Well, just for the experience I went and bought one yesterday - the 13" with 256 GB SSD, one of the only models they actually stock. The usual nice packaging, store experience was fine, etc.
And:
It's nice. Really. The retina screen is fine. Nicer than the one on my son's 13" cMBP? In some respects, yes, though not as bright. There's a tiny bit of lag while scrolling - though you have to watch for it. And no ghosting yet.
However: The price is exorbitant - a complete rip-off. In normal use it doesn't feel any faster (or "snappier") than the cMBP (granted, 16 GB of RAM in the cMBP vs. 8 in the rMBP). The body of it feels flimsy - reminds me of why I dislike the Air the so much - I keep waiting to tap right through the keyboard while typing. There IS such a thing as "too thin" - and this is on the wrong side of that line. I'm also one of those who actually does upgrade my laptop - and the utter lack of expansion capability is a huge turnoff.
As for the weight difference? Insignificant. In fact, it'd probably be a bigger PITA to live and travel with because you'd have to carry an external drive around to keep all your files on, as well as an external Superdrive - either of which completely defeat the purpose of having an all-in-one laptop. I'm travelling next week for work, and will take it with me as a double-check, but don't hold your breath.
It is nice having an HDMI port, because my wife and I have a TV with an HDMI input as well as the requisite cable. But when my son asked if he could watch a movie on it, he was more than a bit bemused to learn it didn't have an optical drive. And, of course, neither of us could get all our files on it, given the 256 GB storage limit.
Looks fine, screen is nice, totally not worth the money - it gives you nothing that the cMBP doesn't already do, unless an HDMI port is that big a deal - and there are adapters out there for mini-DP to HDMI . . . for a lot less than $1899. What I'll most likely end up doing is returning the rMBP in favor of a 13" i7 and swapping the 8 GB RAM for 16 GB (aftermarket).
We'll see - so far, I'm not impressed. I'm not sure Steve Jobs would have let it out of the factory - I think he would have appreciated the engineering achievement but failed it for costing too much.
[EDIT] I've noticed that it uses 768 MB of RAM for VRAM, compared to 512 MB in my son's 13". I've also not noticed a problem with IR or with scrolling.
And:
It's nice. Really. The retina screen is fine. Nicer than the one on my son's 13" cMBP? In some respects, yes, though not as bright. There's a tiny bit of lag while scrolling - though you have to watch for it. And no ghosting yet.
However: The price is exorbitant - a complete rip-off. In normal use it doesn't feel any faster (or "snappier") than the cMBP (granted, 16 GB of RAM in the cMBP vs. 8 in the rMBP). The body of it feels flimsy - reminds me of why I dislike the Air the so much - I keep waiting to tap right through the keyboard while typing. There IS such a thing as "too thin" - and this is on the wrong side of that line. I'm also one of those who actually does upgrade my laptop - and the utter lack of expansion capability is a huge turnoff.
As for the weight difference? Insignificant. In fact, it'd probably be a bigger PITA to live and travel with because you'd have to carry an external drive around to keep all your files on, as well as an external Superdrive - either of which completely defeat the purpose of having an all-in-one laptop. I'm travelling next week for work, and will take it with me as a double-check, but don't hold your breath.
It is nice having an HDMI port, because my wife and I have a TV with an HDMI input as well as the requisite cable. But when my son asked if he could watch a movie on it, he was more than a bit bemused to learn it didn't have an optical drive. And, of course, neither of us could get all our files on it, given the 256 GB storage limit.
Looks fine, screen is nice, totally not worth the money - it gives you nothing that the cMBP doesn't already do, unless an HDMI port is that big a deal - and there are adapters out there for mini-DP to HDMI . . . for a lot less than $1899. What I'll most likely end up doing is returning the rMBP in favor of a 13" i7 and swapping the 8 GB RAM for 16 GB (aftermarket).
We'll see - so far, I'm not impressed. I'm not sure Steve Jobs would have let it out of the factory - I think he would have appreciated the engineering achievement but failed it for costing too much.
[EDIT] I've noticed that it uses 768 MB of RAM for VRAM, compared to 512 MB in my son's 13". I've also not noticed a problem with IR or with scrolling.
Last edited:
