2. I wasn’t trying to imply pro’s don’t upgrade, I meant that many wouldn’t upgrade themselves (i.e. take it in to get it upgraded). So things like battery serviceability are less of a concern. The ram is definitely an issue since it can’t be upgraded, but I’m a heavy Photoshop user and I’ve been running on 8GB of ram for about as long as I can remember (both on Mac’s and PCs before that). The point here is that in most cases the computers needed upgrading before I needed to add more memory. I have a MBP Retina on order and for the first time I’m getting a system with 16GB (mostly because I’m worried about the lack of upgradability but also because it was only a $200 upgrade).

4. The ethernet port on the last generation MBP was about 9mm, add 2mm on the bottom for the copper contacts inside the plug as well as the aluminum casing, as well as another 1mm on top for the top part of the casing. That’s a 12mm tall plug. The display assembly is 7mm thick, coming to a total of 19mm (assuming Apple were to lose the bevel on the bottom and go with a flat bottom suface with sharp edges). The Retina MBP is 18mm, so unless they made it thicker there’s no way they could have fit an ethernet port. It’s not that I have anything against ethernet (I currently use the attached ethernet adapter as well as a USB adapter because I use one for an internal network and another for the internet). What I’d really like to see from Apple is a port replicator that connects to the thunderbolt port.

5. Agreed, though I wouldn’t mind Apple taking a cue from Nintendo and allowing the iPad to be used in conjunction with a mac, it would be awesome to kick all my palettes over to the iPad and use it as a tablet/multitouch controller.

6. They’re still making iPod classics, so I wouldn’t consider the old Macbook to be totally EOL, just in its sunset years. After touting what a revolution the retina MBP is I just can’t see them backtracking (even if sales aren’t great). Final Cut X is a good example where Apple really dropped the ball on their pro users in order to lure over consumers from iMovie, but I don’t see them going back to a FCP 7.0 interface anytime soon.

7. My point here isn’t that the retina has some amazing speed gains over standard MBP. It’s respectably faster than the last generation. The point I was trying to make was in response to what you said in your post that they could have made an MBP with “dual quad processor 8-core machine, dual SSD upgradable laptop”. It would be awesome for sure, but so would the price (and weight).

8. Apple shot themselves in the foot by the way they use scaling. The MBP retina is defaulted to a scaled resolution of 1440 x 900 (which doesn’t even display the same screen area as my old MBP which was 1680 x 1050. While using the full 2880 x 1800 would be migrane inducing, they should have gone with a default of scaled resolution of 1920 x 1200. At that level, the text is still readable, and even if websites/apps aren’t retina enabled, the screen still looks great. When I’m at home I use 2 displays, but when I’m on the road I only have the 15″ display, so personally (and I think most designers would share this view) I need the extra screen real estate.

On an interesting side topic regarding you’re desire for a dockable laptop that can step up to desktop processing power. You could use a thunderbolt drive as your main drive, or alternate work drive, and simply plug that into either a laptop or a future Mac Pro or Pro Desktop or whatever Apple has planned and boot from the T-Bolt drive. A bit down the road on that. Just a thought though.

“are you excited about the Retina MBP and are you planning on getting one or have you already ordered?”
Yes, I had to see it in the store for myself, first, but I’m ordering the cheaper one, with the 16 GB upgrade. I’ll upgrade the SSD to a larger OWC one if the price comes down enough before I upgrade the MBP.

“If so, what do you look forward to using it most for?”
I only use one computer at a time*, and the MBP has been enough computer for me since the first revision in 2006; this is just a normal update for me (from a 2010 model, which was itself an upgrade from a 2008 one). I wear many hats, but the software I’ll be using most with it is Unity, Xcode, Coda, modo, and Logic. The biggest benefit of the screen, for me, is going to be the ability to preview iOS content at native resolution before building apps. I only write shaders that can run well on iOS, so the quadrupling of pixels shouldn’t affect me, performance-wise.

* What I would really like, is a cheaper, large-screen MacBook, that I could dock with a desktop computer (via a faster Thunderbolt revision?), for more power. There has never been a related solution that I’ve found practical, though.

And a big thanks to assuming everyone has or should have updated to an OWC SSD. :)

So this conversation begs the question… are you excited about the Retina MBP and are you planning on getting one or have you already ordered? If so, what do you look forward to using it most for?

“I don’t understand your “SSDs doesn’t make a mac faster” line. They just do,”
Please reread what I said. If you replace a Mercury Extreme with another Mercury Extreme, it’s not going to be any faster.

If you need the latest and greatest speed or just desire a recent Mac the eBay suggestion is one many people take. It’s an awesome way to keep current and thanks for sharing that tidbit for our readers.

Apple actively compares the Retina to the original upgraded Pros. Apple smartly realizes that for everyone it’s a matter of finding the right machine for you. Hence when you click Buy Now on the Retina MacBook Pro page it gives you the option to choose among all the MacBook Pros and offers handy comparison guides so customers can find the MacBook Pro that will serve them best and fit into their budget.

I don’t understand your “SSDs doesn’t make a mac faster” line. They just do, and tests run from Macworld and the like run stock machines usually in the preliminary tests, so when the 2012′s are compared now it’s SSD vs HD on the MacBook Pros. All I’m saying is you may want to take the SSDs into account as any drive based variable in a test is going to be much faster for the SSD based machine. To put another way, I’d put a 2012 15 non-retina with an OWC 6G SSD up against a 2012 Retina, and I bet you’d get faster speed from the non-retina. Remember the Retina based Mac is taking a video card hit powering the Retina. So there’s overhead there.

Thanks for commenting with such passion Jessy. It really is interesting to read your take on this!
All the best.

“Since the 8GB is built into the base price you’re paying $200 for an 8GB upgrade.”
No. You’re paying for twice as dense memory, and it’s only $180 with educational pricing, which OWC doesn’t offer.

“Apple has not killed off the crazy upgradable 13″ or 15″ MacBook Pro.”
Close enough. They’ll be gone within a year. Making any comparison of the old model to the new one is pointless, and Apple knows it.

So points:
1. Fair enough

2. Ummmm… pros upgrades and service their computer all the time. Some may prefer to pay someone to do, and quite a few are more than willing to upgrade their Pro Macs.

3. OK

4. Apple has smart engineers, they could’ve get an ethernet port to work… it’s a compromise for a “pro” machine, for an Air it makes sense and I’m with ya there on Air.

5. Even Tim Cook states there’s a line of separation from iDevice to full computer. Of course they’ll port great features from iOS to OS X. It would be dumb for them not to. But Macs will continue to be full blow computers for obvious reasons, you wouldn’t really want to use photoshop on an iPad.

6. So you don’t think apple is test marketing the retina, that other pros are end of line.

7. I’ve looked at the benchmarks, the processor in the Retina isn’t anything the MacBook Pro non-retinas don’t have, and the video card actually takes a performance hit as it needs to drive the retina. THe true speed gains are in SSD storage, which you can upgrade any MacBook Pro to experience SSD speed with an OWC SSD.

8. Ummm.. I’ve seen the MacBook Pro with Retina. Hence all my articles about it. It’s unusable for image editing, web design, and web browsing. For the iPhone and iPad Retina, of which I have both, the Retina solved a problem and enhanced the experience whereas the Retina on the MacBook Pro creates major problems in some areas.

Thanks for taking the time for writing your detailed comment, and sharing your opinion.
All the best.

The older format MBP is only getting a refresh. It is a shame they didn’t upgrade more of it’s technology, retina display as an option, HDMI, etc

1) When the Air launched, they used a manila envelope to show how thin and light it was. While the retina MBP may be thinner and lighter than the old MBP, it is not in the same spirit as the Air.

2) While you or I may not like it, most “Pro’s” aren’t going to be taking their computers apart. For a designer or video professional, opening up their computers is probably the last thing they would do (that’s why Apple has sevices such as Genius bar and One to One).

3) Regarding the moniker at the bottom of the screen, the new screen has a much narrower bezel, and a logo there would have looked odd. Using design language, the logo would have had no whitespace to breathe.

4) The disappearance of the ethernet port, soldered components and keyboard can be explained by their desire to make the thing thinner. There’s no way they could have pulled the thinness and lightness off had they used off the shelf components, the regular keyboard and added an ethernet port.

5) Apple’s been headed towards making all their products more iPhone/iPad like for years, this isn’t a surprise given most of Apple’s revenue comes from their iPhone/iPad devices. Everything from features like Launchpad introduced in OSX Lion to the Magic TouchPad to the Macbook Air itself was inspired by their mobile products. It makes sense that this product evolution would come to the MBP line as well (and to the iMac in the future).

6) Apple has a history of spinning down legacy products by continuing to sell them. The eMac, and iPod Classic are both examples. When the flash based iPod touch was introduced it was clear that this was the future direction, however it lacked the capacity to hold as many songs as the HDD based iPods, so Apple continued to make them for people who needed the extra capacity.

7) If you look at the benchmarks on the new retina MBP, they blow the old MBP and iMac out of the water. I run Photoshop and Final Cut X on an early 2011 MBP (which gets a Geekbench score of 9834) and while faster is always better, I don’t find it slow. The new retina MBP gets Geekbench scores as high as 12225, that puts it in Mac Pro territory (pre-refresh), so while they could have made it thicker, heavier and more expensive, it wouldn’t have made sense for most users.

8) There’s been some debate about the usefulness of a retina display for non designers, but once you see the display you’ll get it. Apple is renowned for giving us products we didn’t know we wanted (iPod, Iphone, iPad), this is just another example. Since getting my iPhone 4S, I really have a hard time using my iPad 2 because the screen has such a lower pixel density. I think people will feel the same way once they’ve used the retina MBP. I was on the fence about buying one (due to the serviceability issues and lack of ethernet port) but after spending some time with one the other day, I’ve placed my order.

I can live with the single SSD, though I can’t understand why you wouldn’t allow space for two SSD-on-a-sticks. I can live with the battery (just price in a ‘battery service’ every 2-3 years).

The RAM is a deal killer. I’m a heavy VMWare Fusion user. I need 16GB *NOW* with my early-2011 MBP. In another year or two, I’m likely to upgrade, and will want 32GB. The refreshed traditional MBPs might work, but the new Retina AirPro certainly won’t.

Once people realize the RAM is soldered in, I bet there will be Retina MBPs available as refurb (i.e. ‘regret returns’) in quantity.

Here’s my 2 cents. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, as I live in the UK where exchange rates and pricing means I usually sell my MBPs here in pounds, then buy the new ones in the US when I’m back home, staying freshly updated every 18 months or so without taking too bad a financial hit. This year, I really have to think about whether it makes sense to do this.

Not all visual pros will gain at the moment from this new display. I work in video/film production. I currently own a 2011 MBP 17″, with matt screen. While its a big computer, while filming in the field it has the screen real estate to run a traditional source/record 2 window editing view, which a 15″ will struggle with. I also have an express34 slot, which is the shape to take the current standard Sony XDCam and Panasonic P2 camera cards natively. I need take external drives and nothing else with me on film shoots,other than extra power supplies in remote locations.

What does this new Retina mbp gain me? A slight bump in rendering times on the processor. A reduction in travel weight. A nice HDMI out. The chance to have 2 6g SSDs in a raid 0. Nothing else, but also, an untested change back to nvidia graphics (I remember all the problems with the last ones), and paying double the market rate for locking in my ram potential.

Or, i can put a single 6G SSD in my current computer, bump the RAM to 16G for a bit over 100 dollars, continue using thunderbolt raid storage for my media, and hope that the resale value on my machine stays high enough for a year or so while the line settles down in the next update, or devolves enough that I have to consider more radical changes.

Having a smaller form factor, but having to bring a bag of thunderbolt dongles and adapters to be capable in the field is a mixed blessing at best. Then struggling to see smaller images, even if they are of higher quality. I’m really not sure.

For me, I think for once I’m going to upgrade my current machine. I feel that this is a stop gap update, the price is WAY too high for staying at the top of the line, and in a year the world might catch up with Retina displays, the processors might improve more significantly, and the value for money equation might level back out to where it has been the last few years and I’ll revisit the issue.

I hate to be yet another annoying pro freaking out about Apple forgetting who kept them going in the 90s and 2000s, but between this update, the debatable usefulness (other than in a consumer sense) of the OS changes since Snow Leopard, the current uncertainty around the Mac Pro, and its hard not to. I can see in the high end post production world an embrace of HP z800 workstations, Dream Color monitors, and with the improvements in Windows, that mean that Apple have competition in a world they could have, and nearly did, own.