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What made decide for or against the rMBP?

Always have had a 13" MBP. Really wanted the retina and got the 15" retina. But, decided against it because of
1) Size
2) Weight (yes, I know it still weighs less than the 13" MBP)

I expect to purchase the 13" retina on release. I dont really need the discrete graphics but the smaller size and lighter weight than the 15" would be perfect for me.
 
I had a rMPB for almost a month before I decided to sell it and replace it with another 11inch Air (Ivy Bridge). Originally I had intended to replace a Sandy Bridge 11inch air and 27inch iMac with it. Consolidate down to one machine to rule them all.

While the screen was gorgeous, I was never comfortable hauling around the rMBP and its cost allowed my mind to linger on theft and damage more than usual. At home, I hardly used it unless it was connected to my Thunderbolt display as it felt like a chore to unplug everything and move it around. Yeah, I know.

Anyway, I can't explain the difference but I have none of those mental issues with the 11 inch Air that replaced it. It goes almost everywhere with me, and it has been able to handle anything I've thrown at it so far. For my current lifestyle, the Air is the better fit. The rMBP is a great machine though.
 
Risco said:
I decided against purely because of price and performance issues.
Click to expand...

Performance issues? You just went full retard

[EDIT] Just be honest, you couldn't afford it. [/EDIT]
 
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CGagnon said:
Performance issues? You just went full retard.
Click to expand...

Lag in the UI, it has been well documented and discussed on here and other sites. Also , seeing your sneaky little edit it had nothing to do with affording. I needed to spend £2200 as opposed to £1500, just so I could get a 512gb hdd, it was a no brainer. Don't be such a pompous ****
 
Sech said:
I had a rMPB for almost a month before I decided to sell it and replace it with another 11inch Air (Ivy Bridge). Originally I had intended to replace a Sandy Bridge 11inch air and 27inch iMac with it. Consolidate down to one machine to rule them all.

While the screen was gorgeous, I was never comfortable hauling around the rMBP and its cost allowed my mind to linger on theft and damage more than usual. At home, I hardly used it unless it was connected to my Thunderbolt display as it felt like a chore to unplug everything and move it around. Yeah, I know.

Anyway, I can't explain the difference but I have none of those mental issues with the 11 inch Air that replaced it. It goes almost everywhere with me, and it has been able to handle anything I've thrown at it so far. For my current lifestyle, the Air is the better fit. The rMBP is a great machine though.
Click to expand...

Thats' a good choice and I may do that myself. Not because it's better, it's just very different.

I had an 11" Sandy for a year and sold it. I'll probably buy a 2012 eventually. Maybe not.

The thing is, the Retina can do some heavy lifting, and for me it probably can replace everything else. The 11" can't. The 11" needs support.

Then again, I have a few really nice LCDs. They are so cheap now and they are FANTASTC. So you can get by with just about anything at home. If I was on the road a lot (School, work, etc) I wouldn't lug a Retina.

But the Retina's display is better than anything. It's Better than My Thunderbolt display as it's so much smaller but the 'quality' is greater. That's the thing; the quality of these displays is like nothing i've ever seen.
 
nontroppo said:
I just provided side-by-side evidence they are the same! I will leave it here; because if screenshots can't explain visually why you are incorrect nothing will...
Click to expand...

My point is that it is not noticeable on standard screens to the standard user who has used standard LCD's and CRT's and standard eyeballs. If it was we would all have major eye damage. No one complained of blurry interface elements prior to retina. It is as bill-p pointed out a matter of "perspective". Which further bolsters a reason to avoid. It is so good everything else you may be forced to use may be annoying as your eyes are trained to see the differences. Of course I am slightly joking but something to consider. I always find myself quite belligerent while using HDD's as all my main computers are all SSD now. I don't see how my desire to not see this high-res- vs. low-res on a laptop at the same time makes me wrong. You are arguing semantics. You say they are not blurry but that the rMBP is just so sharp. I am saying the sharpness of the rMBP make the regular res'd stuff look blurry. Sounds about the same to me. Depends where you want to draw the line. And it was part of the reason I didn't get it (point of the thread). Maybe I'll get one next year or year after. Who knows? I get them for major discounts and I write them off entirely.
 
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i wanted retina but in the end the the storage capacity in the base model is so small and the next one up was way out of my price range so i bought the classic version with a bigger HD and the same amount of RAM,and i'm pretty damn happy machine is flawless.
 
I'm a professional photographer who recently sold his 2011 MBP 17" to upgrade to the rMBP.

It became very evident to me that Apple made too many concessions to get the price and size/weight of the 15" rMBP down. I do not consider it in the same league as the 17" flagship model which it supposedly replaced.

Screen is too small. Nobody is doing pro editing work on a 15" display, even in a pinch. External display is no longer optional, it is required when all you have to work with is 15". Pixel density? It's nice, but it is NO replacement for real estate.

I am quite enthusiastic about the GPU bump and (finally) getting rid of the ancient relic, the optical disc drive. However, Apple stupidly shrunk the laptop and shaved weight and size instead of giving us better cooling or more battery life. It is an appalling, very bizarre design decision.

Money is frankly no consideration for me, I am willing to pay a premium for the best laptop money can buy and for the first time in 4 years I can say that Apple has fallen off.

It's not a serious professional laptop. Period. Mine sold this morning on eBay. Time to check out the Sony's.

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Dralt said:
After several weeks of pondering, I still cannot decide.

Money is not a factor in this decision.

It must mean one of 2 things:

- I am indecisive.
- This new product has poor placement in the product line.

I don't know.
Click to expand...

Could not agree more with this point.

The product line is terrible. They have about 4 different laptops in the 13" size and not a single one that is larger than 15". There is so much overlap in the bottom sector to appeal to people with limited budgets that they have completely forsaken users who are willing to put their money where their mouths are. It's doubly odd considering that an iPhone costs $700 and they're selling MacBook "Pros" for just a few hundred dollars more. Astonishing.
 
It's a first gen Apple product, after hearing the horror stories of the first Air and my personal experience of the iPhone 4's death grip I decided to err on the side of caution and wait for next year's model which will have a vastly improved integrated graphics and (presumably) a more consistent manufacturing process for the displays et all.

Otherwise, in store it looked really good and the improved heat management + overclocked graphics card really appealed, but who knows what issues may arise a few months down the line?

The cMBP is, after all these years, perfected in my view.
 
I received mine today. I am extremely impressed so far. Yes, the screen is "small" as I expected, however the retina display is amazing. Amazing as in it lights up the entire room. I can watch Netflix from 10 feet away in bed and it looks brilliant. Bad example but as I said, I'm in bed right now. This computer is bringing life to me, after using a 5.5 year old Mac Pro. It literally is lifting up my mood, and not in a shallow consumerist "I own this object" way. I can accomplish tasks without limitations.
 
Price. If I could have afforded it, I would have bought it. Just like MOST people here. Plain and simple.
 
I think the whole "I can't look at any other screen now" is so exaggerated. The screen is a beauty, but at regular viewing angles my MBP 13 doesn't look much worse than my retina MBP. Of course, when you're a few inches from the screen the retina does look astoundingly sharper.
 
Both are 2999, if you use the apple SSD and apple memory.
the rMBP is about 100 dollars cheaper, but it cMBP will be even cheaper if you opt for third party ram and SSD
 
Dangerous Theory said:
I think the whole "I can't look at any other screen now" is so exaggerated. The screen is a beauty, but at regular viewing angles my MBP 13 doesn't look much worse than my retina MBP. Of course, when you're a few inches from the screen the retina does look astoundingly sharper.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I would say my 13" air looks terrible compared to my retina display. I can use it in a pinch, but it's not an enjoyable experience anymore.

I do use a couple 24" displays when I'm working on a desk though. I still prefer the retina IQ, but when I'm on a desk, I find the larger monitors to be more comfortable.
 
Dangerous Theory said:
I think the whole "I can't look at any other screen now" is so exaggerated. The screen is a beauty, but at regular viewing angles my MBP 13 doesn't look much worse than my retina MBP. Of course, when you're a few inches from the screen the retina does look astoundingly sharper.
Click to expand...

I just used my 13 inch MBP and there is huge difference to me in screen sharpness at normal viewing distance. Colors are almost as great on 13 inch than on rMBP.

I'm also so used to 15 inch screen now that I wouldn't want to go back to 13 inch one. 15 inch is a lot better for on the go photo and video editing.
 
I'm planning on getting a cMBP for a few reasons after a lot of research.

The cMBP suits me better as a photographer for a number of reasons.

Firstly I can slot my data doubler bracket in, alongside my current 256gb SSD to get bulk cheaper storage than the rMBP offers. I'll have 1gb internal straight off the bat.

I can also upgrade the RAM in the cMBP to 16gb and theoretically it should run LR4 faster for me than the equivalent specced rMBP would as there's not the drain on the CPU for rendering larger previews for the big pixel display.

The pixel doubling in internet browsers bothered me. I'm pretty aware of sharp images and browsing in the Apple Store for 20 mins was enough to show me that'd be a problem. I can't imagine everyone uploading 1500-2000px images to remedy this.

Combine that with the usefulness of retaining ethernet and firewire ports, the antiglare screen option and none of the reported performance and screen concerns people are having and it's a no brainer for me.

Cost is definitely a consideration, but the appeal of upgrading the SSD to 512gb and the HDD to 1gb+ in 12-18 months time once it's a lot more affordable along with the other reasons above make the cMBP very appealing.

Ninja Edit: Price comparison...

cMBP: 15" i7 2.6ghz, 256gb SSD (already own), 750gb 7200rpm HDD, antiglare display ($120) 16gb RAM (OWC - $180 shipped) = $2800 AUD**

rMBP: 15" i7 2.6ghz, 756gb SSD (would need this much space to work), 16gb RAM = $4040 AUD

**Also comes with a free 7200rpm 750gb drive specced in there - handy!
 
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I'm guessing my post ^^^ either made perfect sense, or was too long for everyone to read since no one replied...
 
I wish Apple had made a non-retina version of that MBP. That slim but an option to have a normal screen that doesn't push the hardware to the limits.
 
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