Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Just bought a 15 rMBP...Expecting non-fail

S

Spetsnazos

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 3, 2012
244
9
Background: Heavy internet reading(mostly research), lots of programming, some photoshop, lots of FEA modeling, lots of SolidWorks/random progs and some gaming.

I own a G74SX laptop which is a beast windows machine for gaming(haven't done much of this lately except GW2).

Need something that is portable that I can take to a coffee shop with nice asthetics, nice keyboard, nice touchpad and something that can do Mac/Windows so I could get into some app development. I know a retina is overkill for iOS app development but I'll be mainly using this as my go-to laptop for on the go things and looking stuff up while I'm not at my desk.

Anyways, ordered a 15 rMBP
-----------------
2.6 ghz processor
16 gig's of RAM
512 SSD
All other specs are typical with rMBP

Was really waiting out for the 13" but there is no way I'm getting integrated graphics...Sorry but that's just shooting myself in the foot...

Hoping that battery doesnt suck? What do you guys get with WiFi use of general websites?
 
Spetsnazos said:
Background: Heavy internet reading(mostly research), lots of programming, some photoshop, lots of FEA modeling, lots of SolidWorks/random progs and some gaming.

I own a G74SX laptop which is a beast windows machine for gaming(haven't done much of this lately except GW2).

Need something that is portable that I can take to a coffee shop with nice asthetics, nice keyboard, nice touchpad and something that can do Mac/Windows so I could get into some app development. I know a retina is overkill for iOS app development but I'll be mainly using this as my go-to laptop for on the go things and looking stuff up while I'm not at my desk.

Anyways, ordered a 15 rMBP
-----------------
2.6 ghz processor
16 gig's of RAM
512 SSD
All other specs are typical with rMBP

Was really waiting out for the 13" but there is no way I'm getting integrated graphics...Sorry but that's just shooting myself in the foot...

Hoping that battery doesnt suck? What do you guys get with WiFi use of general websites?
Click to expand...

I've been doing VFX work for major films on my rMBP....it is a serious machine!
 
It's difficult to say what your battery life will be. I get around 5 hours on wifi. Same specs as you.
 
No doubt the Retina display is nice. I just purchased the cMBP, was able to upgrade the ram to 16 for $100 and will upgrade to an SSD 512 later in the year when prices drop a bit more. I watched Moneyball, 1080p HD, the other night and the picture was AMAZING on the NON-retina screen.

When I went to the mall to try and see the difference, yep, the screen on the retina was better, but not need, for me anyway. I opted for the ability to upgrade ram and SSD. Optical drive is lagacy, but sometime nice to have. It was not a deal breaker for me, and even though the rMBP is thinner, I can believe how thin my cMBP is compared to my i7 Sony VAIO.

No regrets on my decision. Some say it is more to add ram and SSD to the cMBP, so just buy the rMBP. That is true if you go through Apple. However,

rMBP +16G Ram = $2400
cMBP +16G Ram + SSD Samsung 830 = $2050

I have always did my own upgrades and home built computers. This may well be the LAST upgradable computer from Apple!!

Enjoy your purchase.
 
Cool, let me know what you think when you get it. I'm also going from an Asus G74SX, so this is my first mac.

I "just" got the baseline model of the rMBP though. Hoping that I'll like it. :)
 
Rhinoevans said:
No doubt the Retina display is nice. I just purchased the cMBP, was able to upgrade the ram to 16 for $100 and will upgrade to an SSD 512 later in the year when prices drop a bit more. I watched Moneyball, 1080p HD, the other night and the picture was AMAZING on the NON-retina screen.

When I went to the mall to try and see the difference, yep, the screen on the retina was better, but not need, for me anyway. I opted for the ability to upgrade ram and SSD. Optical drive is lagacy, but sometime nice to have. It was not a deal breaker for me, and even though the rMBP is thinner, I can believe how thin my cMBP is compared to my i7 Sony VAIO.

No regrets on my decision. Some say it is more to add ram and SSD to the cMBP, so just buy the rMBP. That is true if you go through Apple. However,

rMBP +16G Ram = $2400
cMBP +16G Ram + SSD Samsung 830 = $2050

I have always did my own upgrades and home built computers. This may well be the LAST upgradable computer from Apple!!

Enjoy your purchase.
Click to expand...

i've been thinking about doing this for a few days now. i'm expecting a 15" retina this monday and i thought i can just live with the "slight" image retention since several peoples on this forums said its not much of an issue. but as i've been using my ipad 2, which also suffer from image retention after a year, i cant help but keep noticing the image and pictures just doesn't look "clean" at all. like when i read a webpage for a little bit or doing some math problems from the pdf text book, and when i scroll up a little bit i still see a remnants and shadows of the previous position on the screen. the white background surface just doesn't look clean anymore. and this is just a plain pdf math text book with white background and black text.
i was planning when the laptop arrives, i just run the checker board for the heck of it and just take it back to the apple store for a refund, and just purchase a BTO 15" classic macbook pro.
but then i started to crunch some numbers and a 15" with 2.7GHz i7, 8GB ram (cant upgrade 16GB through apple), and a Hi-Res screen is going to set me back at $2314 !!! and that's with an educational discount!!
the retina model i just ordered was a 2.7GHz i7, 16GB ram, and 256GB SSD and it was only $2504 with educational discount. this is my ideal configuration for this laptop.

but i still need to get 16GB ram upgrade for the cMBP which is going to set me back another $90, and a 256GB M4 or 830 SSD which is going to set me back another $170, a optical bay caddy and a Terabyte HDD which is going to be at least $130. this is my ideal configuration for this laptop.

it look like the retina is a better buy than the equivalent 15" classic. but i will have to deal with the dreaded image retention crap, which is a shame.

i need to sleep this through a few more nights to think it over
 
i read about the ghosting before i bought m two retinas. i thought that i would just ignore it and hey whats the chance of having such a flaw? after two wonderful weeks IR showed up. took me a day to find out what it was called and all. after i noticed it , it got worse to the point that i could not work on it anymore. im an architect and use alot of photoshop.

returned it and got another cpu.. two more weeks and the IR showed up. delivered it back and wont buy a new one.


ive been using mac since 94 and this is the first bad experience. and its very very bad.
 
iPersian said:
i read about the ghosting before i bought m two retinas. i thought that i would just ignore it and hey whats the chance of having such a flaw? after two wonderful weeks IR showed up. took me a day to find out what it was called and all. after i noticed it , it got worse to the point that i could not work on it anymore. im an architect and use alot of photoshop.

returned it and got another cpu.. two more weeks and the IR showed up. delivered it back and wont buy a new one.


ive been using mac since 94 and this is the first bad experience. and its very very bad.
Click to expand...

um you just scared my purchase...is this that bad?
 
Paid quite a bit for this laptop, if I get this IR issue I'm returning it the first day and waiting for a Zenbook. Kind of unacceptable at this price point or am I exaggerating?
 
I've been reading the forums & the issues with the retina display since June. I have a 3-1/2 year old 17" anti-glare MacBook Pro & I'd like to upgrade. From what I was reading here about the 15" rMBP I was leaning toward the 15" anti-glare & personally upgrading to SSD & 16GB RAM after I got it. I even considered the 13-inch retina when it debuted last week but I don't know if I can jump from 17" to 13". Everyone told me people come to forums with complaints, just buy the retina. "It's the best computer every & you'll be fine." So I decided today ******* it, I'll get the 15" retina. I bought it this afternoon at the Apple Store near me. The screen has a noticeable yellowish cast. It's a week 39 with an LG display. I didn't look for image retention, I was off put by the color bias. It's also not as bright as my 3-1/2 year old MacBook Pro. The clarity of retina is great but it just looks off. I'll be returning it tomorrow. It irks me that it's been out since June & still has these problems. Sad. Note to self: Listen to your gut.
 
SolidWorks

I do a lot of SolidWorks in Windows with the rMBP. It runs great in terms of speed.

Though... SolidWorks (and Windows to a much lesser extent) isn't high DPI friendly. So if you want to use the full resolution, you may get huge and overlapping text. Sure, you can turn off the high DPI, but you wont be able to see anything. Or you can use a smaller resolution, but it's horribly blurry.

Now if you run SW in Parallels, that's a different story.
 
Spetsnazos said:
um you just scared my purchase...is this that bad?
Click to expand...

yeah. look im not bashing apple here. ive been a user since 94 and a huge mac fan. so when im saying that apples product is flawed and premature then there is a reason. apple makes high quality product and charges premium for its premium laptops. they should be close to %100 flawless.

alot of users like me are into the creatives, so when an important thing such as the screen has problems then its serious.

the ghosting started showing up after two weeks and when i was moving windows around you could easily see the ghosting. this made working with images impossible. imagine moving an image slightly and you have suddenly two images.

when i easily could see the ghosting then im my opinion its serious. regardless of what people say here.
 
i ended up cancelling my order. Looking at my bank account going down by $3k and thinking that I was going to get IR sometime down the road, I just couldn't justify it. Its such a nice laptop in person I wish they could solve this.

Guess I'll wait till the next iteration.

Oh I was talking to Apple support when I was cancelling and they claim they've never heard of IR...Not sure if they're suppose to say that or if he was being honest.
 
i got my rMBP a few days ago. And I have a Samsung panel!! I felt a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders when i found out (first thing i did was to check if it was Lg or Samsung.)! :p

If you get LG, return it at once, IR will come sooner or later.

I have a 2.6/16/512 model, and i love it to death. Lots of power, great screen, thin, light. I´m in love with it. :p Still can't get that Asus U500VZ out of my head though. :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back