Analyzing the New MacBook Pro

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Analyzing the New MacBook Pro

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday June 13, 2012 @03:22AM from the buy-a-few-spares dept.

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.

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has no user-replaceable parts at all by cpu6502 · 2012-06-13 03:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

And it's made by Apple?
shocking.
Next I suppose you're going to tell me the battery in my iPod can't be replaced like my other MP3 player could.

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My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
1. Re:has no user-replaceable parts at all by roc97007 · 2012-06-13 03:48 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  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.
2. Re:has no user-replaceable parts at all by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2012-06-13 03:55 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You can't replace the battery in the Galaxy Tab, either, but nobody around here sharpened their pitchforks over it.
  Oh, on an unrelated note: Battery life on the Tab is pretty good.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
3. Re:has no user-replaceable parts at all by Microlith · 2012-06-13 04:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I consider the slight hassle (have to find screwdriver!) of changing the "non-replaceable" battery in an iPhone once every couple of years, for example, much better than having an externally accessible battery fall out periodically.
  Funny, in the near 3 years I've owned my N900 the battery has not fallen out once. Perhaps your problem lies not with the existence of a readily replaceable battery but with poor manufacturing processes.
4. Re:has no user-replaceable parts at all by bitt3n · 2012-06-13 04:52 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  if they still choose to go with Apple let them be bitten by the consequences of that decision.
  in capitalist america, apple bites you!
  
  --
  how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
5. Re:has no user-replaceable parts at all by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-13 06:58 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Holy crap, check out your username. I bow down to all the years you waited to make that joke!
Christ... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-13 03:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

"Without a doubt, this new laptop is an engineering marvel..."

Oh give me a fucking break. The LEM was an engineering marvel. The Roman aqueducts were an engineering marvel. Apple has done nothing of the sort, what bologna.
1. Re:Christ... by jeffmeden · 2012-06-13 03:32 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Without a doubt, this new laptop is an engineering marvel..."
  Oh give me a fucking break. The LEM was an engineering marvel. The Roman aqueducts were an engineering marvel. Apple has done nothing of the sort, what bologna.
  They engineered the battery to be right at the very edge of the unit, in a perfect spot to be easily replaced should they decide to put a thin layer of plastic around it and install a tiny seam on the outside (as many past owners found to be perfectly acceptable) but instead they decided that selling $150 replacement batteries wasn't enough, now they need to sell $150 replacement batteries AND $150 replacement battery services. That's a marvel.
2. Re:Christ... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-13 03:43 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  ...they decided that selling $150 replacement batteries wasn't enough, now they need to sell $150 replacement batteries AND $150 replacement battery services...
  Hmm ... seems to me that it costs $129 for a new battery and that includes installation. Apple MacBook Battery Replacement
3. Re:Christ... by Lumpy · 2012-06-13 04:07 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  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.
4. Re:Christ... by _xeno_ · 2012-06-13 04:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Uh, yes it does. My old MacBook had the battery die after two years. I had to replace it ($150 mail order from Apple) and the laptop still works fine otherwise, despite being nearly four years old by now. (Oh, and I upgraded the hard drive. Something else you can't do any more.)
  Having a non-replaceable battery, especially given that it's Apple, is absolutely a deal-killer.
  
  --
  You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
5. Re:Christ... by Dynedain · 2012-06-13 04:24 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Yay, anecdotal evidence time!
  I have managed over 20 Macbooks over the last 7 years and have had to replace only 3 batteries, all of which were covered as warranty replacements and so wouldn't have mattered if they were user-replaceable or not.
  
  --
  I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
6. Re:Christ... by Selfbain · 2012-06-13 04:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You ever played a video game on a Roman aqueduct? The frame rate is atrocious.
  
  --
  Well, it has never been successfully tested.
7. Re:Christ... by tlhIngan · 2012-06-13 04:50 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  So why hasn't anyone else built something better already?
  because the parts lines(in factories) came online just this spring? and apple doing what it does usually, buying the entire supply(the screen) for the line.
  Well, Apple made some rather significant investements in their supply chain - they've paid Sharp and others billions to improve LCD screens, paid millions to the factories in Japan that produced raw materials for the batteries affected by the earthquake, etc.
  So it's not just buying up entire supplies (when you think about it, if a Mac sells a million units, that's a million screens - a rather considerable amount of product to produce. Not counting ones that fail Apple QC and end up on the secondary market as cheap monitors).
  There are other companies able to do so as well - Samsung invested heavily in OLED display technology, hence why practically all their phones have it. Heck, perhaps Apple was willing to pay for significant investments in OLED screen technology so they can use it in the next iPhone, but Samsung rejected it. After all, Apple doesn't throw you a billion dollars without expecting something in return.
8. Re:Christ... by Macman408 · 2012-06-13 05:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  For the Retina MacBook Pro, it's actually $199; $129 is for the MacBook, or the normal 13/15-inch MacBook Pro. (The 17" MacBook Pro battery replacement is $179.)
  That said, the price isn't far off other manufacturers' discrete battery prices; Dell's prices for similarly-sized batteries range from $146 for their cheapest 90 Wh 9-cell battery (for certain Inspiron models), to $300 for a 97 Wh 9-cell extended battery that covers the whole bottom of a Latitude, with most 90 Wh batteries at about the $170 price point. Compared to that Latitude one, $199 isn't such a bad deal for a 95 Wh battery...
9. Re:Christ... by C_amiga_fan · 2012-06-13 05:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  No. The Video Toaster was a genlock with built-in special effects (wipe, fade, etc). We used to have one in our college TV station. That's all it did. BUT the Amiga's 68000 CPU did the number-crunching to generate the CGI, and the Amiga coprocessors displayed the 704x480 image that was captured to videotape (one frame at a time) for Babylon 5, seaQuest, Above & Beyond.
  If for some reason you STILL don't think Amiga can do CGI, just go watch the Star Wars Walker Demo. Or any other video/demo from that era. Or you could rewatch B5's axis transport/elevator and notice how pixelated everything looks..... a side effect of the Amiga's low resolution.
  >>>The Amiga hardware wasn't fast enough to do video production (most 486's of the era couldn't either.)
  It doesn't have to be "fast". They are only generating ONE frame every hour or so. According to one of the animators Mojo, it could take an entire week just to generate a few seconds of CGI.
  .
  
  --
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10. Re:Christ... by ratbag · 2012-06-13 06:23 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Have you taken a look at the form factor of the MBPR and taken the time to consider which off-the-shelf SSD would fit in there?
  Apple couldn't care less about the Slashdot crowd and our tiny but vocal group of whiners. "We" are not market leaders or trend-setters - that ship sailed many years ago, sometime around 1995 I would think, and I think the technology world's a better place as a result.
  Your "deal-breaker" is a feature for many "normal" users. Simple, good-looking stuff that works. And the knowledge that if it fails, the nice people will fix it for them. Normal people don't want to ever get their hands dirty with the insides of a computer, or a car, or with the plumbing of their house. A tiny number of us are interested in that sort of thing - but I scratch that itch with things like a Raspberry Pi (pre-ordered today, yay!) and other trinkets, rather than my main work machines. Others restore classic cars, or do up their houses. But again, the numbers involved are tiny, and it doesn't make Volkswagen produce cars with easily-changeable engines, or persuade builders to externalise all the wiring to make it easy for people to swap it in the future.
  We tech-savvy people shouldn't be "pissed off" at Microsoft, Apple, HP or whoever - we just choose a different product as you're proposing to here (have fun with your Linux laptop, I've been there and done that, but as far as I'm concerned Linux is for my servers and maybe a VM on my Mac for testing).
  But we shouldn't think for one minute that manufacturers are aiming this sort of product (MBPs, desktop PCs, iPods, etc.) at us - we're a tiny fraction of a percent of the buyers. They don't need to be careful. I just happen to think that Apple are making the right decisions at the moment and I'm happy with the price/performance/design balance. I've made use of their warranty and post-warranty facilities and I've been happy with that too.
11. Re:Christ... by makomk · 2012-06-13 09:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Have you taken a look at the form factor of the MBPR and taken the time to consider which off-the-shelf SSD would fit in there?
  There's actually a standard for small SSDs called mSATA that's roughly the same size as the one in the MBPR. Apple didn't use it. They even went to the trouble of using a different, incompatible connector for the SSD to the similarly-sized one used in the Macbook Air.
"effectively unrepairable by the user" by couchslug · 2012-06-13 03:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

Appliance buyers don't tear down their toaster very often either.
That said, it's cool from my perspective since it will result in "dead lappies for cheap" which will motivate people who like to tinker and build machines from organ donors.
I won't be buying one. The ability to quickly repair Thinkpads is a key reason I buy them instead.

--
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
1. Re:"effectively unrepairable by the user" by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-13 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Appliance buyers don't tear down their toaster very often either.
  Your childhood sucked didn't it?
2. Re:"effectively unrepairable by the user" by roc97007 · 2012-06-13 03:54 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  > 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.
3. Re:"effectively unrepairable by the user" by binarylarry · 2012-06-13 03:56 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Yes FOOL, but this is iRam.
  Which is much shinier than regular RAM.
  One could say it's an ENGINEERING MARVEL TO BEHOLD!
  
  --
  Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
4. Re:"effectively unrepairable by the user" by adisakp · 2012-06-13 04:27 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  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.
More than 1080p by houstonbofh · 2012-06-13 03:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

At least Apple is recognising that there is a market for monitors with more than 1080p. Hopefully, the new display will be a success, and other manufactures will finally some out with truly high def monitors for less than a car payment again.
Nonsense! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2012-06-13 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny

These shady ifixit characters are peddling pure propaganda. You can repair a damaged or non-functional macbook pro with just a few clicks!
Re:no user-replaceable parts by cryptizard · 2012-06-13 03:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

I agree, it sucks pretty hard from a consumer standpoint but I can also see why it might have been (emphasis might) necessary in this case. That thing is crazy thin and if you look at the teardown they don't really have any room to mess around in there. Looks like they made it possible by taking all the things that used to be self contained (RAM, hard drive, etc.), pulling out their guts and soldering/plugging them directly onto the main board. Think about the space you save over having to include hard drive enclosures and sockets for the RAM. Again, not saying I like this, but I would sooner attribute it to a desire to make this thing as streamlined as possible rather than assuming they were trying to screw people over. In fact, the new non-retina Macbook Pros are still totally user replaceable.
Re:2880×1800? More like 1440x900. by LocalH · 2012-06-13 03:38 · Score: 5, Interesting

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
Re:no user-replaceable parts by BasilBrush · 2012-06-13 04:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

How many user replaceable parts has your TV got?
What's that you say? A little louder. None!
So does that make you a fool too?
The fool is the person that didn't realise that computers will go the same way as every other technology. More advanced, more integrated, more miniaturised, less user serviceable.
Re:no user-replaceable parts by vlm · 2012-06-13 04:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

unless you're a digital hoarder who feels the need to keep more music and TV/movies than any reasonable person can watch in a lifetime hard drives are large enough.
Never say that kind of stuff around a video editor like my wife. You take maybe 25 to 100 hours of uncompressed high def documentary video, per project, times a couple simultaneous projects, oh whoops that's why I have a full size tower full of hard drives in the basement along with what sounds like a jet fighter auxiliary turbine power unit to cool it. Just one of her projects is about the size of my complete lifetime mp3 collection, or about the same as a full set of low-def star trek ... and she still has more projects. My digital hoard is pretty big by /.er standards, at least a TB, but compared to her half dozen half finished projects I'm just a rounding error.
Someday, someone will make a laptop that can hold everything a semi-pro video editor needs, but that day isn't here yet, isn't even on the horizon. Maybe by 2020 or 2030?
Apple is popular with the artsy craftsy AV crowd. There are people that do that kind of stuff on PCs, but they're kind of far and few between.

--
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Re:Did I miss something? by BasilBrush · 2012-06-13 04:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

By that argument nothing is an engineering marvel.
And yet "current generation components" have to appear for the first time in something. And here it is.
The technology in this laptop is a fair jump from what was available yesterday. I'd say it qualifies.
Re:No, really more like 1440x900 by ceoyoyo · 2012-06-13 04:24 · Score: 5, Informative

You are wrong. It's a 2880x1800 display. You can address each and every one of those pixels individually.
If your code editor uses Lion's text rendering APIs but is not aware that the display is high DPI, Lion will lie to it and tell it that it's on a lower resolution screen so the text isn't ridiculously small. If your code editor IS aware that it's on a high DPI screen, it can display the text as small as your tired eyes wish.
Re:Dont buy apple for the hardware... by ratbag · 2012-06-13 04:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

All right, I'll bite.
M14x has a 14" display, not 15".
Its battery lasts around 4 hours in standardised tests, not 7 hours.
Yes it's cheaper, but you're not comparing like with like. Also, at the risk of facing derision from the tough (blinkered?) Slashdot crowd, just look at the thing http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=61197. When I'm choosing where to spend my disposable income, two of the factors are how the thing looks and feels, as you suggest. Not the most important factors, but definitely on the list.
I've ordered a 2.6GHz Retina machine, with 16GB RAM, plus the Ethernet dongle and the MagSafe2 adapter. Other than one very old Compaq laptop at a previous employer, I have never felt the urge to upgrade RAM or storage in one of my machines so I couldn't care less about the lack of upgradeability. The battery can be replaced by Apple if that's an issue (I've taken advantage of that with one previous machine). It will be used, like all of my machines for: coding (Vim/Netbeans), system management (Solaris, Linux, MacOS, Windows servers, Cisco and HP network equipment), photography and film (LightRoom, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro X). It replaces a MacBook Air which has served me well, travelling around the world with me, tucked into a Tenba Roadie II Universal case. The MacBook Air shuffles over to my wife, to replace her 1st gen MBP15 which I'll donate to whichever friend or family member needs it most at the moment.
Yep, I'm in a happy Apple bubble. I like the simplicity, style, look, feel and quality of Macs. I love the functionality of OSX. And I certainly don't fit into the moronic image that other replies have alluded to (Starbucks, hipster etc.). I'm a systems and networks guy for a hedge fund, working from home, and the Mac hardware has been the right hardware for me and my job for many years now. I may not get 730fps on Diablo III, but I do have reliable, sturdy, smart and well-designed computers that do the job for me.
Your mileage obviously varies, your criteria for computer selection differs from mine and I can respect that. But I do buy a Mac because of the hardware - that Retina screen is a hell of piece of kit and for photos/film it was enough to get me to order on day one. Similarly, the MacBook Air had exactly the right mix of performance and portability.
Re:The Mona Lisa wasn't built ... by Moheeheeko · 2012-06-13 05:01 · Score: 5, Funny

....Did you seriously just compare the Mona Lisa to A FUCKING MACBOOK?
People like you are the only reason Apple is making money. Period.