The retina display won’t make it easier to see if you have bad eyesight, It will just make it look nicer if you have good eyesight. Increasing the resolution yet keeping the screen size the same means that characters on screen either stay the same size but have more detail or actually get smaller.
I wouldn’t recommend buying these laptops to be honest. Every small bit of maintenance becomes expensive due to the fact they are designed to stop you swap out parts. Also they are extremely environmentally unfriendly, the aluminium and glass, materials normally you really want to recycle, have to be thrown on a landfill as they are glued to parts like the battery, which cannot be recycled. This also means replacing the battery means replacing most of the laptop…
I’m not even sure you can open one at all without a non standard screwdriver bit, which is just them being deliberately difficult and trying you to force you to pay them to do jobs that would cost you a few quid and 5 mins of time on any decent laptop. Including the old macbooks…
Maybe bad eye sight isn’t quite me yet. LOL. But I do want a display that is sharp under different conditions. Sucks that it seems I won’t be able to use Traktor 2.5.1 with my 4 Track and rMPB Mountain Lion. Has anyone deeply tested the new beta driver Numark has come out with using one of their mixers?
All I really want is something that can handle the speeds I think I will need with everything hooked up (with ability to grow to higher end stuff later), and that can stay relevant for a couple of years. Knowing technology though, my best bet is having something last 6 months, then devalue to half its price. SMH
I’d go for an older second hand macbook. More than powerful enough for djing, easier to repair, much more reasonable price, more usb ports, etc
Still don’t know why everyone gets a top end current gen processor for djing. It’s not exactly the most resource intensive thing you can do on a computer and you shouldn’t be multitasking so what are you using all that power for?
Well honestly though I’m not a novice at technology, I am when it comes to setting up gear for DJ stuff. I always knew Apple handles the demands needed with the equipment, but beyond that, not sure what would be “good enough”. I guess I wanted to get something that will be able to stay relevant for future DJ equipment. Understanding how quickly technology changes, I was worried if I don’t get the latest and greatest then when the manufacturers of the software and hardware I’m getting update, I would be left behind because I chose the older item. Considering I am planning to upgrade and add on later, just wanted to get a laptop that could handle the upgrades.
However, your point about being user friendly and upgradable is very on point. I know Apple is using those proprietary screws and such to drive consumers back to them, plus an almost $3000 price tag with tax, insurance, etc is a steep price. I do plan on using it for more than just DJing, but all of my DJ software will be pumped into this, so if it’s a good investment, I don’t mind. But if the older one “juiced up” can still do what I need for the long haul, then I can put that extra money into other things. Thank you MrPopinjay
Remember that ni are targeting average joe too, if their software won’t run on your average mid level laptop that’s a couple of years old suddenly a huge chunk if their users vanish.
Check out the official specs, if you meet then you’re more than ok. honestly I wouldn’t writer about being a little under them, I feel ni are bring a little conservative with them.
The price of the retina is actually better value than the 15’ regular MBP. What exactly will do you plan to be upgrading or repairing anyhow ? Heck if you spend 3k + on a laptop you spend the extra $200 on a 3yr warranty and get them to fix it.
The Hard Drive is really the only thing you should need to upgrade with a beast like that - and can be upgraded pretty easy.
Sure the batteries cannot be taken out by the user but CAN be replaced by Apple in the event of failure- Any third party batteries out there for the current MBP are pretty damn shit anyhow (and little saving in cost) and I would not trust them at all having run into issues with my old white MacBooks third party battery’s a few years back. And I’m currently trying to replace my own MBP battery so have done my research on them and come to the conclusion its better to get Apple to do it - they do last pretty well so long as they are not abused.
Anyhow - run the numbers
Regular Macbook Pro
2.7ghz
8gb Ram
High Res Screen 1680 x 1050
512 GB SSD
$3,449.00
Retina Macbook Pro
2.7
16gb Ram
Retina Display 2880 x 1800
512 GB SSD
$3,249.00
Now you can of course go third party on the SSD for the Regular Macbook which will save you around $400 and you can increase the RAM to 16GB for about $70… so you could save $200 by going DIY.
@ Popinjay, the reason so many parts are glued in place and not user-recycleable is simply to fit the form factor. Agreed if you want something you can fuck around the internals with in a few years time its not the laptop for you. But Price to Spec its pretty damn good value.
I’m not talking about recycling it myself, I’m talking about it being processed by a normal electronics recycling plant. If compare this gen with the previous you will notice that they no longer boast that they meet recycling standards. They pretty much have to go to a landfill.
Even if apple can remove the batteries from the case cleanly, which I doubt, they do not have the means to recycle all the laptops they sell and the logistics and labour cost of removing batteries and then shipping them on would be too expensive.
Form factor my ass. other ultra books, including the old macbook airs, don’t need glued in batteries, soldered ram and a glued in screen to get that small. It’s purely money spinning. Fuck apple, no ethics in that company.
Next you’ll tell me that the non standard screws are for form factor.
[QUOTE]Form factor my ass. other ultra books, including the old macbook airs, don’t need glued in batteries, soldered ram and a glued in screen to get that small. It’s purely money spinning. Fuck apple, no ethics in that company.
Next you’ll tell me that the non standard screws are for form factor.[/QUOTE]
Macbook Airs have a different display altogether, they even ditched a glass front on the retina to keep down thickness
This is not an Ultrabook
Apple obviously do have some trick to getting the batteries out or they would not offer replacements.
The Retina is back to being recycling standards certified despite the initial fiasco.
The Airs DO have soldered Ram.
Virtually NO manufacturer wants you getting inside their machines to make your own upgrades or repairs anyhow. Some make more of an effort than others at trying to enforce it.
99.5% of people will probably never need to open their laptops anyhow and will get a technician who does have the correct tools them to do any upgrades that might necessary.
Sure I like tinkering as much as anyone here, but your entire argument focuses on the tinkerer and not a regular consumer.
they released a new line of standard MBPs at same time as rMBP its just the rMBP was much newer tech so they marketed that not the standard range, or at least thats the case with the english apple market
How in hells name are they getting more money from the customer ?
If they honestly replace the chassis thats a really good deal for the consumer @ $200 …because after 3 years on the road I know my chassis is going to be scuffed and scraped and it would be a worthwhile investment for resale.
Do you really believe that other companies design their laptops to be easily modified by the end user ? With the exception of Ram and HDD what exactly are you going to modify inside a laptop body anyhow?
The exception to this of course is the screen on the retina which cannot be disassembled, the screen is a sealed unit in order to reduce the thickness. Now i’m sure they could have made it an unsealed unit, ditched the retina or made it proportionally thicker which probably would have looked like crap and increased the weight.
Yes if the screen breaks its expensive to fix it, if its apple’s fault - they fix it, if you drop it, you should have insurance to cover it. The screen replacement is no more expensive than any previous models @ $500 from Apple.
And its not that difficult to buy a bit that will fit the screws if you really want to open it up, I just dont see the point in that particular line of laptops.
If you can find a comparible laptop elsewhere with the same spec and profile out there, I’d say “sure its a crappy design” … but right now there isn’t.
If you are into tinkering or upgrading laptops you don’t buy a maxed out Mac anyhow, get a Dell or something. They did it for you already.
As it stands the retina is their highest powered laptop, gorgeous screen and cheaper than their older technology 15’ MBP which IMHO makes it bloody good value.
To the OP’s question - I’d wait till after sept 12’ just in case they quietly update anything
Not modify, repair. If my ram gives out I should be able to open it with a normal screw driver and put a new 8 quid stick in. With these I have to pay apple to replace the entire motherboard.
Want to replace an old battery? Or swap an empty one for a full one? Tough. Repair screen? Nope.
There’s no reason for this. If I can swap ram, hd and battery of a thinkpad x1 ultra book in under 2 mins why can’t I with the apple ultra books? Now if your performance machine breaks you have to send it off, pay an excessive amount of money and hope it gets back in time rather than drive to your local computer store and fix it for pennies.
Apple software is nice, their hardware is nothing special and their business practises are appalling.
Becuase the X1 is a Mediocre Ultrabook perhaps?, hell theres only one stick of ram .. dual channel ? No! fuckoff
You seem to be missing the point that there IS a logical reason for this, weight, design and profile .. simple really, if you want an ugly laptop with mediocre performance, vents everywhere you look, and lots of panels that you can readily screw off and access yourself sure go buy the lenovo, or dell or whatever.
However You’d probably be better off comparing the Retina to a performance Ultrabook like the Asus UX31, which has a similar number of non-user replaceable parts to save weight and thickness, I guess their business practices are atrocious as well and they are the devil in their spare time. Somehow I think this was (for the same reason) to save on weight and size.
You wont get 50MPG from a Mustang and you wont get a machine to look or perform the same as a Retina without sacrificing user accessibility.
Apple have made the Retina MBP only .03 inches taller than the X1 you talked about, managed to put in a display that is over 2/3 more Pixels density, More powerful Graphics card, more powerful CPU, more possible Ram, faster SSD and 2’ more screen Realestate, and even thrown in a pretty decent speaker system, WITHOUT having fugly looking vents all over the place, a more sturdy (IMHO) body and kept the battery life similar.
BTW every apple repair I ever had done, both in and out of warranty I was given a machine to keep me running while mine was being fixed.
Honestly you should probably wear a tin-foil hat or go work for Dell.
Wow, you think thinkpads are bad laptops? Seriously?
The body is not more durable, a thinkpad will outlast any macbook. When your macbook is no longer supported by apple and impossible to repair thinkpad much older will still be going strong. Thinkpads are built to last forever, macbooks are built to look pretty. a perfect example would be the chargers. The cable breaks and disconnects from the brick really easily yet apple won’t change their design because they don’t like how our would effect their styling.
you think having a completely passive cooling system is a good thing in a hot club environment? Edit: actually in a twisted way this is an advantage, if you can’t open the thing how would you clean the fan and heat sink?
Also I think black rubberised plastic, hard sharp lines and carbon fibre looks badass while the soft brushed aluminium looks like a generic dent magnet to me. Also that tacky glowering apple is just embarrassing… I can’t believe they were allowed to two giant ones in grand central station, makes a beautiful historic building look really cheap.
So yeah, I think apples image is really garish. If I could get iOS on better hardware I’d probably go for it though. The new displays are also amazing, the industry has be stagnating on resolution for far far too long, good for them for forcing others to improve.
Fine I’ll agree to disagree .. Your thick mediocre spec plastic brick with the vents all over it can have the Ram replaced easier - Whoopty doo.
Other Ultrabook builders are moving in the non-replaceable parts area as well as I pointed out so that form factors can be met.
And I would never in a million years consider any Lenovo machine to be better looking in the style dept .. and tell the body of my well abused 3.5 yr old Macbook Pro that it shouldn’t last as long as a Lenovo, nicks dents, chips, bends it still works just fine, now factor in that most people do not abuse their laptops the same way I do - i’m notoriously hard on gear**.
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And despite all that it still looks better than the most stylistic new IBM (IMHO or course).
Now get back to hugging trees’ you
[QUOTE]Well that’s not exactly true. MUSTANG V-6 AVERAGES 48.5 MPG; RUNS 1,457 LAPS AT BRISTOL ON A SINGLE TANK OF GAS
[/QUOTE]
Have to say thats impressive … not exactly running at mustang performance speed, but impressive none the less ?
And now were basically back to the mac/pc debate that people can’t leave alone. He’s asking about macs – who cares that pc’s are more upgradable. Has been the case forever.
Got a retina display from work. Had no problems with it after installing the beta drivers from NI. Ableton live, traktor, all work fine and look amazing. I prefer smaller text for more screen area which is really noticeable using traktor or ableton on the laptop screen. It looks amazing and is quite fast with a SSD.
That said, if you have a mac purchased within the last year and half, you really don’t need to upgrade. Just hold out a bit longer, install a SSD in your current mac if you want to push the performance. The base processor is a 2.3 quad core, so if you’re 2.0 is a quad core, you’re not going to notice much improvement… maybe if it’s the dual core model.
It is an adjustment having a computer without a CD drive and built in ethernet port, but I use adapters and have another computer I can use for burning, so it’s not been an issue. Just be aware… and purchase an external CD burner or something if it’s really that important to you.
The thinness/weight + screen crispness are quite appealing, but ultimately it’s going to depend on your current machine to determine if it’s worth upgrading.
