cMBP looking dated

[terraphantm]

But it can't put 2 x SSD in Raid 0 / superdrive and lacks many ports. It's more of a 15" Macbook Air than it being a Macbook Pro.

And a hub is bad if you want low latency.

Asides for perhaps price considerations, Raid 0 is not necessary for an SSD. Most SSDs perform an "internal" raid 0 of sorts; generally a larger capacity SSD will also be a lot faster than a low capacity one. Not to mention that the majority of the SSD performance increase is due to the the short latencies, which is not dependent on sheer bandwidth.

The two thunderbolt ports can add back that functionality if you need it (I don't know if firewire is really necessary with USB3...)

I personally tend not to use more than 1 or 2 USB devices while I'm on the go. If I'm on my desk I usually use more... but I use a hub when I'm on a desk since it's more convenient. I'm most likely to do "pro" work on a desk, so the missing port is a nonissue for me.

The only time I used an ODD in the past year was to rip a blu-ray movie... and since macs don't come with bluray drives anyway, the missing ODD is no issue for me.

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Nope, the RMBP is 25% thinner than the cMBP. Have no idea where you got 34% from. Go look at the Retina Display MBP video "And it is only .71 inches thin, thats 25% thinner than our previous generation MacBook Pro" -Bob Mansfield

Also the new RMBP is not that much thinner. It's only 3/4 the thickness of the cMBP.

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Or the inability to upgrade, no ethernet or firewire, needs dongles to get those ports. Burn in and Ghosting issues with the screen, pressure marks, glued in battery, and very high price tag. Sounds lovely. Honestly it's a nice machine but there are currently a lot of problems with it. So it would probably be beneficial for people to wait until the next generation or the next one after that, so that the majority of the problems will be fixed or dealt with.

I'm hoping the screen issues are due to a bad batch. As far as the price goes... a cMBP with a 2.6GHz CPU, 512GB SSD, and high res screen will cost a decent bit more than a similarly equipped rMBP. And Apple doesn't even give you the option to upgrade the ram to 16GB (I realize you can do this after the fact). Now even if you order a 2.6MBP and upgrade to an SSD after the fact, you're going to be pretty damn close to the price of a 512rMBP. So the lack of upgradability is a non-issue to me since with a high end rMBP I'm still saving money compared to a fully upgraded cMBP

I agree that the glue is unforgivable though.

 

[thekev]

The cMBP is substantially thicker than than both the rMBP and MBA, and even more so looks significantly thicker. Just look at the pictures on the apple website, the cMBP and rMBP do not even look like they should be newly released computers at the same time.

I don't agree with you. You're buying into Apple's marketing that thin is all that matters. These things have become somewhat delicate in the process, not that you should throw around any item. In many cases it makes very little difference. A lot of people do not really transport their notebooks, however they've alleviated the need for computer furniture. You can simply put them away when not in use. They simply conform to behavior better, but you gain very little from going ever thinner at this point without exponential differences. I think much of it is that they just wanted to change something on a year where the spec bumps alone aren't enough to greatly affect most of their customers. This generation has very little effect on me, so I'm passing either way. If I had to travel constantly, it might be more significant.

 

[Braniff747SP]

I believe that the cMBP is one of the best laptop designs ever. It truly is about as close to perfection as you can be--Sure, it's not ultra-thin like the rMBP, another beautiful machine, but then again, It's not that heavy. It still looks better than most other computers currently manufactured.

 

[Urban Spaceman]

Most SSDs perform an "internal" raid 0 of sorts; generally a larger capacity SSD will also be a lot faster than a low capacity one.

That effect stops once you fill all channels of an SSD's controller. With this generation of SSDs that is generally at the ~256GB point; larger drives have no associated performance increase. Two RAID 0 256GB SSDs will have near twice the performance of a single 512GB SSD. Whether this increased performance is noticeable is open for debate.

I agree that the glue is unforgivable though.

+1

 

[Southernboyj]

But it can't put 2 x SSD in Raid 0 / superdrive and lacks many ports. It's more of a 15" Macbook Air than it being a Macbook Pro.

And a hub is bad if you want low latency.

While I agree you lose the Raid option, which in my opinion isn't really necessary anyway. It doesn't lose "many" ports. Just really FireWire and Ethernet. Which, USB 3.0 really makes FireWire outdated, and while some may need Ethernet, most don't use it anyway and it's not like they took it out just to cut cost. The laptop is literally too thin to fit it on the case.

As for just being a 15" MBA. I'd disagree from a power prospective. This laptop is very powerful especially considering how light and thin it is. Also, I've owned a MBA before, the color gamut is awful as are the viewing angles. Both are spectacular on the rMBP.