Apple's new Macbook pro lineup

What does everyone think about 'em?

Personally, I can't see them doing well. Like the previous gen with the 6490m being quietly upgraded (because it was a garbage chip for the price) the new gen is going to struggle, especially with the all new 2880x1800 resolution. If you plan on running anything at native res, good luck. I can't see 1GBVRAM being enough.

Pros
-damn- 768GB of SSD space!
-Ivy bridge w/ higher clock speeds
-Kepler gfx + HD4000
-That damn screen (220 ppi)
-anorexic

Cons
-the gfx may not be enough to handle any good applications on that screen res (@ native)
-no optical drive
-no 17" model (Where did it go?)
-expensive (but then again, no other computer, LCD TV or screen has that resolution so it may be worth it if you need it)
-basic model is stuck at a crappy 1680x1050, and thats an extra option


What about you?

 

They'll be the same as every other Mac laptop: overpriced mediocre hardware. Of course they'll still sell well.

 

I really like the idea of a super-hi-res laptop screen. Apple laptops tend to be pretty durable - I've had my current Macbook for almost 4 years, and it's still running fine (well, the screen had to be replaced, but that was my fault). The new ones are rather expensive, though, and I don't like the lack of optical drive.

 

I'm planning on dropping by a local Apple store and checking them out. I'd really like to see how that 220 ppi looks on a laptop, considering what we've got now is something like half that (or less)

 

I don't see the point of having a resolution that big when games won't be running at that resolution with that graphics card, and movies are only rendered at 1920x1080.

 

would love the new ret MBP but i told my self i would never pay over a grand for a laptop and + my 2011 13" MBP is still a sexy device that does everything i could want from a laptop.

 

LOL. There is more to a laptop than games and video. Nobody plays games on Mac anyway.

I'm in the market for a new laptop, as my 2007 model needs to be retired. I'll buy the Retina-display model specifically for the added real estate.

 

Really? I play tons of games on my Mac, no dual booting. I either emulate the game console or use crossover to run PC exclusives. I hardly use my Windows partition because so far, there's nothing that's a PC exclusive that I've found myself in serious need of.

But yes, there is more to a computer than games. While PC's do have Vegas for editing, I find that After Effects produces similar results. Not to mention that a lot of companies are making their applications cross platform- the number of PC/Mac applications has steadily gone up since the introduction of intel.

 

A little too fancy for me.

It was cool to see the breathe some life into the MacPro lineup again. haha

 

There is a myriad of applications that can benefit from a retina display. Two that I will use a lot are Photoshop and Traktor -- Traktor people will be hard for this, I'm sure. Ableton Live is another but I don't need quite so much real estate for it. Then again, I don't use it that much either, due to shitty time restraints.

 

I wish. They are simply unplugging the life support slowly. I was really, really hoping for a good upgrade, mine is still going strong from 2006 but the added horsepower would be awesome.

 

Is that sarcasm?

I was dissapointed by what they did, or didnt do, with the mac pro. same exact hardware, all they did was *slightly* upgrade the processors. Still no thunderbolt ports, still no usb 3, same hardware thats been out for almost 3 years, and thats supposed to be a high end computer.

Not too sure about the no dvd part on the new high end macbook pros either. doesnt seem very pro to me. I didnt like what they were doing with the software starting with lion, and I'm not liking where they're going with the hardware. As much as I hate to say it, it looks like for me, it might be pc's from here on out. :moody: Not that I can generally afford a brand new macintosh anyway...

 

I didn't check on the Mac Pro, but what I'm excited to see is the new iMac line. I'm sure that'll get upgraded to something nice. If they can pull off 1800p on a 15" screen, they'll do it on a 27" screen. Let's just hope they don't match it with a 650m.

 

lol, yeah, definitely a little sarcasm.

 

You get used to it to be honest. My Acer laptop that I use for emulation on the big TV has no optical drive either but it's never been an issue. I just send stuff over WiFi to it or if there's no WiFi then via Bluetooth or USB stick etc. It would be a major inconvenience if it was my only computer though.

 

What are you guys still using discs for exactly?

I dont put any discs into my computer, unless I am burning a disk for a console of some description.

Reinstalling OS? - USB (well, I actually use PXE - but most wont here and USB works too)
Installing applications? - most are downloaded from the internet or I can mount a ISO... I have not needed a dvd drive for years
Games? - Steam?

 

And PXE is a great way to install

 

Importing Audio CDs. I have a sizable CD collection, and I'm getting new ones all the time. It may seem antiquated, but I have a very nice CD player and the sound I get is much better than an MP3 or similar formats. At the same time, I want to be able to listen to all that music on the go (on my iPhone), and thus why I need to import it onto my computer.

I occasionally like to play DVDs on my computer for whatever reason - like if I want to make some notes on a movie, or if I want to take a screenshot. That's not a situation that comes up very often.

It's honestly not that big of an issue. You can always get an external optical drive - I think Apple even makes one.

It's possible to get USB 3.0 on a Mac Pro. LaCie makes a PCI Express card with USB 3.0 ports as well as drivers.

 

FLAC is loseless. Its the same data that's read from the drive to play it. So if playing it directly sounds good - so will FLAC.

However, the files are somewhat larger.

I could download the files faster than ripping them, but I also do not own any CD's anyway. Doing both (Buying CD's then buying loseless digitals) would be a pain I guess.

 

Beatles Remastered collection on FLAC was like losing my virginity allover again.