Disappointed with the MacBook Pro 15.4 RD

[bikerc]

Hey guys:

I had an early 17" MBP 2011 (2.2 ghz ) which I upgraded to an SSD (samsung 840) and 16 GB of ram. Decided it was time for an upgrade (for various reasons), so I bought a 15" MBP RD 2.8ghz. I have to say I am disappointed - I have them side by side.

The screen of the 17" one is nice white (bought the non-glossy version) while the new screen has a vague yellowish tint it's not a pure white as the other one.

The resolution that looks best for the RD MBP is 1440x900 (I use best for display). I do windows programming as well and I am running windows 7 in parallels desktop . This resolution works best for the windows. Tried the 1680x1050 but the letters on the windows side become fuzzy. The mac side is okeish... So, it's quite a loss in resolution.

I run super pi and the results were for 2 million decimals: 28s - the old one, 22s - the new one. Not a terrible difference, about 21% improvement.

The new SSD seems to be a little bit faster - I tested it under the windows vm, some apps start slightly faster on the new one. I haven't run any software dedicated for benchmarks though.

Had to buy a bunch of things, like a thunderbolt cable, Ethernet adapter and the silly adapter for the power interface and they quickly added up with taxes to almost 100$. So much for the gift card they offer these days.

I am basically on the fence... I am considering the option of returning it and squeeze what's left of the 17" one for longer.

Cheers

 

[austinpike]

The 17" MacBooks were great for all the reasons you've discovered. The glory days of Moore's law are long gone; CPU processing power hasn't changed all that much in the past 5-6 years. Keep using it until the video card dies. And then get the GPU re-balled and milk it some more.

 

[TechGod]

Try recalibrating or changing colour profile.

 

[tbn002]

I have a late 2011 17" 2.4 ghz with an SSD and 16gb ram. I've been tempted to upgrade to a 15" retina but have been afraid that I'd come to the same conclusions as you. I think I'll keep the 17" a while longer.

 

[apfelmann]

You have a 1920x1200 machine, so 1440x900 is a downgrade (Even retina)

You will have to wait until apple upgrades the 15" retina to 1680x1050 (native 3360x2100) until it feels like an upgrade for you

 

[bikerc]

I did recalibrate the colors and they are slightly better but nowhere near the quality of the 17" display.

 

[yjchua95]

I did recalibrate the colors and they are slightly better but nowhere near the quality of the 17" display.

To be honest, the 15" rMBP can never replace the behemoth of a 17" that Apple discontinued.

The massive screen estate of the 17" is superb. Pushing a scaled 1920x1200 on a 15" rMBP isn't really the same as 1920x1200 on a 17" because UI elements appear smaller.