reservations I went with HP.

Also, get the Air.