[Pez]

What do you think if the new hotness? Is it worth it's weight in gold? It'd better be because that's what Apples starting price is.  seriously though, great computer or the greatest computer?

[JohnR]

I don't own one, but I think it's kinda large.

[newzooreview]

What do you think if the new hotness? Is it worth it's weight in gold? It'd better be because that's what Apples starting price is.  seriously though, great computer or the greatest computer?

Short answer: It's the best computer I've ever owned, and I'm very happy with the purchase.

Long answer: I upgraded from a 2008 MacBook Pro 15" and the Retina MacBook Pro is significantly lighter and thinner in use. On paper the difference may not seem great compared to a non-Retina MacBook Pro, but I carry it back and forth to the office every day and use it on my lap half the time at home and it is substantially lighter and thinner in real-world feel.

It's also very fast and very quiet. It only spins up the fans when I push to it's limits with a HandBrake video conversion, and it handles conversion to H.264 video at least four times faster than my old computer. Everything happens instantly on the new MacBook Pro. If I get a spinning beachball, it means one of Microsoft's programs is hung up: the computer itself flies through normal operations.

Compared to a MacBook Air, the Retina MacBook Pro gives me more storage (flash-based hard drive), more RAM, a stand-alone graphics processor, more I/O options, and more screen space (it's my primary work and home computer, so a 15" screen is useful to me, and I've used 15" notebook screens for years so smaller would feel cramped).

It obviously depends on what you're using now, but for my needs it's been terrific. I would say, however, that the fact that the screen is very high resolution is not the primary advantage to me. I enjoy the pristine quality of photographs and the crisp text in programs that support it, but my main interest is in having something almost as thin and light as a MacBook Air but with a bigger screen, more RAM, and more storage.

[Pez]

Great info! What options did you get? 512 gig HD or 756? Also ram etc?

[newzooreview]

Great info! What options did you get? 512 gig HD or 756? Also ram etc?

I got the 512 Gb hard drive and 16 Gb RAM. I find that having a usual amount of apps and windows open takes about 8 Gb, so I decided to get the extra. Probably not necessary since it will just page out to the hard drive if it needs more RAM, and the hard drive is almost as fast as RAM. But I figured I would give it plenty of room to work with.

The only thing I would add is that, like the MacBook Air, the whole thing running on flash storage is a revelation coming from a mechanical hard drive. I just close the computer to put it to sleep almost instantly when going back and forth from home. I don't worry about moving when the hard drive is spinning, and going into and waking from sleep takes no more than two seconds typically.

Regarding whether it's the greatest computer, who knows. I don't see other companies able to match Apple's pricing on an identically configured and constructed notebook (even setting aside the Retina display), but as someone who can and has used Linux, Windows, and MacOS I was only looking for a Mac and was just choosing the best option for myself from their notebook lineup.

[newzooreview]

Great info! What options did you get? 512 gig HD or 756? Also ram etc?

Final point (maybe) is that I would recommend a little USB 3.0 drive (like the ones from Oyen Digital) and Carbon Copy Cloner so you have a mirror of the internal flash drive. You'll want to be able to run the notebook from an external drive if the internal flash drive ever fails (far less likely than with a spinning disk, but worth being prepared).

[TomS]

I've been considering one for my daughter who is still in school for graphic design. Unfortunately some of the software vendors haven't committed to supporting Retina display density, with the key one being Adobe's Creative Suite 6.0. It's unfortunate since they highlighted it on a slide at the great unveiling 

[Pez]

This computer is a game changer it looks like to me. I just might pull the trigger...

[saisunil]

I've been considering one for my daughter who is still in school for graphic design. Unfortunately some of the software vendors haven't committed to supporting Retina display density, with the key one being Adobe's Creative Suite 6.0. It's unfortunate since they highlighted it on a slide at the great unveiling 

No wonder adobe and apple don't get along too well ...

[mathgeek97]

still on it's way from Foxconn...  I'm hoping the retina display plays nicely with MS Office and PhotoShop.

[Pez]

Took a look at the pricing at the Apple store today. They have 3 models you can buy through the store. the base is $2200, mid $2700, and the top line is... $3800.  Ho lee shite!!! That one is 2.7 gig quad core, 756 gig HD, and 16 gig ram. Still, I could buy a decent used luxury car for that kind of cash! For me I think I might go with the $2700 version online which has 2.6 quad core and 512 gig HD and get it with 16 gig ram. I figure anymore with USB 3.0 and thunderbolt that internal storage isn't as necessary on a laptop. With usb 2.0 the read-write speeds just plain sucked on an external, and forget playing games or trying to run graphic intensive programs on one of them. Now all of that is entirely feasible for the first time without some fancy pants esata adapter. 512 + thunderbolt and USB 3.0... I am more than happy with that! 

[Mathew_M]

What do you think if the new hotness? Is it worth it's weight in gold? It'd better be because that's what Apples starting price is.  seriously though, great computer or the greatest computer?

"if the new hotness" is for all intents a rev. A model.  Revision B will have better retina support, larger SSD and a lower price point. 

As a 12 year Mac veteran I'm not overly impressed.  To my eye the Retina display is nice but not necessary.  It's a marketing device.  The default resolution is the same as the previous model.  Anything higher is actually too small for a 15" screen.  To top it off, nothing is upgradeable.     It's a one percenter cloud computer. 

[Bemopti123]

"if the new hotness" is for all intents a rev. A model.  Revision B will have better retina support, larger SSD and a lower price point. 

As a 12 year Mac veteran I'm not overly impressed.  To my eye the Retina display is nice but not necessary.  It's a marketing device.  The default resolution is the same as the previous model.  Anything higher is actually too small for a 15" screen.  To top it off, nothing is upgradeable.     It's a one percenter cloud computer.

The biggest problem I find with the retina concept is that MOST of the applications are not optimized for the amazing graphic prowess it possesses.  To me, while for some features it might be nice, I simply feel it is an over the top feature such as the fact that we can purchase a car that can run at 200 miles an hour and yet, in all practical contexts, most of the time we will never get above 90 miles mostly because in all practicality, there is no place where we can safely throttle the car we paid for.....asides photo editing, it would simply be questionable looking at all the non optimized sites and looking at all the pixelation that is amplified by the retina display. 

But, perhaps some real users can explain to me, does the retina display MBP have a system of doubling or tripling the pixels from lower original resolutions, in order to fool the eye that it is seeing true retina level resolutions? 

[JohnR]

I figure anymore with USB 3.0 and thunderbolt that internal storage isn't as necessary on a laptop.

I'm not so sure about USB3, I ran a test and didn't get the results I expected. I'll try again tonight.

[JohnR]

I'm not so sure about USB3, I ran a test and didn't get the results I expected. I'll try again tonight.

OK, with a portable drive I get the same result with FW and USB3, at 70 MB/s (BlackMagic), so the speed is being limited by the drive in that case. My earlier test was with a "USB3" flash drive, which was scarcely any faster than a USB2 drive.

Here's an interesting comparison of HDD and SSD over Thunderbolt:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6127/buffalo-ministation-thunderbolt-review-an-external-with-usb-30-and-thunderbolt/3

[newzooreview]

The biggest problem I find with the retina concept is that MOST of the applications are not optimized for the amazing graphic prowess it possesses. 
But, perhaps some real users can explain to me, does the retina display MBP have a system of doubling or tripling the pixels from lower original resolutions, in order to fool the eye that it is seeing true retina level resolutions?

There's a risk in missing the forest for the trees in focusing only on the resolution of the retina display.

My choice in buying a new Mac came down to one of the flash-based models (Air vs. Retina MBP). Once you've experienced the boot speed and responsiveness of flash-based storage it's hard to consider getting a new computer with a spinning disk hard drive.

Compared to the MacBook Air, the Retina MBP

1. Has a 15" screen.
2. Has no glass over the LCD. In practice for me this significantly reduces glare off of the screen.
3. Has almost no shift in screen color or contrast when tilting the screen forward and back. I can adjust the screen for glare and balance in my lap without degrading the image. This is very very nice.
4. Improves crispness on programs that support high-resolution and otherwise looks the same on those that do not. This whole canard about programs that are not yet optimized for the Retina display is not an issue in my experience. Microsoft Word looks the same as it always has, which is fine. Pixelmator and Final Cut Pro, however, look better than they ever could on another screen. I don't see any downside.

But I didn't get the Retina MBP for a higher resolution screen. It's also the only flash-based Mac available with a 512 Gb hard drive. The Airs max out at 256 Gb, and this is too little storage for my needs. After market upgrades to the Air are also extremely expensive.

The Retina MBP is also the only flash-based Mac that has a separate graphics processor. And the CPU on the Retina MBP is faster than those available on the Air.

In use, the new speakers on the Retina MBP are far better than on the Air or on my old Mac. I was not expecting this to make much of a practical difference, but it's noticeable and improves my enjoyment using the computer.

So, the extra cost for the Retina MBP is not just buying a high-resolution screen. It's buying an overall more capable, faster computer with more storage. I think most people will be very happy with a MacBook Air, but if you need the better capabilities across the board then the Retina MBP makes good sense.

Also, the USB 3.0 is significantly faster in my experience. My little external 3.0 hard drive (from Oyen Digital) moves files much much more quickly than any of my 2.0 drives. And several of my older external drives have eSata connections. An eSata to USB 3.0 cable let me significantly increase transfer rates on those compared to Firewire. And for my old drives using USB 2.0 things are the same as they always were, so again no downsides.

[mathgeek97]

newzoo,

Thanks for the feedback about MS Word, I was a little anxious.  Mine should be here tomorrow.  16GB RAM and 512GB SSD seem to be the popular choice!
And for those who are just looking to get the speed boost from the solid-state drive, I've installed them in the old-fashioned variety of MacBook Pros and that makes a HUGE difference in the overall user experience.  For my (spoiled?) son entering high-school this year, I bought a used 2010 MacBook Pro for very cheap, then spent $250 getting a Crucial m4 256GB SSD, the maximum 8GB RAM, and Mountain Lion, and it's like a brand new machine!  iFixit.com is definitely a favorite site for this Apple junkie.
(Side note, the Samsung 830 SSD at $200 for 256GB and 512GB at $550 is likely your best bet for MacBook Pros that take a regular laptop drive, but the Crucial SDD was on sale at the time...)

[Pez]

"if the new hotness" is for all intents a rev. A model.  Revision B will have better retina support, larger SSD and a lower price point. 

As a 12 year Mac veteran I'm not overly impressed.  To my eye the Retina display is nice but not necessary.  It's a marketing device.  The default resolution is the same as the previous model.  Anything higher is actually too small for a 15" screen.  To top it off, nothing is upgradeable.     It's a one percenter cloud computer.

This is the creed of every computer geek who I've asked 'should I buy a computer now?' No offense, but every guy I knew in college who could hack a computer told me this EVERY SINGLE TIME I asked if I should buy now. If it were up to them I'd never ever own a computer because something better was on the horizon.

For a person like me who uses his computer EXTENSIVELY for photos and photo editing I find it hard to believe that the retina display is a gimmick. hell that's the main reason I want one. What you said about pixel density is a tad misleading. Yes if things were displayed in it's native resolution on a 15" screen it wouldn't scale properly. Everything would be teenie-tiny, hence why it's not in native, but retina capability is enabled when necessary and when the bump in resolution matters. On top of that better viewing angles, better contrast brighter reduced glare... none of that strikes me as 'gimmicky' those are real world improvements not something Apple would brag about on a spec sheet. Thus far retina has not been a gimmick for me on iPhone and iPad. A definite improvement in practice.

The only thing I'm with you on is the non-upgradability that seems to becoming too common amongst all Apple products. I have in the past upgraded ram, hard drives, replaced batteries and worn keyboards etc on laptops. Something I'm not afraid to do, but these new models with no users upgradability annoys me, though I understand why they do it. At less than 3/4" designing a case that is able to accommodate user replaceable components is just not practical.

[JohnR]

If you've already decided you're going to buy one, why are you asking about it?

[Pez]

I have decided, but that's besides the point. I just find the whole 'wait for version 2.0' line to be useless. I'm not asking about version 2.0, I'm asking about this version. If someone were to say 'they haven't worked out the kinks of going flash only on this version' or 'it's too heavy/ the construction isn't what I expected' these are all legitimate reasons NOT to buy this version. But the blanket statement that the next version will be better is... DUH! Thus far I've seen only positive feedback from people who actually own the machine vs people who have seen it at the store. Both opinions are valid of course. Any way I didn't mean to come off as sounding harsh, though based on my interactions with my wife I know I have that problem.