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Retina MacBook as only main/only laptop? Who is with me!?

My woman uses hers as her only laptop, and it's more than up to the job. She mostly uses it for communications, photp editing and light Office duty, and it excels in that capacity.

Me, I also have one as a laptop. For a while, I thought of it as a 2nd laptop, but now I'm fine with it being my primary laptop. I do MS Office, Web, and communications on it.

However, I also have a (actually 2) beefy desktops. When I'm really heads-down, I like having a ton of horsepower and screens at my disposal, so I've got an iMac 27 and a big 6-core PC as my main workstations. But when I'm on the go, the rMB is up to the job.
 
I think if it's your only laptop that's fine for most people, but probably not as the only computer, unless you just never do anything intensive or any gaming.
 
I'm seriously thinking about upgrading my 2013 macbook air to one of these. The only heavy thing I do is video editing and I basically just use imovie. I shoot everything in 1080p, just recently shot some in 4k but realized that was overkill for what I do. So I'm just so on the fence.. on one hand I do some video editing and light photoshop.. on the other hand will this be ok for that use along with prolonging a future update for say 3 years? Then again I could hold out till mid 2016 when they announce the next model.. assuming they do.
 
tkukoc said:
I'm seriously thinking about upgrading my 2013 macbook air to one of these. The only heavy thing I do is video editing and I basically just use imovie. I shoot everything in 1080p, just recently shot some in 4k but realized that was overkill for what I do. So I'm just so on the fence.. on one hand I do some video editing and light photoshop.. on the other hand will this be ok for that use along with prolonging a future update for say 3 years? Then again I could hold out till mid 2016 when they announce the next model.. assuming they do.
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Hi there it's excellent for video editing. I use a friend's new Gold MacBook 1.2 - using Final Cut Pro X is superb and no problem with 4K editing. It takes longer to export the file but that's it. Certainly, no stuttering or missed frames.

I plan on getting the new one in March and it'll certainly be my only computer :) I love it. 20 years of using Macs and this is my favourite :)
 
seong said:
I agree with you 100% on the dongle. I myself am a comp sci major (currently undergrad) and I only use USB for data/charging. Nothing else. Besides using the built in hdmi port for few presentations once in a while, I haven't used SD card nor thunderbolt ports on my current rMBP 15". I'm willing to pay the premium for the extreme portability, USB-C (external battery charging and future proof is always a bonus,) and the retina display.
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As a comp sci major, you don't find the screen a little too small to code on?
 
I just got one too, great laptop, beautiful, especially this screen. I really like the keyboard actually, something that I wasn't so sure about from trying it out in the stores but once you get used to it, its solid.

But I may end up returning it though, as the major problem for me is 1) battery life isn't as good as I thought, despite it being "9 hours" just like my retina MBP, seems to drain a bit faster for me and 2) its stutters quite often, running OSX El Cap 11.2 - no stutter on my late 2013 rMBP with El Cap but on the rMB it happens frequently. Its a little surprising. Very noticeable when swiping between desktops when a few apps are open, sometimes it happens when no apps are open. If you do it a few times it seems to go away but little hiccups here and there like that are surprising. I know its not a power house but it should have enough juice to run without these latent animations

I also didn't realize how much I would miss the charging notification (green vs orange)

On the flip side its incredibly light and portable, its an excellent size at 12", and its great for just grabbing and using in spurts.

And the space grey colour is just beautiful. I like it a fair bit overall, but it doesn't "tick off all the boxes" for me yet

I've only had it for a week and will give it another week of use before I decide whether to return it or not, but I think at this point I'd rather return it wait it out for the next gen version
 
bcaslis said:
I'm using the rMB as my primary Mac now. I sold (reluctantly) my rMBP 13".
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I'm also hoping to replace my 13" rMBP with the rMB. I was planning on waiting for v2 this year, but jumped on the recent Best Buy deal. I use my laptop to supplement a fully-loaded iMac 5K, which is my primary machine.

I also moved from an Air to the rMBP for the retina display (and had moved to the Air from the 15" MBP before then for the size). The issue I've had with the 13" rMBP is weekend and vacation travel. It's just to large/heavy enough that I prefer not taking it with me, but using an iPad Air and bluetooth keyboard just doesn't cut it (for me). I'm hoping the the rMB solves this.
 
PatrickNSF said:
I'm also hoping to replace my 13" rMBP with the rMB. I was planning on waiting for v2 this year, but jumped on the recent Best Buy deal. I use my laptop to supplement a fully-loaded iMac 5K, which is my primary machine.

I also moved from an Air to the rMBP for the retina display (and had moved to the Air from the 15" MBP before then for the size). The issue I've had with the 13" rMBP is weekend and vacation travel. It's just to large/heavy enough that I prefer not taking it with me, but using an iPad Air and bluetooth keyboard just doesn't cut it (for me). I'm hoping the the rMB solves this.
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I use a fully loaded rMBP 15" as my main machine. Been lugging around a 13" rMBP to work but I've been having shoulder pain lately from the bag and I'd like to downsize. I only do office work on it but I'm still worried the rMB might not be powerful enough. I tried one for a week when it first came out (base model) and it felt sluggish. That was before El Capitan, though
 
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kis said:
I tried one for a week when it first came out (base model) and it felt sluggish. That was before El Capitan, though
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I've only had mine since Saturday – and I bought the base since it was such a good deal – but it hasn't felt sluggish to me (yet). I'm using it for document editing, web, email and photos management and light editing. I've been using a 2.8 i7 rMBP which I'm planning pass on to someone else, but have resisted doing side-by-side comparisons. Most of my heavy lifting is done on an iMac, so I think the rMB will be fine for my needs.

Again, I definitely would have waited for v2 but for the recent Best Buy deal. But I've been on-and-off the fence about transitioning since the rMB was announced, so I just bite the bullet.
 
PatrickNSF said:
Again, I definitely would have waited for v2 but for the recent Best Buy deal. But I've been on-and-off the fence about transitioning since the rMB was announced, so I just bite the bullet.
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My situation exactly. So far, happy with the rmb. And for the price we got, we could probably sell when the next version comes out and not take too huge a loss.
 
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phositadc said:
My situation exactly. So far, happy with the rmb. And for the price we got, we could probably sell when the next version comes out and not take too huge a loss.
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Exactly. It seemed like a good way to test the setup to make sure it worked for my needs before investing too heavily in a higher-end configuration.

Just wish I'd done the same thing with the Apple Watch :-/
 
The cheapest I can get the Macbook for is 1200$ here for the base model. There are typically no sales on Apple products in Switzerland.
 
I still don't get why this should be a problem. rMB has all the bells and whistless to be 100% usable as your only workstation. Why would you have 2 separate computers anyway?

Think about it. It has 8Gb of RAM which is enough for almost anything. There is 256Gb of storage on base model and you can get up to 512Gb. Most importantly it has bright and vivid retina display to make working on it a joy.

With a little adapter you can make it run a very nice desk setup with external display and stuff.

Unless you're doing some serious 3D modelling or video editing I see absolutely no reason why this thing couldn't be your main workstation.
 
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Skylitfly said:
I still don't get why this should be a problem. rMB has all the bells and whistless to be 100% usable as your only workstation. Why would you have 2 separate computers anyway?

Think about it. It has 8Gb of RAM which is enough for almost anything. There is 256Gb of storage on base model and you can get up to 512Gb. Most importantly it has bright and vivid retina display to make working on it a joy.

With a little adapter you can make it run a very nice desk setup with external display and stuff.

Unless you're doing some serious 3D modelling or video editing I see absolutely no reason why this thing couldn't be your main workstation.
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Totally agree, my rMB easily does as my only computer, cant think why people would think it wouldn't. My rMBP never gets used at all now.
 
cycledance said:
what stuff?

rmb has a tiny display, is slow and has basically no ports.
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1. As I said, you can use it with external display when working on desk. And 12" is fairly enough for almost anything if you're on the road.

2. It's not slow at all. You are probably one of those people who thinks you need i7 to run Powerpoint and Word properly. Core M does anything you can imagine with acceptable speeds unless you're trying to render 3D models or edit 4K videos.

3. You don't need many ports. It's 2015. I haven't used thumb drives or SD cards for years.
 
Skylitfly said:
1. As I said, you can use it with external display when working on desk. And 12" is fairly enough for almost anything if you're on the road.

2. It's not slow at all. You are probably one of those people who thinks you need i7 to run Powerpoint and Word properly. Core M does anything you can imagine with acceptable speeds unless you're trying to render 3D models or edit 4K videos.

3. You don't need many ports. It's 2015. I haven't used thumb drives or SD cards for years.
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you said stuff. you can´t.

IF you buy that ugly, clunky, overpriced adapter you can charge while u have a second display. that's all. no other stuff.
not to mention how the igpu will sweat while driving another display.
 
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cycledance said:
you said stuff. you can´t.

IF you buy that ugly, clunky, overpriced adapter you can charge while u have a second display. that's all. no other stuff.
not to mention how the igpu will sweat while driving another display.
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You can charge, have a second display and you also have USB socket if you happen to need one. Thats enough.

And the iGPU won't sweat at all while driving those two displays. Do you actually have any idea about current state of technology? Far less powerful and less advanced systems can drive multiple displays than rMB. You seriously need some reality check mate. You think it's underpowered because of your outdated and twisted perception to technology.
 
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