I'd have no problem with this if Apple was fair about their upgrade prices. But with their RAM and SSD upgrade prices being through the roof, in addition to the fact that they don't deduct the default components they are removing from the price of the upgraded components. I'd say it's a pretty ****** move by Apple towards it's mostly loyal customers.
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Teardown of Retina MacBook Pro Finds Low Repairability with Custom Components
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I bought the Unibody 15" MacBook Pro the week it came out. I've used it for almost 4 solid years, on a daily basis. The battery is still working great, no need to replace it. The only upgrade I did, was the RAM (2 to 4 Gb) and the harddisk (250 Gb to 500 Gb hybrid), which was a very easy upgrade to do myself.
I already ordered the new retina MacBook Pro. I'm planning to use it for at least 3 years. I'm happy I ordered it with 16 Gb because then I probably won't ever need to upgrade the RAM. I'm a bit worried that a 512 Gb SSD won't be enough in the future. On the other hand it seems that Thunderbolt / USB3 will make it easy to use extremely fast external storage.
It seems that I will be losing the easy access to battery, RAM and HDD, but gaining a lot of expansion options using Thunderbolt & USB 3. I don't care about the battery, if used properly the battery should last. Sure, it's expensive, but I'm happy to see them putting the "Pro" back in MacBook Pro. Way ahead of the competition, just like in the PowerBook G4 days!
I already ordered the new retina MacBook Pro. I'm planning to use it for at least 3 years. I'm happy I ordered it with 16 Gb because then I probably won't ever need to upgrade the RAM. I'm a bit worried that a 512 Gb SSD won't be enough in the future. On the other hand it seems that Thunderbolt / USB3 will make it easy to use extremely fast external storage.
It seems that I will be losing the easy access to battery, RAM and HDD, but gaining a lot of expansion options using Thunderbolt & USB 3. I don't care about the battery, if used properly the battery should last. Sure, it's expensive, but I'm happy to see them putting the "Pro" back in MacBook Pro. Way ahead of the competition, just like in the PowerBook G4 days!
So a year from now if need a larger SSD and prices drop I would then have to sell this and buy a new one 
Not for me!!!
I'll stick with the 1/4" thicker model that is upgradeable and I can, at todays prices, upgrade myself to 16GB ram and a 500GB SSD for and save hundreds (and more if I upgrade 6-12 months from now instead). I'll handle the burden of the extra pound along with the built-in optical drive - and have the included 500gb drive as a external backup
Not for me!!! I'll stick with the 1/4" thicker model that is upgradeable and I can, at todays prices, upgrade myself to 16GB ram and a 500GB SSD for and save hundreds (and more if I upgrade 6-12 months from now instead). I'll handle the burden of the extra pound along with the built-in optical drive - and have the included 500gb drive as a external backup
It's not so much space saving as it is consumer screwing. There are plenty of more standard interfaces like pcie or msata that could easily fit into similar space. But they want to make sure nobody but them takes your money. Greedy Apple tactics are nothing new.
As for RAM, this is pure bs. There are plenty of smaller thinner machines out there that have user-upgradable RAM. Many Air imitators for example. They want you to pay a major premium upfront for their memory and then throw away the machine once the RAM amount in it becomes insufficient for newer software. Just Apple being its greedy self again.
I like the fact that I can replace certain things with parts of my own choosing so I won't be buying this machine for sure. That and the fact that I refuse to pay over $2K for a laptop.
Then you presumably do exactly what you currently do with the Macbook Air or Macbook Pro: you buy a new battery from Apple and the price includes installation!
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair/service/battery/
Come on folks, this isn't a new problem or solution. In fact when you compare prices Apple charge (in the UK) £101 for an old-style replacement Macbook Pro battery and only £99 for the newer, Apple-installed replacement battery.
Is it just me, or is it astounding that an entire computer is packed into essentially that single misshapen motherboard? How technology has progressed.
Even more interesting, but not shocking, is that this is basically a screen with a battery.
Even more interesting, but not shocking, is that this is basically a screen with a battery.
Nope. Not according to this article and many others. The RAM is now soldered onto the logic board.
Hopefully soldering the RAM to the logic board is one of those "first-gen problems" that will be resolved in future versions. I can't understand how Apple can market this machine to hard core pros like it's something along the lines of a portable Mac Pro, but keep people from being able to do even the most basic of upgrades on it.
Sure, 16 GB sounds like a lot now, but for pros on the bleeding edge, they're likely to require 32 GB within the next two years -- before the extended AppleCare on this thing expires.
It's a shame that with this product, Apple seems to be pigeon holing the primary target buyer of this machine into buying a whole new laptop and paying another hefty premium anytime they need more speed/power (which they inevitably will.) Sounds like the iPad/iPhone business model to me and that's disappointing with a $2,100+ laptop.
SATA II to SATA III? The 2010 and 2011 Airs have the same connector even though one is only 3Gbps and the other is 6Gbps. I'm hoping there is another reason other than speed for the change.
Good post
It's good to know the SSD is not compatible with 3rd party devices. It's worthy to note that I did not see an upgrade option for the slower Retina display Mac Book Pro, so if you want larger than 256GB internal harddrive you'll need to go to the top end model. I don't know why Apple has left off the upgrade option for the lower end model.
It's good to know the SSD is not compatible with 3rd party devices. It's worthy to note that I did not see an upgrade option for the slower Retina display Mac Book Pro, so if you want larger than 256GB internal harddrive you'll need to go to the top end model. I don't know why Apple has left off the upgrade option for the lower end model.
Complaining about not being able to get into this MBP is silly.
Just don't buy it. It's not the machine for you!
Stick with the other MBP's which in time will have retina too.
When my kids used to whine about stuff I would always say:
Okay, if you whine everything is off or you won't get this!
Wish that worked here
I think you need to fix up the above sentence I made bold since it is a contradiction in terms - are yo acclaiming that you can have something small and open standards then? conversely are you saying that proprietary equals smaller or bigger?
Let me do the work for you that you should have done originally:
Please proof-read next time before correcting someone.
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Then in that case the non-Retina Macbook Pro is perfect for you. Buy that instead.
P.S. I checked your other posts. It seems you are very proud of the Desktop PC you built on your own and love your ThinkPad. Based on that, it seems you just wanted to add your two cents in here without being a Mac user yourself. Just making an observation...
That's good... what about the RAM, though?
Regarding the battery:
How long is it designed to last? For nice round numbers, lets just say I go through 250 charge cycles a year. For how many years will I get 6 hours out of my laptop per charge cycle?
Lets say 3-5 years down the road, I need to replace the battery. How will I be able to do that? Will Apple do it for me? Will AppleCare cover it, or will that be too far out? How much will it probably cost?
That's a silly example. What if you lived in a world where one day, for sure, inevitably, a brick would fall on your head? Would you consider wearing a helmet then?
Batteries die. It's what they do. One day the battery will be worn out and need replacing. That's a guaranteed fact.
I'm glad to hear that Apple's replacement battery includes the replacement itself, but I wonder how they plan to do it if the batteries are glued on so tightly that even iFixit is afraid to touch it.
I recently did a similar upgrade from an older MacBook Pro (first gen MBPro, actually) to an early 2011 unibody MBPro. I put a 256 GB SSD in it, which is easily the best decision I ever made. I also max'ed out the RAM at 8GB.
The only problem I ran into is space. I have an 18MP DSLR with 1080p video capabilities. Suffice to say I store the videos on an external drive– but that would be the case even if I had a 1TB internal HD. As for pictures, I keep about 50 GB of pics on the internal at any given time, and offload the older ones to the external.
I think you'll be in great shape with a 512Gb SSD. I'm not sure the 768GB SSD is worth the upgrade price, given the underlying issues. If you need to store a lot of pics or big files internally, 512GB will be plenty, 256GB means you have to be choosy, and 128GB would have been way too small– apple was right to not include it.
The operating system and a decent suite of programs is going to eat about 100GB.
Good luck with the new Mac. My father is going to get one, but with the 256GB since he doesn't need to store large photos or video. It looks amazing!
Honestly, the only reason I can't justify upgrading my MBP to this is because earlier this year I invested in a 512GB Samsung 830 SSD.
I'm finding some hope however, that judging from the teardown, there's not quite enough space for an SSD where the flash memory is located. However on a slightly larger model you'd have that extra breathing room required to fit in a standard SSD. Perhaps the 17" model can make a return with a replaceable SSD when Apple inevitably decides to cease production of the non-retina models?
I'm finding some hope however, that judging from the teardown, there's not quite enough space for an SSD where the flash memory is located. However on a slightly larger model you'd have that extra breathing room required to fit in a standard SSD. Perhaps the 17" model can make a return with a replaceable SSD when Apple inevitably decides to cease production of the non-retina models?