How would Apple technicians open it up to fix it then? That hardly makes sense. Even the new RMBP is easily serviceable by Apple technicians. The only tricky part is the battery, but if the diagnostics reveals it is in need of replacement, then they don't have to worry about puncturing it when removing it since the battery is deemed defective anyway. iFixit couldn't remove the battery since they didn't want to damage the battery, obviously that doesn't apply to the techs at Apple. Changing the logic board or SSD is fairly trivial though, just need special screw drivers...
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Roundup of Retina MacBook Pro Reviews
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How would Apple technicians open it up to fix it then? That hardly makes sense. Even the new RMBP is easily serviceable by Apple technicians. The only tricky part is the battery, but if the diagnostics reveals it is in need of replacement, then they don't have to worry about puncturing it when removing it since the battery is deemed defective anyway. iFixit couldn't remove the battery since they didn't want to damage the battery, obviously that doesn't apply to the techs at Apple. Changing the logic board or SSD is fairly trivial though, just need special screw drivers...
I just went to the Apple Store site and tried to do a proper comparison.
Huge surprise: The Retina MacBook Pro is actually a lot cheaper than the plain 15" MacBook Pro!!!
The "from $xxxx" price is higher, but that is because the 15" starts with a cheap hard drive, while the MBPR is only sold with more expensive SSDs. Once you take both with the same amount of RAM, and with the same SSD, the retina display MBP is about $300 cheaper! (Although you lose the optical drive, and some ports).
SSD is upgradeable (not today, but it will be). Then compare the price of the MBPR and an equivalent MBP, and the MBPR with 16 GB RAM is still cheaper.
You should keep reading.
Yes, how dare he believe that a $2K+ laptop is expensive! HANG HIM FOR SAYING SOMETHING REMOTELY BAD ABOUT APPLE!
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Derrrrr, that's what the *excerpt* says.
Maybe they should quote more carefully?
You need to read what I said again. Your comment makes no sense and has nothing to do with anything I was talking about.
I was in no way comparing two different Mac models.
I expressed a like for the new Pro and a side note about the Air.
You ever pinched a battery? There are some volatile chemicals in there you know...
Nothing that can't be protected against by having proper gloves, goggles, and masks. I don't know what safety measures Apple employs, but I'd imagine their techs are well covered in that area.
For us it is a little trickier though. We'd need to buy all that, buy the special glue, and a new battery, if we could somehow diagnose the battery problem ourselves...
Fortunately it is easy to install a cheaper SSD yourself into the old MacBook Pro. Will this ever be an option with the retina MacBook Pro? Also, can you really afford to risk buying a retina MacBook Pro without AppleCare or some equivalent insurance?
It's hardly a big reach to declare the 17" models as retired. It was never a big seller, so Apple doesn't have much reason to keep it around.
With the hi-res screens coming into play, you simply don't need as much screen real estate as you used to. With the higher pixel density, 15" is plenty big for a laptop, and more portable.
Personally, I'm a desktop guy, and would love to see a redesigned retina version of the iMac. At that pixel density, even the 20" model would look amazing. I have the 24" version now, but the extra resolution would make the smaller screen size perfectly usable.
I suspect it'll be a bit of a wait before we see retina displays in these larger sizes though. Waiting is such sweet sorrow.
Well, I am one of those people that actually likes to have a lot of screen real estate. And Apple's version of a 17" laptop was the most portable around.
It makes me feel a bit like a dinosaur. And perhaps rightly so.
But hey, I don't have to wait. I am just going to completely use up my 17" and feel very unique and cool about that.
And those Lenovo's have this nice industrial look. Aluminium is sooooo pre-crisis.
Personally, I'm a desktop guy, and would love to see a redesigned retina version of the iMac. At that pixel density, even the 20" model would look amazing. I have the 24" version now, but the extra resolution would make the smaller screen size perfectly usable.
I suspect it'll be a bit of a wait before we see retina displays in these larger sizes though. Waiting is such sweet sorrow.
At first I was going to say you'll be waiting a good long time before they come out with a 27" monitor sporting the pixel density of the new MBP. Then I realized something...
I can barely see the pixels on my 24" 1920x1080 monitor sitting about 3-3 1/2' in front of me. I have to lean in so my face is hovering about a foot away from the screen before I can really start making out individual pixels.
A retina iMac probably wouldn't be much higher res than the 2560x1440 screen they've got out now.
Unless you have been laying under a rock for the past 10 years. Google + a brain can figure it out. I would admit AppleCare is great for devices that aren't upgradeable or easily fixed like this new RMBP.
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No ethernet?! Apple needs to release an ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter right now and make it come with the computer
Not everyone has good wifi across their entire house, and wifi is slower than ethernet anyway!
It's sad that people would have to spend $3,000 and NEED an adapter. That is like buying a brand new car and having to buy tires right after you drive off the lot.
You just need to have some entrepreneurial spirit. You'll have the money in no time flat.
So...uh...anyone here know how to...uh...make uncut Columbian cocaine? I've already bought some Hershey's cocoa (I hear it's the best), so I'm pretty sure I've got half of what I need. I just need to know what to do from here.
This is just for educational purposes, by the way. I'm writing a paper.
PM me if you know how.
wifi is anything but blazing and fast. For general use wifi is enough but I always plugin when transferring large files
on my wired network it takes about 40 seconds to transfer 4.2GB file from my home server to my laptop via ethernet. it takes about 5-10 minutes to do the same over my apple airport express.
Is it big difference - yes. is wifi blazing fast - hell no. Could I wait around and just let it copy - sure. But i have a choice with macbook pro i have to carry and buy yet another dongle.
Same goes for RAM - I would definitely need more ram in 5 years. Look at the way ram prices have come down and capacity went up in prior 5 years.
My laptop now has 8 which i'm about to upgrade to 16. Point is I have a choice and can choose to do it at my leisure. With retina i have to decide ahead of time and be stuck with my decision
It is quite amazing to see the number of people that stopped reading at "inexpensive". Those same people are potential customers for a highly capable computer which makes me seriously wonder where the world is going considering that they can't even read...
On another note: congratulations to the "MacRumors" people for their wonderful live coverage of the WWDC on Monday. It must have been a lot of work...
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Really?...... I have no trouble seeing the pixels on my 24" iMac, even at it's highest resolution. But then, I've been spoiled by using my new iPad. Everything else looks "grainy" in comparison.
It's one of those things that you don't really appreciate until you see the difference. As one reviewer of the new retina MacBook Pro wrote:
After 20 minutes of using Apple's new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, I switched back to my own six-month-old MacBook Pro to send an e-mail. But when I looked at its screen, I thought my contact lenses had actually fallen out. For a second I was worried; everything on the screen looked less crisp and less bright. It's not an old machine, but it was really as if an optometrist had switched my prescription, or I'd been forced to use my old glasses. Everything just seemed blurry by comparison.
Why wouldn't you just hook up your FW and ethernet and monitor and usb etc.. to a thunderbolt hub?
No ethernet?! Apple needs to release an ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter right now and make it come with the computer
Not everyone has good wifi across their entire house, and wifi is slower than ethernet anyway!
Fortunately for you, Apple makes a 15" MacBook Pro that has an ethernet port.
My Review:
Just went and saw one at an Apple store. Wanted to see the retina and gauge the heft in person. So here are my 2¢ for those who haven't laid hands on.
- Heft seems much improved. I wasn't prepared for this. I know they haven't shaved off a lot of weight but it SEEMS like they have. This is much more manageable to carry and port around.
- The thinness also makes this much more usable as a laptop (ie, not plugged in to externals), it gives the sharp edges less purchase to cut into your hands on a surface. This is because you don't have to angle your hands up from your wrists so sharply.
- Some nice subtle touches to what I'll call the opening divot ("philtrum"?). Overall less sharpness but still two deadly devil prongs where it meets the rest of the razor's edge.
- Retina is wondrous for finder and any apps that are ready for prime time. At the store, that's all I could find. They all looked great. Seems like a gamechanger.
- However, web sites are a visual disconnect (I used Safari). Type looks great, but images are noticeably pixel-doubled. This doesn't look great, and I don't want to notice things like this. Because it is the web, and not apps, I don't anticipate a widespread campaign to deliver high res graphics for a small subset of laptop users. I would say it's like having some elements being 480p on a 1080p HDTV set. So yeah, bad.
- I also worry about shovelware, pokey developers, and PC-oriented applications that don't care to do extra work to be Retinized. The app store will help peer pressure most "app" developers, but those who develop non-app store applications may buck or keep their heads in the sand.
You all can make up your minds about the port updates. I could get around a few inconveniences, and benefit from some of the additions, but overall I'm happy with my MBP 2010 SSD+HDD for another cycle.
Just went and saw one at an Apple store. Wanted to see the retina and gauge the heft in person. So here are my 2¢ for those who haven't laid hands on.
- Heft seems much improved. I wasn't prepared for this. I know they haven't shaved off a lot of weight but it SEEMS like they have. This is much more manageable to carry and port around.
- The thinness also makes this much more usable as a laptop (ie, not plugged in to externals), it gives the sharp edges less purchase to cut into your hands on a surface. This is because you don't have to angle your hands up from your wrists so sharply.
- Some nice subtle touches to what I'll call the opening divot ("philtrum"?). Overall less sharpness but still two deadly devil prongs where it meets the rest of the razor's edge.
- Retina is wondrous for finder and any apps that are ready for prime time. At the store, that's all I could find. They all looked great. Seems like a gamechanger.
- However, web sites are a visual disconnect (I used Safari). Type looks great, but images are noticeably pixel-doubled. This doesn't look great, and I don't want to notice things like this. Because it is the web, and not apps, I don't anticipate a widespread campaign to deliver high res graphics for a small subset of laptop users. I would say it's like having some elements being 480p on a 1080p HDTV set. So yeah, bad.
- I also worry about shovelware, pokey developers, and PC-oriented applications that don't care to do extra work to be Retinized. The app store will help peer pressure most "app" developers, but those who develop non-app store applications may buck or keep their heads in the sand.
You all can make up your minds about the port updates. I could get around a few inconveniences, and benefit from some of the additions, but overall I'm happy with my MBP 2010 SSD+HDD for another cycle.
I am about to buy a Macbook Pro from the states due to the fact they are cheaper of course
The retina is a no brainer - if nothing else you'll get a huge performance bump out of the SSD, much more than a faster chip. Also it will probably be cooler.
Also, with such a fast SSD, I'm not sure there's that much performance increase from going from 8 to 16Gb RAM except for maybe the most extreme users.
I have the new iPad myself, and though I find my PC monitor isn't quite as crystalline clear in comparison, it isn't what I'd consider much worse. I don't think you'd have to quadruple the resolution to make it roughly equal, in other words. A modest bump up would do for the larger displays.
Also, it depends on how far away you're sitting from your iMac. Like I said before, I'm sitting at least 3 1/2' (maybe even as far as 4) away from my monitor. From this distance, I can't discern the individual pixels on any of the text or icons on my screen. It's an entirely different story if lean in about a foot, foot and a half towards the screen. I guess you could say I sit at the minimum distance necessary for my display to be considered retina. You might sit a little closer, and thus find the individual pixels more apparent.
I honestly don't get the complaints about the lack of Ethernet (or optical drive). I use an optical drive to install software from companies that didn't give me a download option, and that rarely needs to be done. I might occasionally rip something (music or movies), but it's hardly a daily use case for me, so an external drive, left at home most of the time, is perfectly fine.
For ethernet, if you work for a company that doesn't offer WiFi, or you need faster speed than WiFi, you get the thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet (or a USB to ethernet) dongle and have the choice of leaving it at the desk (or possibly buying a couple and leaving one at each location - permanently connected to the ethernet cable) or you stick it in your laptop bag. The bottom line is that Apple had the choice of making the laptop thinner and doing away with ethernet, or keeping the ethernet but ending up with a thicker laptop. I think they made the right choice.
Then there's people complaining about it being expensive. It's not cheap, but as others have pointed out, if you add options to the non-Retina 15" model, the Retina model ends up being cheaper. And why do you think you're *entitled* to the Retina model for cheaper? Yeesh. But here's the good news, if you really want Retina but can't justify the price, there's a good chance you may be able to get it (with fewer options) for considerably cheaper next year. It's clear to me that Apple is offering this up as a premium option to see how many they can sell to early adopters and professionals. Once the demand dies down, they'll probably drop the non-Retina models with integrated optical drives and replace the whole lineup with thinner models, some of which will have Retina as an option.
Finally, I'll add that I get a kick out of how many people who dismiss the Air models as become too weak. I'm a developer (not of Apple apps currently) who has last year's 13" Air w/4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It feels plenty fast and I've determined that I could easily get by with a 128GB SSD. If I was spending my own money today, I would highly recommend the base 13" model (at $1099) but I'd spend the extra $100 to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. If I could upgrade it to a 15" Retina screen for an extra $150-300, I'd do that, too, and I suspect we'll see an offering like that next year.
For ethernet, if you work for a company that doesn't offer WiFi, or you need faster speed than WiFi, you get the thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet (or a USB to ethernet) dongle and have the choice of leaving it at the desk (or possibly buying a couple and leaving one at each location - permanently connected to the ethernet cable) or you stick it in your laptop bag. The bottom line is that Apple had the choice of making the laptop thinner and doing away with ethernet, or keeping the ethernet but ending up with a thicker laptop. I think they made the right choice.
Then there's people complaining about it being expensive. It's not cheap, but as others have pointed out, if you add options to the non-Retina 15" model, the Retina model ends up being cheaper. And why do you think you're *entitled* to the Retina model for cheaper? Yeesh. But here's the good news, if you really want Retina but can't justify the price, there's a good chance you may be able to get it (with fewer options) for considerably cheaper next year. It's clear to me that Apple is offering this up as a premium option to see how many they can sell to early adopters and professionals. Once the demand dies down, they'll probably drop the non-Retina models with integrated optical drives and replace the whole lineup with thinner models, some of which will have Retina as an option.
Finally, I'll add that I get a kick out of how many people who dismiss the Air models as become too weak. I'm a developer (not of Apple apps currently) who has last year's 13" Air w/4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It feels plenty fast and I've determined that I could easily get by with a 128GB SSD. If I was spending my own money today, I would highly recommend the base 13" model (at $1099) but I'd spend the extra $100 to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. If I could upgrade it to a 15" Retina screen for an extra $150-300, I'd do that, too, and I suspect we'll see an offering like that next year.