Macbook Questions

Hello, I'm looking to get my first apple product specifically looking at the macbook pros. I have a couple questions:
- How good is retina support? Do apps lag due to the retina display? Does windows (bootcamp) run fine with it?
- How bad is the glare?
- Should I wait for the 2013 iteration of the macbook pro? Is it worth it? From I've seen, Haswell only pretty much gives better battery and better igpu (could be wrong)

I'm going to give OSX a try, but if I don't like it I will be running windows 7 on it full time so I have some concerns about the retina screens compatibility and such. This probably sounds stupid, but I really like the build quality in the macbook pro. I don't know of many laptops that match this quality, any suggestions are welcome. Any and all advice for a first time mac user is also welcome. Thanks

 

Depends on what applications you're using. Most common ones (web browsers and the like) have been updated with Retina support. But be advised if there is a piece of software that hasn't been optimized, it will look pretty awful. As far as Windows, it works, but it doesn't entirely play nice with the Retina display. The scaled resolution of 1440x900 still looks a bit blurry on Windows because it doesn't support HiDPI like OS X does. What many folks have been doing is running at the full 2880x1800 and setting the scaling to 199% (weird things happen in Windows when set to 200%).

I found it to be pretty bad unless the brightness was set to maximum, which is not the best for all lighting conditions or battery life.

The best advice I can offer is to purchase the computer you want from the Apple store and try it for 14 days. If you find you don't like OS X, return it and you will receive a full refund, no questions asked. Running Windows on a Mac is not optimal, particularly on the Retina display. There is no graphic switching in Windows, so the system will run hotter, and battery life takes a major hit, at least on the 15-inch version. There are the aforementioned scaling issues, which affect all Retina models.

 

You should wait for haswell

 

Most Apple apps have been optimized for retina, and there is retina support for most common free apps, Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc. The only non-supported app that I regularly use is Spotify, and I really wish they would optimize it for retina. Websites will lag a bit (that I've noticed) as the images are "upscaled" to fit the retina display (and this will cause some blurriness in most websites).

I don't find the glare that bad--but I've also been using Macs for a while. It's no more glary than any other glassy reflective laptop screen.

You may want to wait for Haswell as it may improve graphics performance (at least for the integrated-GPU, which is more of a factor in the 13-inch rMBP). Either way, I would also suggest trying out OS X; you may end up liking it

 

Business-class laptops far surpass Apple's build quality, or any other consumer-class laptop, period. Something like a Dell Latitude/Precision, Lenovo Thinkpad, or HP Elitebook would be the ones you'd look for if build-quality/durability/reliability were your #1 concern. And they run OSX, too (assuming you've bought an OSX install DVD). Warranties are better as well (NBD and/or Accidental options).

Anyway, back on topic, Haswell will give somewhat better battery life, though imo iGPU improvements would be moot since the rMBP already has a dGPU. I'd wait for the Haswell version since the Ivy Bridge version will unlikely be discounted by a non-trivial amount around that time. So if you're going to pay that much money, and you're sticking to Apple, might as well get the newer one.

If you end up running Windows full-time, note that battery life will drop up to half, heat would be a bigger issue, and it won't play too nice with the Retina display. But yeah, buy from an Apple store so you have the 14-day return period (why it's not the standard 30 days is beyond me).

 

Probably because it's no questions asked and no restocking fee.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

HP has a 21-day no questions/restocking fee return period, iirc. Not sure about the rest.

 

Why do I hear this all the time? Where I work, all we have is hundreds of Latitudes, Thinkpads, and Elitebooks... none of those are close to the quality of my rMBP, including the Latitude I have to use day in and day out... How exactly do you define "build quality" ????

 

I was merely offering alternate suggestions, as OP asked. Me saying that business-class having better relative build quality than Apple hardware does not mean that Apple hardware is overall low quality (aka budget consumer-class laptops like most of Acer's lineup).

I don't understand what you mean by those laptops not comparing to Apple hardware though. Is it because they sometimes make noises when they bend? Because they are made of a few different sections instead of a unibody? Point is, business-class laptops are built to MILSPEC standard while Apple isn't, so they can survive more physical abuse than normal (compared to typical consumer-class). I'd feel very confident in dropping my laptop on a concrete floor from my height (actually, I did, plus other abuse), same goes for the current crop of Elitebooks (though my sister would punch me if I tried). Had a few peers do the same with their Latitude E6520 and Precision M4600 laptops on campus. Some more peers have cMBP laptops as well (being a college campus, it should be expected) and under the same or lighter abuse (such as a sizeable impact to the bookbag carrying the laptop), they come away with dents a'plenty, one had a cracked screen from dropping the bookbag, and another killed the HDD from a drop (not a problem for the cMBP, but definitely is in the rMBP and a SSD if the SATA connector breaks). But this is just my two cents and what I've seen around me. The only business-class laptops that I'd say don't have that higher build quality would be the budget ones like the Latitude E5xxx, Vostro, and the Probooks (but they're priced accordingly).

I'm also curious why Apple doesn't offer extra-feature warranty plans like accidental or NBD. Maybe they're not as confident in the hardware in harsh environments? But the point is that anything has the chance to survive for a long time with extra-special care, but get rough and there can be problems. In the end, I merely offered a suggestion asked for by OP (and recommended going with a Haswell rMBP instead of an IB one), and I don't see what the fuss is about (aside from this being the Apple subsection, but there's brand bias in all the brand subsections).

 

Because it's true.

 

so you seem to define build quality as how much physical abuse a machine can take.... yes I agree that if your going to treat your machine badly, the way those machines are made, they won't show damage as easily, and are less likely to get damaged. Thats mainly due to the materials they are made with, like plastic. Quality to me is much more than how easily you can break something when you do something with it you shouldn't be doing in the first place.

 

Well, yeah, that's what I define build quality as. Not sure what else there is to the physical aspects of a laptop, aside from cosmetic design, which by nature is subjective.

 

Because people who drop their laptops, knock them off desks, or spill things on them are always doing it on purpose.

Guess we all can't be as perfect as you.

 

Something I consider poor build quality? Picking up my Latitude and hearing the plastic creek or watching it bend... pitiful.

 

And my Thinkpad W520 has a "loose battery" Doesn't affect functionality or structural integrity at all. These sort of things (loose battery, plastic creak (funny, iirc the current Latitude E6xxx are full metal, but I digress), are nothing more than subjective nit-picking. Anyway, did it not occur that company-issue laptops typically suffer from more abuse than personally-owned laptops? "Not mine, so I don't care" and all that mentality; same stuff that happens with high school kids and computer carts (we had old HP Compaq something similar to TerraForce's HP and the classic white MacBook. The former held up better with abusive high schoolers).

Anyway, I'm going to quit fueling this side debate about build quality, since we're not helping OP at all and this is completely off-topic to the thread anyway.

 

One thing I factor into build quality is whether or not it's going to come apart without abuse. For example, I had a MacBook Air where the touchpad physically malfunctioned twice in the span of only a year. I never abused it, but to me, that's poor build quality.