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Disappointed with new 13" rMBP considering cMBP

The thing is, when you buy something and pay a hefty premium you expect the product to atleast be in working condition. I have had several new pc laptops that I bought on launch day and never ever experienced these issues, now you can argue that it may be a sofware bug. But still when releasing a new product, hardware or software it should be working. Otherwise don't bother releasing it.


I actually went out yesterday and bought a mid 2012 cMBP for a great price. Sure it has a mechanical drive and only 4gb ram, but the thing is FLAWLESS. Mountain Lion pre installed, will wait for a more stable version of Mavericks.

No screen lag, perfect wifi and no freeze. As it should have been with the rMBP.

Hope you guys out there with rMBP get it sorted out with a patch.
 
zaranoff said:
Now I do realize that plenty of people are worry free and happy with their rMBP, maybe I recieved a bad one. For that amount of money spent on a laptop I do however expect basic stuff like WiFi and screen be in order.
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New hardware + new OS = plenty of bugs that will be squashed with soon to be released firmware & software updates.

This always happens with brand new hardware. Only this time there's a brand new OS thrown into the mix. You should have been more patient.
 
jondunford said:
wait for broadwell
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...because God knows Broadwell couldn't possibly have any problems whatsoever at launch, right?

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treyjustice said:
I think the 13 inch cMbp is a waste of money honestly.
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I wouldn't call it a waste of money, since it's upgradeability is a nice feature. But upgrading RAM and SSD will only get you so far.

And there's no disputing that its lumpy old chassis is easilt the least sexy of the three 13" models.
 
johnnylarue said:
...because God knows Broadwell couldn't possibly have any problems whatsoever at launch, right?

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I wouldn't call it a waste of money, since it's upgradeability is a nice feature. But upgrading RAM and SSD will only get you so far.

And there's no disputing that its lumpy old chassis is easilt the least sexy of the three 13" models.
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And its hideous screen resolution its just horrendous to look at when you've looked at a rMBP screen.
 
If you can't deal with minor hiccups, a Classic might not be for you either. There's a few issues that come with ownership of a Classic that you need to be aware of:

1) Hard drive cable failure rate.
The hard drive cable is really thin and fails a lot. A lot doesn't mean like, guaranteed but on my last 13" Classic Pro I had to take it in twice to get the cable replaced. On my current Classic, I haven't had to do it once but that's in six months of ownership. I swap out an SSD every now and then so I won't be surprised if it can't hold up.

2) DVD drive some times fails.
This is also particularly rare but it still happens every now and then. The DVD drive will stop reading disks and stop burning disks. Of course, that's all based on whether or not you actually USE the DVD drive.

Personally I like the resolution of my Classic and it doesn't at all feel "low resolution" or pixely to me. I like the ports it has, I like being able to upgrade or fix a hard drive/ram issue myself if they come up in the future. Low cost of investment so if I want to game I could either pick up a PS4 or build an eGPU. It doesn't feel heavy to me.

The Retina to me is an upgrade in specifications and aesthetics but a downgrade in future-proofing and longevity. The VERY moment, you pass the memory requirements of a Retina, you've officially outlived the machine because there's nothing you can do about it. At least with a Classic you can upgrade the ram.
 
treyjustice said:
I feel it is overpriced for what it is. I would rather either by a used cMbp one or pay a little more for an air or retina with an SSD
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I disagree, I almost got one as an upgrade from my 2009, I was going to put two 500GB SSD's in it which you can't do with the rMBP, I have specific tasks that really benefit from two drives.

I also think the display is great, I am not one of those "Once you go Retina, you can never go back" people, I use these devices strictly for work so I am not as personally attached as most on this site.
 
I have returned my as well, keyboard/ trackpad and screen issue. I didn't want to exchange, I'm just gonna wait few weeks to see what happens. I might consider 13" air
 
AlecMyrddyn said:
The fix was released a few hours ago.

https://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/0...h-retina-macbook-pro-keyboardtrackpad-issues/
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Yup I read that aswell, hope you guys with rMBP got it sorted out!

I myself waited a long time for a rMBP refresh only to have it returned and bought a 2012 cMBP, oh the irony.

I'm so happy with my purchase even if it's old tech, it serves my purpose well without any issues. Glad I stuck with Mac OS even though I was a bit discouraged with the rMBP.

I will keep this laptop for as long as I can since the resale value will likely be crap=)
 
zaranoff said:
The thing is, when you buy something and pay a hefty premium you expect the product to atleast be in working condition. I have had several new pc laptops that I bought on launch day and never ever experienced these issues, now you can argue that it may be a sofware bug. But still when releasing a new product, hardware or software it should be working. Otherwise don't bother releasing it.


I actually went out yesterday and bought a mid 2012 cMBP for a great price. Sure it has a mechanical drive and only 4gb ram, but the thing is FLAWLESS. Mountain Lion pre installed, will wait for a more stable version of Mavericks.

No screen lag, perfect wifi and no freeze. As it should have been with the rMBP.

Hope you guys out there with rMBP get it sorted out with a patch.
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Man, in my opinion, that's absolutely crazy. I've had 3 freezes in 3 weeks that were sorted in 10 seconds by closing the lid. No lagging. And now the fix is out.

Good lock with the laptop, but coming from a 2011 cMBP, the difference is substantial.
 
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Here's my take.

I bought a 15" CMBP last year and I love it. I did move the HD to my DVD drive and install a SSD into the main bay. The screen is great and it's a stable beast for me at home.

With the amount of work I do that involves moving around, the 15" classic was just not practical. I waited for the Haswell 13" RMBP and ordered the mid range + 16g of RAM day of release.

Needless to say, I was not pleased with the freezes. It's completely unacceptable and was a pain to deal with while trying to work on the road. But that's where my issues ended.

This thing is so thin and light, yet powerful. And the deal breaker for me in debating this machine over the 13" Air was the screen. It's breathtaking. I use the space bar preview feature so often now as I can read even the smallest of type so clearly.

I am blown away by how much I love this machine. I have no rattles, no wifi issues, no IR, etc.. The software fix has stopped my freezes too. I do realize however that ymmv, so I'm sure the OP will be happy with his CMBP. As someone who has both, I'd go RMBP in a heartbeat with one caveat. I still hate how the RAM, battery and HD are not replaceable. Outside of that, this thing is fantastic.
 
Savings in a sock under the fridge is a better think.

Save your money.
 
Its not productive to tell someone who's having issues that just because others don't, there's no problem.

Clearly the new MBPs have serious issues, when even Apple acknowledges them. And I agree that for a premium product with premium pricing, its absolutely unacceptable.
 
I also ordered the 13" and it was yellowish.. I returned it..

The guy at the apple store told me to look for a Mid 2012 MacBookPro9,1 2.3ghz 15" where you can change the HD and ram .. he said those machines are much better value than current Retina....

Soo i think I will search for a used 2012 pre retina model... any thoughts?
 
ecrispy said:
Its not productive to tell someone who's having issues that just because others don't, there's no problem.

Clearly the new MBPs have serious issues, when even Apple acknowledges them. And I agree that for a premium product with premium pricing, its absolutely unacceptable.
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What serious issues? The software fix has fixed the OS, not an issue with the hardware. Some early models have image retention, what else is there?
 
mscice said:
I also ordered the 13" and it was yellowish.. I returned it..

The guy at the apple store told me to look for a Mid 2012 MacBookPro9,1 2.3ghz 15" where you can change the HD and ram .. he said those machines are much better value than current Retina....

Soo i think I will search for a used 2012 pre retina model... any thoughts?
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He lied to you.

Retina is better, more valuable, and will hold its value better in the future.
 
Macshroomer said:
What serious issues? The software fix has fixed the OS, not an issue with the hardware. Some early models have image retention, what else is there?
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Sleep problems with Mavericks on all models - no fix yet
wifi/trackpad issues
Gmail

When you release an OS with a mail app that doesn't work with gmail, the largest email service, its a clear sign it wasn't even tested.

Its great we are getting the update, but it should never have been broken. Every oem releases fixes and updates, its nothing special. Apple prides itself on 'it just works' and should be held to a higher standard.
 
ecrispy said:
Apple prides itself on 'it just works' and should be held to a higher standard.
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Yep, and that is a false hope / web hype perception, not what many of us long time professional users set our selves up for. I have been using Mac's professionally since 1992 and not a *single* product has been without hiccups, major or minor.

Every Mc'Novice has blurted out how well Mavericks has been working for them and how Apple got it right with revision 10.9.0 but in the real world, that is just not the case.

For example, my very well maintained and high end Mac Pro is seeing all kinds of odds things from drives that cause boot hangups, slow window switching and odd sleep behavior. Not hardware related, all OS related. Several people complained of their 13"s being laggy when launching disk utility. Well guess what, my uber capable GTX 680 GPU in my Mac Pro does *exactly* the same thing!

With the exception of some of the early serial numbers of the 13" having image retention prone screens, nothing has been hardware related, all OSX. All machines respond differently to early OS bugs, this has been the way it has been since I was using OS 8. So when web-fabulists starting calling foul on new hardware when the OS is bugging it out, well that is the problem with the web, people not understanding *why* something is happening so they blame it on the new hardware.
 
Macshroomer said:
Save your breath...and maybe change your sig too, it shows you still have the 13" BTO...you did send it back right...? Or are you full of it?
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Not holding my breath, mind your own business :)

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Here is the big but. To those who ask others to be huh "patient". Patients die in the hospital waiting rooms FYI. Anyhow…..

If my projects need to be done on time I can NOT afford to wait on software updates and fixes because it renders my hardware completely unusable is infinitely unacceptable. Returning it was my only solution because losing money on a project and wasting precious time isn't in my business model nor motto for clients / labels etc… The money saved I can find instant solutions and carry on with important work. If I were just a regular consumer and I can't play a game or click open a movie, I would have all the patience in the world because I'd probably have NOTHING else better to do with myself.

But even then, I'd go out for a walk and visit a friend or two for tea, but they are most likely glued to their fones anyways so I just visit the animals in the park HAH!
 
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