The Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display has arrived. What’s so hot about this new version? The buzz is it features a Retina display packed with 5.1 million pixels supporting up to 2880-by-1800 resolution.
That’s crazy! That’s 3 million pixels more than an HDTV.
The MacBook Pro Retina is even thinner than its predecessor — extremely portable: only 0.71 inch thin and weighs 4.46 pounds.
It’s the first notebook ever to include two Thunderbolt ports. It also has two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, FireWire 800, SDXC card slot (Photos), and an HDMI port.
The two versions of the 15-inch MacBook Pro feature an Intel Core i7 Ivy-bridge (3rd Generation 22-nm) CPU running at 2.3 GHz or 2.9 GHz depending on the model. With Turbo Boost it speeds up to 3.7 GHz.
The new MacBook Pro 15-in has a new integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor, plus an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M discrete processor with up to 1GB of video memory. It switches automatically when playing 3D games, editing HD video, or CAD software.
Thunderbolt is a recent technology that contains two 10-Gbps data channels — 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and 2 times faster than USB 3.0. Those Thunderbolt ports can be daisy-chained up to six devices to plug a display and other devices. There’s an HDMI port, but there’s a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter (optional) for more displays.
The MacBook Pro Retina also has a FaceTime 720HD camera that can make video calls to iPad, iPhone 4/4S, and iPod Touch.
The Multi-Touch trackpad has no buttons. The trackpad itself is the button recognizing different levels of click pressure.
The battery lasts up to 7 hours on a single charge.
Another really surprising feature of the MacBook Pro Retina is the addition of a Flash drive (SSD) 256GB / 512GB. Overall, with the Retina display and the Flash Drive, Apple was able to engineer a pretty thin notebook with enough room for an extra Thunderbolt port and other options.
Setbacks: The specs don’t mention a Superdrive (DVD). Apple assumes you can use the USB 3.0 to add a drive, I guess. The RAM is integrated into the motherboard. No RAM upgrades. Both versions have only 8GB RAM. With the removal of the hard drive and the DVD drive, considering this baby is designed for Photographers, video editors, artists, etc. a boost on RAM would have been phenomenal.
Gaming
What’s the importance of this Retina Display? Gaming will look breath-taking with the amount of detail. It’s just impossible for your eyes to discern the pixels. During the Apple conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook showed off … DIABLO III on the Retina Display at around 31:40 in the video stream.
Tim Cook didn’t specify it, but it’s hinted Blizzard Entertainment might support a higher resolution to play Diablo III on the Retina Display. Currently, Diablo III only supports up to 1920 x 1080. — “And if you think it’s just all hard work, and no play — there are some great games being created for it as well. This is Diablo III — I know a few of you have played this game. You are going to see a gaming experience with this resolution unlike anything you have seen before.”– said Tim Cook. I’ll ask Blizzard if they could comment on this.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display Options
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Apple MacBook Pro MC975LL/A 15.4-Inch
– $2,194.00
- 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor
- 8 GB DDR3 RAM; 256 GB Flash Storage
- 15.4-inch LED-backlit Retina Display, 2880-by-1800 resolution
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1GB Graphics
- Mac OS X v10.7 Lion, 7 Hour Battery Life
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Apple MacBook Pro MC976LL/A 15.4-Inch
– $2,794.00
- 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor
- 8 GB DDR3 RAM; 512 GB Flash Storage
- 15.4-inch LED-backlit Retina Display, 2880-by-1800 resolution
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1GB Graphics
- Mac OS X v10.7 Lion, 7 Hour Battery Life
OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program
The OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date upgrade will be available at no additional charge from the Mac App Store to all customers who purchase a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 11, 2012.
Customers must request their Up-to-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchasing their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 11, 2012 and the date when Mountain Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from the OS X Mountain Lion release date to make a request.
When Mountain Lion becomes available in July, come back to this page for details on how to request your copy of Mountain Lion. — source
$2000+ for this is completely ridiculous. Not only that but the computer is impossible to upgrade. The RAM is soldered in and the battery is glued in. If you want to replace the battery it’s going to cost you $199 and with the RAM soldered in you can’t upgrade at all. I honestly don’t know why anyone would ever use a Mac, especially for gaming. So many cheaper and better options out there.
To top off that 100% correct comment……….. Who would play Diablo 3 as this game is already BORING……? 🙁
The Razer Blade costs $2,700
Intel Core i7 2nd Generation Sandy-bridge
8GB DDR3 RAM 1333 MHz
GeForce GT 555M 2GB
256GB SSD
USB 3.0 x 1
USB 2.0 x 2
HDMI x 1
The MacBook Pro has better CPU and Graphics Card. USB 3.0 x 2 and Thunderbolt x 2. 8GB DDR5 at 1600MHz. A retina display 2888 x 1800 for photographers, video editors, CAD engineers, etc.
The stats on mac users are revealed in the WWDC video. Mac users get MacBooks. PC users get laptops. To each their own.
The Razer Blade is a ridiculous piece of hardware, too. At least people buy Macs…
Diablo III actually supports 1920×1200, not just 1080.
I also found it really strange that CPU and Processor are both labeled on the diagram. Maybe they meant Graphics Processor?
Probably the label is referring to the HD Graphics 4000 graphic processor.
This article presents a picture of the cheaper Macbook Pro as though it came from the retina display edition. The retina display MBP lacks an Ethernet port.
To reiterate, the first photo of the ports is not/not from a retina display MBP.
Thanks for the tip, Sean. I’m kinda wondering why they didn’t add a Ethernet port. Basically, you rely on wifi to access internet. Workaround would be to add a Ethernet-port dongle