I have a MBP 13 inch quad-core i5, 8Gb ram, 1Tb hard drive from about a year ago from work. I have a budget for a new laptop, enough for a retina MBP (also from work), and is it worth it? Bearing in mind I work in an area where personal use of computers is fine (I bring in my own budget at work), hence using it for photos, is it worth it? The best thing about my MBP is how portable it is (very small), but I do find it is a little slow when editing 100Mb files in CS5. Is the lack of DVD drive a killer? Does the extra bulk make it a pain to travel with (I fly long-haul a *lot*)?
MBP-retina - is it worth it?
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Well I've just gone from a 2008 17" Macbook Pro with 6Gb Ram and a 500Gb hybrid HD to the 2.6GHz quad i7 retina Macbook Pro with 16Gb DDR3 Ram and a 512Gb SSD......
I've not really missed the 17" screen which was my main concern and this is because you can adjust the settings of the display to give you an effective equivalent size. Why they don't allow you to actually set the resolution is strange but I can see how that might get out of hand. The screen is effectively treated as a lower resolution than it actually is but then images, text etc are rendered at a higher resolution. This allows things like icons to be a similar size whilst being a higher resolution. I have the display set as: Scaled & More Space ....
Some people have said that the rMBP suffers from poor graphics for older programs because images are stretched but using the settings above I have not found anything that is worse and most things are gloriously better. I am typing this in Safari and the screen is like a printed page, you cannot see any pixelation whatsoever. CS5 runs like a dream, the display is brilliant and I really don't miss the extra size. If you own CS6 then Adobe will be releasing an update to work with the rMBP
As for everything else, well 16Gb of Ram, 4x i7 2.6GHz processors and a 512Gb SSD make it rather quick. It is actually quicker than my Mac Pro now!
Weight/size wise it is a little more difficult for me to judge because it is smaller and lighter than my last laptop but I had been using my 11" Macbook Air for the last month as the other 17" MBP is suffering from the NVIDIA chipset issue and waiting for a re-balling. Sat on my knee it is cooler than the older machine and it is not at all heavy. The removal of the optical drive has saved weight and allowed it to be thinner. It is so thin that they couldn't fit an RJ45 for the network but the thunderbolt to gigabit networking adapter is very cheap and works perfectly.
The battery lasts for hours which is great and it also charges quickly.
You can get a tiny re-writable DVD drive for £22 from Scan etc or the Apple one for £65 so you can still use DVDs or you can get a Blu-ray drive for £70!
All in all a brilliant machine but I would have liked a 17" rMBP instead
You might want to wait though as it is rumoured that they will be releasing a 13" rMBP this year! This could be as soon as the 12th September iPhone5/iPad nano launch.
I've not really missed the 17" screen which was my main concern and this is because you can adjust the settings of the display to give you an effective equivalent size. Why they don't allow you to actually set the resolution is strange but I can see how that might get out of hand. The screen is effectively treated as a lower resolution than it actually is but then images, text etc are rendered at a higher resolution. This allows things like icons to be a similar size whilst being a higher resolution. I have the display set as: Scaled & More Space ....
Some people have said that the rMBP suffers from poor graphics for older programs because images are stretched but using the settings above I have not found anything that is worse and most things are gloriously better. I am typing this in Safari and the screen is like a printed page, you cannot see any pixelation whatsoever. CS5 runs like a dream, the display is brilliant and I really don't miss the extra size. If you own CS6 then Adobe will be releasing an update to work with the rMBP
As for everything else, well 16Gb of Ram, 4x i7 2.6GHz processors and a 512Gb SSD make it rather quick. It is actually quicker than my Mac Pro now!
Weight/size wise it is a little more difficult for me to judge because it is smaller and lighter than my last laptop but I had been using my 11" Macbook Air for the last month as the other 17" MBP is suffering from the NVIDIA chipset issue and waiting for a re-balling. Sat on my knee it is cooler than the older machine and it is not at all heavy. The removal of the optical drive has saved weight and allowed it to be thinner. It is so thin that they couldn't fit an RJ45 for the network but the thunderbolt to gigabit networking adapter is very cheap and works perfectly.
The battery lasts for hours which is great and it also charges quickly.
You can get a tiny re-writable DVD drive for £22 from Scan etc or the Apple one for £65 so you can still use DVDs or you can get a Blu-ray drive for £70!
All in all a brilliant machine but I would have liked a 17" rMBP instead
You might want to wait though as it is rumoured that they will be releasing a 13" rMBP this year! This could be as soon as the 12th September iPhone5/iPad nano launch.
Chappers
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Got the rMBP a few days after the announcement as I was need of an upgrade anyway.
It's a great machine, and now just waiting for Adobe to release upgrade for Photoshop and Lightroom. But I can see a difference between the rMBP and a standard model anyway. It's Lighter than my old model, and the battery life, which was one thing I was after is fine.
OK it's not got a DVD drive, but I use USB 3 flash drives when needed. Haven't found the need for a DVD drive at the moment, but I could get a small one if I wanted to as per Cowasaki. SSD drive is extremely fast, and the display is excellent.
Not edited 100Mb files but for 65 Mb files it's fast enough. Don't forget it does have quad core processors so it fairly zips along. About the same speed as my Imac I would think. Not timed it as it's a non issue as far as I'm concerned
Downside, no network or Firewire connections, but there are adapters that convert Thunderbolt to both these, at about £25 each
Love my machine
It's a great machine, and now just waiting for Adobe to release upgrade for Photoshop and Lightroom. But I can see a difference between the rMBP and a standard model anyway. It's Lighter than my old model, and the battery life, which was one thing I was after is fine.
OK it's not got a DVD drive, but I use USB 3 flash drives when needed. Haven't found the need for a DVD drive at the moment, but I could get a small one if I wanted to as per Cowasaki. SSD drive is extremely fast, and the display is excellent.
Not edited 100Mb files but for 65 Mb files it's fast enough. Don't forget it does have quad core processors so it fairly zips along. About the same speed as my Imac I would think. Not timed it as it's a non issue as far as I'm concerned
Downside, no network or Firewire connections, but there are adapters that convert Thunderbolt to both these, at about £25 each
Love my machine
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Not much of a downside really. They gave me a thunderbolt to Gb Network adapter for £20 and it just lives on the end of the RJ45 lead that I use whilst on network anyway so doesn't really matter. I only use it when connecting to server to download large files.
I'm also using USB3 for backup, would prefer thunderbolt but at the moment the price is a bit daft. I did also get a thunderbolt cable and have connected my MBA to the rMBP in target mode. The speed in that mode is not optimised so it was about the same as the SSD USB3 device.
All in all very happy with it.
What graphics settings are you using?
Thanks all. I am surprised about software not being compatible with it. How much would th differce resolution improve/make worse CS5, Aperture 3 etc? Also, it isn't only used for photography, but I have things like Matlab, LaTeX, Windows in Parallels etc. To run. I don't want some rubbish resolution compromise to be made for my day job. Also, I think the USB DVD might be a problem, although maybe not too hard to stomach given I don't currently use DVDs too much.
Maybe I will wait a year until the software can cope with the display, and the 13 inch comes out
I am in no rush, as my current MBP isn't that old....
Maybe I will wait a year until the software can cope with the display, and the 13 inch comes out
I am in no rush, as my current MBP isn't that old....
Chappers
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I've left the graphic setting as Optimized for Retina Display. Tried changing to one of the higher modes, but found it a bit small for my liking. I'm about to install Final Cut Pro onto the iMac and the rMBP which I believe has been optimised to Retina Display so I'll let you know of any improvements.
As with you I'm running backups via USB 3 and have adapters for both Firewire and Ethernet. As you say not really a problem. Also swoped to USB 3 flash drives rather than DVD's. A lt quicker, but a bit more expensive but as it's only temp storage not a major problem, plus you get more storage on the flash drive
I mainly use the rMBP when I do shoots away from home. What has impressed me is the consistency between the rMBP screen and the iMac. Both calibrated of course. I can happily edit on the rMBP and know the results will be very close to the iMac. This wasn't the case with my original MBP. even calibrated the screen was warmer than the iMac.
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spacester said:Thanks all. I am surprised about software not being compatible with it. How much would th differce resolution improve/make worse CS5, Aperture 3 etc? Also, it isn't only used for photography, but I have things like Matlab, LaTeX, Windows in Parallels etc. To run. I don't want some rubbish resolution compromise to be made for my day job. Also, I think the USB DVD might be a problem, although maybe not too hard to stomach given I don't currently use DVDs too much.
Maybe I will wait a year until the software can cope with the display, and the 13 inch comes out
CS5 is a definite improvement. Basically if the software is optimised for the rMBP then the optimal setting is fine, if it isn't then maximum space gives the best image. There is no compatibility issue. Aperture is optimised for the rMBP.
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Ok chaps (and chapesses).....
If you click this link HERE it will download a natty little utility called SetResX.zip which will actually allow you to set your screen to 2880x1800 which bypasses all the automatic resolution issues and runs your display at it's native resolution.
I'm running at that resolution now and it is phenomenal !!
Lightroom 4 is superb as is Photoshop CS5
Unzip it and stick it in your Applications folder then double click it and it will appear on the top bar. You can set it to auto run via Preferences::Users & Groups::Login Items
If you click this link HERE it will download a natty little utility called SetResX.zip which will actually allow you to set your screen to 2880x1800 which bypasses all the automatic resolution issues and runs your display at it's native resolution.
I'm running at that resolution now and it is phenomenal !!
Lightroom 4 is superb as is Photoshop CS5
Unzip it and stick it in your Applications folder then double click it and it will appear on the top bar. You can set it to auto run via Preferences::Users & Groups::Login Items