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Ihnatko: Retina MacBook is Apple’s best, but could be better

I am kinda disappointed in the fact that people complain over not having the ethernet port. What were expecting? You can't have your cake and eat it too. by adding a ethernet port, you just made the entire enclosure 10% thicker and thus 10% heavier.

We live in the age where Wifi is just everywhere. Just purchase the dongle and call it a day. If you keep latching onto old technology, you will never make room to grow onto new technology.

We continue to let our own habits decide our future ones. We need to all let go and just enjoy the computer.
 
Dammit Cubs said:
by adding a ethernet port, you just made the entire enclosure 10% thicker and thus 10% heavier.
Click to expand...

From the review:
Yes, the new MacBook is thinner and lighter than the conventional 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s a little more than a pound lighter. You can feel the difference. It’s also about a quarter of an inch thinner. That’s an impressive engineering achievement, but honestly, it’s a negligible improvement that doesn’t offer any real benefit. This is still a big, 15-inch notebook, after all. I can’t remember any time when I was packing for a trip and thought “Jeez, if only my MacBook were a quarter of an inch thinner! I can’t fit this copy of People Magazine into my laptop bag!”
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I think he makes a good point.
 
JasonQG said:
From the review:



I think he makes a good point.
Click to expand...

Yes until you realize that he's talking about adding height to add a legacy port that the majority of people don't use anymore.

If the RMBP was overheating and doing other odd and bad stuff I'd agree but I don't see the point of making the unit even 3mm thicker than it has to be if it's just Ethernet we're talking about. Especially considering we're on the precipice of Gigibit speed Wifi.
 
JasonQG said:
From the review:



I think he makes a good point.
Click to expand...

That's a silly thing to say about fitting it into a bag. Yes it's lighter and such and it's not a world of difference, but how is technology supposed to evolve? It's not like they're going to release a .1mm laptop anytime soon. It's significant enough to notice and therefore it is a perfectly good reason for Apple to release it.
 
nuckinfutz said:
Especially considering we're on the precipice of Gigibit speed Wifi.
Click to expand...

Apple is still sticking with 802.11n on this laptop so far, though.



IMO, there are tradeoffs. For some people, shaving a few millimeters off is more important. For others, losing updatability and ports aren't worth that. Arguing that somebody else's priorities are invalid seems arrogant.
 
JasonQG said:
Apple is still sticking with 802.11n on this laptop so far, though.

IMO, there are tradeoffs. For some people, shaving a few millimeters off is more important. For others, losing updatability and ports aren't worth that. Arguing that somebody else's priorities are invalid seems arrogant.
Click to expand...

Yes. I wouldn't be surprised to see any new Macs coming after this summer coming with 802.11ac.

In this case It's really about how many people are using Ethernet. Apple can't please all the people all the time. They have to eventually cut bait.
 
Great review. Thank you.
I have 3 weeks to figute out Retina or Non-Retina 15''.
 
Trey M said:
That's a silly thing to say about fitting it into a bag. Yes it's lighter and such and it's not a world of difference, but how is technology supposed to evolve? It's not like they're going to release a .1mm laptop anytime soon. It's significant enough to notice and therefore it is a perfectly good reason for Apple to release it.
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You've nailed it. I'm a bit surprised that he used that type of joke to make his point. Laptops don't go from being the inch and a half behemoths to what we have now overnight. Before we know it, laptops similar to RMBP will be mainstream and everyone will conveniently forget about how it started, as has happened with the imacs and macbook airs.
 
I don't see why it's so hard to carry the ethernet dongle?? Am I missing something? If someone needs ethernet so badly, the non-retina MBP is still available...
 
I watch MacBreak Weekly on the TWIT network every week and Andy is one of the permanent co-hosts. I was seriously getting annoyed with the last episode and his ranting about the stupid ethernet port. Seriously, if you need ethernet then you must already carry the ethernet cable. Soooo.... attach the dongle to the end of the cable and now you just plug the TB in instead of the ethernet!! I like Andy most of the time but his rant over ethernet is ridiculous.

Also him saying that the reduced thickness is useless is just stupid. Who doesn't want a thinner MacBook Pro. This combined with the weight reduction are two of the main reasons I bought the Pro over the 13"Air.
 
Dammit Cubs said:
I am kinda disappointed in the fact that people complain over not having the ethernet port. What were expecting? You can't have your cake and eat it too. by adding a ethernet port, you just made the entire enclosure 10% thicker and thus 10% heavier.

We live in the age where Wifi is just everywhere. Just purchase the dongle and call it a day. If you keep latching onto old technology, you will never make room to grow onto new technology.

We continue to let our own habits decide our future ones. We need to all let go and just enjoy the computer.
Click to expand...

Will wifi allow me to get 300Mbps? If so I'm all for getting rid of it. Oh yeah and can I make as secure as Ethernet? (serious questions)
 
Dammit Cubs said:
I am kinda disappointed in the fact that people complain over not having the ethernet port. What were expecting? You can't have your cake and eat it too. by adding a ethernet port, you just made the entire enclosure 10% thicker and thus 10% heavier.

We live in the age where Wifi is just everywhere. Just purchase the dongle and call it a day. If you keep latching onto old technology, you will never make room to grow onto new technology.

We continue to let our own habits decide our future ones. We need to all let go and just enjoy the computer.
Click to expand...


I think many of us thought that the loss of the Ethernet port could be tolerated IF Apple had put in 802.11ac. This would offer Gigabit wireless speeds. For all the cutting edge technology in the RMBP, this was a real surprise. Other notebooks ship with this so it isn't exactly bleeding edge...

-P
 
My desktop uses ethernet. This isn't a desktop, its a laptop. Ethernet is redundant.

If I needed it - and lets face it, most people never use it - then there's an adapter for that. No problem / problem solved.
 
Pentad said:
I think many of us thought that the loss of the Ethernet port could be tolerated IF Apple had put in 802.11ac. This would offer Gigabit wireless speeds. For all the cutting edge technology in the RMBP, this was a real surprise. Other notebooks ship with this so it isn't exactly bleeding edge...

-P
Click to expand...

what other notebooks are shipping with wireless ac? the first ac routers are just barely coming out...
 
Pentad said:
I think many of us thought that the loss of the Ethernet port could be tolerated IF Apple had put in 802.11ac. This would offer Gigabit wireless speeds. For all the cutting edge technology in the RMBP, this was a real surprise. Other notebooks ship with this so it isn't exactly bleeding edge...

-P
Click to expand...

But it's realistic though.

Apple has to be bleeding edge within the contain of vendor supply. The reason why you can't just walk into a store and buy a Retina is because there's a single supplier for the screen.

Apple could have done 11ac but could Broadcom or Qualcomm deliver millions of parts? Who knows?
 
plus even if gigabit wireless is about to come out it still needs wavelengths aka frequencies that can be blocked and disrupted by buildings, and electrical wiring and if your house has metal backed insulation or even businesses with that same problem ethernet is still the way to go and i dont buy most people use wireless look at the people that have problems with their wireless streaming apple tvs as soon as they go hardline ethernet they stream fine
 
"Apple built a machine that will certainly be the mainstream MacBook within two or three years’ time. Not all Mac users should ready to make that leap today."
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Got to agree with Andy with these quote. Like the Macbook Air Rev A. Who ever buy the 1st gen product is being the beta tester of the future product which is better nicer and cheaper
 
I liked the review. I agree with most of what he was saying. My office has 1Gps ethernet fiber. No WiFi does not have these speeds. But with that being said most places do not and Apple was right to omit it.

This shines some light on how good the design of the legacy MBP's are. A quarter inch( or only 6mm!) thinner 24mm to 18mm and he got this wrong actually, less than a pound lighter. 5.6lbs to 4.7lbs. This was designed over three years ago. All in a machine that you can change the HD and Ram.

Is the retina the future of the macbook, yes. Is the legacy MBP still a good design and relavent design, still thin, not too heavy, yes it is.

It is actually still one of the thinnest 15 laptops on the market. It is only 24mm, 21mm is intels spec for a ultra book with a 14 inch screen! The design will endure until prices for the retina can match the legacy 15, which will be two or three years from now.
 
I guess maybe I'm the only one that remembers having a dongle for my modem... Yes, it was frequently used and it wasn't a problem. I'm ok with ethernet dongles.
 
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