New Macbook Pros Released

[btaylor]

For anybody that's interested - Apple has just released a new Macbook Pro with the same retina display as the new iPads, nVidia graphics processors (thank god!), new intel ivy bridge cpus and very importantly 512gb flash memory (upgradable to 768gb for a price).

They look very good, I will be ordering one very soon - the wallet is going to hurt.

http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

Cheers,

Ben

[neuroanatomist]

Except...no 17" model in the new lineup?!? I hope they bring one out...

Meanwhile, I'll stick with my 17" MBPro as a workhorse and my 13" MBAir for travel.

[btaylor]

Yep it looks like they've ditched the 17" MBPro - they were very quiet about it too so I don't think we'll see one in the near future.

Maybe they're working on the assumption that the 17" isn't overly portable and if customers need a larger screen they'll purchase one of the thunderbolt displays. It does seem a little odd though.

[Dr Croubie]

Maybe they're working on the assumption that the 17" isn't overly portable and if customers need a larger screen they'll purchase one of the thunderbolt displays. It does seem a little odd though.

Assumtion? Based on poor sales-figures of 17" models?
Or they want to force you to buy an external-display for anything above 15"?


Meanwhile, nice to see higher-res monitors finally coming in. I bought my laptop a few years ago based purely on the fact that it was the only 15" with a 1680x1050 display, all the others were 1440x900 or something else pointless.

And for years you could only get desktop monitors up to 1920x1200 in 24", 2560x1440 in 27", and 2560x1600 in 30". The first company to build 2560x1600 (or better) in a 24" or smaller (as long as it's IPS and colour calibrated) display would have gotten my money, even if it is apple...

[btaylor]

Just bought:

15" Macbook Pro with retina display
Configuration

• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 512GB Flash Storage

Expected 2-3 weeks delivery... I'm hoping for sooner.

So now comes my transition to the world of apple. I never thought I'd be converted, I fought and refused to become a cult member... and now I'm up to my neck in it. Makes sense I suppose, we have an iPad, iPhones and now a Macbook Pro.

Should be fun, I'll let you know how it goes.

Ben

[ahab1372]

Welcome to the club. A cult it is only if you choose to make it ;-) otherwise it is a convenient to use tool ...
Would love to hear your thoughts about the retina screen

Arnt

[Busted Knuckles]

Did I miss something? By going to the retina display you get a lower price than if you used the regular display and upgraded the flash memory!?!?!?

[btaylor]

You didn't miss anything, I noticed that also and I'm equally confused.

To get the regular 15" upgraded to the high res screen and a 512gb solid state drive, 8gb RAM would be $3699 here in Aus.

To get the new 15" retina display (much higher resolution), 512gb flash memory, upgraded 16gb RAM cost is $3439. I actually got it for $2990 because my fiance is a teacher and is able to get education discounts. So not too bad in the end.

[Keith B]

With the soldered in RAM you almost have to go with the $200 upgrade. In a year or two, 8gigs is going to be very modest. Even the batteries are GLUED in. Resale values on these will plummet without upgradable RAM and user replaceable batteries. Apple is really scaring me these days. They are kind of bullying everyone into buying a new machine every two years, like iPhones.

It looks like the Mac Pro will be coming back into style for pros. That is if they keep their promise to ACTUALLY update it next year.

[btaylor]

Yep I agree Keith. 8Gb just doesn't cut the mustard these days. I upgraded to 16Gb - the additional $200 odd dollars isn't too bad to be honest. In terms of resale, I generally run my computers until the die so I've never really worried about resale value.

One thing that I'm still unsure about is whether I'll be able to back up to my external drives that are currently hooked up to my PC. Is there a RAID option where I could partition the drive into two equal partitions (one to Mac format and one to PC format) so that it works in a similar fashion as RAID 1 (mirroring) but across two different formats?

That way I could use the drive on both PC and Mac and the same data would be available to both formats.

I'm guessing not but it would be nice.