New non-retina MBP - best one ever ?

[barmann]

After all the noise about the new Retina display MBPs, I almost missed the it.

The old style MBP still exists , and has been upgraded quite a bit - it keeps all the ports of the old model, like Ethernet and FW, added are TB and USB3 .

GPU and CPU have been upgraded as well, and there still is an anti-glare option for the 15", like before .

HDD and RAM are supposedly still user-upgradable .

Sounds quite good to me, like the MBP I have been waiting for - am I missing something, is there a catch ?

 

[cathyy]

Overall the upgrades made are amazing.

However I tend to carry my MBP a lot and I'd really love to have the new design RMBP. Unfortunately the retina screen is preventing me from buying it.

 

[barmann]

I hear you .

I'm just asking, because the Retina models can not be connectected to any external pro devices, hence it looks like they are some sort of protototype for when TB will be ready for users .

As of now, the Retinas are great looking and all that, but can't be connected to anything much at all for work .

No FW adapter - if that will work at all, no usable TB devices around anyways, and a bunch of consumer grade USB3 drives and such, which are a welcome addition, just a little late .

 

[icewing]

After all the noise about the new Retina display MBPs, I almost missed the it.

The old style MBP still exists , and has been upgraded quite a bit - it keeps all the ports of the old model, like Ethernet and FW, added are TB and USB3 .

GPU and CPU have been upgraded as well, and there still is an anti-glare option for the 15", like before .

HDD and RAM are supposedly still user-upgradable .

Sounds quite good to me, like the MBP I have been waiting for - am I missing something, is there a catch ?

Just ordered an anti-glare. I was willing to go Retina and lose the CD drive, but the non-upgradable RAM and SSD wa a deal-breaker for me. Pretty excited, thus will be my first personal laptop - looking forward to not having to use my work Dell.

 

[Stetrain]

I hear you .

I'm just asking, because the Retina models can not be connectected to any external pro devices, hence it looks like they are some sort of protototype for when TB will be ready for users .

As of now, the Retinas are great looking and all that, but can't be connected to anything much at all for work .

No FW adapter - if that will work at all, no usable TB devices around anyways, and a bunch of consumer grade USB3 drives and such, which are a welcome addition, just a little late .

Apple announced a Thunderbolt Firewire 800 adapter alongside the new MBP, as well as Gigabit Ethernet. Since Thunderbolt is basically just external PCI-Express, I don't see how those won't be suitable for connecting to 'pro devices'.

 

[barmann]

Apple announced a Thunderbolt Firewire 800 adapter alongside the new MBP, as well as Gigabit Ethernet. Since Thunderbolt is basically just external PCI-Express, I don't see how those won't be suitable for connecting to 'pro devices'.

I understand those adapters don't exist yet, TB to FW might be very expensive, and there is 0 evidence it might work .

TB isn't even around yet properly -does it work, and how are the adapters doing ?
TB is just a hole in the case right now , doing nothing but cost you money to connect the few things available for it .

 

[jacg]

After all the noise about the new Retina display MBPs, I almost missed the it.

The old style MBP still exists , and has been upgraded quite a bit - it keeps all the ports of the old model, like Ethernet and FW, added are TB and USB3 .

GPU and CPU have been upgraded as well, and there still is an anti-glare option for the 15", like before .

HDD and RAM are supposedly still user-upgradable .

Sounds quite good to me, like the MBP I have been waiting for - am I missing something, is there a catch ?

Agreed. I'm going to see what early adopters think of the display, but, much as I like the new form factor, a maxed out non-retina mbp seems like the sensible option just now, and will surely be a worthy step up from my creaking 4yo model. I feel nervous about cracking it open straight away to rip out the ODD to make room for SSD boot drive though, as I did with my current machine last year.

 

[Stetrain]

I understand those adapters don't exist yet, TB to FW might be very expensive, and there is 0 evidence it might work .

Huh? Why would Apple publically announce yesterday that they were shipping one if it doesn't work?

The Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter is already available in the Apple Store. It's $29. I would expect a similar price for the Firewire 800 adapter when it shows up in the store over the next week or two.

Why wouldn't it work? Thunderbolt is PCI-Express. If it works as a PCI-Express card it will work over Thunderbolt.

 

[Dangerdog3000]

TB is just a hole in the case right now , doing nothing but cost you money to connect the few things available for it .

It doesn't cost you extra, it's an upgraded mini-displayport which has existed on Mac's even since the unibody redesign years ago. If you want to disregard the thunderbolt aspect, go ahead but you can't say that it doesn't work and it cost extra because it doesn't.

 

[brentsg]

I understand those adapters don't exist yet, TB to FW might be very expensive, and there is 0 evidence it might work .

TB isn't even around yet properly -does it work, and how are the adapters doing ?
TB is just a hole in the case right now , doing nothing but cost you money to connect the few things available for it .

The adapters are announced and low priced. There were some pics of both floating around and the Ethernet adapter is already readily available.

Also, that "hole in the case" is working pretty darn well here. I'm regularly using it with an external SSD for my MBP.

 

[Demosthenes X]

I understand those adapters don't exist yet, TB to FW might be very expensive, and there is 0 evidence it might work .

It might be expensive, but we already know it will work. The Thunderbolt display has a Firewire port, remember...?

 

[pragmatous]

Agreed.

For the price of a low end MBP retina I got a high end MBP with High res anti-glare. A 750GB 7200 RPM drive is fine. What I plan to do down the road is replace the optical drive with a SSD. Then I have 2 HDD in my Mac i can also upgrade the RAM to 16GB.

Just ordered an anti-glare. I was willing to go Retina and lose the CD drive, but the non-upgradable RAM and SSD wa a deal-breaker for me. Pretty excited, thus will be my first personal laptop - looking forward to not having to use my work Dell.

 

[Vctr]

I hate it when people say "the best one yet" . I feel like that goes without saying ... I most certainly hope that it's better than last years model!

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Huh? Why would Apple publically announce yesterday that they were shipping one if it doesn't work?

The Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter is already available in the Apple Store. It's $29. I would expect a similar price for the Firewire 800 adapter when it shows up in the store over the next week or two.

Why wouldn't it work? Thunderbolt is PCI-Express. If it works as a PCI-Express card it will work over Thunderbolt.

Same could be asked about the white iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, but we all know how that turned out.

 

[pragmatous]

I hate it when people say "I hate it when people say"

/universe collapses in a singularity

I hate it when people say "the best one yet" . I feel like that goes without saying ... I most certainly hope that it's better than last years model!

 

[skywalkerr69]

After all the noise about the new Retina display MBPs, I almost missed the it.

The old style MBP still exists , and has been upgraded quite a bit - it keeps all the ports of the old model, like Ethernet and FW, added are TB and USB3 .

GPU and CPU have been upgraded as well, and there still is an anti-glare option for the 15", like before .

HDD and RAM are supposedly still user-upgradable .

Sounds quite good to me, like the MBP I have been waiting for - am I missing something, is there a catch ?

Sounds like a good deal. Buy a retina when the price comes waaaaaay down

----------

Apple announced a Thunderbolt Firewire 800 adapter alongside the new MBP, as well as Gigabit Ethernet. Since Thunderbolt is basically just external PCI-Express, I don't see how those won't be suitable for connecting to 'pro devices'.

If you have to spend more than $3,000 on a computer you shouldn't need extras to make it work.

 

[2LMedia]

If you have to spend more than $3,000 on a computer you shouldn't need extras to make it work.

If you still rely on "old" tech you do.

 

[skywalkerr69]

If you still rely on "old" tech you do.

The only "new" tech is the retina

 

[maratus]

The only "new" tech is the retina

As well as 95Wh battery in a 0.7" 15.4" 2kg unibody enclosure without compromising on RAW processing power.

 

[CausticPuppy]

If you still rely on "old" tech you do.

Until 802.11ac is standard, gigabit networking should not be considered "old tech."

If it were me, I'd be OK with the dongle, since I rarely actually need gigabit speed; but for those few times where I have to copy a couple dozen gigs of data to my NAS, it sure comes in handy.

 

[Stetrain]

The only "new" tech is the retina

And 80GB/s worth of aggregate external PCI-Express bandwidth via two Thunderbolt ports.

 

[MagicBoy]

If you still rely on "old" tech you do.

If anything WiFi is old tech - it's a shared medium ... just like 1980s thin-ethernet.

Wireless - fantastic for browsing the internet and streaming iTunes around the house. Just hope your neighbour doesn't fire up the microwave to make some cocoa or use her cordless analogue phone!

 

[TSE]

I wonder if the Retina panel can be put in the current Pro "thick" pro?

 

[Stetrain]

I wonder if the Retina panel can be put in the current Pro "thick" pro?

Very very (very!) unlikely. Just from a quick look it seems that the new display uses a completely different hinge design. The Retina MBP also has slightly different length and width dimensions than the non-retina.

 

[Mizzou02RS]

Agreed.

For the price of a low end MBP retina I got a high end MBP with High res anti-glare. A 750GB 7200 RPM drive is fine. What I plan to do down the road is replace the optical drive with a SSD. Then I have 2 HDD in my Mac i can also upgrade the RAM to 16GB.

I am with you. For around $1730 (used student discount) after taxes I got a 2012 13" MBP with the 2.9ghz i7, 8GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive plus AppleCare.

That is a great laptop for a nice price.