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USA Today reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: Powerfully robust, an object of desire

Thursday, June 14, 2012 · 4:29 pm · 27 Comments

“The beautiful new MacBook Pro that the company introduced at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, shows Apple still fancies its first love,” Edward C. Baig reports for USA Today. “This latest flagship is an object to be desired, a powerfully robust laptop in a .71-inch aluminum unibody design that is nearly as thin as Apple’s own MacBook Air, though considerably wider. There is nothing skinny about the price, though. Add a faster processor, more generous storage and more memory to the Pro, which starts at $2,199, and the cost could swell well north of three grand.”

“It has a screen resolution with more than 5 million pixels or picture elements, 3 million more dots than a high-definition television, and a pixel density of 220 pixels-per-inch,” Baig reports. “Text pops off the screen, icons are sharp, and color images are vivid and true to life — even in bright sunshine…. Not everyone needs or can afford the new MacBook Pro. But I wouldn’t blame anybody who fancies one.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It’s a professional machine; unique in myriad ways and unmatched in virtually all. It is one-of-a-kind and it runs the world’s most advanced operating system. No other company can come even remotely close. Stop whining about the price.

Retina displays will migrate down into consumer level Macs soon enough.

Categories: Review

Tags: Edward C. Baig, MacBook Pro with Retina Dsiplay, Retina display Mac, review, USA Today

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Comment Feed

27 Comments

Manbearpig

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 4:52 pm · Reply

I want one. But will wait for the retina display in the Air or the iMac.

Not whining about the price, just waiting that’s all.
Marty Wells

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 4:57 pm · Reply

Twenty years ago my PowerBook cost more. Was it expensive? Sure. A good value that I got my monies worth out of. I’ll enjoy my retina MBP as will the lucky future owner 3 years from now. 2 bucks a day for a tool like this is great value to me.

I’d just about bet that every journalist that’s written to express how expensive this is spends wells more than $2 per day on an item of far less utility. I’m sure that for the most part their real bitch is that it is a loaner. They get to turn it in and get a Dell to review next. The only way to keep it is to spend their own money and they won’t. Maybe Apple should seed every journalist with one so as they review every other laptop for years they will have a valid reference point.
- Tobias Tate
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:16 pm · Reply
  
  “2 bucks a day…”
  
  Marty, I like the way you put that in perspective!!
- Jack Hansen
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:17 pm · Reply
  
  Well articulated
  .
  - tbone
    
    Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:25 pm · Reply
    
    Smokers’ habits cost them at least 3x this amount. Good way to put it for a serious user.
- Larry
  
  Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 1:11 pm · Reply
  
  The day the 128k Mac came out….. I purchased it.
  It was $3,695! I ordered the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, 512 Flash Memory and 16 gig RAM… $3,100
  I’m stoked!
tbone

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:24 pm · Reply

My current Macbook Pro (late 2006) cost as much as this one does. I added a bigger hard drive, otherwise it was stock machine. It’s a fair price if this is the machine you want.
- silverhawk1
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:27 pm · Reply
  
  My late 2006 15″ MBP cost about $2400 with tax. It came with a 160g hard drive and a matte screen. I’m on my brand new 13″ MBP while my wife has taken over the 15″ MBP. Apple products are such high quality and just keep on working.
Xil

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:46 pm · Reply

Like many of you, I just see the price as high, I bought an early 2011 15″ mbp for about the same price as it would cost to buy a retine one, it seems like a killer value to me to get native fast ssd and ram, the retine is gravy!
Bob

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:57 pm · Reply

The first MacBook Air was north of $3000 also, look at it now. I would love one, probably would get one if Apple had not brought out the iPad. I have a MBPro 17 that pretty much sits in the corner. Granted I am retired an odd not need a full power machine anymore. The new MBP is an awesome piece of equipment.
ken1w

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:58 pm · Reply

I’m getting the current gen iMac 21.5-inch as an Apple Certified Refurb ($999 when it’s available) soon. My “Late 2006″ 17-inch iMac is finally no longer supported with the next version of Mac OS X. I got that one as a refurb (for $849), and it’s been the best Mac I have ever owned.

Retina display for iMac is not coming at least another year; Apple is not going to put it on the smaller iMac before they can do it for the 27-inch model. That’s why the 17-inch MacBook Pro went away, because they couldn’t have a MacBook with a screen that is physically larger than the 15-inch Retina Display. It will probably come back later…

By the time I need another Mac, Retina Displays will be on ALL Macs that have built-in displays, and there won’t be a premium on price.
John

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 6:55 pm · Reply

Beautiful but not 17″. So my money waits. Apple seems to feel smaller is always better. It’s not. Just like having the smallest phone screens. I bet a bunch of video guys and graphics pros are bummed. I know it. There’s a lot of waiting these days. I hope they sell a ton of 15′s. For my stocks sake. But hope got us Obama.
G4Dualie

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:05 pm · Reply

Apple makes a lot of things I don’t own and can’t afford and I wouldn’t dream of spending money on a MacBook Pro as fine as this.

Hell, who am I kidding, I no longer live on the cutting edge of tech anymore; buying the latest gear so you could talk intelligently about it to clients, friends, and family, and speak publicly with conviction and why it’s so damn important when, all you get in return is…

Juvenile responses and peppered with feces!

I mean who are we kidding? It matters not that you possess the holy grail of knowledge, the whack-jobs will shout you down. I don’t mean me personally, but I see how it is here and elsewhere.

What I miss most is breathing the rarified air in those moments when you unveiled a product that only weeks before was the golden-one-off held by Steve Jobs when he said, Do it!

I don’t care like I used to and never will, because I no longer live in the real world.
- G4Dualie
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:12 pm · Reply
  
  As a preemptive strike, I’m not suggesting in any way shape or form that this MBP is the holy grail but it is the mother of all tablets.
  
  Must be nice to be a John Gruber, where Apple sends you one of these to test and write about. How do I get a job like that?
  - Kenrm
    
    Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 10:14 pm · Reply
    
    And he has to send it back after the evaluation, also is a enclosed contract stating if any hardware is damage or lost in the care of the evaluator they must pay retail price for such item or items.
    
    Nice job but allot of responsibility goes with a evaluation unit and you can’t keep it either.
    - G4Dualie
      
      Friday, June 15, 2012 - 12:29 pm · Reply
      
      We know he gives it back.
Derek Currie

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:17 pm · Reply

Apple has an blatantly obvious HIT on their hands!

So of course the stock manipulators have been depressing Apple’s price again today. WTF is Wall Street actually good for these days? Frack the bassTurds.
montex

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:26 pm · Reply

The Quadra 800 I bought in 1993 cost me over $5000… without a monitor. Forgive me if I’m not impressed with the whining about a $2200 sticker price on a laptop that is incredibly more powerful.
- macgadgetfreek
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 8:59 pm · Reply
  
  I had one of those quadra 800s too– had a 120 mb HD with 33mhz processor! Paid 400 bux to add 8 mgb (yes, thats megs!) o RAM. I happily paid my 3k for the 3.6 ghz mb pro with 16 gigs of ram! Bring it Tim!
auramac

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 7:48 pm · Reply

A PC with the same specs would cost the same or more, and still be inferior. Dell made money selling cheap crap. Some people thought that that was state-of-the-art, never having used or possibly even Seen a Mac.
Mark

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 10:11 pm · Reply

If iFixit is correct, the fact that the disk drive, RAM, and battery are not user replaceable items are a deal breaker for me. I’ll be spending my money elsewhere.
- Mark
  
  Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 10:14 pm · Reply
  
  meant SSD, not disk drive.
Ansel

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 11:14 pm · Reply

G4 was over $3K and we used it for over 14 years and it still ran ……
Stephen

Friday, June 15, 2012 - 1:18 am · Reply

There is nothing PRO about this computer. MacBook Air+ would have been far more appropriate.
- BillD
  
  Friday, June 15, 2012 - 10:00 am · Reply
  
  Stephen, that’s a silly statement. Next Tuesday my MB Pro with a fast quad-core CPU and 16 GB RAM will arrive. It will be connected to a Pegasus RAID with 3 TB formatted capacity, via Thunderbolt. That’s POWER — and with a fantastic display, as well.
- dinjin201
  
  Friday, June 15, 2012 - 5:06 pm · Reply
  
  Nothing pro? It has the same procesor, GPU, and RAM as the normal 15″ MBP
  
  It also manages with an SSD by DEFAULT.
  
  Kindly stick your head back in your @$$ and continue to deny the cold hard truth.
Hg Wells

Friday, June 15, 2012 - 3:01 pm · Reply

iFixit has this to say: “This is, to date, the least repairable laptop we’ve taken apart. We’ve given it a 1/10 repairability score, our lowest ever. Apple has packed all the things we hate into one beautiful little package: the RAM is soldered to the logic board, the battery is glued to the case, and the glass is fused to the frame.” It sounds like a “disposable” computer. Use it until it breaks. Out of warranty, it may become too expensive to fix at some point. Definitely buy one fully maxed out since future upgrades may not be possible.