Mid-Range 1.2 GHz Retina MacBook CPU Shows Nice Speed Boost Over Low-End Model

[newellj]

Well, I picked one up, and absolutely love it so far. Haven't done anything too taxing with it yet, but it really is a joy to use.

Ran some Geekbench benchmarks if anyone is interested - the numbers it spat out for the 1.2GHz were:

32 bit
Single core - 2436
Multi core - 4836

64 bit
Single core - 2634
Multi core - 5404

Remember that the first 24-48 hours of power on typically involve a lot of indexing and other administrative/housekeeping by the OS, and if you have encryption turned on, FileVault will also require power-up time on mains power to encrypt the disk. Those can affect benchmarks!

 

[Peter Maurer]

Well, I picked one up, and absolutely love it so far.

Glad you like it, and congrats on being able to pick one up this easily. Apple sure did prioritize the US this time. Over here in Europe, the rMB is still a more or less mythical creature — I ordered mine a few minutes after it became available (i.e., right after I preordered my Apple Watch, which has since arrived), and it will arive by the end of next week. If I'm lucky, that is.

 

[johngordon]

Glad you like it, and congrats on being able to pick one up this easily. Apple sure did prioritize the US this time. Over here in Europe, the rMB is still a more or less mythical creature — I ordered mine a few minutes after it became available (i.e., right after I preordered my Apple Watch, which has since arrived), and it will arive by the end of next week. If I'm lucky, that is.

I'm actually in the UK - we have an authorised reseller rather than an actual Apple Store in our town and they had some in. I know there's a bit of a wait for online orders, so not sure how stocks are generally in bricks and mortar stores.

Hope you don't have to wait too long for yours.

 

[chiuser18]

I went to Apple Store today and got to play with 1.1 versus 1.2. Guess what? On most webpages, they are identically same in terms of speed. Yet, on some webpages, 1.2 is faster, but on others the 1.1 is actually faster. So, if you are looking for purely speed on web browsing, save your money and buy base version. Examples of sites where 1.1 faster were Vevo, Youtube, and MSN. Examples where 1.2 was faster were CNN, Telegraph UK, and MSNBC.

 

[coevolve]

I just purchased one and I am very happy. Indeed it is the best portable laptop I have every owned. I have a larger desktop replacement Windows laptop, super powerful Windows PC and a self-modified Mac Pro I use for various heavy lifting tasks. Interestingly, I can access my heavy lifting machines remotely easily (and smoothly) with my new MacBook if necessary. It is light, gorgeous (making light to medium computational work much more enjoyable compared to most laptops), and it blows my 2008 aluminium unibody MacBook which was upgraded to a SSD and 8GB of ram out of the water. Still a great machine though. Due to the expense of this new MacBook I suggest great protection unless money is not important to you or you think you are a God incapable of dropping the darn thing or having it get scratched in your brief case. I have opted for a G-Form impact protection sleeve and a Moshi hard shell. I think I could still experience damage in the future, but these items should reduce the probability of minor damages.

I find the single port fun (I like finding nifty cables and adapters), the new keyboard is useful and the FaceTime camera with low resolution does not bother me as I can use my iPhone, iPad or MacPro for important FaceTime communications. Having low resolution FaceTime is better than no FaceTime on the road (e.g., if my phone dies). My perception is that this little machine can do so much, so quickly and efficiently it is hands-down the best laptop money can buy. Think about it: (1) Crazy awesome weight; (2) No fan; (3) Fast, large SSD; (4) Amazing display; (5) Exceptional build quality; and (6) OS X ecosystem and amazing wireless AC connectivity. It simply does not struggle to complete simple common tasks (e.g., word processing, web surfing, watching video). Beyond primarily being a portable consumption machine, it can produce sophisticated product (albeit a bit more slowly than a professional machine). In 5 years I can imagine a portable MacBook Pro capable of 90-95 percent of heavy lifting Windows desktop tasks but retaining the same form factor of this machine (i.e., the new MacBook). Until then I will try not to upgrade 😉