I hate to add to the many posts talking about the new Retina MBP, but here goes anyway...
I recently sold a 13" C2D (2.26GHz) with 8Gb and a 240Gb SSD (which I removed and installed a fresh drive for the new owner). I'm now in the market for a replacement and weighing up the options.
What I'm most interested in is to try to justify the Retina MBP. Money isn't really the issue - I run my own business and a purchase such as this can be offset against tax and the VAT (sales tax) reclaimed. Which brings the price down a fair bit. I also have the funds from the MBP I have sold, which means that it'll cost approximately £1000 extra to move to a 16Gb/256Gb/2.3i7 MBPR. So, not an enormous cost but these are tough times and since I'm naturally cautious I want to be sure that this would be a smarter move than settling for one of the refreshed 13" MBPs. Which I'd immediately upgrade to 16Gb and pop my existing SSD in.
Though this will be a business purchase, I expect to use it mainly at home which means that it will have to fulfil the 'home machine' role as well as the 'business workhorse' role. And I've managed with 240Gb (just) so I can get by with 256Gb, but it all seems a bit... tight. However, it frees up my 240Gb SSD which can go in a USB enclosure for the non-essential stuff.
Also, has anyone any insider knowledge about Retina Support for Parallels 7 - i.e. will I be able to run my Windows VMs with native MBPR resolution - anyone heard anything? I can only justify this expense if it can improve my Windows dev experience (which I do using Parallels VMs on my iMac, but struggled with on my 13" MBP due to speed and low resolution screen).
Finally: any ideas if this thing will depreciate like a brick or not? Clearly nobody could say for sure, but the 13" MBPs have held onto their value very well - amazingly my refurb 13 cost me around £200 for 2.5 years' use - but when shelling out for a top-end laptop, would I be lucky to recover half of the purchase price after three years? I'm trying to put a 'total cost of ownership' figure on the table to justify spending the cash. Gotta watch the beans, after all... if I could say it'll be worth 50% in 3 years, I can account for depreciation of roughly £300/year, a whole lot higher than my previous MBP but not desperately high either, for a thing of cutting edge design.
I'm sorely tempted to say '****** it' and buy the MBPR! I really am. But I want to think this through for once...
I recently sold a 13" C2D (2.26GHz) with 8Gb and a 240Gb SSD (which I removed and installed a fresh drive for the new owner). I'm now in the market for a replacement and weighing up the options.
What I'm most interested in is to try to justify the Retina MBP. Money isn't really the issue - I run my own business and a purchase such as this can be offset against tax and the VAT (sales tax) reclaimed. Which brings the price down a fair bit. I also have the funds from the MBP I have sold, which means that it'll cost approximately £1000 extra to move to a 16Gb/256Gb/2.3i7 MBPR. So, not an enormous cost but these are tough times and since I'm naturally cautious I want to be sure that this would be a smarter move than settling for one of the refreshed 13" MBPs. Which I'd immediately upgrade to 16Gb and pop my existing SSD in.
Though this will be a business purchase, I expect to use it mainly at home which means that it will have to fulfil the 'home machine' role as well as the 'business workhorse' role. And I've managed with 240Gb (just) so I can get by with 256Gb, but it all seems a bit... tight. However, it frees up my 240Gb SSD which can go in a USB enclosure for the non-essential stuff.
Also, has anyone any insider knowledge about Retina Support for Parallels 7 - i.e. will I be able to run my Windows VMs with native MBPR resolution - anyone heard anything? I can only justify this expense if it can improve my Windows dev experience (which I do using Parallels VMs on my iMac, but struggled with on my 13" MBP due to speed and low resolution screen).
Finally: any ideas if this thing will depreciate like a brick or not? Clearly nobody could say for sure, but the 13" MBPs have held onto their value very well - amazingly my refurb 13 cost me around £200 for 2.5 years' use - but when shelling out for a top-end laptop, would I be lucky to recover half of the purchase price after three years? I'm trying to put a 'total cost of ownership' figure on the table to justify spending the cash. Gotta watch the beans, after all... if I could say it'll be worth 50% in 3 years, I can account for depreciation of roughly £300/year, a whole lot higher than my previous MBP but not desperately high either, for a thing of cutting edge design.
I'm sorely tempted to say '****** it' and buy the MBPR! I really am. But I want to think this through for once...