First look: Apple's next-gen MacBook Pro with 15" Retina display

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Days after the new MacBook Pro with Retina display was unveiled, the first shipments of Apple's next-generation notebook have begun to arrive. AppleInsider offers a closer look at its new, thinner design and high-resolution display.

Once it's taken out of the box, it becomes readily apparent that the new MacBook Pro is considerably thinner and lighter than its 15-inch predecessor. At 0.71-inch thick and 4.46 pounds, the change in size stands out for someone who may be upgrading from a previous-generation MacBook Pro.

With that said, this notebook is labeled "Pro" for a reason, and the beefed-up internal components, including a minimum 256-gigabyte flash memory drive and Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics, make the new MacBook Pro noticeably thicker and heavier than Apple's largest MacBook Air at 13 inches. At their thickest points, the MacBook Air and new MacBook Pro are identical, but the MacBook Air features a tapered design that gets considerably thinner toward the front of the device.

Once it's turned on, the new Retina display is the obvious highlight of the notebook. Text is crisp, colors are vibrant, and all of OS X 10.7 Lion has been given a facelift to take advantage of the new high-resolution screen.

Like the MacBook Air, the new MacBook Pro boots quickly, goes to sleep as soon as the lid is shut, and turns on nearly instantly when reopened. The addition of flash-only storage to Apple's high-end notebook is a major performance boost.

AppleInsider will have its full review of Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina display in the coming days. For now, here's a look at the new notebook:

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AppleInsider, through its sponsor MacMall, is offering the lowest prices anywhere on new MacBook Pros with the promo code APPINSDRMWB33196.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 129
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member


    Awesome ? Insanely great ? I hesitate ....

  • Reply 2 of 129


    I played with one at the Apple Store in Albany, NY last night.


     


    For graphics professionals this is a solid NO for a computer right now.


     


    The pixel doubling makes everything that is non-Retina ready looks horrible.  Text in Illustrator and InDesign look so low res that it makes you think you are working on an old junky PC.


     


    The overall machine is beautiful and exquisite though.  Looks alone this is a 10.  Functionality in the real world, unless all you use is Email and Safari, and at that point buy an Air, is a 3.

  • Reply 3 of 129
    What a tease! My order has been stuck in processing since Monday. C'mon Apple!
  • Reply 4 of 129


    When did Apple switch away from the right angle magsafe and why?

  • Reply 5 of 129


    Does anyone know if you can attach two monitors to this MacBook Pro? Like one monitor per Thunderbolt port?

  • Reply 6 of 129
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,655member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KindredMac View Post


    I played with one at the Apple Store in Albany, NY last night.


     


    For graphics professionals this is a solid NO for a computer right now.


     


    The pixel doubling makes everything that is non-Retina ready looks horrible.  Text in Illustrator and InDesign look so low res that it makes you think you are working on an old junky PC.


     


    The overall machine is beautiful and exquisite though.  Looks alone this is a 10.  Functionality in the real world, unless all you use is Email and Safari, and at that point buy an Air, is a 3.



    I think updates for Adobe products are imminent.    From the pictures, aside from being slightly thinner, the "body"  really doesn't look any different to me than my several year old MacBook Pro, so I don't know how it can be called "beautiful and exquisite" with the implication that it's different than past machines.     


     


    Personally, I won't be happy at the loss of HDDs until the price of SSDs come down very close to the price of HDDs.   I'm also not thrilled about the fact that you can't upgrade anything in this machine and that it's non-repairable.     Not that I'm in the market for a new computer right now anyway, but I think that's a show-stopper for me.      My MacBook Pro is of the vintage that you can still replace the battery, memory and HDD easily and that's a pleasure.   I replaced the battery and the HDD in the past year - a 768MB HDD with a flash cache for around $200.       A 256GB to 768GB upgrade now costs $500 and you can only do that on the $2800 machine (and only when you purchase it), bringing that to $3300 and $3378 if you still need a Superdrive (which I do).  No thanks. 

  • Reply 7 of 129


    Here's a review that explains why the new non-Retina model is actually better:


    http://www.duglin.net/2012/06/review-15-macbook-pro-with-retina.html

  • Reply 8 of 129
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    kindredmac wrote: »
    I played with one at the Apple Store in Albany, NY last night.

    For graphics professionals this is a solid NO for a computer right now.

    The pixel doubling makes everything that is non-Retina ready looks horrible.  Text in Illustrator and InDesign look so low res that it makes you think you are working on an old junky PC.

    The overall machine is beautiful and exquisite though.  Looks alone this is a 10.  Functionality in the real world, unless all you use is Email and Safari, and at that point buy an Air, is a 3.


    Supposedly, most apps on the App store are ready, and I think all current Apple-branded apps have been updated already. Adobe already said they are working on their apps.

    When did Apple switch away from the right angle magsafe and why?

    Did they really switch to right angle? I thought right angle mag safe was Air-only, Pros were straight-on.
  • Reply 9 of 129


    Perhaps a real camera (and a lens cleaning) would be in order for photos of a revolutionary high-resolution screen?

  • Reply 10 of 129

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KindredMac View Post


    I played with one at the Apple Store in Albany, NY last night.


     


    For graphics professionals this is a solid NO for a computer right now.


     


    The pixel doubling makes everything that is non-Retina ready looks horrible.  Text in Illustrator and InDesign look so low res that it makes you think you are working on an old junky PC.


     


    The overall machine is beautiful and exquisite though.  Looks alone this is a 10.  Functionality in the real world, unless all you use is Email and Safari, and at that point buy an Air, is a 3.



    I am waiting on mine to arrive ... but ...



    As a software engineer, this is nearly perfect.


    Quad core CPU @2.7GHz, Nvidia GeForce 650M GPU /w a CUDA compute capability of 3.0, 16GB RAM ...

    For heavy duty crunching, I'll throw code up on the grid, but for prototyping and testing this is a pretty damn sweet platform.


     


    "Professional" is not only graphics. Some of us cut code for a living. Some even cut the code that the "professionals" use ... and I can guarantee you we are using more than just email and safari. 

  • Reply 11 of 129

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by adumbrate View Post


    Does anyone know if you can attach two monitors to this MacBook Pro? Like one monitor per Thunderbolt port?



    This from Apple's website:


     


    Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors.

  • Reply 12 of 129
    jeffdm wrote: »
    Did they really switch to right angle? I thought right angle mag safe was Air-only, Pros were straight-on.
    Nope - the Pros went to the right-angle around the time of the Unibody. Makes one wonder if Apple has real-world data from their Genius Bars indicating that the angled magsafe connectors were less likely to release causing more laptops to be damaged from tripping. I've been through three of the straight-on connectored adapters (one was replaced under AppleCare) while the two angled adapters are still working perfectly.
  • Reply 13 of 129
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Shadowbuster View Post


    Here's a review that explains why the new non-Retina model is actually better:



    exactly... this never made any sense to me - why am I paying for a sharper menu bar but with 1440X900 workspace, if I go to 1680X1050 I loose performance.


    it just makes no sense to drop 2200 on this for a design workflow

  • Reply 14 of 129
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,617member


    The 'retina' display is superb and even though the actual desktop space is equivalent to 1440x900 you can view and edit 1080p video in full resolution but it only consumes 2/3 of the display width whereas it doesn't even fit onto a 1680x1050 screen.  The same case is made for image manipulation.  


     


    So although you have a workspace of 1440x900 it enables full scale viewing of media etc.  If you work with any image based media or just want a screen you can work with for long periods of time with reduced eye strain then there is no better solution in a laptop.

  • Reply 15 of 129


    What about graphic designers? I make a lot of web content at 72ppi. Won't it look either minuscule or blurry on this screen? For my illustrator work this will be amazing, just wondering about my web designs.

  • Reply 16 of 129
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Here's a review that explains why the new non-Retina model is actually better:

    1. That doesn't make sense. If you pixel double and the pixels are 1/4 the size, there's no difference in appearance unless you're using a microscope.

    2. Many apps already take advantage of the display, eliminating the 'problem' entirely. And over time, more and more apps take advantage of it.

    3. And, if you really don't like it, then just buy the old model. Problem solved (and you save some money).
  • Reply 17 of 129
    cory bauercory bauer Posts: 1,286member


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Shadowbuster View Post


    Here's a review that explains why the new non-Retina model is actually better:


     




    Wow, that was incredibly dumb. The price of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display reflects the standard SSD storage. If you configure the $1,799 Legacy MacBook Pro to include a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (both standard on the retina model), it actually costs $200 more than the $2,199 retina model. You're getting the retina display and extra 512GB of VRAM in the retina model essentially for free. This guy seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that SSD is still damn expensive.

  • Reply 18 of 129
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Cory Bauer View Post




     


    Wow, that was incredibly dumb. The price of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display reflects the standard SSD storage. If you configure the $1,799 Legacy MacBook Pro to include a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (both standard on the retina model), it actually costs $200 more than the $2,199 retina model. You're getting the retina display and extra 512GB of VRAM in the retina model essentially for free. This guy seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that SSD is still damn expensive.



     


    you know you can just buy an SSD and put it in a legacy MacBook Pro. Also a 500gig hybrid is 100 buck.

  • Reply 19 of 129

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by adumbrate View Post


    Does anyone know if you can attach two monitors to this MacBook Pro? Like one monitor per Thunderbolt port?



    Yeah, it's listed as a feature and I will be taking advantage of it.  But I don't know if you use 2 TB ports or 1 TB and the HDMI port.  I called Apple sales and support to ask so I could order the right cables and they were dumbfounded by my question.  They couldn't understand the concept of running 2 external displays on the laptop after multiple explanations!  I'll have to figure it out when I get it.

  • Reply 20 of 129
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    agramonte wrote: »
    you know you can just buy an SSD and put it in a legacy MacBook Pro. Also a 500gig hybrid is 100 buck.

    Just for reference, my experience with they hybrid isn't that impressive. I have a 500 GB hybrid in my MBP and it's not all that much faster than the previous 7200 rpm drive. For some tasks, it's probably significant, but it doesn't provide the instantaneous responsiveness of an SSD.
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