rMBP 15" for basic computing

[bobr1952]

No special needs here--love the retina display for photo viewing--exceptional. You don't need specific computing tasks to justify a rMBP--you need to want to buy the product and have the budget to afford it--the only one you have to please is yourself.

 

[Ploki]

Just buy a MacBook Air for that. It's half the price and identical performance for everyday stuff. Or maybe even smoother being non-Retina!

How can it be smoother than "absolutely smooth"?
They feel completely the same; as good as they need to be.

The 13" MBA has the same estate as the 15.

Well, not really. HiDPI 1680*1060 retina 15" looks better than native HiRes 15".
On the other hand you have 15" HiRes native, that also has more real-estate.

 

[locoboi187]

I have the base rMBP and use it for school. My tasks usually include MS Word/Excel, web browsing, checking mail, a little bit of coding, watching movies, & listening to music. I really enjoy the screen. Overkill for my needs indeed but I can't put enough emphasis on how great the screen looks, making each text really sharp and crisp.

 

[NowhereOutThere]

I, too, use it for fairly basic tasks (excluding Adobe programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator) like Office and web browsing. Until they put the retina display in the MBA, I can definitely see why someone would choose to buy this particular machine even if they are not creative professionals. I do quite a bit of reading for biomedical research as a student, and find that the hi DPI screen is really wonderful if you care to drop to cash to get it. In addition, booting up Windows for some gaming action is also viable (even modern games, such as Skyrim, can be run on high or ultra settings as long as the resolution is bumped to "normal" specs).

 

[emptysoul]

i know its too much 🙂. but after try once at store, the retina screen and the screen real estate, form factor, every aspecs, makes me want it badly 😱

Same here. I do use Lightroom and Photoshop a bit so could just about justify retina but I think I would have bought it anyway.

I've had it for less than a week and don't regret the purchase one single little bit.

 

[alan7467]

My 15" rMBP is my first Mac and first laptop (outside of work). I definitely don't take full advantage of it, but I wanted it mainly for the gorgeous screen and fantastic form factor.

So far I've been using it for some photoshop, web browsing, and gaming. I play Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, KSP (kerbal space program), Minecraft, and FTL (faster than light). Everything runs fantastic on it at native resolution.

Soon I'll be moving out of state and will be without from most of my possessions for a while. Come then it'll be great having this very powerful laptop with me.

 

[daneoni]

A Raspberry Pi can handle all that.

 

[adjeff8]

I use mine for remote access, office apps, virtualization, photo editing and DAM (Digital Asset Management). That sounds pretty basic to me, but in the end its the best laptop I've had 🙂

That's exactly it. I have bought many laptops. I have to buy another and it's going to cost either way. Should I buy another great laptop or should I buy the best laptop I've ever had? I can't go with anything but a 15" because that's what I'm used to. So $1799 for yesterday machine or $2199 for the future? And I hear the 2nd generation with Haswell will go down to $1999. It's a no brainer for me.

 

[cosmicjoke]

my partner wanted a 15" mac laptop, it didn't really matter that the i7 processor or discrete graphics card would never see any use... if you want a 15" screen you don't get many choices with apple.

 

[bill-p]

While I push my rMBP to the edge processing lists that have over 1 billion entries (that's roughly 4GB of pure 32-bit integers to you, or approximately 8GB of 64-bit integers), coding up bitmap->vector algorithms, writing physics simulations, etc...

It's not like I don't enjoy day to day web browsing or email on it. It's such a joy to use.

Though I'm starting to think 8GB is becoming a limitation...

 

[streetprince]

And I hear the 2nd generation with Haswell will go down to $1999. It's a no brainer for me.

Where did you hear this?

 

[Queen6]

If you like it and there is no financial burden, there is absolutely no reason not to buy a 15" Retina they are fabulous systems.

 

[swerve147]

It's your money, do what you want with it!

 

[adjeff8]

Where did you hear this?

I've read it in many places, even in this forum. But of course it's not a fact. Nobody knows for sure. But one guy even said its a definite. But nobody really knows. But one thing to keep your eye on. If they discontinue the cMBP then the prices of the rMBP will for sure come down. But you should count on one of two things happening. The price goes down to what I've stated or the SSD goes up to 512. I am hoping both things happen

 

[OnlyGerman]

I would get it.

 

[bili.d.kid]

Additional question, did they update numbers app to take advantage of retina resolution?

 

[Smeaton1724]

I got my 15 retina with 512GB SSD to run Appleworks in a Parallels virtual machine 🙂

No seriously if money is no object a 13 rMBP will last you 5-6 years so TCO (Total cost of ownership) is low on a monthly basis.

 

[GermanyChris]

Of course the air and cMBP are enough for everyday tasks, even a 5 year old mac will be enough.

I type this from my daughters '07 MacBook, it works jut fine for ordinary tasks. It replaced her '03 Powerbook which was also fine for ordinary tasks. (I should have over clocked the PowerBook then we wouldn't have needed the MacBook 😀)