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Retina display

Dave245

Dave245

macrumors G4
Original poster
Sep 15, 2013
10,274
8,434
Ok so i currently have a 2011 Macbook Pro which i use for university work, however i have been wondering if upgrading to a retina display would be worth it? and of course the SSD speeds compared to my current 2011 model.

I'm thinking about waiting until the 12" MBA is announced and maybe getting one of those, or failing that i've been thinking about the RMBP, i do need a lot of storage around 1TB because i save a lot of work and download a lot of iTunes content such as TV shows.

What is your opinion on the retina MBP? is the screen much better? also is the battery life a lot better than the 2011 Macbook Pro?

Is it worth an upgrade from a 2011 Macbook pro?
 
It's great

Dave245 said:
Ok so i currently have a 2011 Macbook Pro which i use for university work, however i have been wondering if upgrading to a retina display would be worth it? and of course the SSD speeds compared to my current 2011 model.

I'm thinking about waiting until the 12" MBA is announced and maybe getting one of those, or failing that i've been thinking about the RMBP, i do need a lot of storage around 1TB because i save a lot of work and download a lot of iTunes content such as TV shows.

What is your opinion on the retina MBP? is the screen much better? also is the battery life a lot better than the 2011 Macbook Pro?

Is it worth an upgrade from a 2011 Macbook pro?
Click to expand...

I think the current 13 rMBP is just about the best all round thin light laptop around at the moment myself. The screen is fantastic great for photos and video but amazing with text and it makes reading anything much more comfortable, the anti-glare is pretty good as well as the viewing angles.

The battery life is great I often get 7-8 hours out of it with fairly light use.

However an ssd and a ram upgrade in your current 2011 would also be a pretty good machine.

Paying for the 1TB upgrade is madness in my opinion, you can have networked storage at home for all your large file needs at a much lower cost.

TV shows do not need to be available all the time just dump them on an external hard drive USB 3 is quick enough to make this much less of a chore than it used to be.

If you want to go for it then the refurb with 512gb would be your best price storage compromise.

Until we see what the 12 inch air brings it's difficult to reccomend waiting, but if you are fine with what you have, a couple of months will be worth it before you decide.
 
I have the 15" and it has the same battery life, but you do know macs they don't last the 8 hours your told, especially if your using safari, and powerpoint. I really don't tell a difference about the retina, but it is nice to have. It is much faster, much thinner, and such wow. So hence if you want a new mac get the retina display.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
I think the current 13 rMBP is just about the best all round thin light laptop around at the moment myself. The screen is fantastic great for photos and video but amazing with text and it makes reading anything much more comfortable, the anti-glare is pretty good as well as the viewing angles.

The battery life is great I often get 7-8 hours out of it with fairly light use.

However an ssd and a ram upgrade in your current 2011 would also be a pretty good machine.

Paying for the 1TB upgrade is madness in my opinion, you can have networked storage at home for all your large file needs at a much lower cost.

TV shows do not need to be available all the time just dump them on an external hard drive USB 3 is quick enough to make this much less of a chore than it used to be.

If you want to go for it then the refurb with 512gb would be your best price storage compromise.

Until we see what the 12 inch air brings it's difficult to reccomend waiting, but if you are fine with what you have, a couple of months will be worth it before you decide.
Click to expand...

Natzoo said:
I have the 15" and it has the same battery life, but you do know macs they don't last the 8 hours your told, especially if your using safari, and powerpoint. I really don't tell a difference about the retina, but it is nice to have. It is much faster, much thinner, and such wow. So hence if you want a new mac get the retina display.
Click to expand...

The only reason i would be upgrading is for the SSD, retina display and the battery life, my current 2011 Macbook Pro is a great laptop, with Mavericks it can be a little slow at times but nothing major. I use my laptop for writing essays, watching TV shows but i also do that with my iPad Air 2, and web browsing. Because i'm also a writer i do spend a lot of my time on my Laptop using programs like Final Draft. But portability is also important because of carrying around university and off and on the bus.
 
im not sure when the 12 inch mac book air comes out, and if it does it won't be powerful. It will have intel M processor. Just get a rmbp from mac mall or from B&H photo
 
Dave245 said:
The only reason i would be upgrading is for the SSD, retina display and the battery life, my current 2011 Macbook Pro is a great laptop, with Mavericks it can be a little slow at times but nothing major. I use my laptop for writing essays, watching TV shows but i also do that with my iPad Air 2, and web browsing. Because i'm also a writer i do spend a lot of my time on my Laptop using programs like Final Draft. But portability is also important because of carrying around university and off and on the bus.
Click to expand...

My advice is to wait and see what the rMBA really looks like. If it turns out to be a disappointment, you can always get a 13" rMBP instead and sacrifice the better battery life/light-weight qualities of the air.

I'm only giving this advice because it seems like you're happy enough with your 2011 MBP to wait.

Natzoo said:
im not sure when the 12 inch mac book air comes out, and if it does it won't be powerful. It will have intel M processor. Just get a rmbp from mac mall or from B&H photo
Click to expand...

Performance-wise the Core M will be very similar to the current i5 MacBook Air, but battery life should be improved due to the lower power consumption.
 
redheeler said:
My advice is to wait and see what the rMBA really looks like. If it turns out to be a disappointment, you can always get a 13" rMBP instead and sacrifice the better battery life/light-weight qualities of the air.

I'm only giving this advice because it seems like you're happy enough with your 2011 MBP to wait.



Performance-wise the Core M will be very similar to the current i5 MacBook Air, but battery life should be improved due to the lower power consumption.
Click to expand...

Yea i will wait and see what the retina Macbook Air brings, bette battery life would be brilliant considering the 13" MBA currently has 12 hours which is still great but anything over that would be a great improvement.
 
Dave245 said:
i do need a lot of storage around 1TB because i save a lot of work and download a lot of iTunes content such as TV shows.

What is your opinion on the retina MBP? is the screen much better? also is the battery life a lot better than the 2011 Macbook Pro?

Is it worth an upgrade from a 2011 Macbook pro?
Click to expand...

The screen is 1000% better.

I upgraded a month ago from a 2013 MBA. What I can't figure out is how I managed to use a MBA for 16 months...

Battery life is fine... I don't have issues.

Storage wasn't a factor in my purchase because I have a 2TB ATC... so I just went with the base model. The Iris Pro GPU handles everything I do... including AutoCAD.

I didn't see a need for the dGPU.
 
If you are only upgrading for the SSD primarily, then buy a SATA3 SSD and put it in your current machine. It will breathe new life into your current machine. The difference is night and day. The only downside is that if you go with an SSD+external storage, I think your model is stuck with USB2, so migrating data can take a bit.

Snow Leopard was the last OS that felt snappy on a spinning HDD. Everything since then has felt like a slug without an SSD.
 
AustinIllini said:
I just upgraded from a 2011 MBP. The retina display is incredible.
Click to expand...

Yup, you are right. I just recently upgraded from a 2010 MBA to a 2014 rMBP. The display is absolutely amazing. However, you pay in battery performance. As far as portability, the new model rMBP is just as easy to schlep around as the MBA.
 
Are Apple likely to update the Retina Macbook Pro's this year? i'm going to wait and see what the rumoured Macbook Air Retina brings, but i do keep going back to look at the Retina Macbook Pro 13" and with student discount (i'm at university in the UK) it brings the price down a little.
 
Dave245 said:
Are Apple likely to update the Retina Macbook Pro's this year? i'm going to wait and see what the rumoured Macbook Air Retina brings, but i do keep going back to look at the Retina Macbook Pro 13" and with student discount (i'm at university in the UK) it brings the price down a little.
Click to expand...

When Broadwell-HQ come out around Q2-Q3 2015, that's when the rMBP line will be refreshed.
 
yjchua95 said:
Hopefully.

The Air Retina may come earlier since Broadwell-U is already here.
Click to expand...

That would be good, i'm waiting for the retina Macbook Air before i decide between it or the rMbp. My 2011 Mbp is still working but i'm thinking the retina display, the SSD and the better battery life would be great to have.
 
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