Negative things about RMBP

which other notebook brand has a light to show that the machine is sleeping ?

Of course there is a battery indicator why do you need a light for that ?

Keyboard feels cheaper in what sense ? A keyboard is a keyboard and is smooth without having to press too hard ? what else do you want a diamond studded platinum 24K decorated keyboard ?

Basic75 said:

- The 2880x1800 is only a doubled 1440x900 and gives less space than the previous 1680x1050 display (unless you enable some performance degrading indirect rendering with scaling, obviously I'm comparing a 15" RMBP to a previous 15" MBP).

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IMHO all HiDPI modes work with scaling, so I personally use exactly the 1680x1050 and can't complain.
The Optimal for Retina 1440x900 just happens to be scaled at exact integer factor of 2.

Having recently got my 13rMBP and still having my wifes 13cMBP which i've used extensively around the house, my take is:

1) Agree with the missing lights, especially when other people may use your machine.

2) Keyboard definitely feels different, haven't decided if its feels worse/cheaper yet, but the previous one is a hard act to follow

3) The L-Magsafe can be better logistically in certain circumstances, but my perception is the T one detaches more readily when force is applied, whereas in certain directions of force the L wouldn't.

4) Fully resolution independent OS/UI/Fonts would be the holy grail, but who really offers this?

Aside from my gripe in point 4 I quite like how Apple have got around the UI size issue with HiDPI modes. It means the UI can stay comfortable while images/etc can still make full use of the displays res. I've enabled additional modes and tend to use 1050/1080/native based on the real estate I require. With the new Haswell units I don't really perceive any performance issues (scrolling/expose/transitions/etc all remain smooth with no perceivable stutter or glitches so far) and my main gripe is Apple don't offer this choice by default :/

Basic75 said:

No, that's not how it works.

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U got me!

Basic75 said:

As I said, 20 years ago the Amiga had more options than OS X does today, like the size of the font in the menu bar. With libraries like MUI you had full control over the color and style and size of the font of every single button of an application. Aperture? FCPX? No chance!

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Ah (nostalgia) the Amiga So many productive (wasted according to my parents :/) hours spent saving lemmings, exploring Monkey Island, scratching my head in "another world" LOL. I still remember being blown away the first time I saw Shadow of the Beast, thinking surely GFX couldn't get any better then this

Anyway back to the point, a lot of time has passed since the Amiga was the height of personal computing. Unfortunately in the intervening time, resolution independence hasn't really been built into modern OS's/Applications. I don't know if they did it in the Amiga days for convenience, to deal with the ****** monitors available or because they expected lots of varying display resolutions to appear in the near future. Unfortunately, once LCD overtook CRT's, high display resolutions took a bit of back seat in the mainstream (much to my and many others dismay). I don't think its trivial to build resolution independence into OS's/Applications now, but hopefully the mini revolution in high res displays will prompt that over time (especially given we also have the silicon needed now).

Basic75 said:

- There is no indicator light to show that the machine is sleeping

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Agreed, I miss that as well

- There are no indicator lights to show the battery level

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The battery is sealed inside the case, I don't have a problem with this, especially since the OS reports the battery levels.

- The 2880x1800 is only a doubled 1440x900 and gives less space than the previous 1680x1050 display (unless you enable some performance degrading indirect rendering with scaling, obviously I'm comparing a 15" RMBP to a previous 15" MBP).

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Not sure how to address this as, its what apple designed and if you don't like then perhaps a different product would be better.

augustya said:

which other notebook brand has a light to show that the machine is sleeping ?

Of course there is a battery indicator why do you need a light for that ?

Keyboard feels cheaper in what sense ? A keyboard is a keyboard and is smooth without having to press too hard ? what else do you want a diamond studded platinum 24K decorated keyboard ?

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your response indicates you never owned the cMBP

your rolling your eyes at features that exist and the OP has only said he misses those features

Basic75 said:

What do you think?

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I think you're pretty hard to please I had a 2011 mbp and find this keyboard faster to type on. I've set my screen to the scaled 1680 and have no perceivable performance hit.

This screen is tremendous. Every time i open it i feel like i won the lotto. The display lag/motion blur and on my old one is intolerable now. The only point i agree with is the power adapter, but it's a tiny thing really.

Well, I basically have only one complain and its that the rMBP uses a non-standard SSD while they could have easily used M.2 (in fact, the Apple's PCI-e connector is clearly based on M.2).

P.S. Another one - why is the dGPU only an option on a maxed-out machine? It should be a $150 option for any spec.

heisenberg123 said:

your response indicates you never owned the cMBP

your rolling your eyes at features that exist and the OP has only said he misses those features

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Yeah You are correct the first ever Apple Notebook that I had is the current rMBP 13" Late 2012

augustya said:

Yeah You are correct the first ever Apple Notebook that I had is the current rMBP 13" Late 2012

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so you did not know there was a sleep indicator and a battery light indicator or you just felt like trolling the OP

heisenberg123 said:

so you did not know there was a sleep indicator and a battery light indicator or you just felt like trolling the OP

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And Who said that was a heinous crime

I LOVE the keyboard of the latest (Oct. 2013) 15" rMBP as it enables me to type lightning quick and effortlessly. I do not have any experience with earlier 15" rMBP's.

The indicator (sleep) light is definitely a matter of preference. I have it on my 07' BlackBook and I've always found it rather distracting, especially since it gets quite bright at its zenith. Never found the battery ones necessary either. Can see why lots of folks would prefer it though.

Your keyboard critique seems to be a fairly common one and I'm still undecided about it myself. Something definitely seems a bit different with the newer ones and I'd be interested to hear from someone who has actual analysis comparing the two.

Definitely agree with the resolution criticism, which has also been a common one since the inception of the rMBP. I would prefer, like many here, the standard to be that of the Air (1440x900) on the 13" and that of the Hi-Res cMBP (1680x1050) on the 15". While I don't think that the degradation in resolution through scaling is anywhere near as bad as many make it out to be, especially if you only increase it one level up (to get the aforementioned ideal ones, as opposed to two or more), it would be nice to start off with more usable space at the highest quality.

Those ideal resolutions for many of us do however require better/younger eyes and I've always thought that part of the reason Apple chose to change the standard starting resolution on both rMBP models was to try and appeal to a broader segment of the population. There are many, many people out there who have less than perfect vision and for them, having slightly less screen real estate would seem to be a worthwhile tradeoff in being able to fully experience the benefits of 'retina'.

I think its a nice chiclet keyboard, better than the previous soft aluminium keyboards on my PC laptop.

This is my first rMBP, and i have never used one before.. i do like it though.. so these comments are coming from an amateur OSX user. And i love the entire experience.. Now when using this.. i feel I was living under a rock with the PC Laptops.

Yes i could add a few things i would want the macbook to have was
1. Right click on the track pad.. i know thats not how apple works.. but still its a better option than using two fingers.
2. Touchscreen interface, all basic PC Laptops have one these days, including the 400 dollar Asus laptops.

The external LED's on the battery made sense in the days when the battery just popped out and could be swapped in 10 seconds. If you had multiple batteries, say for travel, you could easily tell which one had charge just by picking it up out of your bag. When Apple switched to internal non user replaceable batteries the indicator lights really became pretty redundant. I'm not sure why Apple kept them around as long as they did. I don't think they really served a purpose.

I do miss the little white sleep indicator though.

Basic75 said:

- There is no indicator light to show that the machine is sleeping

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A non-issue for me-- I have it on my 2012 cMBP, but I never even glance at it. I know my Mac is sleeping bc the display is down. Done.

Basic75 said:

- There are no indicator lights to show the battery level

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Agreed; I definitely appreciate appreciate the battery indicator lights.

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Basic75 said:

- The 2880x1800 is only a doubled 1440x900 and gives less space than the previous 1680x1050 display [...]

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Gonna have to agree with Maflynn on this one:

maflynn said:

Not sure how to address this as, its what apple designed and if you don't like then perhaps a different product would be better.

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Basic75 said:

- The L-style MagSafe suited me better

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Gonna have to agree with 5to1 on this one:

5to1 said:

3) The L-Magsafe can be better logistically in certain circumstances, but my perception is the T one detaches more readily when force is applied, whereas in certain directions of force the L wouldn't.

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holyindian said:

I think its a nice chiclet keyboard, better than the previous soft aluminium keyboards on my PC laptop.

This is my first rMBP, and i have never used one before.. i do like it though.. so these comments are coming from an amateur OSX user. And i love the entire experience.. Now when using this.. i feel I was living under a rock with the PC Laptops.

Yes i could add a few things i would want the macbook to have was
1. Right click on the track pad.. i know thats not how apple works.. but still its a better option than using two fingers.
2. Touchscreen interface, all basic PC Laptops have one these days, including the 400 dollar Asus laptops.

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It's possible to enable the right click on the track pad - Settings -> Trackpad -> Point&Click -> Secondary click -> change it to "Click on Bottom Right Corner"

- If you're a photographer or web designer or simply an academic who reads a lot of tech papers, you'll find the non-uniformity on the Retina display VERY annoying.

-The rMBP looks less Pro than previous Pro MacBooks. It doesn't have dual audio connections, forcing you to buy an audio controller just for recording some fast and simple tracks for later use.

- You lose a lan port (mandatory for corporate work unless your job has gigabit wi-fi APs everywhere). I use the TB-Lan adapter at work and I always carry it with me if needed (one more thing to have together, besides the magsafe and DVI adapter.

POSITIVE THINGS

- You get PCIe SSDs, about 50% faster than SATAIII units. This is actually really nice, though.

- You get Thunderbolt 2, which can theoretically display 4K/60Hz video without compression. However, you'll probably be able to display 4K/60Hz through TB1 in the near future when compression will be standardized between display manufacturers.

4k@60hz works already, but only with windows drivers.

A8NSLIDELUXE said:

4k@60hz works already, but only with windows drivers.

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that's true. But who buys a Macbook to (only) use Windows with it?!