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Cypther

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2012
61
0
Is there any reason why Apple does not include BTO Retina for the legacy Macbook pro? I would be happy to pay extra for it, the legacy unibody MBP is not thick that I want something thinner.
 
Is there any reason why Apple does not include BTO Retina for the legacy Macbook pro? I would be happy to pay extra for it, the legacy unibody MBP is not thick that I want something thinner.

At the very least it would probably require a logic board redesign just to accommodate the bigger battery.
 
Expensive panel to make, and they're having it made in a custom form factor (incompatible with the old machine), so economies of scale aren't there to make one for the old machine, too.
 
Expensive panel to make, and they're having it made in a custom form factor (incompatible with the old machine), so economies of scale aren't there to make one for the old machine, too.


I'm not sure if I agree with that, a lot of people complain about the glossy screen for the unibody MBP so Apple change the screen. They removed the glass and modify it to add the matte screen. There is really no reason not to have the BTO Retina.
 
I'm not sure if I agree with that, a lot of people complain about the glossy screen for the unibody MBP so Apple change the screen. They removed the glass and modify it to add the matte screen. There is really no reason not to have the BTO Retina.

Yes there is, and it was stated above. The retina screen required an entire physical redesign to the case. What makes you so sure it's completely compatible?
 
Yes there is, and it was stated above. The retina screen required an entire physical redesign to the case. What makes you so sure it's completely compatible?

They did the redesign to reduce glare and to make it thinner, instead of double glass design. My problem is they made it 25 percent thinner and you lose the ability for RAM/SSD upgrade, no ODD, Ethernet, FireWire 800 which is not a very good trade off.
 
They did the redesign to reduce glare and to make it thinner, instead of double glass design. My problem is they made it 25 percent thinner and you lose the ability for RAM/SSD upgrade, no ODD, Ethernet, FireWire 800 which is not a very good trade off.

The battery in the retina model is much larger. The current 15" MBP chassis carries a 77 watt-hour battery. The Retina MBP requires a 95 watt-hour battery to achieve the same battery life.

And you can get Thunderbolt dongles for FW800 and GigE.
 
I'm not sure if I agree with that, a lot of people complain about the glossy screen for the unibody MBP so Apple change the screen. They removed the glass and modify it to add the matte screen. There is really no reason not to have the BTO Retina.

And there, I believe they used an off-the-shelf screen.

This appears to be full custom.
 
They did the redesign to reduce glare and to make it thinner, instead of double glass design. My problem is they made it 25 percent thinner and you lose the ability for RAM/SSD upgrade, no ODD, Ethernet, FireWire 800 which is not a very good trade off.

What redesign are you referring to? If you're talking about the Retina Display, no it was not redesigned to reduce glare, it was redesigned because it's a completely new screen with new hardware. The new screen requires a completely different logic board compared to the standard MacBook Pro, plus it requires more backlighting and thus more power. But if you compare the Glossy vs. matte screens, they are the same LCD--one just has an extra piece of glass.

Please stop arguing points you know nothing about. We've given you the answer to your question.
 
Please stop arguing points you know nothing about. We've given you the answer to your question.

To implement that Retina screen in the legacy MBP it's not impossible. They probably would have to modify some of the components to make it work. I'm sure you're such an expert on engineering that's it's impossible to do. It's not like it's breaking the law of physics and asking god to make it work or some kind of magic!
 
I think the reason is that they want to sell the new design and move customers away from the old design so they can just build a single form factor. It's a huge differentiator that helps them do this.
 
To implement that Retina screen in the legacy MBP it's not impossible. They probably would have to modify some of the components to make it work. I'm sure you're such an expert on engineering that's it's impossible to do. It's not like it's breaking the law of physics and asking god to make it work or some kind of magic!

What's your point? That's it technically feasible. Of course it could be done. But why would Apple invest money to modify the legacy design, which is clearly on the way out? It doesn't make any sense.

If you want a retina display, you have to buy the next-gen MBP.
 
What's your point? That's it technically feasible. Of course it could be done. But why would Apple invest money to modify the legacy design, which is clearly on the way out? It doesn't make any sense.

If you want a retina display, you have to buy the next-gen MBP.

So the "Pro" users can upgrade in the future. Losing the ability for RAM/SSD upgrade is a deal breaker.
 
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