Custom MacBook Pro Retina waiting room

[DougFNJ]

Been thinking, researching, overthinking, and finally pulled the trigger. I've had the mid 2012 MacBook Pro since the day it was released. Recently we got my wife the 13" retina. That screen is spectacular, I have been so impressed between that and the size and weight.

So today I took a little trip to the Apple Store. I priced out the 13" with the i7 and 16gb upgrades on her educator discount. Between what I will get selling my mid 2012 and winning a Super Bowl box....(thank you Pete Carroll for blowing that call), I pulled the trigger on it. Because of the i7 however I have to wait until the estimated delivery date of 10 days.....

So the wait begins, and the waiting room created. Anyone else waiting for something? Any shot this gets delivered much earlier? I had it ship to store.

 

[Natzoo]

I think you should've got the base 15". The screen is amazing too and plus its great when ur watching or going on a mac for a long time. I had a 13" and its nice.

 

[DougFNJ]

I think you should've got the base 15". The screen is amazing too and plus its great when ur watching or going on a mac for a long time. I had a 13" and its nice.

I really thought about it, and I went back and forth between the 15" and the 13". I ended up going with the highest end 13" for that size, the portability was the more important factor between the two.

 

[cambookpro]

I really thought about it, and I went back and forth between the 15" and the 13". I ended up going with the highest end 13" for that size, the portability was the more important factor between the two.

I think you made a good choice. My friend recently got the base 13" rMBP and, compared to my 15" cMBP, you don't lose any screen real estate if you bump up the scaled resolution by one and it's so much smaller and lighter - I don't really see any reason to buy the MacBook Air unless you want the 11" model now. Compared to the 15" rMBP, the battery life is longer, it has all the same I/O and the PPI is better!

You do lose the quad-core, but with the speed of the SSD it did the vast majority of tasks faster than my cMBP which Geekbenches at almost double. Encoding a 30-minute video on the rMBP (which I thought mine would be significantly faster at) was actually a bit faster.

 

[JHUFrank]

OP, good choice. Pretty much the same reason I chose the same model. I spent several trips to the Apple store agonizing over the 15 vs the 13. I am thrilled with my rMBP.

 

[DougFNJ]

Thanks for the feedback and validating my thoughts on this MacBook. I'm stoked! It is now in Preparing for Shipment status. Hoping it comes in much sooner than the 13th.

 

[Natzoo]

agree, have fun with your 13" retina, its amazing and thin

 

[redheeler]

I really thought about it, and I went back and forth between the 15" and the 13". I ended up going with the highest end 13" for that size, the portability was the more important factor between the two.

I also chose the 13" over the 15", although the 15" was a slightly older mid 2012 model. The speed to portability of the 13" is great.

 

[DougFNJ]

The wait was over on Friday, sorry for the delayed post, been a busy weekend. I picked my brand new 13" MacBook Pro Retina with 3.0 GHz i7 processor with 16GB RAM 512GB SSD at the store.

For those who order custom online, for reference, I ordered it online February 3rd. It was initially expected for the 13th, when it shipped, the page showed it would be ready the 12th, and it did indeed take until the 12th to arrive. I received the email and text in the afternoon, I was driving home from Washington DC and picked it up at my local store in NJ that day before heading home. It doesn't really matter to me, I know how to set everything up, but I was surprised they did not offer to assist in doing so at the store. In fact, when I had specifically asked if the migration tool would bring over apps like Microsoft Office, he told me I would have to download and install those products over again. I was disappointed about that, but no big deal.

I got home and opened it up, pressed the power button, started the initial setup, and used the Time Capsule to migrate everything over. 7 hours later I was REALLY happy to see ALL apps, settings, desktop icons, and everything for the most part was all set up exactly as I had them on the MacBook I am replacing. The only difference was having to reset icons and folders in Launchpad, which of course was not that big a deal. The "Genius" really should had known that.

I was also happy to see Final Cut had the project I am working on exactly as I had left off as well, which brings me to why I customized it the way I did. I was looking for the 3.0 i7 to do exactly what I was hoping it would, process my projects faster than the i5, and faster than my previous MacBook. I know the 15" would had done this faster, but the size/weight difference was big enough to make a difference, I bring my Macbook, iPad, and iPhone with me pretty much wherever I go. For a side by side test to validate the upgrades in my mind, I ran various tasks next to my wife's i5. The simple stuff ran just about as fast, but the processor intensive items with Final Cut and Aperture were definitely major improvements on the i7 and the RAM helped make that difference.

This screen by the way is absolutely gorgeous! I am so happy looking through my photos on this vs my old non retina. It really is a HUGE difference when comparing back and forth between the 2. I definitely got what I wanted out of this computer. At this point as we speak, I am running Firevault on the old MacBook before I do a wipe of that SSD and put it up for sale.

I appreciate all the helpful posts throughout this forum, and look forward to discussing more.

 

[DougFNJ]

Part 2 here, I just paid a lot of money for the top of the line 13 inch and 3 weeks later they release the upgrade. There was nothing wrong with the MacBook mind you, but I paid extra for the upgrades with anticipating owning it for 3-4 years.

I figured it would be a long shot and I wouldn't be hugely disappointed if they said no, but I called my local Apple Store and asked them if they would allow me to exchange even though I'm past the return date. The guy put me on hold, asked the manager, came back and told me to bring it in, it would not be a problem.

At the store, I completed the same order, i7 3.1 with 16 GB Ram, and the price remained the same. I paid an extra $14 for expedited shipping and the wait commences.

I'm stoked!