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Is the 13.3" MacBook Pro Retina really a "Pro" laptop?

MartinAppleGuy said:
Does anyone see the 13.3" MBPr as a professional laptop? I find it rather hard to see it as that when it is using a Dual Core processor, integrated GPU (not even Iris Pro, but I suppose that is only for the Quad Core models), 4Gb of RAM as entry point...

My question is, does anyone use a 13.3" Macbook Pro Retina professionally?

Edit: I never noticed the fact that there was 2 more teirs, I only saw the entry Macbook Pro Retina w/ 4Gb of RAM and wondered if anyone used that professionally. Sorry.
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I used to think a laptop being labeled by its manufacturing as "Pro" was just marketing crap. When I evaluate a laptop for professional work (software development in my case) I just look at the specs and determine if they meet my needs. If they do, the laptop can be used by me for work, even if its a lowly 11" MBA.

However, as I thought more deeply about it, I realized that there are many people out there who are less technically savvy and therefore probably can't evaluate a laptop on technical specs. So, for them, the marketing label of "Pro" is a helpful clue to help them decide on a purchase.

At the end of the day, I suppose I still think the label is a marketing construct, but I realize it may be useful for some consumers.
 
Pro means I do something and you pay me.

We need to get past is elitist bull about pro meaning the ten guys producing the next Star Wars movie.
 
I am always more than a little amazed at these kind of topics. Have you seen some of the great professional work being completed on $300 notebooks?

Any machine can really be a professional machine. It just depends on the industry. For the record I have seen pretty great graphic design work on beater notebooks.

So to answer the question I definitely think the Macbook Pro 13" is a professional laptop.

I also think it is safe to say that any laptop with an i5 or i3 processor with over 4gb ram qualifies as a professional laptop. In that same vein most notebooks that cost over $900 are professional laptops.
 
To me, I think 13 inches rMBP should be called MacBook with retina because Apple ditched white MacBook few years ago for rMBP. :apple:
 
tmoerel said:
It is a just a name. A marketing ploy. If it is what you need, use it, if it isn't get something else!
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All I'm thinking was there is not much of a difference between the high end Air and the entry Pro.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Yes, but you might as well as be using a Macbook Air w/ retina display, for everything that you do.
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Hopefully they'll make one and retain the great battery life (reduce the bezel, for me :)) and we can switch over to it. Unfortunately they don't yet :(
 
There is a beautiful quote on the front page: "When designing products, Apple keeps in mind that it wants “normal people – people with better things to do with their lives than learn how a computer might work – to use the product as well as we can."

In my opinion, a "Pro" is someone who knows what kind of performance he needs for his tasks, and is not blinded by some marketing terms. The 13'' rMBP has a dual core CPU. If your work requires a quad core (or higher), then this machine is not for you. No matter what it is called. Same if you need a discrete GPU.

The i5 in my late 2013 13'' rMBP does single core jobs faster than the 2012 i7 iMac I have at work. So by all means it is not slow, also RAM and SSD space are configurable to needs.

Some people would probably call you an amateur when you tell them that you do video editing on a quad core machine - they might be using rendering farms with 100s of CPUs for their day job. Would that suddenly make you less of a "Pro"?
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Yes, but you might as well as be using a Macbook Air w/ retina display, for everything that you do.
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The 13" rMBP is basically a Air w retina display. Actual thinking of stepping up to a 15" to improve the time it takes to save PSD and so on.
 
I may not be making a lot of money with my 13" rMBP but the amount of work I have it doing for school is a good indication to be that it will be more than satisfactory for me later on as an artist. I edit photos for hours, save collaborated images in 2+GB TIFFs, run multiple heavy workload programs at once, etc.
For a photographer it's fabulous.
 
The question is senseless, because every professional can freely decide which machine to get for the job. Its just a marketing name. You could call it Macbook "Willy" and nothing would change.

But maybe we would get a thread with: "Is the macbook "Willy" only for people called Willy?"
 
ableton, logic, dj programs all run on macbook pros.

photoshop, lightroom, ect all run nicely

excell, intuit, quickbooks, all run great.

the laptop doesn't make you pro. you make the laptop pro lol
 
isephmusic said:
ableton, logic, dj programs all run on macbook pros.

photoshop, lightroom, ect all run nicely

excell, intuit, quickbooks, all run great.

the laptop doesn't make you pro. you make the laptop pro lol
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What I'm saying is the difference between the high end Macbook Air and the entry Macbook Pro retina is hardly different. I see a lot of professionals just using an Air unless they want to go for the 256Gb SSD, 8Gb, 2.4Ghz model of the Pro.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
What I'm saying is the difference between the high end Macbook Air and the entry Macbook Pro retina is hardly different. I see a lot of professionals just using an Air unless they want to go for the 256Gb SSD, 8Gb, 2.4Ghz model of the Pro.
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Yes you have written this three times now. The high end MBA costs more than an entry level MBP, so I think it is perfectly fine that the performance is comparable.

I highly prefer the form factor and solid feel of the MBP over the MBA. Not even mentioning the vastly superior retina screen. Other people might prefer the longer battery life or the lower weight of the Air. Isn't it great that one can choose the best machine for ones likings?

The 13'' "Pro" is available with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB storage, has two TB2 ports and supports up to two external screens with 2560x1600 resolution, while the Air is limited to 8/512 GB, has a single TB (not TB2) port and only supports one external screen (at 2560x1600). Furthermore the Pro has a HDMI port which is useful for presentations etc.
I see a lot of things here that are "Pro." But you will just again tell me how the base 13'' Pro and the Air are similar... which is true, and which is why their price is also somewhat similar!
 
thundersteele said:
Yes you have written this three times now. The high end MBA costs more than an entry level MBP, so I think it is perfectly fine that the performance is comparable.

I highly prefer the form factor and solid feel of the MBP over the MBA. Not even mentioning the vastly superior retina screen. Other people might prefer the longer battery life or the lower weight of the Air. Isn't it great that one can choose the best machine for ones likings?

The 13'' "Pro" is available with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB storage, has two TB2 ports and supports up to two external screens with 2560x1600 resolution, while the Air is limited to 8/512 GB, has a single TB (not TB2) port and only supports one external screen (at 2560x1600). Furthermore the Pro has a HDMI port which is useful for presentations etc.
I see a lot of things here that are "Pro." But you will just again tell me how the base 13'' Pro and the Air are similar... which is true, and which is why their price is also somewhat similar!
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Then entry should really be the 2.4Ghz, 8Gb, 256Gb SSD I feel. Even with the higher starting price, that is a good config for an entry to Apples Pro laptop.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
I would class the "Pro" user as a video editor, a photo editor, or someone that needs the system to stay responsive under heavy load. All of the people mentioned above could go for a Macbook Air and have similar performance.
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I'm an I.T. professional that doesn't need a discreet GPU but I need the power the MBP has.

The MacBook Pro is not aimed at anyone in particular, the 'Pro' moniker simply denotes that this Pro line of MacBook's has more horsepower & more advanced features than the Air.
 
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thundersteele said:
The 13'' "Pro" is available with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB storage, has two TB2 ports and supports up to two external screens with 2560x1600 resolution, while the Air is limited to 8/512 GB, has a single TB (not TB2) port and only supports one external screen (at 2560x1600). Furthermore the Pro has a HDMI port which is useful for presentations etc.
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The 13" rMBPs also support 4K@60Hz too.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
I'm just saying that I don't think the 13" deserves the Pro name. Thats all.
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well you just answered your own question right, so why the discussion? :p

we are using computers and macs for the past 30 years for our professional lives.
people did photo editing and any professional work on computers that have only a fraction of what you have now, on a rmbp, mba and even an ipad. So what are you trying to tell here?

I really don't understand the point of this thread?

maybe you want to talk about the use of the word 'pro' in Apple's marketing? That's a whole other discussion :D
 
mr.bee said:
well you just answered your own question right, so why the discussion? :p

we are using computers and macs for the past 30 years for our professional lives.
people did photo editing and any professional work on computers that have only a fraction of what you have now, on a rmbp, mba and even an ipad. So what are you trying to tell here?

I really don't understand the point of this thread?

maybe you want to talk about the use of the word 'pro' in Apple's marketing? That's a whole other discussion :D
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I started the thread because I only noticed the entry (4Gb of RAM, 128Gb SSD) on Apples site at first. I thought that that was awfully close to the Macbook Air. I'd quite gladly delete the thread if Macrumors allowed it.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
I started the thread because I only noticed the entry (4Gb of RAM, 128Gb SSD) on Apples site at first. I thought that that was awfully close to the Macbook Air. I'd quite gladly delete the thread if Macrumors allowed it.
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I still think it is a valid post, the difference between the Air/13 rMBP is really closing, the only meaningful thing is the display these days. If you need real power and grunt your going to need to upgrade to the 15".
 
theromz said:
I still think it is a valid post, the difference between the Air/13 rMBP is really closing, the only meaningful thing is the display these days. If you need real power and grunt your going to need to upgrade to the 15".
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Well that is what I have been trying to get at (couldn't have put it better myself) but people appear to not be too chuffed with the whole thread.
 
As a controls engineer, my father has run entire metal coating plants or used a remote desktop from a hotel to access a computer that runs a metal coating plant on a......2007 White Macbook.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
Does anyone see the 13.3" MBPr as a professional laptop? I find it rather hard to see it as that when it is using a Dual Core processor, integrated GPU (not even Iris Pro, but I suppose that is only for the Quad Core models), 4Gb of RAM as entry point...

My question is, does anyone use a 13.3" Macbook Pro Retina professionally?

Edit: I never noticed the fact that there was 2 more teirs, I only saw the entry Macbook Pro Retina w/ 4Gb of RAM and wondered if anyone used that professionally. Sorry.
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My 13" rMBP is my primary computer that I use at work, so it is by definition a professional machine.

I also use it for non-work stuff like Logic X, Aperture, and Portal2. :)


I have a work-issued Dell laptop that never leaves the docking station and is very locked-down by IT, nearly useless for my needs.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
Well that is what I have been trying to get at (couldn't have put it better myself) but people appear to not be too chuffed with the whole thread.
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It is just that the 13" is extremely capable and should handle pretty much anything, the 15" will just get it done faster. There really is almost no task that is impossible to do on the 13" these days, and that is partly due to Intel really producing amazing CPUs.
 
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