Apple Releases New 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Force Touch and $1,999 27-Inch iMac With Retina Display

[827538]

Posts like this make me laugh. You're ready to buy a new computer when you already have an earlier Haswell? Do you even need one?

Also, what do you expect Apple to use in their new rMBP when quad-core Broadwell chips aren't out yet? Please go off to see what the competition has to offer, since they too cannot magically conjure up Broadwell chips out of thin air.

And judging by all the Apple products in your signature, you're not going anywhere. All talk and no walk.

I love my iPhone, I could never see myself ditching that in the near future.
The rMBP in my sig was my first foray into the world of Mac and OS X and I've been very impressed, but not so much as to not consider going back to building high end rigs as uni is over for me so I no longer need the same portability. Chances are you're right, I won't change, but it's not out of the question, Razers Blade laptops have me very very interested, just a shame I'd have to import them from the U.S.

 

[Quu]

Well, according to these specs on Apples website, dual 4K is possible on both models.

Yeah I updated my post. The UK page and the USA page are showing different specifications for the Display Output support. Apple slipping with their website quality control.

 

[iMacDragon]

Surprised I haven't seen anyone mention this yet. Why does the 13 inch get faster clocked RAM than the 15 inch. Doesn't make much of a difference but still, WTF

Because 13" is not on haswell anymore, and supports faster bus officially.

 

[triton100]

Does anyone know of this new quad core i7 2.5 will be much more powerful than a MacBook Pro retina 15 "late 2013 2.6 Intel i7 for someone who does a lot of editing ?

 

[yukari]

That wasn't there when I posted the comment on page 1. Updates happen.

Didn't know. My bad.

 

[mdelvecchio]

$2000 for a desktop computer and:

1)it still comes with 8GB ram (2 4GB chips!!!)
2)a non-SSD drive. Oh, but for an extra $500 you can get a 512GB flash drive (not sure if it's SSD or PCIe or other) when you can pick them up anywhere for $180 at RETAIL prices.
3)Oh, but wait...there's more!....they don't even tell you what i5 chip you are getting.
4)And there's no i7 option for people that, you know, spend $2000 and actually want some killer performance to somewhat future proof their investment.

youre forgetting the free 27" 5k display youre getting with it. >slap forehead<

 

[koyoot]

Don't recall ever saying it could? You're trying to claim that the base 5K iMac is better than the dropped model, but other than the display, CPU is worse, Gfx is worse (base 5K has M290 NOT M290X!!), ram and HDD are the same. So why bother? For what most people will use it for, the dropped non-retina is a better option. Also, have you seen all the issues M290X (the top 5K model) owners have had with lagging UI at 5K? Can't wait to see the slower M290 go to struggle down running OSX alone.

No Im not saying it is better.

IMO it is the same value.

And lets leave it right there. Anyone has ANY data about the GPUs from base Retina iMac and higher end retina MBP?

 

[mdelvecchio]

sorry apple, but in 2015 every desktop should have at least fusion drive by default (ok, maybe entry mac mini with spinner is excusable).. and spinner in 2000 usd machine? that is PURE GREED.. whera are all those speeches about best user experience? with outdated spinners? really?

please link to some cheaper machines that provide a 27" 5k display with it.

youve forgotten what a deal this is.

 

[yukari]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of re-design are you even looking for?

For starters, at least reduced bezel so that the over all size is smaller even with the same screen size.

 

[Camoxide]

Does anyone know of this new quad core i7 2.5 will be much more powerful than a MacBook Pro retina 15 "late 2013 2.6 Intel i7 for someone who does a lot of editing ?

It's essentially the same processor so the late 2013 one with the 2.6Ghz CPU is slightly more powerful.

 

[hagar]

No force touch for the magic trackpad ?

 

[tmroper]

I just noticed the iMac 27" no longer has an i7 option. I haven't been paying close attention, so maybe that's old news. But I was wondering why, and couldn't find any explanation with a search. Anyone have a quick explanation, or link to a thread on it?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

old magnetic spinning HDD, no flash (SSD)... slow and noisy

As opposed to low capacity and costs a fortune???

I'm running dual 1TB mere 5400 RPM drives that came with my 2012 Mac Mini as RAID0. While not SSD fast (especially for random access), they still read at 350MB/sec and write at 300MB/sec in that configuration, giving me the equivalent of 2TB single drive with performance of a SSD from a few years back. Noisy? I almost never hear a thing. Throw some 7200 RPM drives in there as RAID0 and I'm sure you could approach 450-500MB/sec and have 4TB of on-board storage. WTF does SSD cost at 1TB these days, especially from Apple? With all the media, etc. I have, having a total of 5TB (with most media on the external 3TB USB3 drive) is barely cutting it. Besides, things like HD movies don't need 1000+ MB/sec. Ideal would be a 3-drive bay version with 2 large capacity "spinners" in RAID0 plus a 250-500GB SSD for the OS and other productivity stuff. I don't think the hybrid drives they make would work well for either use (too slow for media and too small for the really fast stuff).

My only complaint about the 2012 Mini is the GPU. While it's fast enough to play Borderlands 2 at medium resolutions and older games at high resolutions, even the newer Intel GPUs would be a considerable improvement. Sadly, Apple chose to neuter the Mac Mini by no longer offering a quad-i7 model and made it harder to access/upgrade anything in it. I guess I won't be buying a newer Mac for awhile, especially with these desktops as the offerings.

youre forgetting the free 27" 5k display youre getting with it. >slap forehead<

Yeah, if you really believe it's "free" then I have some swamp land I could sell you....

 

[Captain Nougat]

Surprised I haven't seen anyone mention this yet. Why does the 13 inch get faster clocked RAM than the 15 inch. Doesn't make much of a difference but still, WTF

I believe it is because the CPU on the new 15" is still the 4th gen Intel Core i5/i7 chips using the 4th gen logic board (since the 5th gen quad core mobile chips are not ready yet) hence with the older board, it's using the slower RAM that is compatible with it.

 

[freeskier93]

What? Both AMD and Nvidia pay developers to focus on their hardware... BF4 and AMD Mantle spring to mind? I'm talking about how well AMD updates their drivers for any new game that comes out... It can be some wait! While with Nvidia it's usually always the day before the game launches or within a few days. That's why I see AMD drivers as junk, plus Maxwell is a far more efficient architecture than GCN platform and whatever island variant the 370M turns out to be. Why couldn't they have just included a 965M and everyone would have been more than happy?

Mantle is a low level API, either you use it or you don't but it doesn't hurt performance of anything if you don't. It's comparable to DirectX. Nvidia Gameworks is completely different and absolutely does kill performance on non-Nvidia cards. Take a look at Project Cars. I for one can't support Nvidia with their shoddy anticompetitive business techniques. They are the Intel of the GPU world.

As far as drivers, I've never had a single issue with AMD drivers in recent years. Sounds like to me you're just someone who criticizes something they haven't used.

For those of us who use computers for work and not games, ask developers why they use CUDA instead of OpenCL.

Because they like vendor lock? If we're going to talk about non gaming uses, lets talk about Maxwell's double precision performance...

 

[mtbdudex]

wha wha wha, you'd think peoples lives solely revolve around computers!

I'm still using my first generation Mac

 

[Jamalien]

I believe it is because the CPU on the new 15" is still the 4th gen Intel Core i5/i7 chips using the 4th gen logic board (since the 5th gen quad core mobile chips are not ready yet) hence with the older board, it's using the slower RAM that is compatible with it.

Because 13" is not on haswell anymore, and supports faster bus officially.

I see. That makes more sense now

 

[deconstruct60]

Hoorah, a cheaper Retina iMac ... with worse specs. ....

Yeah, these whole lower-cost, worse-spec alternatives are frankly getting ridiculous. Consumers who don't know better are going to buy these, on the assumption -- no, the lie -- that 'Apple makes the decisions for the consumer', that 'we don't ship junk', that 'every product is carefully crafted for the best user experience'.

.....

The greedy get greedier.

The problem with this focus on spec porn is that the price of all the 5k iMacs just dropped. Kind of hard to make the argument that Apple is getting greedier when they lowered the prices.

Did the components drop $200 in 6 months? Probably not but 'early adopter' price premium isn't really new. Apple cleared the books of their R&D investment faster. Does Apple have a cash horde that a 2 year instead of 1 year return on investment would have equally as easily survivable? Yes.

Apple does price their products to make substantive profit. But it is actually easier to get the higher spec iMac 5K now than it was. Folks doing mostly Photography ( not doing medium-heavy duty 3d or tons of disco animation ) probably can do with the lower spec model.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Putting a HDD into an iMac? They haven't done this in years, what a regression.

It's the only way they could get the price down which is what the bean counters emailed to Mr. Cook as the reason people weren't buying the iMac 5k in droves (as opposed to the idea that the "average" non-techie consumer expects a computer to cost $600 these days, not $2600). So they lowered the parts qualities and dropped the price. WHAM! Instant success...or not. Frankly, I think they'd get more sales putting Mavericks on there instead of that abomination called Yosemite, but that's just me.

 

[smakus]

These are the most powerful MacBook Pros yet. Force Touch is truly incredible and that alone makes it worth buying a new laptop and selling your old one.

I ordered already!

Glad I didn't rush in and buy that new 12" MacBook now.

Yeah because that MacBook and the 15 inch macbook pro are really comparable.

 

[KindredMAC]

I just noticed the iMac 27" no longer has an i7 option. I haven't been paying close attention, so maybe that's old news. But I was wondering why, and couldn't find any explanation with a search. Anyone have a quick explanation, or link to a thread on it?

That just happened this morning. The only way to get the i7 is to purchase the retina iMac now.

 

[flybass]

No Cuda and still Haswell....my late 2013 just increased in value

 

[slam5]

Discrete graphics

Actually, the design of MBP with discrete graphics is THE problem. The minimalist approach to ventilation in that thin of a chassis should be re-designed. Iris pro graphics will be better at the cost of lower performance but that's the cost of having a minimalist ventilating system. A lot of people are using MBP for things that should be done with a Mac Pro BUT they are not doing it because of cost. MP start at 3500 cdn and up. If Apple only lower their price so people can afford it..

 

[loekf]

That just happened this morning. The only way to get the i7 is to purchase the retina iMac now.

Maybe Intel is supply limited on Haswell i7 and/or Apple tries to steer power users to the more expensive 5k model.

However, funny enough for the 21.5" you can still order an i7 (2-3 days prep time).

 

[brdeveloper]

sorry apple, but in 2015 every desktop should have at least fusion drive by default (ok, maybe entry mac mini with spinner is excusable).. and spinner in 2000 usd machine? that is PURE GREED.. whera are all those speeches about best user experience? with outdated spinners? really?

They should at least offer a "Fusion Lite" drive, that is, 1TB + 32GB SSD. This would make the entry level riMac suitable for geek granmas and granpas who only wants a better browsing experience.