MacBook Pro With Retina Display Review - A Superlative Experience

Hey Folks,

The NotebookReview review of the MacBook Pro With Retina Display has been published. It's interesting, at least to me, to see the Upgrade Capabilities receive just 1.5 out of 5 stars in an otherwise stellar review. The forum discussion of the review is taking place here, for those who want to join in.

 

I dont see why the new pro is getting so much flack for the lack of upgrade capability when the air didn't.

Ram specs don't change that much within apple care time frame anyway, and if your needs change, take advantage of the awesome resale value of apple products...

And cpus and gpus being stuck on has been normal forever.

 

It's because the Air is in a much, much, much lower price category and the specs it comes with are either the same or better than what competitors are offering. The RMBP is a $2200+ notebook offering zero aftermarket upgradeability (currently, I think OWC may come out with an SSD upgrade later down the line once they figure it out) as has specs that are less than other notebooks in that category (OS X, display, and battery life aside). It would have been a little nice to have some upgradability in a $2200+ notebook instead of having to shell out $2800 to get the model that has a larger SSD along with being the only RMBP model that Apple offers user configuration options on.

 

Totally agree - lack of upgradeability makes this great machine far less attractive.

 

I would rather have a hard to repair thin screen with no extra glass plate over it than one that was thicker, and easier to repair with an extra sheet of glass over it that looks like a mirror when you look in it. As far as the default screen comparison goes, the lack of repairability is worth the trade off in my eyes.

As far as the battery goes, we are not suppose to change those out anyway, and if apple reps can remove and replace them, albeit with a heat gun to release the adhesive like they already do with the ipads, I bet our local repair guys can as well. (My local iphone / ipad repair guy has a heat gun already.)

As far as the soldiered memory goes, I would pick a thiner and lighter machine any day over replaceable ram. If mine goes bad inside warrantee, its going to apple either way. It is the after warrantee that is the gotcha, but I only expect 3-4 years out of my machine anyway, so if it goes longer than that, I just see it as a bonus.

Even still, if a ram module goes out on a 4 year old machine, I bet it still sells well on ebay if the screen still works. Probably better than a fully working 4 year old PC.

If my needs change, I dont mind selling and getting a new one for a little extra.

I think for 99% of people, they are on the right track. It is the 1% that doesn't like it.

 

It would be nice to have a design where with standard tools you could swap a SoDIMM, mSATA drive, or battery. The thinness of the rMBP doesn't warrant that. The Samsung Series 9 15" notebook is thinner and has two standard 204 pin SoDIMM slots, a mSATA PCIe slot, and replaceable battery.

That said, it really doesn't bother me much on the rMBP. With 16GB RAM and a 256GB of "disk" storage I am good for quite a long time. I would only be upset if the soldered devices and capabilities become poor performers before I am ready to sell or 5 years.

The aspect that worries me is dropping a machine and the resulting repair bill. But that is the price you pay for art. If you want something that is rugged, buy a ThinkPad. If you want something beautiful, buy the Mac or Samsung Series 9.

 

But the battery is much bigger on the apple. The samsung would have to get quite a bit thicker to deal with a battery big enough to drive a retina display.

 

Yea, I know. I am not really debating the thinness. I like the look and feel of the rMBP. I am debating the glue and soldered design. Nearly everyone things that is odd.

 

Soldered design means I get a brand new compter instead of a brand new ram chip if one goes bad inside of my warrantee.

How many other laptop makers will fix your scratches if your ram goes bad?

 

Good point. Touche' !!!

 

When my stuff breaks, visa/mc/amex considers it totalled and sends me a check to buy a new one.

 

With this machine you absolutely need 3 year protection plan to be able to sleep at night, but then you are looking at extra 400$....

 

$400 for 3 years of sleep... seems like a good deal to me. I have had to use applecare in the past and it was always a very quick/painless transaction.

 

2 years sleep, and probably a free powercord.

 

Indeed, if it costs $400, that's $200/year if you paid cash/check, or $400/year if you paid with a decent credit card.

 

Kind of sort of. The basic hardware warranty is indeed one year, but phone support only lasts for 90 days. AppleCare gives 3 total years for both. I'm sure you can do the math that way.

 

Most people won't need phone support to sleep at night- the main issue is the (slim) chance of catastrophic failure and the potential for repair costs that can "total" the laptop.

And again, with a decent credit card, it's actually $400 for just the one year.

But sure, there is a little bit of value in having phone support.

 

There's a lot more value if you don't have an Apple store nearby.

The RRP of AppleCare for the RMBP is $349, same as the cost for the non-Retina model. You can also buy it separately elsewhere for much less. I paid less than $250 for AppleCare on my MBP from a retailer. Also, you can purchase AC at any time during the standard 1-year warranty, and it doesn't cost any more. Try doing that with a Dell or HP.

I've said it before, though - Apple really needs to offer accidental damage protection for laptops. Maybe it's just because parts are so expensive, but still, this is one thing that is sorely lacking on their end.

 

I think having a non-upgradable machine is fine if its because it needs to be to meet size and weight and such. I have no problem with the MBP being like that, even if it was $5000. I don't get the whole idea that... I paid less for an Air so its disposable, but I paid a bunch for the Retina so its not. If $1000 - $1500 is ok to have built in parts, then so is $2200 - $3500

 

I'm not following. I've heard some credit cards give you certain type of coverage, but how do you tell if yours does or doesn't?

What are you specifically referring to? Have a link to the information?

Thanks,

Thor

 

I agree, for the majority of users, it just doesn't make a difference, because most people simply aren't opening their laptops (regardless of price).

And, for most people, buying with a credit card is a much better deal than paying for AppleCare. Another thing to note is that even if there isn't an Apple store in your area, there is likely an Apple-authorized repair center.

Any American Express card adds one year. Visa Signature cards add one year. Don't have any other information about it, you'll have to ask someone else or google

 

I agree. And a lot of people say it is too high, but A lot of the cost difference between this and the air is the better and bigger screen and bigger battery and such.

And they they compare its price also to the non ssd machines... go figure...

 

Got a link to the details?

 

Credit card fraud perhaps? I know my American Express Platinum has a built in warranty plan but that only lasts around 90 days (been a while since I checked). If the item is broken during that time, they do all the run around with the manufacturer to get me a new one and if not, they just refund me the money so I can get another.

I think when he was talking about 400 if on a credit card, he meant that he was planning on financing the applecare with MASSIVE interest... still does not make sense, but that was my thought.

 

You would just get a new motherboard (or "logic board" ) replacements, unless you meant a new machine as getting a new logic board.

 

yep just like I got from apple for my mbp 13, I would really wanted them to swap the display assembly, there is a major bent on the lower side, dunno how I got it.

 

most premium CC doubles your warranty up to an extra year, my mastercard doubles up to 2 years. when my thinkpad broke, lenovo gave me a repair quote higher than than the cost to buy a new one, I sent that in to the insurance company and they issued me a check for a new laptop.

 

Nothing to do with fraud, and it's not 90 days in a Amex plat. Usually the card companies offers 2 insurances together, purchase protection and extended warranty. purchase protection is from 30-90 days against theft, accidental damage etc. extended warranty doubles your warranty up top 1-2 years not exceeding 5. It doesn't go into effect until your manufacturer warranty runs out. Very few people know about this kind of thing and never take advantage of it so the few people who do get funds easily.

 

Here's the information as it relates to my credit card.

Card Benefits | Personal | Visa USA

 

Looks good to me, Just keep your receipts and a copy of your credit card statement. If something goes wrong after your manufacturers warranty but within the additional year given by visa, just call them up, they will send you an insurer's claim form, and ask you to get a repair quote from a repair place and give you a check for that amount, if repair is more costly than a new machine they'll give you money for a new machine.

 

Woot woot, good thing I used the AMEX, lol

 

Does anyone who has one of these know how much of the flash memory is already used when it comes out of the box? How much space is available? Trying to decide if the 500 bones for the extra memory is worth it.

 

I was thinking it used like 20 gigs stock, but not positive...

 

You guys are living in different world, lol

In our country not only you pay ±$3500 for $2200 laptop (official price) but also if its broken there is a chance you will need to wait 3 months till they ship some sort of replacement part and then you pay for repairing and generally its a good idea to pay some to the engineer as well so he doesnt steal or replace something inside the notebook while repairing it.

 

3500? thats cheap, in here its 5k

 

Is the 5000 you mention BRL or USD?

 

USD, BRL is 10k, for the upgraded model you get BRL 12600

The sony Z2 that I bought last year was the same price, however I did buy it from provantage and paid USD 1.7k (2.6k if you count import taxes), sold here slightly used for USD 3.5k, it was a bargain. for the base model of that machine since it retails here for USD 4k. Did the same thing for the SA, also got a profit there.

For example in apple/fr it retails for EUR 2280, it would still cost me half if I buy from there, than from here. but Im going to curb my enthusiasm and wont buy it. Specially now that I know that the Rome 2 total war will be launched in 2013 by xmas. I think Im going to buy apple care and stay with this machine until broadwell arrives, or when I go to the doctor to see the damage to my back.

 

Wow. That's pricey. Why is it so expensive? Is everything else that expensive down there?

 

eletronics are extremely expensive

Entry level and consumer - 2x the price in the US
Enthusiast - 3x tends to infinity the price in the US

Its expensive due to when the dictatorship in the 70s put a directive tht we should produce and create new types of processors and so forth, for this cobra pcs was created, it still exists today, though I dont even know what they do right now. Thus the idea was to create an industry, consequently the taxes for eletronics were quite high.

Currently in the industrialization ''project'' (its one of the most badly administrated projects that I know) we have some tax free zones and agreements between the states and the companies, thus the taxes remain high for companies that dont even build their pcs or other eletronics here.

Foxconn has 2 factories here, both ''make'' iphones and ipads, basically they put together the parts.

So yes TL R, the prices here are high because the government wants.

 

How's the retina screen compared to the Samsung gamer 7 and the Sager 9150 with 95% NTSC ?

 

in terms of color accuracy its going to lose for the 9150 with the 95% screen, dunno about the sammy.

in terms of viewing angles its going to smash both.

 

Color Gamut of Retina Display MacBook Pro | CDTobie's Photo Blog

and

http://blog.datacolor.com/cd-tobie-retina-display-macbook-pro-for-calibration-and-photography/

 

Please, don't mix apples and oranges, the retina screen is 99 sRGB while the Sager has a about 95% AdobeRGB, or way above 100% sRGB If I remember correctly that panel is ~130-135% sRGB, only slightly behind the Elitebooks' DreamColor, which in turn is about 150% sRGB or 100% AdobeRGB. I can't wait notebookcheck to review the retina MBP, this will answer most of the questions.

For comparison, my M18x has a 100% sRGB screen but in my eyes it's only slightly better than average. I've seen the RMBP screen several times in the past 2 weeks and while I like its crispiness and viewing angles, the gamut and reflections greatly impact the overall impression, especially after so much talk...

 

sRGB, vs aRGB

100% sRGB is about 70% aRGB

https://ventspace.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/digital-color-part-1/
( if you dont like reading scroll down to spaces and gamuts )

sRGB is a small antiquated colorspace from the mid 90's for CRT's

 

loll sorry all this aRGB sRGB is gibberish to me..
so what the retina has over the sager 9150 is only viewing angle? in other words, the sager screens are actually better?
samsung gamer 7's screen gets alot of praise..maybe it does compete with the retina?

 

Im not confusing anything, I said that the RMBP is going to lose in color accuracy, but its going to win in viewing angles.

and that I dont have any numbers from the sammy.

 

for viewing angles the MBP-r wins, but in color accuracy, loses to the Sager by 25 to 30% of the colorspace

it appears the Samsung is about 70% sRGB or similar to most of the non retina MBP's/MBA's excluding the 17"

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Series-7-Gamer-700G7A-Notebook.66523.0.html

 

so it just loses to the sager as far as "color accuracy"? but still retina is much more clearer cause of the million more pixels?

and if the samsung gamer 7 is only 70%sRGB the sagers screen is better?

were the non-retina mbps screen better than sagers w/ 95%ntsc?
sorry for all these questions, im just trying to decide which laptop screen is better and which laptop i should go with since this will be a long run laptop.

 

that screen on the sager is one of the best screens out there for notebooks, only being surpassed by the dreamcolor2. And the latter is an ips screen, with great color accuracy.

yes the sager screen is going to be better, since its 95% aRGB, its a more comprehensive color palette than the sRGB.

The RMBP screen is 100% sRGB being around 70% aRGB as other have posted already.

aikimox pointed out the difference between the color accuracy of the screens above.

The RMBP is going to win on resolution, and viewing angles. No matter the display if its scaled or not, the RMBP can give you a 1920*1200 workable screen, which means 120 more pixels in the vertical space. And more if you use programs like switchresX, which means you can have the full 3840*2400 res.

 

if the samsung is 70%aRGB its %100sRGB. so shouldnt the samsung gamer 7 be somewhat on the same level as the Retina MBP and Sagers?


if sagers are the best notebook screens out right now, is the samsung screen still well behind?