Anyone regretting buying a cMBP?

[thehustleman]

Okay, so I now have both the 15" cMBP and rMBP in front of me because I couldnt decide which fits best me best. The problem is, (after putting in 256SSD + 750HDD in the cMBP) I like them both but both also have enough glaring faults that I dont love either.

In the end it all comes down to Storage vs Screen. And thats a huge dilemma for someone who does photowork. If I pick the rMBP then I have the best screen but I have to be tethered to an external drive or slow network drives. If I pick the cMBP then I have the storage I need but the screen isn't as amazing as it should be.

I really havent made a decision yet because both are good but to be honest then I wont be happy because either way I'm making a compromise that feels unnecessary on a $2000 computer. Maybe I should just return them both and skip this generation.

These are the terrible choices apple makes its buyers make.

No reason they couldn't have made a retina display on the MacBook pro without soldering and using proprietary parts.

Just another non consumer friendly decision.

 

[robvas]

Oddly, one of the key factors was the the rMBP has no Kensington lock port, so if I were to use it at work, it would be gone 10 minutes unless I carried it with me, taking 2K off my hands

Where do you work that you can't leave a laptop on your desk?

 

[David58117]

I feel for the photography people, as that would be a bit more difficult.

Luckily I'm an audio person, and the cMBP is a dream machine (after my own upgrades), at a very good price (open box).

 

[CarreraGuy]

Hi,
I bought the cMBP with 8g of ram, 750G HDD and HD anti-glare screen and it cost me 2 329,00 $ plus taxes, here's the exact cfg:

....

Don't get me wrong, I love my cMBP, it is powerful and all but still, going back I would probably buy a maxed out rMBP. There are some complaints here from users who has had trouble with them but most people don't have any issue. But man, the SSD is a must!

Hope it helps!

If you are going to get a cMBP go with the lowest end config possible on the Apple store and upgrade yourself later and save the $, what I would do for around $1600 (with 16gb ram no less) instead of $2300, you get more ram and a backup harddrive :

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16765038/

 

[IlikeMacsSoMuch]

If you are going to get a cMBP go with the lowest end config possible on the Apple store and upgrade yourself later and save the $, what I would do for around $1600 (with 16gb ram no less) instead of $2300, you get more ram and a backup harddrive :

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16765038/

I wanted to have the best possible GPU, and hd mate screen. So no 1600$ is not possible for me but I shouldn't have upgraded the ram to 8 Gig and the stock hdd to 750 G. I would have saved 200$. But I use the 750 hdd as a portable drive and I guess that I could sell the 2 4g stick ram so not that much money wasted. Plus, I enjoyed making the upgrades myself!

To get the 1G graphic card, you need to upgrade the CPU ( so at best 200$ more). So at best you pay 2.1K plus your self upgrades (plus taxes). So I really wasted about 100$. Even if it is a waste of money, I won't loose any sleep over it.

 

[CarreraGuy]

I wanted to have the best possible GPU, and hd mate screen. So no 1600$ is not possible for me but I shouldn't have upgraded the ram to 8 Gig and the stock hdd to 750 G. I would have saved 200$. But I use the 750 hdd as a portable drive and I guess that I could sell the 2 4g stick ram so not that much money wasted. Plus, I enjoyed making the upgrades myself!

To get the 1G graphic card, you need to upgrade the CPU ( so at best 200$ more). So at best you pay 2.1K plus your self upgrades (plus taxes). So I really wasted about 100$. Even if it is a waste of money, I won't loose any sleep over it.

I hear ya, should have emphasized the upgrade to 500gb was SSD, so (as of today) you can get a base cMBP 13" with 16gb RAM and 500gb SSD for ~ $1550. And use your original 500gb as a backup, and put the 4gbs on a keychain or something

I'm in the same boat as a lot of folks debating the retina upgrade but the lack upgradability and the high Apple prices are a turnoff. You can buy the SSD sticks that fit in the retina's on NewEgg/Amazon,etc but replacing the SSD in the retina is a pita and they are still expensive.

 

[IlikeMacsSoMuch]

I hear ya, should have emphasized the upgrade to 500gb was SSD, so (as of today) you can get a base cMBP 13" with 16gb RAM and 500gb SSD for ~ $1550. And use your original 500gb as a backup, and put the 4gbs on a keychain or something

I'm in the same boat as a lot of folks debating the retina upgrade but the lack upgradability and the high Apple prices are a turnoff. You can buy the SSD sticks that fit in the retina's on NewEgg/Amazon,etc but replacing the SSD in the retina is a pita and they are still expensive.

13, the sweet spot between performance and portability! Unfortunately, it came out a couple of months after I bought my 15 inches.

I am looking forward to when Apple will make a 13 inches quad cores Mbp... Ya I know, when that happens the 15 inches will be a zillion cores!

You said that replacing the SSD in the retina is a pita ( french canadian, sorry don't know that word), does pita mean difficult or impossible? Isn't the flash memory soldered on the board?

Since I have 2 4 Gb sticks, I'll give my wive a new set of ear rings! With a few stickers here and there... Wow geeky is the new sexy!

 

[saturnotaku]

To answer the question posed in this thread, heck no. I'll take greater upgrade flexibility and available matte screen over the Retina display every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

[CarreraGuy]

PITA=Pain In The Ass

From the videos I've seen even taking the case off a rMBP is a PITA. It's a real shame actually, I'd settle for a ~2mm thicker rMBP if the RAM and SSD were easily upgradeable.

 

[urkel]

These are the terrible choices apple makes its buyers make.

No reason they couldn't have made a retina display on the MacBook pro without soldering and using proprietary parts.

Just another non consumer friendly decision.

OR just use a standard SSD. Or even dual drive! At 15" then machines like this lean more on being used on a desk than on a plane so would people really be upset if it was slightly thicker but cheaper to upgrade (512GB SSD for $280 sounds good)? I'm actually not against proprietary stuff, but it needs to be justified in performance and price. And when it comes to Apple storage, there's no reason it shouldnt be standard sata/msata.

 

[IlikeMacsSoMuch]

PITA=Pain In The Ass

From the videos I've seen even taking the case off a rMBP is a PITA. It's a real shame actually, I'd settle for a ~2mm thicker rMBP if the RAM and SSD were easily upgradeable.

On iFixit, they have a tutorial to change the ssd and having done the upgrades on my cmbp, upgrading the ssd on a rmbp is not more difficult at all, in fact there is one step less to get the job done. So it would seem that in the rmbp the ssd isn't soldered after all!

 

[LatinaC09]

yeah but won't upgrading the ssd on the rMBP void the warranty? And the Ram as well voids the warranty from what I know....I mean I guess if anything happened you could just throw the original parts back in but it just seems that since they're supposed to be soldered it would be a tad more difficult to be gluing and un-gluing so much.

 

[mike5065]

Where did you get 16gb for 60 bucks at?

canadacomputers during the black friday deals, the day after I got the cMBP. there were similar deals on 16GB at NCIX over christmas.

I don't really need 16GB, but since it was similar in price to 8GB, why not. it's really only when i use windows VMs (with disk caching) when memory use goes beyond 8GB.

 

[phaedarus]

I own a late 2011 17inch MBP and I will never give it up.

When I'm on the road, those extra 2 inches of screen real estate is a godsend for working with video editing and 3D. The anti-glare is especially helpful under less than ideal lighting conditions and I can actually proof my files for print.

The Corsair 16 GB upgrade was a no brainer that came at considerably less cost than had it been purchased through Apple. I also plan on acquiring an SSD where I envision a pain free upgrade experience.

I love having having access to three USB ports (one of which is always used by a wireless mouse receiver) plus the option to utilize firewire 800/Thunderbolt either through native connectors or USB3 adapters for external storage when USB 2.0 won't cut it. At home I'm always on ethernet for a vastly more solid connection as opposed to the often finicky wifi signals I get. The express card slot is still a very serviceable port given the vast amount of devices it supports.

All in all, I hold the 2011 MBPs in the same regard as the 2008 eight-core Mac Pros; a landmark product that gave you the best value for your money while retaining the flexibility and power to match the current line.

 

[Liquinn]

I own a late 2011 17inch MBP and I will never give it up.

When I'm on the road, those extra 2 inches of screen real estate is a godsend for working with video editing and 3D. The anti-glare is especially helpful under less than ideal lighting conditions and I can actually proof my files for print.

The Corsair 16 GB upgrade was a no brainer that came at considerably less cost than had it been purchased through Apple. I also plan on acquiring an SSD where I envision a pain free upgrade experience.

I love having having access to three USB ports (one of which is always used by a wireless mouse receiver) plus the option to utilize firewire 800/Thunderbolt either through native connectors or USB3 adapters for external storage when USB 2.0 won't cut it.

All in all, I hold the 2011 MBPs in the same regard as the 2008 eight-core Mac Pros; a landmark product that gave you the best value for your money while retaining the flexibility and power to match the current line.

The retina MBPs only have 2 USB ports?

 

[MaxPower72]

I bought it because of ...
and I don't regret it a tiny bit, I'm not High Def Crazy yet I prefer performance and a good external monitor

 

[phaedarus]

The retina MBPs only have 2 USB ports?

Two USB 3 ports. The arrangement has them set for one on either side which can be a pain in the rear when you already have space set aside for a bundle of cables.

The firewire port was sacrificed for two thunderbolt ports however.

 

[itsthamessenger]

Hi, first let me say im a very long time browser of the site and finally made an account so hello to all and thanks for all the valuable info!!

I recently purchased a new 13 cMBP 2.9 i7 and im very happy with the decision. I also have a 15 mid2009 mbp in repair lol, but idk i really like the rMBP, being slightly thinner, same power, and the screen is gorgeous, really have no need for it. maybe the power nap feature would be cool. im thinking of upgrading to a ssd for the performance upgrade. but i really needed the superdrive for gigs and such. maybe second gen like others are saying.