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Analyzing the New MacBook Pro
MrSeb writes "Late yesterday, Apple released a next-generation 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It has a 2880×1800 220 PPI display. The normal 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs have also been updated, but the 17-inch MBP has been retired, in effect replaced by the new Retina display MBP. Without a doubt, this new laptop is an engineering marvel in the same league as the original iPhone or MacBook Air. ... The Retina display MBP really looks nothing we've ever seen before. Here, ExtremeTech dives into the engineering behind the laptop, paying close attention to that new and rather shiny display — and the fact that this thing has no user-replaceable parts at all."
Fleshing things out a bit more, iFixit has a teardown of the internals. Their verdict: effectively unrepairable by the user.
That's how Apple does high DPI - it's basically a 2x mode. The idea is that programs not designed for a Retina display will still act like they're running on a 1440x900 display (and thus will be of a decent size on the screen) but programs with 2x assets will display with the increased sharpness. Non-Retina-aware programs still get some of the benefit in terms of font and UI rendering (as standard system widgets are always displayed at Retina resolution regardless of whether the app is Retina-aware). This is the same way that it works on the iPhone/iPod touch 4 and the iPad 3.
This is where the fact that Apple chose to use unhinted fonts is a big win. Windows can't easily do high DPI because many programs are not designed for it, font spacing will be way off in some programs because Microsoft chooses to hammer fonts to the pixel grid.
FC Closer
So have I, but we're not normal users. I'm actually not a user at all, except for a third generation ipod in my truck -- I got the special tools and a line on several parts suppliers because the disposable mentality of the Apple product line just annoys the hell out of me. I offer repair/refurbish services to family, friends, friends-of-friends because I get satisfaction out of spoiling Apple's throw-away stand-in-line-for-new-model paradigm. And that it's more environmentally moral to keep the older devices in play.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
> Appliance buyers don't tear down their toaster very often either.
Not very often. On the other hand, toasters last longer, (ours is over 17 years old, my mother-in-law's still functional toaster is from a time when Bakelite was considered a valid construction material) and don't cost nearly as much. And they *are* fixable by anyone with a screwdriver and some aptitude.
> I won't be buying one. The ability to quickly repair Thinkpads is a key reason I buy them instead.
Agreed. Exactly. I just recently "repaired" my daughter's T30 -- open one door, replace battery, open a different door, replace hard drive, install OS, done.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Yes it did, and it still does. It's a perfectly valid complaint.
Something to be weighed when considering the whole.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
and I see it as a Major PLUS!
It means in 3 years a Macbook Pro will be sold on the used market for a LOT less than current models with a replaceable battery. Those of us that actually have a brain will be able to trade an hour or so of time for a $300-$400 lower price on a used mac laptop.
Hell I now have two iPad 2's that I paid nothing for except for the price of a new digitizer front and 1 hour each to replace it. They were GIVEN to me, one is a 64gig 3G unit.
I want apple to make everything hard for the general moron to fix. Because it turns into a boon for those of us that have ability and IQ.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's DDR3L SDRAM - that L stands for low-power. If you can even find a high-speed DDR3L sodimm, you will pay more for it than for the Apple memory. What do you get with that L? Maybe about an hour more battery life with 16GB installed. Is 17% longer battery life worth the $100 premium? Probably to most people spending $3K or more on a laptop already.
Just to makea point: The 'base' ram is 8GB. Taking it up to 16GB costs £160. On EBuyer, 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 in laptop form (Corsair, not unbranded) are £45 each - so that means apple is charging people a little over three and a half times as much. If you do the math for the SSDs you'll find similar. So, while the Apple engineering is impressive, there can really be no doubt that they utterly screw their customers over on price. The only other sector I can think of that gets away with that sort of thing is brand-name clothing, and for exactly the same reason.
> How many normal people do you think ever upgrade any piece of electronics they own, by themselves?
Just about everyone I know have at some point replaced their battery or upgraded their SD card (or have multiple cards), even my mother-in-law, and she's in her seventies and has never been a geek. Except for the people I know who own Apple products, where it is not part of the culture to do so.
An Apple user has a different perspective on this. If you have to be Apple certified to replace the battery in your macbook, not many regular users could do that. But a seven year old can replace a battery in a thinkpad. (I've seen one do so.)
It's important, I think, to agree to a common definition of terms. Non-Apple users, for instance, don't consider replacing the battery to be an "upgrade".
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You use the full-disk encryption, so you don't have this problem.
Perhaps if you also added, "No other competitor offers this combination of features in this small a package. Most compact competitors do not offer discrete graphics, nor quad-core CPUs. No laptop of any kind offers a retinal display for any price. Most competitors are only beginning to offer Intel's Thunderbolt connectivity. Apple continues to design systems, while their competitors throw components together."
Thats fine, and if youre buying the laptop because of the slim formfactor, the lower weight, the aesthetics, or the superior resolution, and its truly worth it to you, go for it.
Just dont try to feed the rest of us some line about how its a superior machine; I could easily link a $1400 laptop that has superior specs in various areas that ARE important to some people (like upgradeability, video performance, etc).
Im not against Apple as a market option, im just against the idea that we need to swallow some bull about how PCs are inferior. I have a $450 laptop that does 1366x768, and you know what? The fact that I have a built in ethernet port and can expand the crap out of it is far more important to me than any of that other stuff, and it doesnt mean my machine is inferior.