RIP 17" MacBook Pro

[Thomas Smet]

That is true. It is interesting the Apple website doesn't really mention this at all. I wonder how well it will look. Typically as we all know trying to run a LCD not at a native size tends to make it look a bit fuzzy. I think I just read in an article as well that Apple may have said display performance can take a pretty big hit when using the higher resolutions that are not native. I don't really know what that means since I don't have one and don't plan on giving up on my 17" quad 2.2GHZ yet. I love this beast and will probably still use it for the two years of coverage I still have.

I still say 1920x1200 on a 17" or 21" is a more comfortable long term working experience then on a 15". Heck even on my 17" I sometimes find things to be a bit too tiny. Since I have switched from a 21" iMac to a 17" MBP I get a lot more eye strain. I can only imagine that being worse on this new 15" display.

[Allan Black]

More info ...

Why Apple dumped the 17-inch MacBook Pro | ZDNet

Cheers.

[Michael Galvan]

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

That is true. It is interesting the Apple website doesn't really mention this at all. I wonder how well it will look. Typically as we all know trying to run a LCD not at a native size tends to make it look a bit fuzzy. I think I just read in an article as well that Apple may have said display performance can take a pretty big hit when using the higher resolutions that are not native. I don't really know what that means since I don't have one and don't plan on giving up on my 17" quad 2.2GHZ yet. I love this beast and will probably still use it for the two years of coverage I still have.

I still say 1920x1200 on a 17" or 21" is a more comfortable long term working experience then on a 15". Heck even on my 17" I sometimes find things to be a bit too tiny. Since I have switched from a 21" iMac to a 17" MBP I get a lot more eye strain. I can only imagine that being worse on this new 15" display.

I checked this out at the Soho Apple store yesterday here in NYC. Indeed you can set the screen to 1920x1200 like the 17" and it looked still a little sharper than my 17" Quad i7. But the thing to keep in mind is since the screen is 2" smaller that everything just looked smaller, despite gaining the same real-estate space as the 17" on the Retina. May be hard for some to read.

But it still was quite a lovely machine.

[Thomas Smet]

Originally Posted by Allan Black

More info ...

Why Apple dumped the 17-inch MacBook Pro | ZDNet

Cheers.

If sales were a major factor it will be interesting to see how well this new machine sells. While it may be a killer machine many people didn't buy the 17" mainly because of price. Since this new machine is just as expensive if not more we may find the sales to be just as weak. Targeting anything to the pro market will always equal poor sales compared to a consumer market. I know many who fantasized about having a 17" but just couldn't do it because of price. Those same people will still be stuck fantasizing.

Of course the other factor was portability which Apple has more then improved with this new model. I still think however a lot of people are going to have to settle for a normal 15" or even the 13" and add their own ram and SSD.

The interesting thing is that a normal 15" with a 512GB SSD from Apple actually costs $300.00 more then the Retina 15" for basically the same 2.6 Ghz cpu, storage space and speed. I wonder how slim the profit margin is going to be for the new MBP compared to their other products. They may be pricing them aggressively to get sales and buzz going.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Thomas,

Just to be clear to everyone - You cannot upgrade the RAM on the new Retina MBP. Choose on ordering and that's it. I still want one, eventually - probably!

[Allan Barnwell]

For all its cons, the Retina Display on the new MacBook Pro is going to become the standard for multimedia professionals (graphics and video).

It's like camera resolution - there are plenty of good arguments for why it isn't as important as other elements, but in the end, it becomes the killer sales point. And as a reseller of both Apple AND all the camera manufacturers - I can tell you that the bulk of the buyers boil down their purchasing decisions to the buzzwords.

When you think about it - it was the perfect marriage to show this laptop next to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera - both are delicious eye candy despite their drawbacks. Being a desktop publisher/graphic artist for the first half of my professional life, my own equipment envy tells me lots of people are going to want this.

But great observations - I'm going to make sure I advise customers to buy it FULLY LOADED. The way Apple built this thing makes it the easiest upsell I've ever seen.

So be sure to shoot me an email or give me a call if you want an edit package with one of these beauties!

Allan Barnwell
Omega Broadcast Group - Professional Video Sales, Rental & Services

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

The interesting thing is that a normal 15" with a 512GB SSD from Apple actually costs $300.00 more then the Retina 15" for basically the same 2.6 Ghz cpu, storage space and speed. I wonder how slim the profit margin is going to be for the new MBP compared to their other products. They may be pricing them aggressively to get sales and buzz going.

I doubt it. It's more likely that the new Retina model is actually $300 cheaper to manufacture than the equivalent traditional MBP with SSD. The RAM & SSD chips are just soldered on the motherboard which must be cheaper.

[Damian Heffernan]

following on from Thomas' point I was certainly one of those people who wanted a 17" but could never afford it which is why I got stuck on a 15". The cool thing is I can now afford it with refurb models popping up on the store for significant discounts. I love staying one generation behind with macs as they are still awesome machines and the costs savings are great.

[Andrew James]

Hi! Want to know more about Macbook Pro 17? Click on link to know more..
MacBook Pro 17" Unibody Teardown - iFixit