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I would argue that the reason the 17" MBP didn't sell well is due to them not understanding it correctly.

They treated the 17" MacBook Pro like a larger 15". Apart from the extra screen size there is very little else different. An extra USB port. That's about it.

If I was designing a 17" Retina MBP the first thing I'd do is include a 2nd SSD. Two sticks instead of one. That would take storage to 2x256GB / 2x512GB or 2x768GB. RAID0 and RAID1 support to boost performance or reliability.

I would also offer it with Mobile Quadro / FireGL graphics as a BTO option. These are the kinds of features that professionals looking to purchase a 17" notebook want otherwise there is no point paying the price premium over the 15" because all the features are the same.

Now as a creative professional I love large screens as my signature can attest with the 3x30" 2560x1600 displays and my 17" Unibody MBP. I would kill to have a 4K resolution rMBP 17" - I'd be willing to spend £2,800 one of those. Apple just needs to understand the market they are selling to. They killed the 17" because it wasn't selling but it wasn't selling because they didn't make it an attractive proposition.

Based on how small the Current SSD's are in the current rMBP a 15 inch second gen rMBP could also get 2 SSD's if they reduce a bit the size of a few components
 
I would love to see the 17" make a comeback. I feel like there would be many people in the market to purchase that size.
 
I have a feeling it may come back to be a halo product.
At first, I didn't think so. All signs lead me to believe they have abandoned it.
But my reasoning is this.

The 17" could be the first 4K laptop. Just to have for bragging rights.
a 4K resolution on a 15" would be crazy insane too small. I often run 2880x1800 native resolution and it is pushing it. Even HiDPI 1920x1200 is pushing it.

A 4K screen for an iMac is also pushing it. 4K 27" screen may be too cost prohibited. But using the iPad's screen manufacturing, I believe it is possible to push this economically in a 16-17" form factor.


But on a 17", having the first 4K screen on a shipping laptop could be a trophy halo piece as the ChromeBook Pixel is Google's halo piece to out-trump Apple's claims of the highest PPI laptop.

Then there is the issue we are moving to 4K content. What way to do this than with a 4K laptop with a 4K Final Cut Pro X. With Adobe pushing to creative cloud, I bet some editors may well move back to FCPX due to the backlash.

This is a golden opportunity to have an "exciting new product"
 
I have a feeling it may come back to be a halo product.
At first, I didn't think so. All signs lead me to believe they have abandoned it.
But my reasoning is this.

The 17" could be the first 4K laptop. Just to have for bragging rights.
a 4K resolution on a 15" would be crazy insane too small. I often run 2880x1800 native resolution and it is pushing it. Even HiDPI 1920x1200 is pushing it.

A 4K screen for an iMac is also pushing it. 4K 27" screen may be too cost prohibited. But using the iPad's screen manufacturing, I believe it is possible to push this economically in a 16-17" form factor.


But on a 17", having the first 4K screen on a shipping laptop could be a trophy halo piece as the ChromeBook Pixel is Google's halo piece to out-trump Apple's claims of the highest PPI laptop.

Then there is the issue we are moving to 4K content. What way to do this than with a 4K laptop with a 4K Final Cut Pro X. With Adobe pushing to creative cloud, I bet some editors may well move back to FCPX due to the backlash.

This is a golden opportunity to have an "exciting new product"

I actually think the same as you. I believe they will bring the 17" back at some time in the future to give it a 4K display for bragging rights.

I see the 17" Powerbook as the first introduction of this ideology. You all probably recall the famous advertisement with Yao Ming and Verne Troyer on an airplane with their respective 12" and 17" Powerbooks. If I'm not mistaken Apple were the first to ship a 17" Notebook.

I think the only reason they did that was to be the first to do it. It won them a ton of publicity at the time that they had (as they put it) stuck a 17" iMac LCD in to a notebook form factor.

I believe they will do it again just this time with a Retina MacBook Pro 17" with a 4K display. It makes logical sense and would win them a hell of a lot of publicity.
 
But 17" mbp is already dead

ahhh speak for yourself and 10 percent out there. there are many still alive and well to date thank you very much. they will come back. when they do you will cry.
 
If they do it and they do it right it could be a TRUE mobile workstation solution with plenty of upgrade options. Time the pro users got some love.
 
ahhh speak for yourself and 10 percent out there. there are many still alive and well to date thank you very much. they will come back. when they do you will cry.

Unfortunately very much the opposite, as by far the vast majority of Mac owners have little to no interest in the 17" MBP. If Apple revives the 17" it really needs to differentiate from the 15" MBP, not follow the previous pattern of larger display and little else. Apple will need to make the system far more appealing to the "Pro" user as the average consumer clearly has no interest.
 
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If they do it and they do it right it could be a TRUE mobile workstation solution with plenty of upgrade options. Time the pro users got some love.

I hear you there :) churning out nothing more than a larger 15" is only going to result in mediocre sales. If Apple want to deliver they need to offer a professional level portable workstation, with a level of customization the end user needs, a consumer orientated 17" will simply flop like the last production run...
 
yep.

but not before a couple of years, where people start demanding higher resolution. i guess.

currently people still "settle" with the regular mac?

The haswell chips support the resolution... but does it have the power to run a laptop at that resolution?
(battery-time and such should be considered as well)

sure. it's possible to make it. but i don't think there's a big enough market for it. It will come though.

I cought myself just last night looking for a 4K monitor for my desktop PC. I could only find 5K dollar televisions.. (ammd 50K dollar televisions..) i decided to wait.
 
Hi Guys, I went to look at the new 15inch retina and really don't want to have to loose the screen size. But on the other hand its allot faster than my 17inch 2009 version 3.06GHz, 4GB Memory, 1TB HD. In the store they had Adobe cs6 installed and 4 applications opened really quick altogether, very impressive. I had several browser tabs downloading large files etc. Mine doesn't do that lol

Maybe I just upgrade the ram to 8gb then wait and see.

Any advice ?

_______________
iPhone 5 - 34gb
iPad mini - 16 bg
imac 24
mac mini
mac book pro 17 2009 3.06GHz, 4GB Memory, 1TB HD, anti glare
 
Hi Guys, I went to look at the new 15inch retina and really don't want to have to loose the screen size. But on the other hand its allot faster than my 17inch 2009 version 3.06GHz, 4GB Memory, 1TB HD. In the store they had Adobe cs6 installed and 4 applications opened really quick altogether, very impressive. I had several browser tabs downloading large files etc. Mine doesn't do that lol

Maybe I just upgrade the ram to 8gb then wait and see.

Any advice ?

_______________
iPhone 5 - 34gb
iPad mini - 16 bg
imac 24
mac mini
mac book pro 17 2009 3.06GHz, 4GB Memory, 1TB HD, anti glare

Definitely put in an SSD and 8 GB RAM. You will be surprised how responsive it is.
 
Do you imagin?? An ultrathin 17" retina macbook pro with a full native 4K display, ssd and maybe dual graphics due to the lack of superdrive...
I really think we will see it.

Me too. Loving my 17" mbp. Couldn't go for something smaller-screened.

----------

Definitely put in an SSD and 8 GB RAM. You will be surprised how responsive it is.

Yup, I've done the same (Vertex4). Really fast.
 
Me too. Loving my 17" mbp. Couldn't go for something smaller-screened.

----------



Yup, I've done the same (Vertex4). Really fast.

Yep. SSD + Maxed ram = speedy and fluid.

If you're wanting a 17" now, might look into Razer's Blade Pro. Haswell + 765m in about the same footprint/weight as the 17" MBP.

I'm hoping come 2015 a 4k 17" MBP makes a return!
 
Sorry to necropost BUT good ideas shouldn't die :) plus always something to add that can help!

Pop over to the iPhone forum sometimes, those guys literally love their phones...creepy and off-putting to me, but if that's how you roll...

wet from which cavity!
oral
rectal
vaginal
:confused::confused::confused::confused:



i certainly do not - :p

So you have a vagina, thanks for sharing with the class Sally.
You guys have got me cracking up! lmao

Also, for 1920x1200 HiDPI the MBP has to render 3840x2400 and then scale it down to 2880x1800... and it does this without breaking a sweat… on the integrated GPU.
I don't see it having a problem doing the same on an external display.
Exactly. I'm shocked at how well my rMBP handles resolution not just on its own display but on external ones. There is a thread I posted on today and a guy ran dual 4K displays, albeit at 17Hz but that was with the built in 2.8K display on his rMBP! Its not as crazy as people seam to think.
I would argue that the reason the 17" MBP didn't sell well is due to them not understanding it correctly.

They treated the 17" MacBook Pro like a larger 15". Apart from the extra screen size there is very little else different. An extra USB port. That's about it.

If I was designing a 17" Retina MBP the first thing I'd do is include a 2nd SSD. Two sticks instead of one. That would take storage to 2x256GB / 2x512GB or 2x768GB. RAID0 and RAID1 support to boost performance or reliability.

I would also offer it with Mobile Quadro / FireGL graphics as a BTO option. These are the kinds of features that professionals looking to purchase a 17" notebook want otherwise there is no point paying the price premium over the 15" because all the features are the same.

Now as a creative professional I love large screens as my signature can attest with the 3x30" 2560x1600 displays and my 17" Unibody MBP. I would kill to have a 4K resolution rMBP 17" - I'd be willing to spend £2,800 one of those. Apple just needs to understand the market they are selling to. They killed the 17" because it wasn't selling but it wasn't selling because they didn't make it an attractive proposition.
See this is smart thinking and exactly what I was hoping the 17" MBP was! When I was shopping for my first MBP the 17" just looked like a bloated 15", resolution increase seamed nice but holding it felt bloated. Even the 15" MBP felt somewhat large (yeah I know I'm rediculous!) but since the 15" rMBP has come out along with eyeing up the MacBook Air's I realized that taking size off thickness actually helps compensate for adding size in the screen/body! 17" rMBP would need to have a distinct advantage over the 15" rMBP..the main advantage the 15" MBP's have over 13" MBP's is Quad core processors and discrete graphics cards....the 17" didn't offer anything else and when they canned the express card slot on the 17" that sure didn't help!

I'd like to see a 17" rMBP come standard with:

-Dual hard drives in RAID 1 with 6GB SATA controllers that would offer insane speed, although I'm not sure how much more speed you really need with the latest SSD's being able to handle 4K video editing easily, but it would offer more speed + reliability. Not at the top of my list but a good thing to keep mentioned.

-MORE ports: My 15" rMBP has two Thunderbolt ports, how about FOUR Thunderbolt 2 ports, that would make all the RED Epic camera nerds go nuts! You could have plenty of bandwidth and space for a Red Rocket, a 4K display or two, external SSD tower, etc. 4 USB 3.1 ports, USB 3.1 will offer double the bandwidth of USB 3.0. One or two HDMI 2.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 will guarantee solid 4K support, HDMI 1.4 can do 4K @ 24Hz but again the RED Epic camera nerds will want and need more! Lastly the GPU is going to need to be a no compromise solution, Nvidia 680M if not more (I'm not a GPU expert) with at least 2.5GB's of VRAM if not 3 or 4gigs. BTO could have options for various amounts of VRAM from 2-4GB's...Alienware's often have 3GB's of VRAM so not that crazy. Integrated graphics...couldn't care less so long as they are on par with my Intel HD 4000 512MB...although I'd like to see 768MB's at least for integrated graphics if not 1GB.

-17" 3840x2400 screen, logically a 3360x2100 screen for the 17" rMBP would be the next step based off the 13" rMBP being 2560x1600 and the 15" being 2880x1800 but its so close I could see the justification for the jump being made...although the gains might not be all that, seeing your photos and 4K video pixel for pixel is really an amazing sight. I'd like to see an Apple Retina Thunderbolt display at 4096x2560 (16:10) or 5120x2880 (16:9) too...however again the gains would be questionable but for professional work it would be justifiable however I question whether Apple would go in that direction since that dips into broadcast monitors and what not.


-Increased battery life, like significantly. Use that space to pack in more cells because with all that crap I just listed above it needs to be not only on par with the 15" rMBP but better!

All of that would allow an insanely versatile mobile work space....I've seen the trailers with all the camera equipment and computer equipment packed in and all the various ways editors store their Mac Pro's for transport...something you can put in your bag over a cart on wheels isn't that insane and would be awesome to have in the Mac world. Perhaps I'm dreaming too big but Apple manages to pull allot of big things out of a very tiny hat. A year before the rMBP I thought a 15" 2.8K screen was a dream and here I am typing on one! I guess we'll wait and see!
 
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If they do, i would probably shed a tear at how amazing it would be. But in reality, i dont feel like the larger form factor will make a comeback anytime soon.
 
There should be one.

I think Apple would make it more than 4k, the 27" iMac had a 2560 x 1440 and got a 5k retina, so it would be closer to a 5k then. They achieved a 2560 x 1440 on the 13"retina which started with 1280 x 800. So nearly doubled on both along with the 15" retina having a 2800 x 1800 and the non with 1440 x 900. Which is also doubled, if that has anything to show for the 17" which had a resolution of 1920 x 1200, so 3840 x 2400 which would be 4k. And also the 17" always had dual graphics.
 
I'm just adding a vote to the pile, I'd love a 17" retina MacBook Pro.

I'm using the last 17" right now, and although the resolution of the 15" displays is impressive, I'll be having trouble getting used to losing the screen real estate.

My Mac's my portable and only office.
 
I could see the 17" making a comeback, and I'm quite surprised so many of you cannot. A good part of the reason the 17-inch was less popular among buyers had to do with its size and weight. Imagine, a 17-inch with the thinness (and near lightness) of a MacBook Air then sporting a true 4k display as well. It could be quite a compelling option for prosumers.

If anything, Apple should take pride in the 17-inch size. After all, they were the first to bring a notebook of that size to market a decade ago with the 17-inch Powerbook. Remember the popular Yao Ming/Mini Me commercial? Wouldn't it be something if they rounded up those two and introduced a 17-inch Retina MacBook alongside the rumored 12-inch Retina MacBook Air. If I'm not mistaken, Yao Ming was using a Powerbook of 12-inches in that classic commercial.
 
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