10 Years Ago Today: Apple Announces First MacBook Pro With a Retina Display

[MacRumors]

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Apple announcing the first MacBook Pro model featuring a higher-resolution Retina display.

Introduced at WWDC 2012, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro introduced a much thinner design compared to the previous model, as Apple removed the built-in Ethernet port, FireWire port, and CD/DVD drive. The notebook was still equipped with two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, MagSafe 2, and a headphone jack.

"The MacBook Pro with Retina display pushes the limits of performance and portability like no other notebook," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a press release announcing the new MacBook Pro. "With a gorgeous Retina display, all flash architecture and a radically thin and light design, the new MacBook Pro is the most advanced Mac we have ever built."

At the time it launched, Apple said the Retina MacBook Pro featured the world's highest resolution notebook display, with 220 pixels per inch. The notebook was powered by Intel's third-generation quad-core Core i7 processors, and equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to a 768GB SSD.

Pricing for the first Retina MacBook Pro started at $2,199 in the United States. In October 2012, Apple announced a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display, which started at a lower price of $1,699. Both notebooks are now on Apple's obsolete products list.

Article Link: 10 Years Ago Today: Apple Announces First MacBook Pro With a Retina Display

 

[entropys]

The high point of apple design.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Golden era! Such an iconic product. Most advanced 💻

When Apple announced this MacBook Pro. I couldn’t afford it however the retina screen display was stunning. This was a well-developed, structured, and industry-leading engineered product, Apple had worked on.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Apple has come a long way in form, function, and ability. I remember sporting a 13" 2012 MBP thinking I was on the tech edge and then this gets released. lol I really liked my 13" MBP.

 

[iDento]

And I was thinking like ”isn’t that crazy expensive”? as I was still using a crappy Acer laptop I got for 500$. Then I saw it in the Apple Store.

 

[erkanasu]

who else is feeling old AF?

 

[PerfectChaos]

Still have my mid-2014 version of this. ALMOST a shame it still runs flawlessly because I’m eyeing the new Air…

 

[enricoclaudio]

Still have my 13” MBP mid 2014 next to my 14” MBP M1 Pro and the 13” MBP mid 2014 still works like day one. What a great laptop!!!

 

[Johann2000]

10 years later and we are still at 8GB base ram ..

 

[Think|Different]

Meanwhile, still too many entry-level, third-party displays are still nothing close. It’s baffling.

 

[Sharky II]

Typing this on my 2012 rMBP and it's still a great machine... the screen is still beautiful, bright, white and sharp. I was lucky that mine didn't have the delaminating issue.

Quad core i7, 16GB RAM and an SSD means it's still more than capable of dealing with everyday tasks... it can play a 60fps 4K video on YouTube without issue and even plays back 4K H265 files but having no decode/encoders, the fans ramp up immediately!

MagSafe, built in SD Card reader, HDMI out, minidisplay port and USB3...! The only thing that lets it down is that, since installing opencore/Monterey, running it in 1920 "high" res makes it feel a little sluggish (graphically). But most of the time I'm at default unless there's some specific work that needs lots of space.

This model obviously peaked in 2015.

Here it is next to a 10 year younger Mac Studio Ultra and it still looks modern.

 

[Danfango]

Bought it immediately.

The M1 14” MBP feels the closest to the original for me.

Note: I am considerably smaller than I was when I got the original one 🤣

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Happy 10 years to my launch day 2012 non retina MBP. Still chugging.

 

[BaggieBoy]

My first MacBook, still have it but most of the original parts have been replaced (logic board, screen, keyboard (twice) battery). It's now just a backup to my 2018 13" MBP.

 

[Freida]

I remember this. I also remember that the tech was not ready for that display and the lag issues were annoying. Shame they killed the 17" as that was the best size for me.

 

[fwmireault]

It was my first MacBook and I absolutely loved it, it was such an iconic design and the screen resolution was stunning. It was way more satisfying than any previous PC I’ve used

 

[ThisBougieLife]

It was way ahead of its time. I remember how horrible most PC laptop panels were at the time, everything was 1366x768 TN panels that were washed-out with poor viewing angles, even 17" laptops. It was awful. It took years for PCs to catch-up.

 

[JonathanX64]

In the hindsight, 2012 Retina MacBook Pros always felt somewhat undercooked to me; it's fascinating how big of an upgrade Late 2013 models were compared to Early 2013/Mid 2012.

Redesigned internals, much more power efficient chips, Thunderbolt 2 and native 4K/60 display output support, unofficial NVMe drive support later on, official Big Sur support, a bit thinner enclosure, better sleep implementation thanks to Haswell platform, and many more additional tweaks made them a much better computers.

 

[AppleTO]

I purchased it immediately.

 

[thadoggfather]

Dang this is depressing in a sense — doesn’t feel like a decade now

 

[David1964]

10 years later it’s old technology 🤣

 

[dwaltwhit]

I miss the in person, on stage keynotes

 

[44267547]

who else is feeling old AF?

Age is just a number brother.

That’s the great thing about Apple products, a lot of them perform the same they did 10 years ago as they do today, with decent performance and excellent hardware standards.

 

[contacos]

I still have the 13ich and it is still running great! I used it plugged in most of the time so the battery health still shows 92%! I upgraden to the new 14inch last fall and honestly … I don’t notice much of a difference with what I am doing. Great machine

 

[BeachDuc]

I’m still using mine, albeit not much as it really chugs these days. The trackpad is temperamental and I suspect it needs new thermal paste as than fan speeds up immediately.

I’ll be getting the new M2 MacBook Air, when it releases.