Is the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro the right choice for my needs?

[nobackup]

Thanks, but that wouldn't work here with tax authorities. Tax as still applied anyway.

----------



Yes, that is correct.

Anyway, I am not trying to avoid taxation at this point. I wish I could. But, as you may wonder, taxes here are so high that everybody wants to find a way not to pay them, and the government has developed a strong system not to allow it. There is no way out, unless I buy it from smugglers (which charge a hefty premium over the U.S. price) or if I buy it directly in the States myself and bring to Brazil without being noticed by the customs office. So, I am already resigned that I will have to pay an obscene price for a laptop, as I've done in the past.

Given that I'm buying a very expensive machine, at least I would like to know whether it fits my needs or if I should look elsewhere, or even wait for Haswell to be released.

Haswell might be ready in June ... but when the mobile chips-sets will go into production know one knows..

I was also on the wire .. but based on the comparison with a M$ only box I decided to go for it .. also simple add on would be a office365 subscription gives you the full Office suite on both win$ and OSX.. always up to-date and on up to 5 devices...

all your other needs are way doable on Parallels or Fusion .. also your actual footprint (Disk usage will be less) as you can configure how much ram you show to windows.. under bootcamp it uses all memory so your Hibernation file will be 8 GB and add another up to 8 GB for VM ... and well you gust lost 8-16GB drive space for nothing .... so as you are already comfortable under OSX .. just use Parallels and a VM if you don't like the MacOffice 2011 version ... Lync and all the other M$ add ons are also available on OSX

So based on your ability to Vist the US in June .. looks like a MacBook with SB is in your future ... if you were only going there in Sept/ Oct i would suggest get the has well...


I am sure there will be no remorse .. especially saving $1500

 

[cvkai]

Yes, my friend. Our country is a very bad place for buying consumer electronics. In which city are you based?

Your requirements don't seem to be so strict as mine. Will you take TN displays?

You can buy a laptop without an SSD and exchange the HD for an SSD. A 128 GB SSD may be found for about R$ 400 (200 dollars) in some places. You may also add RAM by your own. Of course it will depend on the specific model you choose. I don't think you will be able to replace these parts in an ultrabook. But in a ThinkPad it can probably be done.

I could take a ThinkPad, but I can't find one with a 1920x1080 display. Plus, Lenovo is charging very expensive prices for ThinkPads here in Brazil.

I live in Curitiba-PR.
Yes, my requirements aren't that strict. For me, a 1600x900 display is OK (I just don't want a 1366x768 screen). Have you considered Dell Vostro 3560 with Full HD display? (I'm not sure if it's IPS or TN).
Unfortunately, here in Brazil it's not worth buying a high-end notebook. At the price we can buy 2 or 3 average notebooks.

 

[skaertus]

ok then sounds like you should wait for haswell and just buy it when you go to the states....

Perhaps... but I don't think MacBooks with Haswell will be available by June, when I will be in the US...

----------

Haswell might be ready in June ... but when the mobile chips-sets will go into production know one knows..

Haswell is supposed to get released by June. The quad-core processors will reportedly be available by then, but I don't know about the others.

I was also on the wire .. but based on the comparison with a M$ only box I decided to go for it .. also simple add on would be a office365 subscription gives you the full Office suite on both win$ and OSX.. always up to-date and on up to 5 devices...

all your other needs are way doable on Parallels or Fusion .. also your actual footprint (Disk usage will be less) as you can configure how much ram you show to windows.. under bootcamp it uses all memory so your Hibernation file will be 8 GB and add another up to 8 GB for VM ... and well you gust lost 8-16GB drive space for nothing .... so as you are already comfortable under OSX .. just use Parallels and a VM if you don't like the MacOffice 2011 version ... Lync and all the other M$ add ons are also available on OSX

So based on your ability to Vist the US in June .. looks like a MacBook with SB is in your future ... if you were only going there in Sept/ Oct i would suggest get the has well...


I am sure there will be no remorse .. especially saving $1500

Thank you for the suggestion.

I already have a subscription of Office 365. The thing is I find Office 2013 for Windows to be great. And I also think that Office 2011 for Mac is crap (although way better than Office 2008). I will definitely have to run Office on Windows under BootCamp or Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

How are Parallels drivers? Can I use the multi-touch trackpad under Windows?

 

[snaky69]

How are Parallels drivers? Can I use the multi-touch trackpad under Windows?

Scrolling will work right, but multi-touch per se doesn't work either, forget the swipes, pinch to zoom and all that.

 

[skaertus]

I live in Curitiba-PR.
Yes, my requirements aren't that strict. For me, a 1600x900 display is OK (I just don't want a 1366x768 screen). Have you considered Dell Vostro 3560 with Full HD display? (I'm not sure if it's IPS or TN).
Unfortunately, here in Brazil it's not worth buying a high-end notebook. At the price we can buy 2 or 3 average notebooks.

I've looked at Dell Vostro 3560 and, while it looks fine, it doesn't quite fit what I am looking for. I already have a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 machine, and it would be pointless to change for another one. By the way, the screen on the Vostro 3560 is TN, not IPS. I want a thin and light laptop, and the Sony Vaio S with the 15.5-inch screen would better fit my needs (it has an IPS 1920x1080 display and is far lighter), but it's still not quite there.

Have you looked into the Sony Vaio S with a 13-inch screen? I don't know if it fits your budget, as it costs R$ 4.000,00 (US$ 2,000), and you can buy it for R$ 3.520,00 (US$ 1,700) if you buy it in one installment ("à vista"). It has a Core i7-3520 2.9 GHz processor (faster than the ULV processors that equip ultrabooks), 6 GB RAM, a 13.3-inch 1600x900 screen and a 750 GB HD. You can switch the HD for an SSD if you want, but you have to do it by yourself. A 128 GB SSD costs about R$ 400 (US$ 200) here in São Paulo, and a 256 GB SSD will cost about R$ 700 to R$ 800 (US$ 350 to US$ 400).

 

[cvkai]

I've looked at Dell Vostro 3560 and, while it looks fine, it doesn't quite fit what I am looking for. I already have a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 machine, and it would be pointless to change for another one. By the way, the screen on the Vostro 3560 is TN, not IPS. I want a thin and light laptop, and the Sony Vaio S with the 15.5-inch screen would better fit my needs (it has an IPS 1920x1080 display and is far lighter), but it's still not quite there.

Have you looked into the Sony Vaio S with a 13-inch screen? I don't know if it fits your budget, as it costs R$ 4.000,00 (US$ 2,000), and you can buy it for R$ 3.520,00 (US$ 1,700) if you buy it in one installment ("à vista"). It has a Core i7-3520 2.9 GHz processor (faster than the ULV processors that equip ultrabooks), 6 GB RAM, a 13.3-inch 1600x900 screen and a 750 GB HD. You can switch the HD for an SSD if you want, but you have to do it by yourself. A 128 GB SSD costs about R$ 400 (US$ 200) here in São Paulo, and a 256 GB SSD will cost about R$ 700 to R$ 800 (US$ 350 to US$ 400).

It's really a nice suggestion. I haven't seen it before. This Sony Vaio SVS13A25PBS is on the top of my list now (although maybe I'll wait for Haswell).
I also work a lot with Microsoft Office and I don't like Office for Mac 2011 (can't say exactly what I don't like, maybe it's the Portuguese auto-correction, the speed and the interface). But I'm using it because Bootcamp or Parallels makes my Macbook Pro's battery life much worse (also the trackpad is not as smooth, need to adapt the keyboard shortcuts, etc.).
Another advantage of a (bought in Brazil) Windows laptop is that the keyboard has the Brazilian ABNT layout.

 

[skaertus]

Scrolling will work right, but multi-touch per se doesn't work either, forget the swipes, pinch to zoom and all that.

Not too good.

I've did a quick Google Search and I found an app called Trackpad++ (http://trackpad.powerplan7.com/) which supposedly adds multi-touch gestures support for Windows. It supports the retina MacBook Pros. However, I don't know if it's useful or crap. Have you ever heard of it?

----------

It's really a nice suggestion. I haven't seen it before. This Sony Vaio SVS13A25PBS is on the top of my list now (although maybe I'll wait for Haswell).
I also work a lot with Microsoft Office and I don't like Office for Mac 2011 (can't say exactly what I don't like, maybe it's the Portuguese auto-correction, the speed and the interface). But I'm using it because Bootcamp or Parallels makes my Macbook Pro's battery life much worse (also the trackpad is not as smooth, need to adapt the keyboard shortcuts, etc.).
Another advantage of a (bought in Brazil) Windows laptop is that the keyboard has the Brazilian ABNT layout.

You should take a look at the Sony Vaio S. There are three Fast Shop stores in Curitiba. In São Paulo, there are Sony Vaio S laptops in all Fast Shop stores, so you should go there and take a look for yourself. The best place to buy is probably the Sony Style online store, as it offers a 12% discount if you buy in one installment.

 

[KPOM]

Not too good.

I've did a quick Google Search and I found an app called Trackpad++ (http://trackpad.powerplan7.com/) which supposedly adds multi-touch gestures support for Windows. It supports the retina MacBook Pros. However, I don't know if it's useful or crap. Have you ever heard of it?

I've used it and it works well enough, but it is a kludge. It requires overriding some of the security settings in Windows, which makes me a little suspicious.

 

[skaertus]

I've used it and it works well enough, but it is a kludge. It requires overriding some of the security settings in Windows, which makes me a little suspicious.

Ok, so you don't use it anymore?

 

[onthecouchagain]

I picked up a 13" rMBP today, and I have my old 2011 13" Air next to it.

My early impressions are that the Retina display is rich with much better color reproduction ("rich" is really the best description), and it's obviously sharper.

But at the end of the day, unless you REALLY specifically need Retina display... the Air is such a better deal. I don't know if I could justify the premium upgrade fee for the Retina.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enamored by this machine. It's a thing of beauty.

Just that if you're planning on doing light things and budget is even remotely an issue, at this point and time, the value of the Air is so much better.

 

[KPOM]

Ok, so you don't use it anymore?

No, but I don't use Windows that often on my Mac. When I do, it is usually through Parallels, which replicates some of the functionality of the trackpad. In particular, natural scrolling works.

----------

I picked up a 13" rMBP today, and I have my old 2011 13" Air next to it.

My early impressions are that the Retina display is rich with much better color reproduction ("rich" is really the best description), and it's obviously sharper.

But at the end of the day, unless you REALLY specifically need Retina display... the Air is such a better deal. I don't know if I could justify the premium upgrade fee for the Retina.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enamored by this machine. It's a thing of beauty.

Just that if you're planning on doing light things and budget is even remotely an issue, at this point and time, the value of the Air is so much better.

Are you speaking before or after the price drop? After this week's rather dramatic price drops, the rMBP is only $100 more than the comparable MBA upgraded to the Core i7. Note that the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz i5s in the base model rMBPs are comparable to the i7s in the Airs. The 256GB rMBP is now $1699. A 13" MBA with 8GB and i7 is $1599. For the extra $100 you get the upgraded screen, a second Thunderbolt port, and an HDMI port. I've also noticed that the thermals are better on the rMBP than the Air. The fans in my Air would frequently go in to maximum speed mode (6000+ RPM). About 99% of the time the fans on my rMBP are at 2000 RPM.

Don't get me wrong. The Air is a wonderful machine. I used MacBook Airs since February 2008, and would still be using one if I hadn't lost my 2012 11.6" i7 in December while traveling. That said, I took my insurance proceeds and decided to get the 13" rMBP with 256GB SSD. I'll stick with it until Apple releases an 11.6" MBA (or MBP) with Retina Display.

 

[skaertus]

I picked up a 13" rMBP today, and I have my old 2011 13" Air next to it.

My early impressions are that the Retina display is rich with much better color reproduction ("rich" is really the best description), and it's obviously sharper.

But at the end of the day, unless you REALLY specifically need Retina display... the Air is such a better deal. I don't know if I could justify the premium upgrade fee for the Retina.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enamored by this machine. It's a thing of beauty.

Just that if you're planning on doing light things and budget is even remotely an issue, at this point and time, the value of the Air is so much better.

Yes, but in fact I really want the high resolution display. I am thinking the 1920x1080 screen on my current laptop is not enough...

----------

No, but I don't use Windows that often on my Mac. When I do, it is usually through Parallels, which replicates some of the functionality of the trackpad. In particular, natural scrolling works.

OK. But does a Windows ultrabook support more trackpad gestures under Windows than the retina MacBook Pro running Parallels?

 

[nobackup]

Scrolling will work right, but multi-touch per se doesn't work either, forget the swipes, pinch to zoom and all that.

sorry but that is not correct just checked on a win 7 machine running under Para 8 .. both in windowed and coherence mode..

I realise that we might be talking about different use cases so

Pinch to Zoom ... Ok
Two finger "Mac like Scroll" .. Ok

Swipe ... fully - integrated ....

Which Use Cases are you discussing as Para advertises that its fully integrated ?

----------

It's really a nice suggestion. I haven't seen it before. This Sony Vaio SVS13A25PBS is on the top of my list now (although maybe I'll wait for Haswell).
....... But I'm using it because Bootcamp or Parallels makes my Macbook Pro's battery life much worse (also the trackpad is not as smooth, need to adapt the keyboard shortcuts, etc.).

Which version of Para are you using as I have win 7 here under Paar 8 and no such battery issues .. that said I don't have 100000 things being run under windows ... I keep it clean of those Little background helpers that always seem to consume battery even on a physical machine.. only use M$ Security Essentials to guard against nasty windows things... .....

if I need social feeds IM etc I run them under OSX (better Power Management) and that also includes outlook for the mac as the M$ version seems to drink power (no issue as you can tell para which app to open on both OSs when you click on a file ..) ...

Para also allows you to keep both sets of shortcuts and actually maps ... in word CTL-C CMD-C gets you the same result.

 

[1member1]

Well, again, sorry for the long post, I guess I just couldn't make it shorter.

To sum it, up, today I have a laptop with a Core i7-2720QM 2.2 GHz with pretty high-end specs (at least they were 2 years ago) and a 1920x1080 screen, but I found it lacking in many ways. It's heavy, cumbersome, has low part qualities, cheap-feeling keyboard and trackpad, loose parts, poor battery life, heavy and heats a lot.

This is what I want: (1) speed and zippiness in every task (fast processor to never wait for tasks to be completed plus enough RAM to never use swap files plus SSD storage, and not a trace of an HDD); (2) high quality parts (from the AC adapter to the webcam); (3) solid build; (4) dazzling screen (necessarily IPS with the highest possible resolution; actually, I find 1920x1080 a little bit low to use apps side by side comfortably and I would like more than that); (5) thin and light (to travel and carry around all day long without breaking my back); (6) good battery life (for a whole day of work); (7) runs cool; (8) good keyboard, with key travel and tactile feedback.

My use is basically surfing the Internet, office applications, word processing, reference management, indexing and searching PDF files, and those kind of stuff. But I use several windows opened at the same time, and I want to see as much as I can side-by-side on the screen.

I tried to find a Windows laptop to fit these requirements, but they all seem to fall short. The 13-inch retina MacBook Pro, on the other hand, seems to fit just perfect. All I would have to do is buy a Windows license to run on it. Is there any reason why you think I should go with a Windows laptop instead?

----------

You know I've been a windows user for a long time. Every laptop and PC I had were the top high end laptops and I noticed few things that bothered me :

1.They all come with cheap plastic. not a good build quality
2.They all come with unwanted software like office trial and amazon application after I paid so much for the laptop they are trying to earn more on me.
3.They all come with sucky trackpad
4.Lots of unnecessary software that improve bluetooth, wifi etc. this software should be part of the OS and I should not see them.
5.Last part is Windows. bad out of box experience, should work for my computer more than i work for myself, lots of pop ups and 3rd applications that other installations pushing for you (also toolbars). also IE is a nightmare.

So I'm not sure why you want to keep windows it's only bring headache at least to me and you can always use parallels but do it only if you need a software that does not work great on mac (some of them are not designed for mac).

So now that you summed it up I think you should buy a mac, 13 inch is good if you like it (it's the same as I have).
good luck you don't need windows for your needs..

 

[skaertus]

sorry but that is not correct just checked on a win 7 machine running under Para 8 .. both in windowed and coherence mode..

I realise that we might be talking about different use cases so

Pinch to Zoom ... Ok
Two finger "Mac like Scroll" .. Ok

Swipe ... fully - integrated ....

Which Use Cases are you discussing as Para advertises that its fully integrated ?

----------




Which version of Para are you using as I have win 7 here under Paar 8 and no such battery issues .. that said I don't have 100000 things being run under windows ... I keep it clean of those Little background helpers that always seem to consume battery even on a physical machine.. only use M$ Security Essentials to guard against nasty windows things... .....

if I need social feeds IM etc I run them under OSX (better Power Management) and that also includes outlook for the mac as the M$ version seems to drink power (no issue as you can tell para which app to open on both OSs when you click on a file ..) ...

Para also allows you to keep both sets of shortcuts and actually maps ... in word CTL-C CMD-C gets you the same result.

Good to know that, thanks! Do you know how is it to run Windows 8 on Parallels? Does it work properly, with all multi-touch features enabled?

How many hours of battery life do you get using Parallels running Windows? How big is the hit on battery life?

 

[skaertus]

You know I've been a windows user for a long time. Every laptop and PC I had were the top high end laptops and I noticed few things that bothered me :

1.They all come with cheap plastic. not a good build quality
2.They all come with unwanted software like office trial and amazon application after I paid so much for the laptop they are trying to earn more on me.
3.They all come with sucky trackpad
4.Lots of unnecessary software that improve bluetooth, wifi etc. this software should be part of the OS and I should not see them.
5.Last part is Windows. bad out of box experience, should work for my computer more than i work for myself, lots of pop ups and 3rd applications that other installations pushing for you (also toolbars). also IE is a nightmare.

I understand that most Windows hardware is lacking. Cheap plastic laptops, mostly. There are few exceptions; my sister has a Zenbook that looks good in metal. As for software, I like Windows. It could be better, of course, but I like it overall. I usually do a clean Windows install, and get rid of all the crapware.

So I'm not sure why you want to keep windows it's only bring headache at least to me and you can always use parallels but do it only if you need a software that does not work great on mac (some of them are not designed for mac).

Well, in fact, I need Windows.

Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows is just great. It has all the features I need. But Office 2011 for Mac is crap. It is heavy, slow, bloated... I just can't stand it. And iWork does not count, as it lacks features. I am a thousand times more productive with Office 2013 for Windows than with any productivity software available for Mac.

I have to say that I've just finished my 250-page thesis using Microsoft Word 2010 for Windows. It was a good experience (to the extent writing a thesis may be considered a good experience, that is). I don't know how it would be to do that on a Mac. There are quality word processing software available, such as Mellel or Nisus Writer Pro or Scrivener, but I had to exchange files with my supervisor frequently and she would return the text to me with track changes... and guess what? She uses Microsoft Word, and expects me to use Microsoft Word. And I can't trust Word for Mac, unstable as it is, to write a whole doctoral thesis. Word for Windows, on the other hand, was great.

In addition, there seems to be no better OCR software (at least that I have tried) than the latest version of ABBYY Fine Reader for Windows. ABBYY does software for Mac as well, but the engine is not as up-to-date as the Windows version.

To sum it up, I just can't find credible software for Mac to replace these Windows software at the same level of quality. I refuse to downgrade the quality of the software I use just to use a Mac.

So now that you summed it up I think you should buy a mac, 13 inch is good if you like it (it's the same as I have).
good luck you don't need windows for your needs..

Thanks for your recommendation. However, I can't get rid of Windows, even if I wanted to. I can run both OS X and Windows, but I cannot run just OS X. If the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a retina display was a Windows laptop, I would definitely buy it... what I don't know is if the Mac can be as good a Windows laptop as any high-end ultrabook...

 

[1member1]

I understand that most Windows hardware is lacking. Cheap plastic laptops, mostly. There are few exceptions; my sister has a Zenbook that looks good in metal. As for software, I like Windows. It could be better, of course, but I like it overall. I usually do a clean Windows install, and get rid of all the crapware.



Well, in fact, I need Windows.

Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows is just great. It has all the features I need. But Office 2011 for Mac is crap. It is heavy, slow, bloated... I just can't stand it. And iWork does not count, as it lacks features. I am a thousand times more productive with Office 2013 for Windows than with any productivity software available for Mac.

I have to say that I've just finished my 250-page thesis using Microsoft Word 2010 for Windows. It was a good experience (to the extent writing a thesis may be considered a good experience, that is). I don't know how it would be to do that on a Mac. There are quality word processing software available, such as Mellel or Nisus Writer Pro or Scrivener, but I had to exchange files with my supervisor frequently and she would return the text to me with track changes... and guess what? She uses Microsoft Word, and expects me to use Microsoft Word. And I can't trust Word for Mac, unstable as it is, to write a whole doctoral thesis. Word for Windows, on the other hand, was great.

In addition, there seems to be no better OCR software (at least that I have tried) than the latest version of ABBYY Fine Reader for Windows. ABBYY does software for Mac as well, but the engine is not as up-to-date as the Windows version.

To sum it up, I just can't find credible software for Mac to replace these Windows software at the same level of quality. I refuse to downgrade the quality of the software I use just to use a Mac.



Thanks for your recommendation. However, I can't get rid of Windows, even if I wanted to. I can run both OS X and Windows, but I cannot run just OS X. If the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a retina display was a Windows laptop, I would definitely buy it... what I don't know is if the Mac can be as good a Windows laptop as any high-end ultrabook...

Office will work the same on parallels.
about ABBY I'm not sure because i don't use it. I bet you can also open it virtually. try before you run dual boot.

 

[skaertus]

Office will work the same on parallels.
about ABBY I'm not sure because i don't use it. I bet you can also open it virtually. try before you run dual boot.

Thank you. I guess both Office and ABBYY will run fine on Parallels. I may use ABBYY on BootCamp anyway, as OCR may use a lot of processing power, and I may want to have just one operating system running during the task.

 

[nobackup]

Good to know that, thanks! Do you know how is it to run Windows 8 on Parallels? Does it work properly, with all multi-touch features enabled?

How many hours of battery life do you get using Parallels running Windows? How big is the hit on battery life?

Doing every day stuff r13 2.9 i7

MAC only approx. 6-8 hours (Web Email Off for Mac) No flash (but HTML5) and Lots of add blockers etc !!!

As above but with parallels and Office 2013 running instead of Office 2011 6-7 hours

So have bought Fusion 5 and para 8 ... Para 8 is best for battery life as it has a special mode and a number of settings ... (Also ensure you set up the win client to be super thrifty !! ) just google for some of the latest reviews they all tell the same story.

Fusion seems to return under the same conditions about 1 hour less on my usage profile..


As I bought a 512GB and first created my "Dream" bootcamp Win image and installed all apps .. then imported the the bootcamp image into both Para & Fusion I can also show that under OSX + VM (either) that the battery time is better than under pure Bootcamp alone (read somewhere that it was to do how apple supports power states under M$ )

hope this helps..

 

[cvkai]

Which version of Para are you using as I have win 7 here under Paar 8 and no such battery issues .. that said I don't have 100000 things being run under windows ... I keep it clean of those Little background helpers that always seem to consume battery even on a physical machine.. only use M$ Security Essentials to guard against nasty windows things... .....

I used Parallels 7 with Windows 7, but haven't tried Parallels 8.
I work with Microsoft Word, and, as skaertus said, Office for Mac 2011 is not as good as Office for Windows.
And nowadays some Windows laptops have good battery life, so that's why I'm thinking on replacing my Macbook.
I didn't measure how much my Macbook Pro's battery life would be affected by Bootcamp or Parallels, but I read on a The Verge's review that a Macbook Air 13" would lose 2 hours running Windows.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/10/2787484/macbook-air-with-windows-7-review-the-ultrabook-to-rule-them-all

 

[skaertus]

Doing every day stuff r13 2.9 i7

MAC only approx. 6-8 hours (Web Email Off for Mac) No flash (but HTML5) and Lots of add blockers etc !!!

As above but with parallels and Office 2013 running instead of Office 2011 6-7 hours

So have bought Fusion 5 and para 8 ... Para 8 is best for battery life as it has a special mode and a number of settings ... (Also ensure you set up the win client to be super thrifty !! ) just google for some of the latest reviews they all tell the same story.

Fusion seems to return under the same conditions about 1 hour less on my usage profile..


As I bought a 512GB and first created my "Dream" bootcamp Win image and installed all apps .. then imported the the bootcamp image into both Para & Fusion I can also show that under OSX + VM (either) that the battery time is better than under pure Bootcamp alone (read somewhere that it was to do how apple supports power states under M$ )

hope this helps..

Thanks, it helps a lot!

It seems like there is decent battery life even with Parallels running.

----------

I used Parallels 7 with Windows 7, but haven't tried Parallels 8.
I work with Microsoft Word, and, as skaertus said, Office for Mac 2011 is not as good as Office for Windows.
And nowadays some Windows laptops have good battery life, so that's why I'm thinking on replacing my Macbook.
I didn't measure how much my Macbook Pro's battery life would be affected by Bootcamp or Parallels, but I read on a The Verge's review that a Macbook Air 13" would lose 2 hours running Windows.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/10/2...ndows-7-review-the-ultrabook-to-rule-them-all

Thanks!

 

[skaertus]

Pinch to Zoom ... Ok
Two finger "Mac like Scroll" .. Ok

Swipe ... fully - integrated ....

Do these gestures also work on Windows 8 running on BootCamp or only on Parallels?

 

[Mr MM]

Do these gestures also work on Windows 8 running on BootCamp or only on Parallels?

from my experience only with a VM they do run OK, the 2 finger swipe gesture works by default, but it lacks inertia scrolling

and trackpad++ I really dislike it. The gestures arent smooth, the software lacks refinement and its pretty intrusive with now bloatware added to it.

Sincerely I understand you want an IPS panel, but have you thought about the vaio z13? Although the res caps at 1080p, it is the only direct competition to the rmbp 13, and sincerely having used it I really like it, if you want you can usually check one out at the stores from fastshop, there is one in the paulista mall and another in the pinheiros mall. My main complaint with that model which led me to sell it, was the sturdiness of the machine, I hate cars in the middle of towns, so guess what I use to go back and forth? the subway. I didnt believe it would survive all that, in the end when I got myself thinking of buying a mach composites case, I just sold.


Im currently gunning for the haswell update for the rmbp 13

Btw the mbp 13 from 2011 that I have is pretty OK in this SP summer, it doesnt throttle or shut down from heat. I do warn you that the body when doing very intensive tasks do gets hot, as it would.

 

[SlickShoes]

I used trackpad ++ extensively even paid the guy for it since I liked it so much. It was safe, and it was a good app. The only thing it needs to over ride is for you to allow powerplan assistant to install because the drivers are not signed by microsoft. Trackpad ++ and powerplan assistant are made by one guy that can't afford to pay microsoft to sign the drivers and get them approved.

As good an app as it is, the trackpad is still MUCH better in OSX.

 

[skaertus]

from my experience only with a VM they do run OK, the 2 finger swipe gesture works by default, but it lacks inertia scrolling

and trackpad++ I really dislike it. The gestures arent smooth, the software lacks refinement and its pretty intrusive with now bloatware added to it.

Sincerely I understand you want an IPS panel, but have you thought about the vaio z13? Although the res caps at 1080p, it is the only direct competition to the rmbp 13, and sincerely having used it I really like it, if you want you can usually check one out at the stores from fastshop, there is one in the paulista mall and another in the pinheiros mall. My main complaint with that model which led me to sell it, was the sturdiness of the machine, I hate cars in the middle of towns, so guess what I use to go back and forth? the subway. I didnt believe it would survive all that, in the end when I got myself thinking of buying a mach composites case, I just sold.


Im currently gunning for the haswell update for the rmbp 13

Btw the mbp 13 from 2011 that I have is pretty OK in this SP summer, it doesnt throttle or shut down from heat. I do warn you that the body when doing very intensive tasks do gets hot, as it would.

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have looked at the Sony Vaio Z and I considered it. It is a very thin and light laptop, weighs less than a 11-inch MacBook Air, despite being a 13-inch laptop with a dual or quad core standard voltage processor. It could have been a real killer. I have seen it a couple of times at FastShop and Fnac stores here in São Paulo.

However, I have to say I gave it up for some reasons.

First, I learned that Sony is going to discontinue this model, probably due to low sales. So, there will be no Vaio Z powered by Haswell. Sony will likely focus on the crappy Vaio T instead.

Second, the version sold here in Brazil still uses Sandy Bridge, and was not updated to Ivy Bridge. In the US, the Vaio Z got the Ivy Bridge processor, but I guess it is pretty much unavailable. I could not find it at a Sony store when I was in the US in October last year.

Third, I found the keyboard to have short key travel and poor tactile feedback. As I am a typist, I would prefer to have a laptop with a more comfortable keyboard.

Fourth, I have read that it has some heating issues. It should be no surprise, as Sony managed to put a standard voltage processor in such a small case.