I’ve been using the Retina Macbook Pro for about a month now; frankly it’s the best laptop I’ve ever used. It’s not for everyone though- enough people have asked me for reasons AGAINST it for me to write this up. So here they are:
This is literally how it looks. (simulated)
Let’s start with the most obvious: the Retina display is gorgeous but half (actually, all) of the web images you’ll come across on the web are pixelated. Why? To explain it simply: images are just too low-resolution and need to be specifically optimized for a screen this sharp.
It’s not just that though, some Mac apps aren’t yet optimized for the Retina Screen either. Things like Microsoft Office and the Official Twitter App look kind of like the world when you drop your glasses.
There’s no disk drive.
This isn’t as important for most people nowadays, but as long as we’re coming up with a list: The Retina Macbook Pro doesn’t have a disk drive.
It’s an obvious step forward to drop the drive, but some people still cling onto their disks for dear life. If you watch a lot of DVDs / BluRays and don’t want to grab an external drive- it’s just another reason you might want to stay away.
(Do you really still use disks? Or are we just coming up with excuses here?)
The insides of the Retina Macbook Pro
Here’s something that’s bound to piss computer enthusiasts off: you can’t upgrade components.
The hard drives, RAM, and storage are all proprietary Apple components. It’s part of why they’ve been able to make the Retina Macbook Pro so thin, but it’s also at the cost of you being able to give it a little boost for cheap years down the line.
What is this?!
Don’t care? Want to peek inside? Good luck, the bottom panel is attached with pentobular screws (flower petal)- something you probably don’t just “have at home”.
It looks the same, but it’s not.
Live in an Apple infested area? All your friends are Macs? Well, that doesn’t really matter because the Retina Macbook Pro uses Magsafe 2 and not Magsafe 1 (aka old chargers won’t fit).
They’ve shaved down the existing Magsafe connector by a bit to make it tapered with the Retina Macbook Pro. This basically means you won’t be able to use any of your friends chargers. You can however buy a $10 adapter to fit their chargers into your slot…but c’mon!
MONEY $$$$
If none of the previous things have managed to deter you from getting the Retina Macbook Pro, falling back on good ‘ol price always works with Macs. This one especially: coming in at between 2000-3000 dollars (depending on your configuration) and locked in on the 15″ model.
It’s actually pretty decently priced considering the specs: a beastly Core i7, GTX 650M graphics card, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of flash storage, and the best screen available- but if you aren’t someone who knows what those things are the only thing you probably care about is that it’s TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS.
yes it’s a lot of money. Yes it’s ahead of its’ time. Yes it’s a very powerful and truly fantastic laptop: but yes- right now it’s not for everyone. If you were looking for reasons to not get the new Retina Macbook Pro, there they are.
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