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Serious doubts about laptop request

G

Grifer Pittin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
18
54
My boss has asked me to purchase a laptop for him.

We had traced down the options down to two:

1) 13-inch Macbook Air, 2.0 Ghz i7, 8Gb RAM, 256 Gb SSD. -1,699
2) 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display, 2.5 i5, 8Gb RAM, 128 Gb SSD - 1,699

Those are the two options, mainly. That's the budget, I mean.
Could you tell me which one you see more appropriate to him? I own a White Macbook and I don't understand about this new laptops.

He always has to do presentations in front of people, travel twice a month, keep track of the office, iWork and Office, etc.

Thanks in advance, guys.
 
The only real difference (other than the screen) is the Retina has two Thunderbolt ports instead of one, and also has an HDMI port
 
But, will there be problems concerning power, speed, screen or overall performance?

I would have chosen the Macbook Pro with Retina display, but I hear people say that the lack of an additional GPU to Intel 4000 is a serious problem with all those pixels. Is that true?
 
I'm far from a expert but this is from Apple's tech specs about the 13" retina:

"Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560x1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colours"

If it can drive it's own display AND two large external displays then I would assume it can drive it's own display to a pretty good level.
 
Grifer Pittin said:
But, will there be problems concerning power, speed, screen or overall performance?

I would have chosen the Macbook Pro with Retina display, but I hear people say that the lack of an additional GPU to Intel 4000 is a serious problem with all those pixels. Is that true?
Click to expand...
I feel that issue is overblown.
 
Grifer Pittin said:
But, will there be problems concerning power, speed, screen or overall performance?

I would have chosen the Macbook Pro with Retina display, but I hear people say that the lack of an additional GPU to Intel 4000 is a serious problem with all those pixels. Is that true?
Click to expand...

Doubt it, an iPad provides enough power for the tasks you listed.
 
So is that problem solved (graphic lag on Macbook Pro with retina display)? I mean, it's a lot of money and I gotta be right to purchase the right option for him.
 
What about a refurbished 15" rMBP? A little more money for a lot more performance.

Otherwise, for business, I'd like the ability to run another monitor with it, so I guess I would chose the 13 pro.

Grifer Pittin said:
So is that problem solved (graphic lag on Macbook Pro with retina display)? I mean, it's a lot of money and I gotta be right to purchase the right option for him.
Click to expand...
 
Grifer Pittin said:
My boss has asked me to purchase a laptop for him.

We had traced down the options down to two:

1) 13-inch Macbook Air, 2.0 Ghz i7, 8Gb RAM, 256 Gb SSD. -1,699
2) 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display, 2.5 i5, 8Gb RAM, 128 Gb SSD - 1,699

Those are the two options, mainly. That's the budget, I mean.
Could you tell me which one you see more appropriate to him? I own a White Macbook and I don't understand about this new laptops.

He always has to do presentations in front of people, travel twice a month, keep track of the office, iWork and Office, etc.

Thanks in advance, guys.
Click to expand...

I would get the 13" Pro.

I have a 13" Air, and I love it to pieces- but the 13" Pro Retina will have a much higher resale value, more display options, and to be honest they're not all that much bigger than the 13" Air. Nothing worth losing the Retina display over at the same price anyways.
 
hutch34 said:
I would get the 13" Pro.

I have a 13" Air, and I love it to pieces- but the 13" Pro Retina will have a much higher resale value, more display options, and to be honest they're not all that much bigger than the 13" Air. Nothing worth losing the Retina display over at the same price anyways.
Click to expand...

That plus the HDMI port gives your boss more connectivity options for presentations (EDIT: oops you already said that).

The main drawback is HDD space, but even 128GB can be enough, especially if your boss is willing to use cloud-based storage.

If storage won't be an issue I'd also get the 13 in Pro.
 
swerve147 said:
That plus the HDMI port gives your boss more connectivity options for presentations.

The main drawback is HDD space, but even 128GB can be enough, especially if your boss is willing to use cloud-based storage.

If storage won't be an issue I'd also get the 13 in Pro.
Click to expand...


This is definitely true. I forgot about the HDMI completely. You only really have one option for display on the Air, and that's Thunderbolt/Mini-Display port. So you may end up having to buy some adapters for presentations and such if he travels a bit for these. Most places would probably have an HDMI hookup though as those seem to be the most common in my experience.
 
I get from your opinions that I should buy him the Retina Macbook Pro 13 then...

My biggest problem (and biggest doubt) was about the screen performance, since I have read for several days the lags and problems that some people had with it. My boss does not do any heavy photo edition or video, but needs that presentations run perfectly, heavily packed with videos, graphs and images (obvious). And also Office and iWork, plus some Finance Apps and that kind of business apps.

Thank you for your advice. I mean, there have been some software releases to avoid screen problems in the retina ones, no?
 
I just got my 13 MBPr and it works really smooth.

I suggest you get it from Fry's or B&H since they have a deal for $1500 brand new.
 
Grifer Pittin said:
I get from your opinions that I should buy him the Retina Macbook Pro 13 then...

My biggest problem (and biggest doubt) was about the screen performance, since I have read for several days the lags and problems that some people had with it. My boss does not do any heavy photo edition or video, but needs that presentations run perfectly, heavily packed with videos, graphs and images (obvious). And also Office and iWork, plus some Finance Apps and that kind of business apps.

Thank you for your advice. I mean, there have been some software releases to avoid screen problems in the retina ones, no?
Click to expand...

I've had my 13"rMBP for about two months now. Based on this experience, I can conclude that the reported problems are like people complaining that the new type of paint used on Ferraris causes the tone of the air rushing by at 180 mph to be a bit rough sounding. The rest of us are more concerned with keeping our organs in place at 180 mph.

My only suggestion would be to spend a few more dollars to get a 256 GB SDD on the retina, especially if your boss needs to store videos for his presentations.

The rMBP has a smaller footprint than the Air, too.
 
Grifer Pittin said:
I get from your opinions that I should buy him the Retina Macbook Pro 13 then...

My biggest problem (and biggest doubt) was about the screen performance, since I have read for several days the lags and problems that some people had with it. My boss does not do any heavy photo edition or video, but needs that presentations run perfectly, heavily packed with videos, graphs and images (obvious). And also Office and iWork, plus some Finance Apps and that kind of business apps.

Thank you for your advice. I mean, there have been some software releases to avoid screen problems in the retina ones, no?
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll have any issues with lag. The HD4000 graphics can run 2 more Thunderbolt Displays, so I'm sure it shouldn't have any problem running fine on the internal display.

I've played with both the 15" and 13" Retina a bunch at Best Buy and so forth and everything seemed pretty smooth to me.

If you're worried about it that much, I'd recommend going and playing with them in person if it's possible for you to see if they're up to snuff.
 
Thank you for your kind answers.

I think you are right and I should get him the Retina.

I owe you a big one!
 
I would get the Air, it has twice the storage.....128gb of space on that rMBP is not going to last your boss very long if this is going to be his main computer (music, pics, presentations, work files).

If all he is storing is a little music and some word documents, the retina should be fine.
 
Wow, they updated the Retina! For the same price I get the 256 SSD now and a little bit of more performance! I am lucky I hadn't bought it yet!

Thanks guys!
 
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