Macbook Pro Retina 13" buy now or wait?

I was always a Windows user, but some recent events made me want to turn around and use a Mac.

I'm a student, always on the go, I need a portable machine, but I'm trying to pursue my career as a photographer as well, so I recently decided to invest in a good machine to help me with it.
I saved some money and purchased Sony vaio s which is by all means a great machine, but with mediocre display (I didn't count on much, just sth decent enough, it is their more high end model etc, but i didnt research it enough and it is my fault (and I don't want to make the same mistake again!).

Either way, if I manage to sell S (can't return it to shop, weird Sony policy in Europe?) should I consider MBP 13" with Retina? From what I gathered so far, it is slightly lighter, the display is obviously incomparable.
However, on the internet (at least i read it somewhere) that the Intel's graphic card does not cope well with this amount of pixels and that makes websites, reading etc quite laggy. Is this still an issue when changing the resolution? I think I'd only work with Photoshop on 2550x1600 to maximize the space.

I don't plan to do any gaming on it obviously, just a lot of Photoshop, Lightroom, maybe some video editing (as I get my fingers on Final Cut!) plus usual stuff like music, movies etc.

I know there's quite a group of people encouraging to wait till June and new Intel's Hasswell chips, but will be that big of a change? Are some other changes expected? With today's Retina I know I'm stuk with what I buy, RAM, SSD, but isn't 8 RAM enough for 13"?
Maybe it is good to wait just because the prices will drop significantly?
I know the gap between 13" and 15" is not so big, but I'm going to have to stick with 13" just for the sake of portability.
I am kind of scared how people compare Air to Retina? The performance is really similar?

I was thinking on going with i7 3 Ghz and 256 SSD.

Thank you for your input, I appreciate every answer .

 

Prices on Apple products never drop significantly, unless you happen to find a clearance price on a discontinued model. Even then, you only find those once in a while and never from Apple directly.

As you've seen, Apple just updated its Retina models with a slight speed boost. With that came a price drop for the 13-inch - USD$200 on the base version (2.5 GHz, 128 GB SSD) and $300 on the high-end one (2.6 GHz, 256 GB SSD). Not sure how the prices compare across the pond, but the decrease makes the 13-inch Retina much more appealing.

For what you're looking to do, the base i5 version will be enough. I would take the money you were going to invest in the upgraded CPU and instead put it into increasing storage capacity. If you're going to be working with large photo files, you're certainly going to need it. This way you'd be less likely to need external storage, since you mention portability is a high priority.

As far as waiting for Haswell, it's not going to be a huge improvement over Ivy Bridge in terms of clock speeds. The biggest change is going to be with the graphics. Again, for your usage though, the current models' HD 4000 is more than sufficient.

 

I would still, not denying that Im in the same position as well. Here is why:

you have the same as me, a perfectly functional notebook. In my case I have a 2011 mbp (given its status right now I think I will actually wait for broadwell in my case).

Possible improvements from the right now model are:

Better CPU - clock per clock it should be around 5-15%, however intel also improves clocks in new cpus (I also raise the possibility of quads finally appearing on the rmbp 13)

Better GPU - given that apple was the one that asked for the embedded vram in the gpu for the intel HD, it makes sense that they will appear on the rmbp 13 and mbas where they would make a difference

Possible higher amount of ram

Use of the space right beneath the touchpad for 2.5'' HDD/SSD, thus bringing the model even cheaper

So all in all, its a good buy as of now, its a better buy in 6 months.

BTW the drop in price for the base model was 200

 

Yep. Dunno why I thought the original price was $1599, not $1699.

To the OP, bottom line is if you want or need the system now, but it now. Better tech is always around the corner and you will play a perpetual waiting game if you're always on the lookout for what's next.

 

I cut the line based on the need, do I need it now? buy it! Can I wait? wait

For example I was going to go for the mba 13, couldnt hold much longer bought the mbp 13, in the end I wish I could have waited more, bought 3 notebooks thinking about replacing it, sold everyone of them

 

I would still wait it out for a laptop with better and consistant color accuracy. My rMBP 15" and my sister inlaws 13" both have alot of color fluxuations.

For video editing ... ANY Intel IGP is not going to cut it for doing much render work ( ok youtube level on iMovie and waiting for renders in iMovie Pro ) even the Kepler GPU in the rMBP 15" wont cut it for alot of heavy lifting. but this all depends on your needs

depends on what you are doing. in Adobe CS and Video editing the Pro will be roughly 40-50% faster than the ULV CPU in the Air.

if your watchihing videos, surfing the net and doing emails ... the basics. there is neglegable difference

now do keep in mind storage requirements for your projects and files as well.

 

KCEtech what do you mean by color fluxuation?

 

Thank you for your answers! I really appreciate your help. I guess I will go with i5 then, apart from here some other people suggested i7 being more of an illusion than an actual upgrade.

Karamazovmm, my question exactly. The color fluxuation creeped me out now and I thought I was more or less decided.

+ I probably should get some machine asap, but then I would be so angry if Apple decides to finally put some dedicated graphics in the future 13" Retina, but from what I gather it is not a very likely upgrade? Other than that I don't think much would change my situation. I mean RAM, probably yes, because they don't tend to change it with every edition (?), so that is probably worth considering (esp with no possible upgrade in today's one).

You are completely right, I should have stated my PS work with more details. No 3D or any heavy stuff like this, what I meant (mostly) is just editing original camera photos, so 5616 x 3744 in my case or slightly smaller, ideally for prints as well? Some original work as well, typography etc., etc. but still only freelance.
I'm fortunate enough to afford Retina in my current situation, but it's still a lot of money, so I guess I'm just trying to convince mysllf that it's all for my future development, however funny it may sound.
I can't deny it's kind of a big deal for me, I haven't ever spent this amount of money on a laptop. 2000$ laptop just to watch videos in good colors and browse Facebook would be a returned laptop for me... Is it really that incapable?

I guess I hoped to be quite happy with Retina and additional workspace that it gives still being 13" laptop.
In terms of video editing I just meant it mainly for fun (at least now). I have no prior experience with FinalCut and it's said to be the best out there, I just pointed out I'm excited to try it in the future and maybe learn some new stuff, not a priority definitely.

What do you think? Ehhh. I thought it would be a good compromise between school stuff and photo editing, but with every review I read I think I was wrong. What I'm mostly worried about is that the Intel 4000 is not enough. (People seem to be arguing about this one somehow?)
What do you think the case would be in my circumstances? I would get crazy to see any serious lags in the machine I paid almost 2000$ for.

I was hoping to have a relatively portable machine with a normal full voltage processor not ULV, which would simply not cut it. Retina being noticeably lighter than regular MBP seemed like an obvious choice. In the beginning at least.

Do you think 13" Retina as of now will survive and still be relevant in like two years time? I know Apple is going to replace all the screens with Retina sooner or later, but I wonder how this particular model will hold up in terms of value and performance. Especially, considering Im stuck with it as it is.

Al arguments aside, what's definitely a plus with Apple I can actually return the machine if I don't like it and believe it or not it is not a popular standard in Europe, so I'm less hesitant to buy it and just test it for myself for a little while and see what my impressions are after that.

 

My question is, are you really sold on the 13" size? if so then get the Air. For what you are doing it is a great notebook, you will not even notice your carrying it. plus the battery life is fantastic.
Personally i do not understand the 13" Retina MBP or where it fits in the the intel 4000 card. Either way it is defaulted to 1280 x800 for the resolution and then you can increase it.

I would take a closer look at the 15" Retina model. 8 gigs and 256 gig SSD (minimum these days) real video card and still decent weight. it weighs 4.4 lbs about a pound more than the 13" but the difference in the notebook is unbelievable.

I have had all 3 and I moved from the Air to the 13 first. then returned that the next day and grabbed a 15", I have not regretted it. Cost for the one you were looking at compared to the 15" the difference is around 200-300 US. But that nabs you an i7 quad core, full graphics card and a 15" notebook that in fact it not much larger that a HP 14" elitebook.

 

yes the difference in power from the 13 to the 15 is great, the difference in power from the mba to the rmbp 13 is good.

The images on PS or other programs dont suffer from super sampling like most of the content does, so the desk space is right there.

The problem with the power or lags that you have certainly heard from the internet is actually a software problem. For example the not so new webkit update from december fixes the laggy behaviour of safari, although you have to install it yourself (dont ask me why).

The most probable updates I have mentioned already in my previous post, there are 35w quad core cpus, and its pretty much something that we will get the GT3 core with its HD 5000, if we will get the GT3e HD 5200 is another story

And given your question of if it will stay relevant hardware wise in 2 years, yes it will, I have a 2011 mbp, so a pretty dreadful res (solved that using a windows 8 VM with a res of 1200p, its now a bless to work on visual studio), still it does what I need it to do, and yes its more intensive than what you do

 

fairly simple, one hour to the next your colors on the screen can have a small variance in their gamut. ( even a slight change in lighting conditions ) for example if my LCD assembly gets a bit warm ( 5-8C difference ), my whitepoint changes colder and all my colors shift towards blue by 4.3% making color accuracy a bloody nightmare. for web graphics etc it is not a big deal but for anything production it is unacceptable. one of my main video editing forums is full of color change disasters

My spyder Pro gets way too much usage when I am forced to use some old quicktime plugins for editing

not even close ... and I started on the origional version of FC

 

AHHHH! thanks very much!

For me its not actually relevant (programming take account on horrible screens everywhere by just using whatever color that usually works with those displays, or people dont even take that into account, which in most of the times is the norm, that also sadly goes for usability as well), for you its a complete deal breaker.

I wonder how is the color fluxuation on the elitebooks that you have?

 

0.08% over standard operational range - 14c - 55c on the 8770W, 8570W and m6700
0.13% on 8740W

 

just to say thats the best screen for color accuracy and some other nifty things