13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Starts at 128 GB Flash Storage, Mac Mini Goes Quad-Core

[wrightc23]

£1450 in the UK! With 128GB of memory. Absolutely pathetic. This is supposed to be a PRO machine? 128GB?! WTF.. ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY pounds should buy you a hell of a lot more than 128GB.

Yep no 16gb upgrade and a hopeless 128gb drive for a substantial price increase on either side of the Atlantic. The 13" is Apple's best seller because it's the entry point for an Apple laptop rather than it simply being 13". It'll be interesting to see how it sells? Go for an i7 and 256gb and you can buy the 15"

We can all have too much of a good thing and I suspect Apple are in danger of overkill here, a battery of products from yet another special launch event, that iPad you bought a few months back is now outdated, we'll charge you through the nose for an iPad Mini (mini in spec as well given it's a parts bin special) and you'll love it.

 

[seek3r]

with crap graphics

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and "omits the optical drive and Ethernet and FireWire ports."

what a turd, i'll never buy one of these.

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hopefully this will make my 'old' MBP increase in value since these "new" models are so lame. then i can dump it and take a turn onto Hackintosh Blvd

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am i only one who stills needs mobile computing power? you know to do stuff like, encode/transcode video/audio, design antennas/phased arrays, edit 4k video ....

Nope, but you are one of the few (and I know there's still plenty, but it's shrinking) who do it locally. My big jobs run on big machines sitting in a datacenter, all I really need locally these days is a a way to SSH in. I do still run small tests on the 2 workstations under my desk, but I do that remotely from my laptop often too. The days when I needed an uber powerhouse in my portable are vanishing. A portable is not going to equal a bluegene system no matter what, so I'd rather have thin and light

(that said, given the display and the fact i do like to do at least casual gaming, no dGPU means I'm sticking with my air for now!)

 

[marcello696]

How do you do that when you have a core 2 duo mini? I like to know.

how do I do what

 

[Escobarr]

Well, I'll tell you right now. I was holding out for a 13" rMBP but that price point is just ridiculous. They couldn't even give the $1999 rMBP the i7 chip. I'll be getting the $1499 cMBP and throw my own 512GB SSD when prices get cheaper. They'll be $200 in a year, I'm convinced.

I absolutely agree. I held off for 4-5 months in buying a 13" knowing it was likely they'd release a retina 13" and now it's ridiculously priced with a tiny SSD. Now I don't know what to do. Go for a non-retina 15"? Or a 13" non-retina that isn't RAM-upgradeable?

 

[cire1244]

I absolutely agree. I held off for 4-5 months in buying a 13" knowing it was likely they'd release a retina 13" and now it's ridiculously priced with a tiny SSD. Now I don't know what to do. Go for a non-retina 15"? Or a 13" non-retina that isn't RAM-upgradeable?

For me, the options are 13" non-retina or 15" retina. Probably going to go with the 13" non-retina because 1) I love the portability of the 13" monitor (size, not weight - my back can handle the extra couple pounds) and 2) it's more affordable

Not sure what you're referring to about the 13" non-retina not being RAM upgradeable? Crucial sells 2x8GB for $82 which would give a pretty impressive 16GB. They also sell 256 SSD for $160 and 512 SSD for $400. Both reasonable, but they'll drop in time.

 

[Escobarr]

For me, the options are 13" non-retina or 15" retina. Probably going to go with the 13" non-retina because 1) I love the portability of the 13" monitor (size, not weight - my back can handle the extra couple pounds) and 2) it's more affordable

Not sure what you're referring to about the 13" non-retina not being RAM upgradeable? Crucial sells 2x8GB for $82 which would give a pretty impressive 16GB. They also sell 256 SSD for $160 and 512 SSD for $400. Both reasonable, but they'll drop in time.

I didn't realise you could buy 8GB RAM sticks. Crazy. The only difference I can see between the high-end 15" non-r and the entry 15" retina is the slightly faster processor. Other than that, they're the same price. What would you recommend? Is there much of a speed difference between 2.3GHZ quad-core and a 2.6ghz quad-core?

 

[the-wanderer]

Is there much of a speed difference between 2.3GHZ quad-core and a 2.6ghz quad-core?

not for the price apple will charge for the difference.

 

[cire1244]

I didn't realise you could buy 8GB RAM sticks. Crazy. The only difference I can see between the high-end 15" non-r and the entry 15" retina is the slightly faster processor. Other than that, they're the same price. What would you recommend? Is there much of a speed difference between 2.3GHZ quad-core and a 2.6ghz quad-core?

not for the price apple will charge for the difference.

According to Primate Labs benchmarks, the 2.3GHz retina gets a score of 10770 and 2.6GHz non-retina gets 11778. So that's like a 9% difference - not negligible I guess. If you have the extra $100 to upgrade, I say go for it. Otherwise, you probably won't miss it too much.

I would also like to point out that the 2.6 GHz 15" cMBP gets pretty much the same score as the 2.6 GHz rMBP (11778 vs 11674). At least according to Primate Labs, SSD doesn't really speed up the retina that much (or at least there are other retina factors that are slowing it down).

If you've decided to go 15" I say get the retina. I've just been so set on a 13" (again, I love the size, don't care about weight). I'm probably going to just go with the 13" cMBP and be a bit sad that I don't have a retina :/