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

I still have mine. Battery is shot so I use it plugged in. I use mainly for software I can no longer afford to use on the m1 a bought in March.
 
So I still use my mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro every day. It is excellent. The only problem is a sticky Touchpad that I cannot clear. I have Monterey running perfectly on it, thanks to Opencore.

I remember that I bought it a few days after the 2013 models were released, so I got my older one from an Apple Store for under $1000, 2.6GHz, 500Gb SSD, as a "clearance" price.

But my backup is a 2007 MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.2GHz, which is the first MacBook Pro ever. And it has a replaced video card, that is referred to as "Green Dot", and is very desirable!

I have posted about that one in the Old Macs Forum.

So I have two "landmark" Mac models!

I think I shall style myself "Classic Collector" !!


IB
 
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Still rocking my mid 2012 15” rMbp Really could do with upgrading. Great machine that’s served me well. Few dead pixels and battery desperately needs replacing. Can’t complain. I probably buy an Air next my use case is very limited and anything else is overkill.
 
dzankizakon said:
What a magnificent machine. When I saw the Retina Display in person, I just had to buy it. I remember having to wait a few months until (almost) all apps where adapted to work with @2x. I sold it two years ago, other than swollen battery which I had to forcibly remove, it worked like a clockwork.
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And now, a decade later, there is still software like Autodesk Maya that can’t use the Retina display and renders its viewport at ¼ of the pixels available 😄
 
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Those retina screens were really bad at least for the first two years: they all suffered from horrible uniformity issues. I tried buying one, but after going through 3 different units, I gave up and got an Air instead. Finally, I joined the MacBook Pro club last year with the 14” Pro.
 
And with it came the announcement of Apple's Ethernet and FireWire Thunderbolt adapters, thus allowing the use of those connections on the new Retina MacBook Pros AND the MacBook Airs! (Along with the Retina MacBook Pro being the first Mac to come with more than one Thunderbolt port, IIRC.)
4BFA8E79-CC19-4E65-AB72-D9EFE65EC1CF_1_105_c.jpeg
 
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MacRumors said:


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

2012-retina-macbook-pro-apple-website.jpg

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, Apple said the MacBook Pro with a Retina display featured the world's highest resolution notebook display, with 220 pixels per inch. It was also the first MacBook Pro to feature flash storage, allowing for a thinner and lighter design. 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
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Yea and I have my 1st gen retina 15” running the latest OS without a hiccup. Lol
 
Still got mine. 10 years and still runs as smooth as it did on day one. Also got a new battery and top case/keyboard/trackpad a couple years ago, so it looks like it did on day one too. It never ages. This thing has given me so much value, it’s crazy.
 
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MacRumors said:


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

2012-retina-macbook-pro-apple-website.jpg

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, Apple said the MacBook Pro with a Retina display featured the world's highest resolution notebook display, with 220 pixels per inch. It was also the first MacBook Pro to feature flash storage, allowing for a thinner and lighter design. 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
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Looks exactly like the 2022 version. Bizarre.
 
Realityck said:
Naaa, that thick MBP with its non-retina screen was only good for people that liked all those ports. The Retina display was noticeable better.
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with the 13 and the non-1680x1050 15", sure. But the 17" (1920x1200) was pretty acceptable as it had a considerably higher ppi than the 13 / 15.
 
I whacked the keyboard and trackpad on my retina when I tried to change the battery ut. So now it's running as my media server. Screen is still great. Not sure what happened, I must have damaged the connector when I accidentally pulled the ribbon cable too hard.

I have a 2015 now, and my wife has a 2013. Great machines overall.
 
Still miss the 17” MacBook Pro. 16” is close, but no cigar…. Even with an 8 core I9, 64gigs of ram, I still miss the 17” form factor. So much room for activities….
 
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TightLines said:
While you all are taking a trip down memory lane… and for nostalgia purposes… Apple has been at the forefront of their product lines, and the features they offer for a long, long, time…. Steve Jobs was a visionary… and often spearheading ideas and things that were way ahead of their time.

Just as an example - nearly 30 years ago (1993) the future iPhone was actually introduced. It took them 14 years for the time to catch up with the vision that Steve Jobs had… people often forget, Apple at its core was a visionary company before all else… they’ve still got it, but not as much as they once had. Who remembers this iconic device that went no where?
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Do you also remember the many, many times your “visionary” Mr Jobs was wrong? And do you remember how he was very clear that he was lucky to be active in a time when miniaturization in electronics advanced super fast for a couple of years?
 
This article is incorrect @Joe Rossignol. I had the early 2011 MBP with SSD and this 2012 Retina MBP. The early 2011 MBP was my first computer with SSD. You can check the specs on their website: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP620?locale=en_US

500GB or 750GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive, 500GB 7200-rpm hard drive, or 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid-state drive
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My grandpa is still using my 2012 retina MacBook Pro and it’s still working fine for him. A few months ago he complained about the hinge on the display being loose so we went to Lowes and bought a small iFixit kit to open it up and we fixed the hinge by tightening things up inside and took the opportunity to clear it of a decade of dust. It was also missing a few screws on the bottom panel that had come loose over time somehow and we replaced those with ones that he ordered online.
 
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macduke said:
This article is incorrect @Joe Rossignol. I had the early 2011 MBP with SSD and this 2012 Retina MBP. The early 2011 MBP was my first computer with SSD. You can check the specs on their website: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP620?locale=en_US



—

My grandpa is still using my 2012 retina MacBook Pro and it’s still working fine for him. A few months ago he complained about the hinge on the display being loose so we went to Lowes and bought a small iFixit kit to open it up and we fixed the hinge by tightening things up inside and took the opportunity to clear it of a decade of dust. It was also missing a few screws on the bottom panel that had come loose over time somehow and we replaced those with ones that he ordered online.
Click to expand...
Good catch. It was the first MacBook Pro with only flash storage options. I fixed that. Thanks for the heads up!
 
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