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Roundup of Retina MacBook Pro Reviews

bmacir said:
This:

"the least repairable laptop we’ve taken apart"


is a deal breaker for me...stunning display but no thanks :(
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Exactly. As someone said above, they've sacrificed too much. They've essentially created a very disposable computer. Not upgradable; not repairable. Any component goes bad, and the advice will be to throw it away and buy another.

They may have scored a number of excellent "green" points with its construction, but the fact that the whole thing is disposable subtracts hugely from any environmental/economic progress.
 
I will definitely get one if Apple later offer the matte screen option. I saw one at the store it reduce able 50-70% glare compare to the old glossy one. But I still love my current anti-glare one with 100% reduced.
 
WildCowboy said:
What's interesting is that an equivalently-specced (CPU, RAM, storage) regular MacBook Pro is more expensive than a Retina MacBook Pro. Once you throw an SSD into the non-Retina version, the price skyrockets.
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Yeah that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the pricing on these. If you want an SSD (and having had them in my last two macs, I'm not going back), the rMBP is a no-brainer. You even get more VRAM on the low end rMBP. But the older model does bring that lower entry price point, which to me is why they kept it (and maybe to not force people to abandon the optical and Ethernet quite yet... But I think it's more the price issue).
 
- The display assembly is completely fused, and there’s no glass protecting it. If anything ever fails inside the display, you will need to replace the entire extremely expensive assembly.
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What do you mean by the display assembly is fused? Also how would apple fix it ,the same if the battery is fused to the board.

Trying to remove the battery that dies out would damage the board.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
In a couple years, people are going to look back at the articles and laugh at the mention of the lack of an optical drive as a weakness. By then, everything will not have an optical drive, including the new ultra-thin iMac.
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We saw the exact same banter when the floppy disk drive disappeared.

(In irony, my not-old work Dell has a floppy drive. And a Centronix printer port. And PS/2 keyboard & mouse ports. I do use the serial port for legacy product maintenance. And I'm annoyed that so much space is wasted on all of them; give me a screaming processor with one USB3 & one HDMI port + wireless everything else.)
 
nec207 said:
What do you mean by the display assembly is fused? Also how would apple fix it ,the same if the battery is fused to the board.

Trying to remove the battery that dies out would damage the board.
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Yeah cracking the display used to end up with buying 30 euros glass and replacing it.. now it's the display with the glass.. I terms of replacing the battery shouldn't be as bad.. Think of it as the iPhone 4/4S a bit glue to the bottom nothing a good 5-10 minutes extra can't get out.
 
WildCowboy said:
What's interesting is that an equivalently-specced (CPU, RAM, storage) regular MacBook Pro is more expensive than a Retina MacBook Pro. Once you throw an SSD into the non-Retina version, the price skyrockets.
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This
 
As a musician!

I love this innovation and fast forward motion!

A great preview so I love the quote by Harry McCracken. Sums it up very nicely and realistically. This is the preview of beautiful things to come for mac!

When the 17" models make it back to the lime light I will return, sell or gift my nephew, who is going into medicine, the 15" model.

Exciting - exciting times ahead and mac is leading the way, sweet !
 
ShiftyPig said:
The second knock - which is very legitimate - is that third-party applications that haven't been optimized for retina look atrocious. If you're spending $2100 on a laptop, you shouldn't have to deal with Firefox or Thunderbird or any of hundreds of other programs looking like crap.
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This is more an early adopter issue than a glaring flaw in the design of the machine. In about 6 months to a year, this won't be a problem.
 
bharatgupta said:
its a mac book "pro" for the pro, and it shud be open to options
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Opening it to options means sacrificing size, weight, cost, reliability, capacity, etc.

It's not the only model. It's "pro" because it's a price-is-no-object "buy it and forget it" maximization of every feature except replaceable modularization. It's for the pros who will use it to make money, who will think nothing of buying another should this one prove inadequate for any reason, who don't have time to waste tinkering. If you want more post-purchase flexibility, buy another model which has sacrificed something else in favor of that option.
 
eklkrl said:
Exactly. As someone said above, they've sacrificed too much. They've essentially created a very disposable computer. Not upgradable; not repairable. Any component goes bad, and the advice will be to throw it away and buy another.

They may have scored a number of excellent "green" points with its construction, but the fact that the whole thing is disposable subtracts hugely from any environmental/economic progress.
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Except that Apple would likely give you a new one if anything happens.
 
ShiftyPig said:
The second knock - which is very legitimate - is that third-party applications that haven't been optimized for retina look atrocious. If you're spending $2100 on a laptop, you shouldn't have to deal with Firefox or Thunderbird or any of hundreds of other programs looking like crap.
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Saying this is a point against the machine is entirely wrong. I can understand if you say that it'd be a good idea to wait until developers update their apps, but your statement as is essentially implies that innovation is bad. With this line of thinking we'd still be watching TV in 4:3 aspect ratio and movies would be distributed on VHS. Of course third party applications aren't optimised for a 2880x1800 pixel screens or 220ppi, because such screens didn't exist for them to optimise for a week ago!
 

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eklkrl said:
Exactly. As someone said above, they've sacrificed too much. They've essentially created a very disposable computer. Not upgradable; not repairable. Any component goes bad, and the advice will be to throw it away and buy another.
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Don't you mean sacrificed too much for you? Maybe to someone else, like myself they made the correct sacrifices to give me a light weight high performance computer.

We don't know what the repair policy will be. I know that my MacAir which is similar in design concept (minimalist) had a problem with USB ports, they sent it in, I got a new mother board but everything else was the same. One component needed fixing, it was not disposed of. Yes that means I had applecare. Another expense.
 
GodWhomIsMike said:
How about reviews of the models that the rest of us can afford? :mad:
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You’re in luck! The second review quoted says "You can't ignore the Air as an amazing piece of machinery, especially with the new, higher-powered Ivy Bridge processors and faster SSDs tucked inside its wedge profile.”

But this MR story is about the retina model, so it’s not the place to expect a lot of reviews of other models.
 
Hazel said:
Clearly, because the very next line read:
"the one it misses by the biggest margin is “inexpensive.”"

It's clearer in the article what Pogue is getting at. The area where the Retina MBP misses the mark of a "perfect laptop" is in the pricing.
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This ^^^

There is no way old 15" MBPs went for $1500ish and now with Retina there is more than a $600 price jump ... retina is cool and all, but they need to quit raping the customers.

I could see the 2 MBP 15" models going for something like $1750 and 1950 but over 2 grand? ... thats tough to explain to customers.
 
These Retina MBPs are so beefy, I'm not sure what'd you want to upgrade except the SSD. Unfortunately Apple doesn't let you increase the size of the SSD on the low-end Retina, which is surprising.

My main concern about buying a Retina now is, surely these will take over next year as the main MBP lineup, and the old-gen MBPs will be phased out. To do that, the base price of the Retina will have to drop $400, and thus your resale value will instantly drop that much as well.

Not counting that, I think the Retina MBP is a great value. The equivalent last-gen is $400 less, but comes with half of both the main RAM and video RAM, a slow 5400rpm drive, no Retina display, and none of the weight reduction. $2200 is completely reasonable for this machine.
 
I understand Chrome has already been retinized and no doubt more will follow.

As usual Apple is forcing change and we should be thankful for that, I dread to think how depressingly boring computers would still be had Jobs not turned Apple round.

It seems that these forums are full of people who Apple doesn't design computers for moaning that Apple hasn't designed a computer for them.
 
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