I realize you don't know anything but will try to educate you. Average selling price for a PC laptop is around $600 to $700. Thats for the cheap junk you get at Best Buy and you are still using the always mediocre Windows and forget about service and support.
Average selling price for a Mac laptop is around $1,100. The $3,000 you reference gets you top of the line 15". The advantages of the $1100 Mac laptop are obvious to everyone here.
$3,000 is not remotely "unheard of" in the PC world. Sitting next to my 15" loaded retina is an HP Workstation laptop that costs more than my 15" MBP. But still not as good in any way and it runs Windows. Ugh.
So $3,000 is an outlier price for Mac laptops but you can easily pay that for Dell or HP PC laptops among others that are also workstation class quality.
You get what you pay for.
Here is a Dell workstation laptop for $2775 sort of equivalent in specs to my 15" MBP but it costs $400 more, does not have a retina display, is made of the cheapest components Dell can find, terrible service and support, and uses Windows 7 because nobody wants Windows 8. Enjoy.
Processor
Intel Core i7-4702HQ (Quad Core 2.20GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo, 6MB 37W, w/HD Graphics 4600) edit
16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 edit
LED Display
15.6" UltraSharp FHD Touch(1920x1080)
Video Card
Nvidia® Quadro® K1100M, w/ 2GB GDDR5 edit
Hard Drive
512GB Solid State Drive Full Mini Card edit
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0
Primary Battery
6-cell, 61Whr primary battery edit
I'm already aware of the developer tools. There's a difference though between setting an iMac's interface to Retina (x2) and let's say x1,3 to increase readability for my mom.It is actually possible to enable hi-dpi mode (retina) on all Macs. If you try it out, you'll understand why Apple don't enable it though... You have to run at a quarter the full resolution in terms of working area, and for the non-retina displays, that's not all that usable. In case you want to try and turn on hi-dpi mode though:
Easy way:
1: download Xcode and Quartz debug
2: Open the Quartz debugger
3: Click "Window" in the menu bar, and pick "UI Resolutions".
4: There's a button that says: "Enable Hi-DPI mode" tick this
5: Now enter your password and System Preferences should have new resolution options for Hi-DPI mode.
Harder way:
1: Open Terminal
2: Type "sudo defaults write /library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true"
3: You will be prompted for your password and asked to either reboot or log out all users
Beware! Some users have reported problems using the terminal command. If anything goes wrong in the process, using the Terminal method, you will have to boot into single user mode to correct it.
Link to a guide for the Terminal method: http://cocoamanifest.net/articles/2013/01/turn-on-hidpi-retina-mode-on-an-ordinary-mac.html
Link to a guide for the Quartz Debug method: http://www.mactrast.com/2013/01/how-to-enable-retina-graphics-on-a-non-retina-mac/
Someone posted earlier that rMBP's older than 2013 wouldn't be able to drive a 4K display.As long as your iMac has two Thunderbolt ports, it should work with all but the most recently released 60 Hz 4K displays, since they were all multiple input devices. It's just the DisplayPort 1.2 MST based displays that have shown up in the past year or so that you wouldn't be able to drive at 60 Hz. And, theoretically, someone could build a 4K display with dual Thunderbolt controllers that could be driven at 60 Hz using a single OG Thunderbolt 1 connection.
Someone posted earlier that rMBP's older than 2013 wouldn't be able to drive a 4K display.
I have a 2012 15" w/650m. Since I have two thunderbolt ports would I be able to drive a 4K display with multiple inputs?
Guys,
According to some reports, Late 2013 high-end rMBP with Nvidia 750M card can output 4k @ 60Hz after the 10.9.3 beta release. As you know this is the only Haswell rMBP that has discrete graphics card.
How likely in your opinion the integrated graphics Iris card in the 13'' and Iris Pro in the low-end 15'' Haswell rMBP are capable of outputting 4k@60Hz?
Did they enable the Mac Mini (Late 2012) to use a 4k at retina settings? It is fully capable of doing so and I would like to know.
What are you talking about? Try reading the specs on the Dell UP2414Q. It's a 24-inch, 60 Hz, 99% Adobe RGB, IPS display with all the bells and whistles for $1149.99 ($994.49 if you use the coupon codes found here.)
You guys would really pay a thousand bucks for a monitor?![]()
I'm actually having trouble finding the current ones at the most popular Finnish or Swiss stores... typically this points to an impending release. Here's hoping for release in the next few weeks!That is awesome! I've been waiting for this. Hopefully this means new 4K Thunderbolt Cinema Displays?
this seems good, but i will, or never, have a 4K display, unless Apple makes their laptops with 4K, iMac', this alone, would be useless to me.
Since Apple's only going with 4K external displays, that puts me out.
There is still hope they reintroduce the 17" MBP with a 4K screen... I'd buy that in a heartbeat!
Dang, what terrible timing. My 30" ACD just died tonight. I wish there were a clear successor to replace it with.
Apple TBD for $960 or so:
- Quality display
- no dicking around with EDID crap that may or may not work with the next OS release
- built-in docking for USB, thunderbolt/displayport, ethernet, firewire
Dell 2713:
- $650 for the display, requires EDID override ******** that may or may not work in the future
- only a couple of USB ports for docking.
Add a third-party dock for $200-$300, if any of them are actually shipping, and you get right up there in the ATD price range, with a lot less convenience and a lot more FUD.