So I was looking at a pro mid 2012 and the new 13inch retina 8/256 and I was wondering is it worth spending the extra $500?Is upgrading the macbook pro going to make it better then the 13 inch retina, I would like to do a little bit of gaming between classes.
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MacBook Pro mid 2012 vs Retnia
- Thread starter verseafterverse
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For the pro:
- The pro is upgradeable (ram, ssd)
- the pro has a superdrive
- has ethernet, firewireports and a battery indicator
Against:
- its heavy
- the technology is old (and non upgradeable!)
- the screen is not as crisp
- the batterylife is short
Advice:
Get a macbook air unless you need to upgrade to carry around tons of storage.
Nobody stays happy with the pros hdd
- The pro is upgradeable (ram, ssd)
- the pro has a superdrive
- has ethernet, firewireports and a battery indicator
Against:
- its heavy
- the technology is old (and non upgradeable!)
- the screen is not as crisp
- the batterylife is short
Advice:
Get a macbook air unless you need to upgrade to carry around tons of storage.
Nobody stays happy with the pros hdd
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The MBA display leaves a LOT to be desired - it's abysmal really. The lightness and battery life are great but that display just kills the whole proposition for me, it's too similar to that of my white MacBook from 2008, i.e. a huge step backwards.
If you want to game at all with decent settings / framerates, you'll be needing a MBP-15 of either regular (2012) or retina (excepting the newest base model) variety as those are the only ones with a dGPU. You'll be disappointed with any of the iGPUs, including the latest and greatest Iris Pro. People will probably dispute that, but they won't be people who play any recent games with any regularity.
Yes the old uMBP-15 is heavy, but it's still a 5.5lb notebook. In the larger scheme of things it's not terrible to carry around, unless your bag also happens to be full of textbooks, in which case every ounce of savings counts.
Good Luck
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If you want to game at all with decent settings / framerates, you'll be needing a MBP-15 of either regular (2012) or retina (excepting the newest base model) variety as those are the only ones with a dGPU. You'll be disappointed with any of the iGPUs, including the latest and greatest Iris Pro. People will probably dispute that, but they won't be people who play any recent games with any regularity.
Yes the old uMBP-15 is heavy, but it's still a 5.5lb notebook. In the larger scheme of things it's not terrible to carry around, unless your bag also happens to be full of textbooks, in which case every ounce of savings counts.
Good Luck
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I bought a early 2013 rmbp with 8/256 for a little over 1200.I do a little bit of gaming but only between some classes I have a desktop for that.
I don't think the old 15" is that heavy. I didn't even find the 17" to be a burden, which is why I still own one. My issues with the display on the Air are that it's very cold, it can mute some saturated colors, and the viewing angles are terrible. It's not like the 13" rmbp is much heavier.
That part only matters if software support dries up earlier.
I agree, it's certainly not too heavy for me to carry every day, though I'm not strolling around a campus all day long with 30lbs of books either. Do students even do that anymore or is everything digital these days?
Still, in the modern scheme of things (retina and MBA), you'd have to put the uMBP-15 and 17 in the "heavy" category for whatever that's worth.
I see it as being kind of like your rifle - all other things being roughly equal, you'd rather have a lighter one.
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It varies. I've taken a few extension courses in the past year, even though I'm well out of college. Many of the texts are available in ebook format. Publishers like them, because there is no potential for resale. In most cases lectures do not require the use of a book, so bringing it is unnecessary. At the high school level, I think they still carry a lot of books.
I would agree, as we're not at a point where the materials are too light to remain stationary. I just think it's well past the point of being a real burden in most cases. There are people on here who refer to the cMBP as a brick. I've used both, and the difference is sometimes exaggerated quite a bit outside of situations where every ounce counts. It never occurred to me to leave a 15" or 17" at home (old notebook was an ancient 15" powerbook G4) due to weight concerns.