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And the best I can do with my 256 gb is $875 from Gazelle! Pretty sure that extra 128 gb's on SSD cost more than $25!!!

Sold mine through craigslist and it took a while to find a buyer. There's just not that much demand for used higher priced items.
 
Love the one you're with....

Okay, brought the spousal unit with me to the Best Buy and we looked over the screens. Just to make sure I'm not effing crazy.

We looked at the retina MBP display first. Nice looking display, web browsing looked okay, and the resident black shirt showed up at the kiosk to answer any questions. Told him my use case and what I had...and his response was that my current setup should be perfectly fine, and that the rMBP was more for graphics and visual professionals. (Gotta give the guy major honesty points.) He also suggested I try out the regular 15" MBP.

We walked around to the other side of the table, and were not impressed by it at all. Crap contrast, highly washed out.

Started remembering that someone may have posted a spyder3 calibration for my (LG) screen when it came out a year ago, and started digging around in history. Found it, downloaded it, tweaked it bit in calibration, and it's not half bad. Could stand a little more contrast (blacks should be BLACK, dammit) but it's an improvement. And I think I can live with this display.

Or, at least until a 13" rMBA comes out in a couple of years. I'll take my unopened rMBP back to the Best Buy and make the day of someone on the BB waiting list. You know, a true professional.;) And by that time, I won't have any qualms at all giving this to my daughter when she starts college; I'd rather give this away to her than to Best Buy.

ONE LAST, QUICK QUESTION: Is the background for this website supposed to be light blue, or light tan? After messing with calibration for an half hour, I'm not sure anymore.... thanks!
 
This is a really good thread. It describes right where I am! :) I purchased a 13" MBA Ultimate to replace an early 2011 15" MBP. My daughter has been using an MBA for the last two years in college, and every time she has come home with it, I have over time become more and more envious of the size, weight, functionality and sheer elegance of it. I made a decision to get one for myself when the 2012 models came out and sell my 15" on CL. I love my MBA, don't get me wrong... but... I have been just overwhelmed with the thought, "I could have gotten a rMBP for all I spent on the air." Several times I have been tempted to return the MBA to Apple and get a rMBP. However, every time I go back to the store and play with the rMBP, it seems too big, and unnecessary for me.

The 13" MBA, really, is an amazing piece of engineering, that I KNOW will meet my needs for years. It's funny, though, when you have something already fantastic, that your thoughts can tell you what you have is not good enough. Kind of like why I got rid of my 15" MBP! :rolleyes:
 
This is a really good thread. It describes right where I am! :) I purchased a 13" MBA Ultimate to replace an early 2011 15" MBP. My daughter has been using an MBA for the last two years in college, and every time she has come home with it, I have over time become more and more envious of the size, weight, functionality and sheer elegance of it. I made a decision to get one for myself when the 2012 models came out and sell my 15" on CL. I love my MBA, don't get me wrong... but... I have been just overwhelmed with the thought, "I could have gotten a rMBP for all I spent on the air." Several times I have been tempted to return the MBA to Apple and get a rMBP. However, every time I go back to the store and play with the rMBP, it seems too big, and unnecessary for me.

The 13" MBA, really, is an amazing piece of engineering, that I KNOW will meet my needs for years. It's funny, though, when you have something already fantastic, that your thoughts can tell you what you have is not good enough. Kind of like why I got rid of my 15" MBP! :rolleyes:

Reading some of the MR threads DOES tend to accelerate that process... Especially the yearly LG vs. Samsung holy wars....(like Samsung better)...
 
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I looked at some pictures on the rMBP screen at the Apple store, and it's absolutely beautiful with stunning color depth. Makes me wish I had a discretionary $2K to spend, but alas, I took a deep breath, and said to myself, someday, but not yet.
 
Not really. I have zero interest in buying one but I would like to take a look at one next time I'm near an Apple store. A few things that turn me off about it

1) Some of the reported performance/lag issues associated with the high resolution display.
2) Price. Well north of 2G's is just too much (for me) to spend on a laptop. Particularly since I wouldn't use it THAT much (about 10-15 hours a week)
3) Size/weight. My MBA is the first ultrabook I've owned and I love the combination of portability and performance that comes with Ultra Books.

If/when they implement "Retina" in MBA's I may consider retiring my 2010 MBA and upgrading. At least then, #3 on the list will certainly have been addressed, and most likely #1 also.
 
Along with what others have said, I was all set on buying a rMBP when it was first unveiled but when I went and looked at it and really thought about it I changed my mind. I did love the display but really didn't want something as big as a 15" laptop for school anymore since I was coming from 08 MBP. Plus I had just upgraded my desktop and that has plenty of power for me right now and I didn't want to spend 2k this soon.

The 650m gpu made me a bit hesitant too since it already seems strained in certain tasks. Next year there should be more retina content as well and the next gen should be more appealing since the other lines should have the retina screens too.

Anyway, I ended up going for 11" MBA and I hope it's size ends up letting me be more productive on the go than I was with my 15" MBP.
 
At least a few inquiries on CL now, and I think one is serious.

Eh, won't hurt to wait til Friday to see if any fish strike the bait.

As long as I don't open the rMBP and gaze longingly into the display, I should be all right. NOT going to open it, I know myself too well.

Had some downtime in court this morning, and the sitting Judge called me over to the bench and showed me his iPad 2012 and logitech ultrathin keyboard cover...apparently he got his after I got mine, and four attorneys are getting them after seeing his.

Anyhou, we were chatting a bit in the courtroom, and I was telling him about fighting the retina mojo. His eyes widened, as he pronounced that I was going to open it up and play with it before the end of the week, and that I was to bring it to his chambers immediately upon doing so.

Can I get away with telling the wife that if I take the rMBP to BB, I'll be in contempt of court?:eek:
 
Had some downtime in court this morning, and the sitting Judge called me over to the bench and showed me his iPad 2012 and logitech ultrathin keyboard cover...apparently he got his after I got mine, and four attorneys are getting them after seeing his.

Anyhou, we were chatting a bit in the courtroom, and I was telling him about fighting the retina mojo. His eyes widened, as he pronounced that I was going to open it up and play with it before the end of the week, and that I was to bring it to his chambers immediately upon doing so.

Can I get away with telling the wife that if I take the rMBP to BB, I'll be in contempt of court?:eek:

:D:D That's hysterical.
 
At least a few inquiries on CL now, and I think one is serious.

Eh, won't hurt to wait til Friday to see if any fish strike the bait.

As long as I don't open the rMBP and gaze longingly into the display, I should be all right. NOT going to open it, I know myself too well.

Had some downtime in court this morning, and the sitting Judge called me over to the bench and showed me his iPad 2012 and logitech ultrathin keyboard cover...apparently he got his after I got mine, and four attorneys are getting them after seeing his.

Anyhou, we were chatting a bit in the courtroom, and I was telling him about fighting the retina mojo. His eyes widened, as he pronounced that I was going to open it up and play with it before the end of the week, and that I was to bring it to his chambers immediately upon doing so.

Can I get away with telling the wife that if I take the rMBP to BB, I'll be in contempt of court?:eek:

lol, you WANT to keep it don't you :)

I'm in exactly the same situation as you, but I'm down to 24 hours left to return it.

I REALLY like the rMBP ... and the 13" Air ... and the 11" Air.

It's the incredible screen on the rMBP that gets me every time.

One way to look at it, life is short, keep it, enjoy it, pair it with an Air and you'll have the best of both worlds.
 
Epilogue...Okay, I'll shut up about this now...

After His Honor and a couple of other persons said that I CAN'T return the retina and there was NO WAY I could resist opening it....that just kind of sat the wrong way with me. I've never liked being told I couldn't do something, probably has something to do with why I couldn't make it past Lieutenant in the Army.*

Took the retina back unopened to Best Buy, where they stared at me incredulously. Open mouthed. Shocked. Astounded. One girl on the end kept asking 'Why' and wondering if I "was really sure". I responded that the apps I used regularly weren't optimized for retina yet, and that my wife told me she would use it to google local divorce lawyers. A half-lie, but that at least shut them up.

And when I got back to my office, naturally, there were some CL folks wanting to talk serious facts and figures. I deleted the ad, and informed them the Air was no longer for sale. Typical CL behavior, close in on the really good deals immediately, and circle like sharks waiting for desperation to drop in and the price to lower. I should know, I do that all the time.

Think I'll get the ghost armor black carbon fiber replaced where it's fraying a bit, and enjoy my freshly calibrated screen. And stay the hell away from retina displays at the apple store, at least until they get them down to 13" MBA size.

Thanks!





Okay, THAT and APFT standards....:eek:
 
Final Note: I want for nothing!

Still having some problems and erratic behavior from my '11 13" ultimate.

Genius bar reinstalled 10.7.4, took the ghost armor off the keypad (it was interfering with the touch sensing function and causing it to malfunction) and checked out the hardware and software. Also suggested my house may be a bit too big for a single airport extreme to handle it, and recommended setting it up in a central location with a couple of airport expresses to boost signal to the far corners. Everyone in the house is ecstatic about the wireless upgrade.

Also tried the custom macrumors profile for my '11 LG screen.

Net result: Got that new mac smell back for my Air, performs like a new machine! No more wonky trackpad, no dropped connection, tolerable screen (Apple needs to do a screen calibration in it's startup instead of shipping it with some 'meh' generic profile) and less eyestrain.

And I have to agree with the other Air owners...the rMBP looked irresistible until I picked it up and imagined carrying it around with me everywhere.

One final expense....I'm going to get extended applecare for this puppy before it expires at the end of the month. Not only have I fought off the retina upgrade mojo for now, I think I'll contentedly stick with this puppy for a while. At least until a second version of a 13" retina comes out...or one ships with a Broadwell CPU and GPU.

Cheers!
 
This thread sums up my current dilema. Which machine to get?

- The air is a nifty little machine and I'm sure I'd love it. But it's not powerful enough for serious video editing or virtualization. And I don't need the ultraportability. I've got a netbook that's gathering dust...

- The retina looks awesome except for the UI lag (which I've experienced first hand on ML).

- The 15" MBP doesn't excite me at all, but it's probably the machine I need. I'm annoyed at the fact that Apple has priced it more expensively than the RMBP for SSD configs. I also prefer the port configuration on the RMBP.

At the end of the day I'm seriously considering purchasing a lenovo w530 with Windows7.
 
My 2012 13" Air is my first foray into the Mac. I've had every iteration of the iPad and iPod, but I've never tried a Mac. The Air is what sold me on them. Now I'm wondering how long I'll bother keeping my Windows machine around. I really love the computer and the OS. I looked at the rMBP, but not seriously. This is my first Mac, and I wanted to go with something less expensive. I'm used to buying cheap Windows computers and dumping them every couple of years, so the MBA caused me a bit of sticker shock. The rMBP would have caused me a sticker heart attack. Unfortunately, my loaded MBA seems to have a "bulging" trackpad. The top and bottom are correctly recessed into the case, but the middle left and right edges stick up above the case. It's like there's something underneath it that's pushing it up in the middle. My wife's MBA 13 base model from Best Buy has the trackpad correctly recessed into the case. I need to call Apple and figure out what should be done. I suppose that I could bring it to the Apple store. But the idea of having a brand new computer opened up by anyone just sort of bugs me. Decisions, decisions.

But I digress...

One thing that the OP might want to do is take $169 of the $2199 saved by returning the Macbook, and go out and buy a new Spyder 4 Pro from Amazon. When I got my MBA in the mail on Friday, the first thing I did is tweak the settings using the calibration utility that comes with OS X. I always do that just to see how close I can come to a good calibration. Then I fire up the Spyder and let it do it's thing. The difference was night and day. My calibration using the OS X calibration tool SUCKED. Everything was bluish and quite harsh to look at. After running the Spyder, the screen was gorgeous. And my MBA has an LG screen. I calibrated my wife's MBA with the Samsung screen, after staring at them for fifteen minutes, neither one of us can tell the difference between the two screens. I know that the LG is supposed to be inferior to the Samsung, but they look exactly the same.

I'm sure that the rMBP is a great machine, but I am 100% sold on the MBA for my needs (development). The Spyder is a great investment. Between myself and my wife, there are now six screens in the family. I've calibrated all of them, and they all look great.
 
My 2012 13" Air is my first foray into the Mac. I've had every iteration of the iPad and iPod, but I've never tried a Mac. The Air is what sold me on them. Now I'm wondering how long I'll bother keeping my Windows machine around. I really love the computer and the OS. I looked at the rMBP, but not seriously. This is my first Mac, and I wanted to go with something less expensive. I'm used to buying cheap Windows computers and dumping them every couple of years, so the MBA caused me a bit of sticker shock. The rMBP would have caused me a sticker heart attack. Unfortunately, my loaded MBA seems to have a "bulging" trackpad. The top and bottom are correctly recessed into the case, but the middle left and right edges stick up above the case. It's like there's something underneath it that's pushing it up in the middle. My wife's MBA 13 base model from Best Buy has the trackpad correctly recessed into the case. I need to call Apple and figure out what should be done. I suppose that I could bring it to the Apple store. But the idea of having a brand new computer opened up by anyone just sort of bugs me. Decisions, decisions.

But I digress...

One thing that the OP might want to do is take $169 of the $2199 saved by returning the Macbook, and go out and buy a new Spyder 4 Pro from Amazon. When I got my MBA in the mail on Friday, the first thing I did is tweak the settings using the calibration utility that comes with OS X. I always do that just to see how close I can come to a good calibration. Then I fire up the Spyder and let it do it's thing. The difference was night and day. My calibration using the OS X calibration tool SUCKED. Everything was bluish and quite harsh to look at. After running the Spyder, the screen was gorgeous. And my MBA has an LG screen. I calibrated my wife's MBA with the Samsung screen, after staring at them for fifteen minutes, neither one of us can tell the difference between the two screens. I know that the LG is supposed to be inferior to the Samsung, but they look exactly the same.

I'm sure that the rMBP is a great machine, but I am 100% sold on the MBA for my needs (development). The Spyder is a great investment. Between myself and my wife, there are now six screens in the family. I've calibrated all of them, and they all look great.

Hmm...price is down to $149 now. Think I'll check out some of the reviews and probably have to check this out. Thanks!
 
Very interesting read!! I love how the OP has narrated and conquered his desire!! I wish I had your will power Clyde! :)

I went from a 11" >> 13" MBA >> 15" MBP [classic not Retina] >> 15" rMBP and now going back to the 15" cMBP again!

The 11" MBA's keyboard felt strange when typing.. Kinda like off-balance! The 13" is great, but is limited by the 8GB RAM as I started getting way too many Page-Outs running VMs!

Then, the 15" cMBP was perfect! Except the lure of a lighter, crisper, newer Retina MBP kept calling me :p The fact that the Apple store is a 10 minute drive didn't help either!

So, I caved in and got the rMBP. Loved it, no denying that!! The screen is like visual computing sex!! :eek:

However, after about a week.. the honeymoon was over! Once again, I felt crippled by the 8GB RAM [ I know I can BTO a 16GB version but patience is a virtue I don't have!! ] running VMs and other stuff!

Also, like some have mentioned, the lag was kinda bothersome and so was using MS Office!

With much...much reluctance I returned the rMBP too!! God knows I really wanted to keep it... sigh!

Oh well, so now I wait [ arriving tomorrow ]with baited breath, for the 15" Classic MBP with High Resolution + Anti Glare screen!

Someone mentioned getting the Lenovo W350. My brother uses that [ with the FHD Screen option ] and it is gorgeous! Probably the only Windows laptop that works like a Mac!

I still can't believe I returned the rMBP though....
 
Very interesting read!! I love how the OP has narrated and conquered his desire!! I wish I had your will power Clyde! :)

I went from a 11" >> 13" MBA >> 15" MBP [classic not Retina] >> 15" rMBP and now going back to the 15" cMBP again!

The 11" MBA's keyboard felt strange when typing.. Kinda like off-balance! The 13" is great, but is limited by the 8GB RAM as I started getting way too many Page-Outs running VMs!

Then, the 15" cMBP was perfect! Except the lure of a lighter, crisper, newer Retina MBP kept calling me :p The fact that the Apple store is a 10 minute drive didn't help either!

So, I caved in and got the rMBP. Loved it, no denying that!! The screen is like visual computing sex!! :eek:

However, after about a week.. the honeymoon was over! Once again, I felt crippled by the 8GB RAM [ I know I can BTO a 16GB version but patience is a virtue I don't have!! ] running VMs and other stuff!

Also, like some have mentioned, the lag was kinda bothersome and so was using MS Office!

With much...much reluctance I returned the rMBP too!! God knows I really wanted to keep it... sigh!

Oh well, so now I wait [ arriving tomorrow ]with baited breath, for the 15" Classic MBP with High Resolution + Anti Glare screen!

Someone mentioned getting the Lenovo W350. My brother uses that [ with the FHD Screen option ] and it is gorgeous! Probably the only Windows laptop that works like a Mac!

I still can't believe I returned the rMBP though....

Thanks, but I'm a lightweight compared to what you do. I'm a professional who uses a computer, but that DOESN'T make me a computer professional.

And after seeing what a difference a halfway calibration can do (downloading someone else's calibration and tweaking it a bit under expert options in osx) I'm seriously thinking about the spyder 4 pro.

Quick question for the true geeks here...besides my '11 LG monitor, I've got an external screen for this one, a 27" imac and two externals at my office, not to mention the two 24" screens on my assistant's MP. Can I install the included software for the spyder4 pro on the different systems, or is it locked down and will only work on one installation?

Thanks in advance for answering my query, and for your support.

My name is Clyde, and I'm a retinaholic. It's been almost one week since I tried to buy a rMBP....


Quick Postscript...got online and looked at windows IPS laptops, looking at possible options there. Jesus God Almighty, is there like 200 almost identical sounding Sony and Dell models or what? VPX2050CDS...no, or is that a VPX2050CDC? Which one has what? Made me appreciate Apple's KISS approach to product lines, and leads me to believe they'll do away with the cMBP and just have MBA's for consumers and (retina) MBP's for professionals.
 
Have a 2011 13" ultimate MBA. Stupidly, I walked into the apple store and played around with one of the new 2012 rMBP's after reading all of the glowing reviews on it. Gorgeous screen, (though my 13" ain't too shabby), lightning quick (ditto for my existing one), etc., etc.

I'm trying to listen to my mature 'shredded wheat' side of my personality, and hold fast with my current setup. But the 'frosting' side isn't giving up the fight easily: "Look at that gorgeous screen! You can work on documents all day on that without eyestrain! It's so fast....!"

Honestly, am I the only one pondering putting my almost new Air up on Craiglist and trying to defray the cost of the rMBP? If not, how are yall getting your inner child to shut the hell up?

Thanks!
Hey, I updated my 13" 2011 MacBook Air for a 15" Retina MacBook Pro and can honestly say, that the decision is completely personal. For me, I have always said I would jump on any "retina" macbook, so it was an easy decision. The screen is an absolute pleasure to use. It is not a gimmick and I am constantly being wowed by it. However, portability has then a massive hit.

All things considered, I am glad I sold my mba and bought the retina mbp, you just have to decide what you value the most from your laptop.
 
Thanks, but I'm a lightweight compared to what you do. I'm a professional who uses a computer, but that DOESN'T make me a computer professional.

And after seeing what a difference a halfway calibration can do (downloading someone else's calibration and tweaking it a bit under expert options in osx) I'm seriously thinking about the spyder 4 pro.

Quick question for the true geeks here...besides my '11 LG monitor, I've got an external screen for this one, a 27" imac and two externals at my office, not to mention the two 24" screens on my assistant's MP. Can I install the included software for the spyder4 pro on the different systems, or is it locked down and will only work on one installation?

Thanks in advance for answering my query, and for your support.

My name is Clyde, and I'm a retinaholic. It's been almost one week since I tried to buy a rMBP....


Quick Postscript...got online and looked at windows IPS laptops, looking at possible options there. Jesus God Almighty, is there like 200 almost identical sounding Sony and Dell models or what? VPX2050CDS...no, or is that a VPX2050CDC? Which one has what? Made me appreciate Apple's KISS approach to product lines, and leads me to believe they'll do away with the cMBP and just have MBA's for consumers and (retina) MBP's for professionals.
The Spyder 4 Express version only allows you to calibrate one monitor on one computer. The Spyder 4 Pro permits you to calibrate multiple monitors on multiple computers. That's why I went with it, instead of the cheaper express version. I have calibrated two MBAs, a dual monitor windows desktop machine, and a windows laptop with an attached 20" monitor. As soon as I installed the software on the windows machine and entered the key, it instantly recognized the key on the other computers it was installed on. It worked awesome, and there were no restrictions at all that I could see.
 
Hey, I updated my 13" 2011 MacBook Air for a 15" Retina MacBook Pro and can honestly say, that the decision is completely personal. For me, I have always said I would jump on any "retina" macbook, so it was an easy decision. The screen is an absolute pleasure to use. It is not a gimmick and I am constantly being wowed by it. However, portability has then a massive hit.

All things considered, I am glad I sold my mba and bought the retina mbp, you just have to decide what you value the most from your laptop.

You are right, the decision is ultimately personal and subjective. Finding an implementing a better profile than the standard stock one for my machine helped, and the size and form factor of the Air vis a vis the rMBP outweighed the superior screen of the latter.

If MacRumors and the other folks are correct in that a 13" retina macbook-pro, air or otherwise-hits on or before October, that will be another matter entirely. Complicating such a matter will be a further devaluation of my current rig (which has already lost one third of its value in under a year), and the wisdom of plunking down my hard earned cash and gambling on first generation technology. My whole wheat side is already tapping it's fingers and patiently urging me, "Remember the Anandtech review. You're better off waiting on Haswell or Broadwell and getting all the use you can out of your already-paid-for Air. Waiting will get you a better machine for less money, and your current screen isn't that bad."

Whole wheat's arguments make sense, and may even carry the day. As long as Frosted doesn't keep dragging me into the Apple store or the Mac kiosk at Best Buy. "C'mon, look at this gorgeous display! You didn't bite on the $2K+ 15" model; that counts, doesn't it? You're machine is worth less and less everyday that goes by, especially now, might as well mitigate the loss, right?"

Sigh. Sometimes I wish my internet at home would get shut off....

And thanks for the info usmaak. Is the software difficult or complicated to use?
 
\

And thanks for the info usmaak. Is the software difficult or complicated to use?
Not at all difficult. It pretty much does everything by itself. In the beginning, you just have to enter some info about your monitor. When I calibrated the macbook, it actually figured out all of that info for itself. It only needed manually entered info for my Windows monitors. After you've entered the info once, it remembers it for future calibrations. About a third of the way through the calibration, you'll have to manually adjust the brightness so that it fits within a certain place on a line that is displayed on the screen. After that, there's nothing left to do. At the end of the calibration, it lets you compare between what it came up with and what it had before. Then you just save the newly created profile and tell it to use it, and you're done. The whole process takes less than six minutes to accomplish. And you're given the option to be reminded to calibrate every so often, to make up for normal changes monitors experience as they age. I'm not a big fan of nag reminders, so I told it to never remind me. I'm quite impressed with the Spyder, and I have no regrets about buying it.

Oh, and I suggest you switch from Frosted Mini Wheats to Cheerios. Cheerios do not have a frosted side, unless you specifically buy the Frosted Cheerios. They're all hard, cold logic. ;)
 
Even though it's allegedly for a 2012 Air, I tried ananadtech's profile on my 2011 13" LG. Think it's a keeper.

Been informed that I can get the 2K 0% interest for one year deal from Barclay's. Would have been tempting...

...but the lack of r optimized pages, continued complaints about lagginess in Lion and screen burns/ghosting, along with the promise of a possible 13" retina is helping me hold the mojo at bay. For now.

Also read over Anandtech's detailed analysis of the rMBP about how the graphics and CPU may not be just quite ready for the new display. My new mantra is his statement that if you already have a sandy bridge machine, you'd be well served to wait for haswell or broadwell before upgrading.

I'll be better off waiting for haswell or broadwell....
I'll be better off....
 
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