MacBook Pro to have retina display

[Shamil]

It is Apple we are talking about. Upgrade early and often is the motto

Yeah, you kind of have to if you want the latest software. Then again anything beyond snow leopard is a downgrade in my book.

I'm definitely getting the new MBP at some point, I'm just waiting about a month to see whether the reviews are good and to see if manually upgrading the RAM is doable.

Main reason I'd be upgrading is because my current MBP is having a hard time keeping up with the work I'm doing, not cause I simply want the latest.

I am using the latest software. iOS 6 + Mountain Lion DP4. That said, yesterday, I caught my Mac using nearly 8GB RAM. That's half of what I've got installed, and I didn't have an IDE open.

 

[el canadiano]

It's nice, but I personally don't need the retina display. If I wanted the MacBook Pro, I would get the non-RD 15-inch, and I personally don't feel a MBA is for me.

That said, maybe if they refresh their iMac line...

 

[Brandon]

I really like the thinness but I can't go without an optical drive. I still use a 3.5" floppy!! (albeit USB powered)

Also for anybody considering the new mbp, read this ifixit teardown article.
It looks like many of the components are soldered to the board. IE. possibly no future ram or ssd upgrades.

 

[TheLaw]

I recently bought a fast, lightweight (4 pounds) quad core 14" just a few months ago that, with a 128GB SSD, came to $650. Just a small powerful road alternative. To reach maximum return, I:
- Never buy Dell. Don't think build quality is best and bargains found elsewhere (and tax free)
- Get the smallest hard drive (don't care if 5400 rpm) and swap it for a SATA III SSD
- 8GB RAM is standard these days although RAM is very cheap, especially with open slots

Just purchased a smoking fast i7, 7500rpm drive, bluray drive, HD screen (1920x1080), video acceleration and more for literally $800. While I have enjoyed Macs in the past there is no question that the hardware is a major premium in price above PCs. The questions are generally whether you can afford it and whether you're already invested in the Mac platform, e.g. software. But it's not as if you can't find similar quality for much less on the PC - just might not be an option if you're invested in a platform.

 

[Erik]

I just picked up the base model. It's awesome. I would have liked 16GB of RAM for future-proofing, but I didn't want to wait over a month for BTO. I also didn't really think the extra 256GB of storage and .3 GHz in processing power was worth the $600 premium. I can buy a 1TB external drive for $100 if I need more storage.

If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them.

 

[jasetaro]

For me it's not about the money, I've been through more laptops than I count... High end, low end you name I've had. I used and destroyed everything from the a Texas Instruments Travelmate 2000 to an IBM Thinkpad. My now roughly 3 year old Macbook Pro is the best damned laptop I've ever owned -- by a wide margin. Not only has it out lasted every other laptop I've owned it's done it without a day of down time. Hell, it's the first laptop I've had that's lasted longer than 18 months! I wouldn't hesitate to buy another regardless of the price.

 

[ManagerJosh]

Having seen the teardowns of the new 15" Macbook Pro, the deal breakers was the solid state memory is integrated as part of the logicboard. For me, that means when the logicboard goes, so does the entire laptop

 

[dutchbb]

Having seen the teardowns of the new 15" Macbook Pro, the deal breakers was the solid state memory is integrated as part of the logicboard. For me, that means when the logicboard goes, so does the entire laptop

Yes, but unless you spill liquid over it, they tend to live as long as the device itself. You can always buy their care service so you don't have to worry about malfunction for years, as it would be replaced for free.

 

[ManagerJosh]

Yes, but unless you spill liquid over it, they tend to live as long as the device itself. You can always buy their care service so you don't have to worry about malfunction for years, as it would be replaced for free.

I'm talking about the SSD wearing down. There's a finite life to the SSD drive. It's a lot lower than traditional hard drives.

 

[Luke F]

I'm talking about the SSD wearing down. There's a finite life to the SSD drive. It's a lot lower than traditional hard drives.

I've experienced the opposite, with a consumer grade Crucial M4 under heavy server load showing 2% of its lifetime used in SMART after an entire year.

 

[ManagerJosh]

I've experienced the opposite, with a consumer grade Crucial M4 under heavy server load showing 2% of its lifetime used in SMART after an entire year.

You can thank wear leveling for that.

 

[dutchbb]

I'm talking about the SSD wearing down. There's a finite life to the SSD drive. It's a lot lower than traditional hard drives.

I've read 5 year minimum for the life expectancy. That's probably with heavy use. But it's the price you pay for thinner and lighter devices I guess.

 

[Erik]

Having seen the teardowns of the new 15" Macbook Pro, the deal breakers was the solid state memory is integrated as part of the logicboard. For me, that means when the logicboard goes, so does the entire laptop

This actually isn't quite true. The RAM is soldered to the logic board, but the "SSD" (if you can call it that) is not. It is removable and replaceable (although proprietary). You can replace it or upgrade it similar to how you can replace it in the MacBook Air's.

 

[ManagerJosh]

This actually isn't quite true. The RAM is soldered to the logic board, but the "SSD" (if you can call it that) is not. It is removable and replaceable (although proprietary). You can replace it or upgrade it similar to how you can replace it in the MacBook Air's.

Really? I must have read the teardown reports wrong then.

 

[DeltaHF]

I just picked up the base model. It's awesome. I would have liked 16GB of RAM for future-proofing, but I didn't want to wait over a month for BTO. I also didn't really think the extra 256GB of storage and .3 GHz in processing power was worth the $600 premium. I can buy a 1TB external drive for $100 if I need more storage.

If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them.

Congrats on the new purchase; I'm about to get one myself, but I do have some reservations about the Retina display. How have you found it to be with daily use and web browsing? I don't know if I can wait long enough for the world to catch up to HiDPI screens...

 

[Andy.N]

This actually isn't quite true. The RAM is soldered to the logic board, but the "SSD" (if you can call it that) is not. It is removable and replaceable (although proprietary). You can replace it or upgrade it similar to how you can replace it in the MacBook Air's.

Source?
That would be nice to know we can upgrade the SSD.

 

[fos]

Eventually, my MacBook with a Core i7 quad, 8 gigs or ram. and extra video is still smokin' hot. (figuratively)

 

[Ingenious]

Likewise Naatan my MBP is struggling even after an injection of RAM. I think the problem is I'm trying to do multi-stream HD video editing all on the internal 5400 RPM drive

I was close to getting an iMac for video work, I definitely cannot afford a Mac Pro tower, but the nature of video editing means I'll benefit from an overclocked CPU and also having several internal drives (one for the OS, one for renders, one for output). All things considered I can build a PC system for much less which can do all this. Gutted really as I do like the whole Apple/Mac way of doing things.

But I'll still use my MBP for everything else, and am getting quite tempted by one of the smaller Airs to do general sort of surfing on.

Personally, I think that it is beneficial for any forum admins to have both PC and Mac platforms to work on, it helps to check your sites and what they look like on different systems and different browsers.

 

[DeltaHF]

Personally, I think that it is beneficial for any forum admins to have both PC and Mac platforms to work on, it helps to check your sites and what they look like on different systems and different browsers.

That's one significant benefit of using OS X for web development; using Parallels or VMware to run virtual machines of any operating system that you like. It really takes the pain out of browser testing.

 

[Dragapult]

Rumors are suggesting we might only be a couple months away from a 13'' MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display, which would be nice. I've always felt that 15'' was a little too big for portability, being more of a desktop replacement size.