EYE-GASMIC: Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch with Retina Display

Best laptop ever.

I have a late 2011 MBP

As I've mentioned a couple of times on the Reg forums, I have a late 2011 15" MBP upgraded to 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and the 750GB spinner upgraded to 1TB and moved into the superdrive slot.

It's been the best Windows laptop I've personally ever owned and since I picked it up stateside, it was about on a par for the equivalent spec non Apple hardware in terms of UK pricing.

But no way I would consider a unit - however good the screen - where my upgrade options were a flat zero! Can't even replace a battery? No etnerhet port? No thanks, Apple.

Sounds like the writer was hinting that people should really pick up last year's model at presumably something of a discount.

Want that screen.

Oh why won't somebody else, anybody else, build a laptop sporting this lovely 16:10 screen?

Numpad?

There's space on the 15-inchers for a numeric keypad. Why won't Apple include one?

meh

My old macbook, which tends to destroy batteries annually, is starting to get a tad unreliable, and isn't really as relatively powerful as it once was.

The thing is, the g4 Powerbook that it replaced is still going strong, and is built like a tank.

Moreover, unless I go up to the two grand model, I don't get all that CUDA goodness in Premiere, Photoshop and Aftereffects, either, due to no NVidia card. Add to that the fact that if the new one starts playing up and eating batteries as soon as it's out of warranty, I am going to have a much harder time swapping them out. I won't be able to grit my teeth, trot to the nearest Apple store and buy a pricey replacement.

Thus, it has pretty much ruled itself out of the running for me. I am very tempted to get an Asus GX750JX, which packs a Core i7 4700HQ, Geforce 770, and a pair of HDs in for 1300 quid. It's a "gaming laptop", but not all that garish, being mostly matte black... plus it has a Thunderbolt connector, which will be useful for painlessly adding SDI in/out.

Yes, ok, maybe that's "creative professional" use, and I feel like Apple just isn't a good idea for me any more. I do love Coreaudio a lot- the WIndows sound subsystem is a pile of crap, but at the end of the day, this option will run the stuff I need at a higher speed for much less money.

Hmph. I feel like Apple dropped the ball on this one, cutting corners on their MBPs will just ensure that they make themselves more irrelevant to the graphics nerds who used to be some of their biggest cheerleaders. They're still great for yummy hipster mummies who want to tweet their FaceTubes off, but not so much for my use case :(

your confused with resolution I think

I've had a 15" retina since they came out.

I also make use of QuickRes app to get access to actual pixel resolutions rather than the dumbed down 'best more retina, more space, etc' options you get in OSX.

The most real estate option give you 1920x1200 effective resolution (i.e. your internal rendered 4k resolution which is then displayed on the panel).

It is the resolution I usually run the panel at and provides a nice sharp picture (which takes some getting your head around since you are running an LCD at a non-native resolution which was always a no no until now).

but you are not getting access to the native 2880 x 1800.

Using QuickRes you can set that. This results in a true 2880x1800 desktop (i.e. looks similar to my imac27).

This does make everything tiny, but for some coding across multiple windows, FCPX while using multiple 'tracks', some photoshop work with lots of windows it is awesome.

Another reason is that the 1920x1200 resolution doesn't work as a user would expect with 'retina aware' apps. I expected this to be fixes by now tbh, but it never has been....

for example If I have a true 2880x1800 photo, and I am running 'best for retina' mode (i.e. my desktop real estate, etc all looks like 1400x900), when I open a retina aware app like photoshop, and view my picture '1 to 1' it will take up the screen exactly (not twice the height of screen). i.e. the OS knows that certain frames should not be doubled and antialiased but have the contents rendered 121 for pixels on the screen.

If I now use QuickRes to change to 2880x1800 resolution, and do the same thing, I get the same results as far as viewing the picture is concerned (it takes the full screen), but now all the OSX menus, etc are all rendered 121 too - so I can get much more of that stuff on the screen (i.e it acts as a regular screen before retina doubling stuff started muddying the waters)

If however, I choose the furthest right OSX 'more space' resolution (which as described above is effectively 1920x1200 as far as OSX furniture, menus, text, buttons, etc is concerned, internally it 'thinks' it is displaying at 3840x2400 (with 4 times as large OSX furniture, menus, texts, buttons, etc)

So the result when I again open iphoto and view my 2800x1800 picture is that it only takes up 2/3 of the screen in 'view 1 to 1' option. You have to in fact zoom in to 133% before you get a true 1 2 1.

this is the same with all retina aware apps. e.g. FCPx, PS CS6, etc. Its a bit of a pain to be honest and I'm amazed it has never been fixed. I mean the OS knows you are in 1920. It knows this is going to be rendered at 4k, so it knows that when displayed at native any retina aware screen windows need to be be scaled to 133% to be true... and yet we are now a full OSX version on and they have done FA to fit it.

Its the Pro .....

...... so why no video/photo editing tests on the Haswell chip? Or is it a case of if you want to use it for what most Pros have been bought for previously (location editing), you just have to stump up for the most expensive model with a mid range graphics chip?

If Lenovo wise up and throw a decent display at the Thinkpad W coupled with a Quadro they could start biting into Apples market on the top end.

Does it seem to anyone else...

That it's now almost impossible to buy a laptop with discrete graphics that isn't a gaming laptop? I know the intel graphics chips have been getting better over the past few years, but their 3D performance is still pretty terrible.

I don't want a laptop that lights up seven ways from Sunday, I just want a nice mundane looking laptop that can play a game of Civ 5 on occasion.

I was afraid of this

I have a 2011 MBP, before they started turning their laptops into toasters. I love my laptop. It's the single best laptop I have ever owned. It can still hold it's own compared to mainstream machines today.

Of course, that's because I could still upgrade the RAM and the hard drive.

The fact that Apple is turning their "high end" laptops into toasters is extremely disappointing to say the least. I guess I'll be sticking with my current machine for the forseeable future, if even the best machine they have available has pathetically gimped video.

The whole reason I switched to apple was because Windows laptops were embarrasingly unreliable. You couldn't even close the lid and have a reasonable expectation that the machine would come back to life when you opened it again.

If Microsoft+partners have finally pulled their collective thumbs out and actually now pay more than lip service to reliability, I may have to consider switching back. Can anyone comment?

£1700 for an Intel tablet. No thanks.

Only apple could say they have a

screen resolution of 3840 x 2400 when its actually a 2880 x 1800 panel.

My story :-)

I needed a new laptop as my old faithful NX6310 died a while back, It had been running Linux since I bought it 5 - 6 Years ago, the short term solution was a Toshiba piece of crap with windows 7, the Toshiba has a mouse pad offset to the left, the F*&^ing thing, mouse all over the place.

Anyway last time through US the minister for finance buys her new MBP 15" Retina and asks if I would like one, I say I will wait until we pass back through the US in December; Last week I mentioned how pleased I was that I had waited and that my new laptop will have xyz and double the SSD capacity, a short one-sided discussion later and here I am with the older MBP :-)

This is my first ever Mac PC, I run Linux as a VM and is all I need on this machine, just about all the apps I use under Linux are on the Mac and if not a suitable alternative is available.

The big question for me, was would it be worth the extra money, Oh Yes!

Further and further from the path

No Ethernet. No AR screen option. No upgrade path. No effin idea. No sale.

Looks like my three year old MBP - maxed out spec at purchase and then upgraded to 1 TB SSD after AppleCare lapsed - will be my last. I expect it will be a couple more years before I need to talk to some of my big ticket software vendors re cross-grade licences and return to the dark side. Or is it a bit brighter these days? Apple take note - look what complacency and stupidity can do for you. "Loyalty is something that should be earned, not given."

Eyegasmic?

It looks like any MacBook/Powerbook since 2003. Nothing to jerk off to.

Not appealing

I have a 2011 MBP with the 1680 x 1050 screen. Not retina, but still a very fine screen. I have the RAM maxed out to 16 GB and a 1 TB 7200 RPM drive. When prices drop on SSTs I'll probably add one of those, either in the optical bay or as a replacement for HDD. Other than the screens, I don't find the new retina machines appealing. I still use Ethernet when my wireless acts up, I need a security slot as I spend part of my day working in a public area, and SSTs are still to expensive for my taste.

Sure the new retina MBPs are faster, but when was the last time you found yourself waiting for you computer to do something because it was too slow? I rarely re-start, so the faster boot time isn't an attraction.

Be careful with that Asus GX750JX

I had its predecessor - in terms of reliability it was the worst laptop I've ever owned:

Dead within 2 hours of delivery;

Took Asus 8 weeks to repair (would have gone for the replacement but none in stock and Asus had promised a 48 hour turnaround from collection to delivery and I knew this screen had no defective pixels);

Keyboard Lag (still an issue reading the forums);

BSoD's at frequent intervals usually down to the graphics card but not always;

A touchpad that would become so hypersensitive it would detect your hand from 20mm away and the pointer would go nuts

It died again and went back - only took them 3 weeks that time

They replaced the unit for a factory reconditioned one (not even new!) and it had exactly the same issues with BDoD's, the key lag and the touch pad. Oh and the battery died on that one too.,

Seems this entire range from day one has been unreliable and yet Asus still ship the same components, the same excuses for updates and users have the same issues.

YMMV but I ended up giving it away as in all clear conscience I couldn't sell it on and their response to threats of small claims - "go ahead but we're not refunding you"

Customer Satisfaction

My story: I've bought so many gadgets over the years, you just wouldn't believe it. Some I've loved, and others were just silly toys.

In 1982 when I shelled out £400 (a lot of money for a student in those days) on a BBC Micro, it turned out to be the best investment I'd ever made in terms of fun had for each pound spent - in fact learning how to write 6502 assembler led to my first job in IT.

Countless gadgets later, and my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro gives me the same gadget-happiness. I'd deliberately put off getting one until antique technology like spinning lumps of rust and plastic and thumping great connectors like RJ45 went by the by, in favour of a light and portable device with an awesome display. After a few months I gave away my high spec self-assembled tower PC to a friend and was glad to see the back of it.

Now, a year and a half later, I do photo editing and hobbyist music production on my gadget with joyous lack of pain. Do I have enough RAM? Yes, I didn't penny pinch. Do I have enough flash storage? Heck, yes, I didn't penny pinch, and if I need multi-terabyte storage there are ways and ways. Can I read and burn CDs? Don't need to, but if I did, a cheap drive can be plugged in. Do I miss the RJ45 or floppy disk? Nah, I'd sooner have the little adapter for the very rare occasions where I need to plug in an Ethernet cable, rather than a big fat body on the laptop. Am I worried that I can't put more memory and storage inside? Nope, I'm nowhere near maxing out, and if it came to that the resale value of the laptop is nothing short of spectacular, which would go a long way to funding a new gadget. Do I miss the flaky audio glitches and never-ending pain of device drivers and antivirus on my PC? Well, you might be able to guess that one.

Will I get the new model? Very doubtful, as the one I have is doing fine, for my purposes.

So, before you downvote, what am I doing wrong?