The nearest Apple Store is only a mile away so I stopped there during lunch and spent some quality time with a base model (i5, 128GB).
I didn't see any of the choppiness I saw the first time I played with a 15" rMBP (and posted a video of it a while back). Most of that has since been fixed with software anyway.
So, I immediately set it to the "most space" scaled resolution, because that's what I'd use every day. Still looked phenomenal, text was nice and sharp.
Opened 7 or 8 apps from the dock (including iPhoto and iTunes) and did some Expose tests, WHILE playing a 1080p video from iTunes. Pleasantly surprised, all the transitions were pretty smooth. A bit of stuttering in Expose, but honestly it was at least as smooth (if not smoother) than my work MBP (15" 2011 model, quad-core 2.2GHz). So I have no complaints about the UI lagging. And this was in the maximum scaled resolution mode!
Opened The Verge full-screen, no more stuttering than what I'm already used to on the other computers I've used (including Macs and Windows).
Transitions from full-screen to windowed mode, were smooth. The video pauses during the transition but I think that's expected.
IMAGE RETENTION: none observed, but I had to invent my own test. I played with the system for about 10 minutes with the dock showing the whole time (aside from a few momentary transitions to full-screen).
Then, at the end, I set the dock to auto-hide-- and then dragged the preference window pane down to the bottom of the screen where the dock would be. I didn't see any evidence of ghosting of the dock icons.
Probably not the most thorough test, but enough to convince me that image retention most likely wouldn't be a concern for me in daily use.
Also, since the command to show the display manufacturer apparently doesn't work any more (based on other threads) I didn't try that.
My test drive was enough to convince me that I'll be happy with the base model.
My quad-core Mac Mini does my heavy lifting, and I'm perfectly fine with the 128GB SSD I have installed in my MBP at home. I will mainly just be storing images temporarily in an Aperture library before I synch them back to my main library on the Mini.
A couple final notes - it's lighter than the 13" CMBP, but not as light as I thought it would be. It's definitely heavier than the air, but still easy to pick up with one hand. You could probably still injur somebody with a swift blow to the head using a new rMBP.
And finally, I went to a 13" air after spending some time with the rMBP and the Air's screen looks like a bag of asses.
I didn't see any of the choppiness I saw the first time I played with a 15" rMBP (and posted a video of it a while back). Most of that has since been fixed with software anyway.
So, I immediately set it to the "most space" scaled resolution, because that's what I'd use every day. Still looked phenomenal, text was nice and sharp.
Opened 7 or 8 apps from the dock (including iPhoto and iTunes) and did some Expose tests, WHILE playing a 1080p video from iTunes. Pleasantly surprised, all the transitions were pretty smooth. A bit of stuttering in Expose, but honestly it was at least as smooth (if not smoother) than my work MBP (15" 2011 model, quad-core 2.2GHz). So I have no complaints about the UI lagging. And this was in the maximum scaled resolution mode!
Opened The Verge full-screen, no more stuttering than what I'm already used to on the other computers I've used (including Macs and Windows).
Transitions from full-screen to windowed mode, were smooth. The video pauses during the transition but I think that's expected.
IMAGE RETENTION: none observed, but I had to invent my own test. I played with the system for about 10 minutes with the dock showing the whole time (aside from a few momentary transitions to full-screen).
Then, at the end, I set the dock to auto-hide-- and then dragged the preference window pane down to the bottom of the screen where the dock would be. I didn't see any evidence of ghosting of the dock icons.
Probably not the most thorough test, but enough to convince me that image retention most likely wouldn't be a concern for me in daily use.
Also, since the command to show the display manufacturer apparently doesn't work any more (based on other threads) I didn't try that.
My test drive was enough to convince me that I'll be happy with the base model.
My quad-core Mac Mini does my heavy lifting, and I'm perfectly fine with the 128GB SSD I have installed in my MBP at home. I will mainly just be storing images temporarily in an Aperture library before I synch them back to my main library on the Mini.
A couple final notes - it's lighter than the 13" CMBP, but not as light as I thought it would be. It's definitely heavier than the air, but still easy to pick up with one hand. You could probably still injur somebody with a swift blow to the head using a new rMBP.
And finally, I went to a 13" air after spending some time with the rMBP and the Air's screen looks like a bag of asses.