Apple Introduces “Next Generation MacBook Pro” with 15.4″ Retina Display, Starts at $2199

[Glenny2lappies]

I'm so pleased I bought what is possibly my last ever Mac: my delightful 17" hi-res matte screen quad core system. Apart from an 11" Air, all the rest of these machines seem like toys, not proper development machines.

Some people need screen real estate. Obviously not the children that now run Mac product development.

I just cannot see the point of a non-user upgradable 15" machine with a shiny medium resolution screen, albeit with a super-crisp retina display.

Seems as if Apple's loosing the plot or just doesn't care for professional developers.

Meh

 

[Xtremehkr]

Apple may have made strides to make their iTunes downloads "Near Blu-Ray quality". They have largely succeeded, however they still can't match it. Also I've managed to pick up a large number of classics on Blu-Ray pretty cheaply that don't seem to be in HD on iTunes, like Saving Private Ryan. I'm not knocking Apple's iTunes, I do sometimes rely on it to download odd episodes of a TV series. The Storage of Blu-Ray is also going up, with 50GB Blu-Ray discs becoming a rapid standard over the single-layer 25GB disc. Blu-Ray could well stay the standard for the next generation of HD with 4K etc, especially as Sharp has managed to produce 100GB Discs. Sadly old Blu-Ray players won't run them but it's a sure sign that Blu-Ray is a standard that's here to stay.

Some people remain positive and supportive of BD technology, but I'm not in that camp. While you may be able to get older content delivered cheaply on Blu Ray it's not going to be able to properly utilize the benefits of Blu Ray anyway, because it wasn't filmed for that method of delivery and only so much can be done to enhance it. The same content is available at the same discounts on iTunes at basically exactly the same quality.

The drastic decrease in external storage, flash memory, and cloud storage have made the limited storage (50GB is limited compared to a 3TB external drive from Lacie I can pick up for $249, cheaper if I were willing to go with a discount manufacturer) capacity of (still) expensive Blu Ray discs is not really competitive.

Given that cloud storage is essentially unlimited and really cheap, though not very fast yet, Blu Ray is just not worth the cost. Sony is treating Blu Ray as though it's a gold mine of licensing fees when the long term future of the technology is questionable.

Fortunately there's not much of a debate to be had in this realm because Apple has clearly decided against Blu Ray and optical solutions in favor of external storage (thunderbolt), flash storage (SSD's and USB 3.0 to portable flash devices), and cloud storage (iCloud).

Which is great because the new MBP's have definitely benefited from being the first to drop the ODD. The first on a professional scale anyway, I know the Air has never had an ODD.

 

[MattUK]

2199$ is expensive ??

2199$ is expensive ?? Feel free to buy it in UK for 1799£ ! For those who are not familiar with a current exchange rate- it is 3000$ !!!!!!
I don't understand why it has to be like that !!!
I am happy to pay 1400£ (2199$) for that new retina 15.4" macbook pro, but 1800£ is just pure theft !!!
Wish I could order it is US, but customs charges would be a killer !
On the top of that, there is no 13" retina available yet (and might not be...)
what forces me to buy 13" regular mac book pro (not very excited about that )

 

[tutubibi]

$2199? Who has that kind of money to blow on a laptop? Is it really worth more than a thousand more than the 13" macbook pro? Sad to say, but Retina is not ready for prime time at those zany prices.

Retina MacBook Pro actually has excellent price, better price than most HP or DELL professional laptops.
On top of that, this laptop makes everything else look obsolete.

 

[djsukebe]

A machine with only 256GB of hard drive for over 2K?
No thanks.

It's beautiful but that hard drive is a joke for over 2K!

you do realize it's a solid state drive right??

 

[wikus]

I'm sorry for offending you, but I was just stating what the general user does. It obviously cannot be applied to some people. It probably can't be applied to most people at MacRumors. The truth is that there are people out there who don't know how hard drives work.

Also, do you NEED all of that stuff with you all the time? I actually set up my iMac as an internet-connected AFP and SSH host so I can get my files if I really need to, and I can even run my iTunes library over the internet. I have only 56GB used on my MacBook because of this.

Its my only computer and I'm on the go *a lot*. I had a Mac Pro (which I sold) before my MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro had two hard drives in it; one for boot, one for storage and an external hard drive to use as backup of the internal storage drive. I never had more than 500gb of data in all on the storage drive because I moved most of it off the drive and onto optical media; photoshoots, projects, client files, etc. stuff that doesnt need to live on any of my drives.

Since I almost never use my dvd burner in my MacBook (or even when I had the mac pro) there was no need for it and opted for the 1TB Western Digital drive thereby replacing the ODD with it using an optibay. I replaced the stock 750gb internal drive with a 120gb SSD drive, of which only 30gb is used; OS X Snow Leopard, Adobe CS5, Lightroom, Office and about a dozen apps smaller than 100mb each.

So the 1TB drive I have holds a 150gb partition for Windows (if I ever need to boot into it, which I do for some video editing because not everything is available for mac). That leaves me with 850gb for storage, of which currently has 220gb left of free space. 315 of it is my library (all of which is electronic music and about 160gb of it is the complete series of Essential Mixes). It made sense to ditch the DVD drive and get a secondary drive... not just because I wanted it, but because it was the ideal setup and was possible to do so.

I am currently in the process of recording all VHS and 8mm tapes to my computer as DV files to convert to MP4 (at 5,000kbps) and trash the originals (as the compression on the mp4 will be more than enough). A single DV recording of 2 hours takes up 27gb. I have about 40 tapes to go through.

I use my macbook for a LOT of different things. It pisses me off when guys like Pandamonia think theyve got me figured out. I criticize the hell out of apple, but only in hopes of them loosening up on their tight grip on CHOICE. Why? Because I believe everyone should have options and configure their machine to THEIR liking, not Apple's liking.

 

[ydaf]

How about more than 2 USB ports? Surely they could have fitted more.

 

[wikus]

You must be the one responsible for iTunes match never working correctly.

Doubt it. I only have electronic music (yes, only). I don't use iTunes match and I don't use iTunes at all (ram and CPU hog and bloated with useless crap I will never use as I don't own an iPod, iPhone or an iPad and don't plan on either).

I use Vox instead.

 

[mganai]

2199$ is expensive ?? Feel free to buy it in UK for 1799£ ! For those who are not familiar with a current exchange rate- it is 3000$ !!!!!!
I don't understand why it has to be like that !!!
I am happy to pay 1400£ (2199$) for that new retina 15.4" macbook pro, but 1800£ is just pure theft !!!
Wish I could order it is US, but customs charges would be a killer !
On the top of that, there is no 13" retina available yet (and might not be...)
what forces me to buy 13" regular mac book pro (not very excited about that )

Why can't you just get the standard 15", or perhaps wait a year for the retina to spread across sizes, and perhaps go down in price, a bit?

Don't see why the iMac hasn't been updated yet.

 

[AidenShaw]

Thank goodness we finally have TB -> FW and TB -> Ethernet. That was cool.

Cool for Apple shareholders that you'll pay $200 or so to replace the ports that were just removed.

Beyond the incredible iOS maps, MBP retina and minor updates I think the main importance of this WWDC was to show not just analyst pundits, fans, or competitors, but the entire world that although Mr. jobs is gone APple can still innovate and deliver quality products that users will want.

Or the world will notice that there are a lot of comments like:

Wow - lots of disappointment here in the forum about what WASN'T delivered.

Sure you can download 1080P videos from iTunes but you won't get HD audio!

And you won't get a high enough video bitrate on the 1080p video to appreciate the movie.

Not comparable with the classics: SJ intruding MBA or iPhone.

The late turtle-necked overlord introduced the Iphone at MacWorld SF 2007.

He introduced the MacBook Air at MacWorld SF 2008.

Neither happened at a WWDC.

Stuck with 8GB? are you kidding. unless your seriously into using mega large files u won't need 16gb for years and years.

I'm starting to shop around because my Dell mini-tower with 24 GiB gets rather seriously memory-starved from time-to-time.

A lot of people here have needed more than 8 GiB for years and years.

Just because your workflow doesn't need lots of memory has nothing to do with whether other people need more memory.

 

[Danny393]

Of course one of my friends bought a new MacBook yesterday *facepalm*...

What are her options?

 

[aaaaaaron]

Of course one of my friends bought a new MacBook yesterday *facepalm*...

What are her options?

I think she can take it back to an Apple store for a trade in. Might be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure she can.

 

[wikus]

Of course one of my friends bought a new MacBook yesterday *facepalm*...

What are her options?

Return it. Pretty sure theres at least a 14 day return policy with Apple. (depending on the laws in your nation, of course)

 

[Dr McKay]

.

I wouldn't say one is definitively better than the other, they both have advantages and disadvantages over one another. Some older movies still look great though, if the budget is big aren't some of them shot in high resolution anyway for Cinema etc?

 

[twoodcc]

i'm really digging that retina display!

 

[840quadra]

I can't wait to use the display for photography. Going to be really fun!!

 

[MattUK]

Why can't you just get the standard 15", or perhaps wait a year for the retina to spread across sizes, and perhaps go down in price, a bit?

Don't see why the iMac hasn't been updated yet.

I've already waited soo long for new, thin, retina laptop to upgrade to !!!
Can't wait another months for 13" retina macbook ! It does my headache !!!
standard 15" cost in UK just as much as retina 15" in US- That's what is so annoying !!! I am addicted to retina after buying iPad3 !!! lol

Question for smart people, is there a chance that new 13" macbook air i5 with 8Gb RAM and HD Graphics 4000 will be compatible with 27" thunderbolt display when it arrives ??? wish there was BTO option with GeForce GT 650M...

 

[squirekyle]

I kept thinking: "Where's the eject button?" oh yeah! It doesn't have one stupid

 

[Jesse813]

anyone know if the RAM for the Next Gen MBP is user upgradeable?

 

[greenmeanie]

I will not be purchasing any of these for the labs at the school.
To pricey.

 

[faroZ06]

Doubt it. I only have electronic music (yes, only). I don't use iTunes match and I don't use iTunes at all (ram and CPU hog and bloated with useless crap I will never use as I don't own an iPod, iPhone or an iPad and don't plan on either).

I use Vox instead.

I know that iTunes Match is useless, but iTunes itself is great. It's well-programmed and keeps my music well-organized. Also, it works great with other computers with iTunes and with iPods. It also lets you disable features that you don't want (I disabled Ping and stuff because I hate it).

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I can't wait to use the display for photography. Going to be really fun!!

Exactly what I was thinking. This looks great for photography (that is, if I was a pro photographer).

 

[AidenShaw]

P.S. Oh, it's not legal.

Exactly my point - especially since you started your post with the word "honestly".

If you want legal 1080p movies at BD quality - you need a BD.

 

[revelated]

I'm so pleased I bought what is possibly my last ever Mac: my delightful 17" hi-res matte screen quad core system. Apart from an 11" Air, all the rest of these machines seem like toys, not proper development machines.

Some people need screen real estate. Obviously not the children that now run Mac product development.

I just cannot see the point of a non-user upgradable 15" machine with a shiny medium resolution screen, albeit with a super-crisp retina display.

Seems as if Apple's loosing the plot or just doesn't care for professional developers.

Meh

For Apple's stance on "professional" development one need only look at Final Cut X.

Anyway, I saw a lot of glaring problems with this update. I already know I'll get downvoted. I don't care.

1. No 17" means they're abandoning the power user group. The 17" had more ports, more raw horsepower potential. 15" can't compare, not even this one.
2. No matte screen option is straight up silly. At least use the screen style of the Air which lessens the glare, but why take away the choice?
3. Price is prohibitive considering they cut so much out of the thing.
4. Of all things why HDMI? I'm not criticizing it, maybe people want it, but an extra USB or even a MHL port would have been preferred.
5. No optical drive yet the thing isn't that much lighter. Battery isn't that much more either, which negates the whole "amazing battery life".

I could go on and on, especially about that price. But whatever. Looks like I'll be riding my 17" till it dies then jumping back to PC laptops.

 

[faroZ06]

Doubt it. I only have electronic music (yes, only). I don't use iTunes match and I don't use iTunes at all (ram and CPU hog and bloated with useless crap I will never use as I don't own an iPod, iPhone or an iPad and don't plan on either).

I use Vox instead.

Is 98MB of RAM a lot? You sound like this Apple-hater at my school who has never used an Apple product. He also complains about iTunes being "bloated".

----------

Exactly my point - especially since you started your post with the word "honestly".

If you want legal 1080p movies at BD quality - you need a BD.

If you want to be illegal, you can just steal a retina MacBook Pro for free.

 

[Biti]

Chassis-less computing

Only an idiot walks around with 315gb of music on his notebook. Seriously.

i have about 100 PC games but they aint all installed on my MBP Bootcamp.

A Notebook is not a vault of digital information.

Go buy the OLD MBP and put a 1TB HDD in. The future is here and sadly its not for you.

I agree, but it _is_ a shift of paradigm, and will take a while to get used to. The new MBP with retina display is the most recent approach to chassis-less computing to the Mac community and the most compelling due to it's speed with Flash storage. You use it to provide a great experience while you are mobile, and can connect to high volume, high data transfer rate data repositories and high performance displays when at the home base. It's a different way of working, and Thunderbolt makes this possible. Unfortunately Thunderbolt is still expensive, but I think over time we will get used to taking our computer with us everywhere and divide our needs between wanting everything (at home base) and wanting speed and performance on the same device while we are away.