I said I wasn’t going to get one. I vowed that the MBP I bought in January would be my last laptop. I lied. I’m typing this on my new MacBook Pro with retina Display and while I’m not going to be so foolish to make an absolute promise this time, I sure can’t see how any other computer could be any better. So, yeah, this will be my last laptop computer.
Probably.
Anyway, you have by now read the near unanimous reviews singing the praises of the latest and I can’t really add much to them. The negative reviews have come from PC fans who lament that it’s pretty much a sealed computer and you can’t open it up and tinker with the innards. Seriously, that’s the best they can come up with to knock this beauty?
I do consumer tech for a living and I can’t remember when I had to open a laptop up and do anything to the inside. Maybe pre-1998 before I switched to all Apple for my personal use.
Anyway, the 5.1 million pixel retina display is all you’ve heard it to be. I chose the same screen saver I use on my desktop and the difference in clarity the retina offers is startling. Gorgeous is the non tech word that immediately comes to mind. Click on the picture to see the difference yourself.
Some other things:
- Because there are no moving parts, the the solid state flash drive boots up remarkably fast. About 20 seconds does it. Not quite iPad-fast but close enough for an amazingly powerful quad-core Intel i7 computer to warrant it being my main take-everywhere machine.
- The size is instantly noticeable and appreciated . Thinner (just 0.71 inch thick) and lighter (4.46 pounds), it nevertheless feels as solid and rugged as anything I’ve ever used before.
- The 8 GB of memory is a vast improvement over the 4 GB I had on the old model. I do a lot of high def video editing with Final Cut Pro and I notice much speedier rendering and no choking as the memory tries to handle the input.
- The two USB 3/2 ports are plenty. I like the fact that they are not right next to each other but one is on each side. That way I don’t have USB cables bumping up against one another when I have an external mouse plugged in and my video camera. I don’t miss having a DVD drive. As MacBook Air users have long noted, DVD sharing with a desktop and the availability of online apps has quickly made a built-in DVD drive unnecessary.
- The battery seems to be longer lasting than on my older MBP. I sat on my deck yesterday as I configured the new machine and ran it on battery all afternoon. I got all the software loaded and ran it for three solid hours transferring files form the old machine and my desktop. Still had almost half of the juice I started with.
I bought the 15-inch 2.6 GHz Retina Display with 512 GB of flash storage. Cost was enough to make me gulp: $2799. I originally ordered through the Apple website. They quoted me a 3-4 week delivery time. I also tried t buy one from the local Apple store. They had none in stock. But Friday, I heard they were in stock at MacMall. I cancelled my Apple order and bought from MacMall. It was delivered by FedEx yesterday.
I sold my old MacBook Pro through Gazelle, which offered me $1228 for it. I still have a hefty balance to pay but, hey, this will probably be my last computer, right?
Right.