My perfect notebook, or: will the rMB suffice?

[mgpg89]

I'm currently typing this on a 15" Unibody MBP (Late 2008).
This machine is almost running on 7 years, so I'm looking for a replacement notebook.

My requirements and needs have changed quite significantly over the past few years, which have led me to consider abandoning the Pro-line and going for a new rMB.

Below is a summary of my dream laptop. Can you tell me which laptop - in your personal opinion - suits my needs best?
(Sorry, I can't think straight anymore after seeing the images of this beautiful new rMB)

Portability: I'll be taking my notebook to work every day, so the weight & size of the laptop is very important.

Performance: I won't be doing any intense stuff on this machine, at least not on a regular basis. I use the following apps a lot: Safari, iTunes, Tweetbot, Pages, Numbers, Mail ... so I won't be needing a lot of horsepower.
The only things that would need some extra power are:
- occasional Photoshop work here and there: nothing major, just designing some flyers & touching up photos
- watching 1080p movies without hiccups in VLC and/or stream them to my AppleTV (with Beamer or Infuse) => this is an absolute dealbreaker for me

Battery life: very important. The longer my battery will last, the better. In an ideal scenario, I would just charge my laptop overnight along with my iPhone and don't bring my charger to work. However, it's from my understanding that there's no machine in the Apple notebook line-up that enables me to do so... yet.

Storage space: 512GB SSD is enough, 1TB would be nice, but not a major issue.

Ports: I don't really care about the whole IO-discussion the rMB has everyone engaged in. I usually just charge and plug in my earbuds. My home speakers are wireless Harman/Kardon Aura speakers & I stream media to my AppleTV over Wi-Fi.

Screen: Retina only! 13" is my desired size, but I don't know if the 12" rMB would be too small in actual day-to-day use.

Keyboard & trackpad: honestly don't care, I'm sure I'll get used to either of them.

Life expectancy: My previous (still current) notebook served me very well for almost 7 years. I would like my new laptop to fulfill my needs for at least half of that duration.

Aesthetics: I'm concerned I'm valuing the design & form-factor too much to make a rational, well-informed decision, so let's leave aesthetics out of the equation. The rMB is absolutely stunning, but the rMBP isn't ugly either.

So it pretty much boils down to these 2 choices, unless I'm missing something:
- 12" retina MacBook 1.3GHz
- 13" retina MacBook Pro 2.9GHz
which both cost the same, give or take fifty bucks.

Please put me out of my misery.

 

[Geert76]

My requirements and needs have changed quite significantly over the past few years, which have led me to consider abandoning the Pro-line and going for a new rMB.

- watching 1080p movies without hiccups in VLC and/or stream them to my AppleTV (with Beamer or Infuse) => this is an absolute dealbreaker for me

This I am wondering as well. For me it is also very important the new MacBook can handle 1080P mkv files via Beamer app to my ATV3.

Gonna follow this thread

 

[crsh1976]

It sounds like the rMB fits the bill nicely, except for one potential thing: battery life. No first-hand experience here, but going with several reviews, battery is decent but nothing exceptional - depending on what is the bottom you accept. If exceptional battery life. beefier CPU/GPU and a slightly larger screen are more important, I'd drop the Retina requirement and go with an upgraded 13-inch MBA.

 

[ohenriquez]

I go to work everyday and take my laptop, so portability is very important and that is why I use a Macbook Pro Retina 15, which is very portable (only 4,46 lb I think)
I am medical doctor and for the health point of view, you can carry up to 15% of your weight in a bag without problems unless you suffer from osteoporosis, muscular dystrophy or are very malnourished
For battery life and lifespan of computer, you may want to get at least the retina macbook 13 inches. It will last for many years especially if you get 16 Gb RAM and 1 Tb hard drive

I know that the MB 12 inches is beautiful (I may get one) but in view of your requirements, you may want to chose the rMBP 13 or the 15 inches, why not (you had a much heavier machine and would appreciate greater screen state for productivity)
At the end of the day, the novelty of the new model will pass and you will use your mac as a great tool.

 

[evangw]

I'm on a base 13'' 2012 MBA which streams 1080p to the ATV3 just fine. In fact this was such a dealbreaker to me that I upgraded my 2010 MBA to a 2012 one 90% for this reason alone.

I've seen that the base rMB benchmarks more like the 2011 MBA, but I'd be surprised if that wasn't still more than enough power. My 2010 MBA played 1080p video just fine, but since it was before they added that 'streaming chip' or whatever it was, it couldn't do the ATV3 video sharing (and it was terrible with AirParrot).

I bought the rMB, but still waiting for it to ship out.


E: One nice thing about the rMB is that, in 6 months or so, I imagine buying a new USB-C charger (which you can leave at work) will only run you about $15, sort of like how thunderbolt charging cables for iOS devices are like $1.50 if you buy them anywhere besides an Apple store. OTOH my extra magsafe charger I bought 8 years ago is chugging along just fine, so spending an extra $80 once every 10 years isn't a big deal either.