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Don't buy the Retina Macbook Pro

astroboy907 said:
I totally agree with the author. I was not planning on getting retina.

First of all, I can put my own parts into the laptop and it will run just as well as a retina, complete with 512gb of flash storage and 32 (!) gb of RAM, for less than $600.

Retina is just a gimmick. Hopefully apple will see the light and put a retina on the user upgradable 15". Then i would buy in an instant. Right now I am holding off..
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Those of us that feel this way are the tiny minority. The public will love it.

I know I've been waiting for a laptop exactly like this for a year, so it was an easy choice for me. Non-TN screen? Check. Solid construction? Check. More power than my quad-core desktop, by far? Check. Double the RAM I had before, and more storage space? Check. Over 1 lb lighter than before? Check. What more does one need? :)
 
7even said:
Those of us that feel this way are the tiny minority. The public will love it.

I know I've been waiting for a laptop exactly like this for a year, so it was an easy choice for me. Non-TN screen? Check. Solid construction? Check. More power than my quad-core desktop, by far? Check. Double the RAM I had before, and more storage space? Check. Over 1 lb lighter than before? Check. What more does one need? :)
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The ability to fix it if it breaks. Thats what.
 
D1G1T4L said:
You are free to say anything you want. Just doesn't always make it right ;)
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Yes it does, becauze I am on tah INTRANETZ! :)
Lol :) i just dont think retina justifies the loss of ports/upgrades. Loss of optical and ethernet I can live with though.

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D1G1T4L said:
Never had a problem getting any of my apple products fixed that broke and pretty sure that will remain the same on the new product line.
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Well, lucky you. Not so great for me :)
And I am thinking of repairing these laptops to get some extra cash. I welcome them to fall apart :D
 
astroboy907 said:
The ability to fix it if it breaks. Thats what.
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True. In my experience, the things that commonly break are a) the optical drive (gone), b) the power brick (can't fix that), and c) the hard drive (of the rotating variety). The only thing you can't replace on the new model that you could on the last one is the RAM, no?
 
Beliblis said:
I'm not too worried about the soldered parts: 16gb of ram is more than enough for most people.
Internal Flash Drive: I currently work on a MacBook with 128gb SSD. Enough for all the applications, music/podcasts & documents I need. Camera RAW files are stored on an external drive.

All I hope for Apple is: the internal flash drive needs to be 100% reliable! Just like with standard-sized SSDs, certain brands & controllers seem to have a better reliability than others.
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Unless there are 16GB DDR3-SODIMM modules on the market, even last year's MBPs cannot be upgraded past 16GB RAM (2 slots) total anyways.

As for SSDs, it's either Sandforce for speed or Marvell Toshiba et al for reliability. I don't think Apple has ever used SF for their stock and upgraded SSDs; the stock stuff is durable but not particularly fast vs the rest of the market.
 
Save yourself some money $400 just get the $1799 macbook pro awesome product! Give Retina another year to work out any issues and lower price point.
 
Retina display looks great on my iPhone 4/4S Vs 3G/3GS.. Huge difference!! Love it.. It also looks pretty good on the new iPad Vs iPad 2 [ although I still prefer iPad 2 for other reasons.. ] However, I don't see the point of Retina on a laptop, at least for me!

My MBP's screen is just fine.. text and pictures are crisp, bright and easy on my eyes!

Nothing really impressed me with today's keynote. It was more like Apple flexing it's muscle and getting personal with Google!
 
jmacis said:
Save yourself some money $400 just get the $1799 macbook pro awesome product! Give Retina another year to work out any issues and lower price point.
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Same here. By then I will have enough cash for whatever they throw up, and hopefully they will put some real pro action there and not take down the pro line. Not even buying one now!

Course, if they take down this years MBP I will probably cave and get retina, by then we will be on Haswell processors and will be a serious upgrade from my C2D.

My mother, and this has held true for most things, is to wait until the 2nd gen, because then they will have upgraded it by a lot (see difference between 1st and 2nd gen ipads for that matter) had a rule
I call it:

My rule dé Apple
Wait 1 generation after something large is introduced in an iPad, iPod, iPhone, macbook, iMac, or Mac Pro (or 1-2 months after release if you need it. Then you can see some issues)

Holds true for just about everything. Using it this year for retina.
 
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astroboy907 said:
Yes it does, becauze I am on tah INTRANETZ! :)
Lol :) i just dont think retina justifies the loss of ports/upgrades. Loss of optical and ethernet I can live with though.

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Well, lucky you. Not so great for me :)
And I am thinking of repairing these laptops to get some extra cash. I welcome them to fall apart :D
Click to expand...
Start fixing windows laptops, they break all the time
 
duncan35 said:
Well, it's not really hard to ... starting with the price.
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Heres this for starters..

My dream laptop (before WWDC)
Maxed out, 2.5ghz 17" Macbook pro: $2600 with student discounts

A crappy retina model, maxed out
2.7ghz, 15" Retina (smaller screen, ugh), less ports (but USB3), non upgradable parts: $3600, with a student discount

36 HUNDRED dollars!!

I've seen good cars for cheaper.

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henrikrox said:
Start fixing windows laptops, they break all the time
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Which is why they have little resale value.. I think (I never really checked on windows...)

I can get some C2D unibodies for $300, and sell them for $600 with minor replacements (HDD, RAM, etc)

Pre unibodies are even easier... I saw $200 for a 17" body that just needed a new HD. Ive seen working ones go for $700.
 
astroboy907 said:
Same here. By then I will have enough cash for whatever they throw up, and hopefully they will put some real pro action there and not take down the pro line. Not even buying one now!

Course, if they take down this years MBP I will probably cave and get retina, by then we will be on Haswell processors and will be a serious upgrade from my C2D.

My mother, and this has held true for most things, is to wait until the 2nd gen, because then they will have upgraded it by a lot (see difference between 1st and 2nd gen ipads for that matter)

My rule dé Apple
Wait 1 generation after something large is introduced in an iPad, iPod, iPhone, macbook, iMac, or Mac Pro (or 1-2 months after release if you need it. Then you can see some issues)

Holds true for just about everything. Using it this year for retina.
Click to expand...
We got it, a couple of posts ago. You are justifying why you dont get the new mbp. And thats fine.

However apple did say the new mbp was for the future or something along those lines, so i would not see a resolution increase in the future for the 15". All though, since haswell is a TOCK upgrade i guess for some its worth waiting for.

I just sell my mac products each year anyways, for 200 dollar loss.
 
Just to summarize the concern for SSD/RAM.

RAM - permanently not upgradeable due to soldering.
SSD - possible to upgrade but due to non-standard size no market solutions exist.

I would want to keep my new MBP for years to come, with options to upgrade SSD size to potentially 750GB or 1TB in future, should I take this risk now hoping there will "eventually" be a user-upgradeable SSD drive so wait to see websites like OWC offering a solution?

Also, the other concern is the new AC wifi chip. Apple was able to "enable" or "upgrade with firmware" previously from one of their "G" to "N" (forgot which model) will we see something similar? This would be the "only" feature that I'll regret in the next few years especially when transferring large files or streaming or airplaying Full-HD clips around.
 
henrikrox said:
We got it, a couple of posts ago. You are justifying why you dont get the new mbp. And thats fine.

However apple did say the new mbp was for the future or something along those lines, so i would not see a resolution increase in the future for the 15". All though, since haswell is a TOCK upgrade i guess for some its worth waiting for.

I just sell my mac products each year anyways, for 200 dollar loss.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasnt expecting much. Hopefully by next year they will have a 1tb option for SSD (thats my minimum).
TOCK? IDK...

And should I really repair windows?
 
mark28 said:
The only way to make Apple listen ...blah blah
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I don't want apple to listen, I agree with Jobs' philosophy that consumers don't know what they want till they see it, and by then they'll want something else.

I am perfectly content with the way that Apple has enriched my life with their elegantly designed hardware and software.

Forget about same sex marriages, I rather they let me marry my 27" imac. :)

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JKK photography said:
It'll sell like hot cakes, regardless.
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I think you are way wrong there. Hotcakes will not be even close to matching the new retina mac pro in sales.

vjicecool said:
retina display is going to be flop...
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Gates also said Apple would flop.
 
7even said:
True. In my experience, the things that commonly break are a) the optical drive (gone), b) the power brick (can't fix that), and c) the hard drive (of the rotating variety). The only thing you can't replace on the new model that you could on the last one is the RAM, no?
Click to expand...

I am not too concerned about the ram personally. But storage... they are strictly speaking consumables. SSDs may have replaced the kludgey mechanical drives, but SSDs are nowhere as durable as the traditional drives.
 
astroboy907 said:
I totally agree with the author. I was not planning on getting retina.

First of all, I can put my own parts into the laptop and it will run just as well as a retina, complete with 512gb of flash storage and 32 (!) gb of RAM, for less than $600.

Retina is just a gimmick. Hopefully apple will see the light and put a retina on the user upgradable 15". Then i would buy in an instant. Right now I am holding off..
Click to expand...

pretty sure you can't get 512 SSD and 32GB of Ram for $600 considering 32GB RAM in a 2x16GB kit doesn't exist yet
 
iMusings said:
I am not too concerned about the ram personally. But storage... they are strictly speaking consumables. SSDs may have replaced the kludgey mechanical drives, but SSDs are nowhere as durable as the traditional drives.
Click to expand...

SSD's are not as durable as physical platter hard drives? I've always thought the opposite. Thought the moving parts could cause more problems.
 
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