Mac Book PRO with retina Screen

Gamble19

Gamble19

Gamble19

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19 Jun 2012
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190
Location
Liverpool
Im a student about to go to uni, Has anyone bought from the Uni store? What are the reductions like? and as i cant afford it straight i would need to get it on finance, would it be worth it? or should i save some money and head towards another alienware laptop and just use dual boot?
and i cant get an offer on the website and my phone off for the next week, although i have just got another job so was looking to treat myself :)

Ste
 
I personally am against finance for anything other than a mortgage on a house (I always save up to buy things), and would point out that an item of consumer electronics is a depreciating asset.


The two retina display models are £1,528.80 (2.3GHz 256GB) and £1,953.60 (2.5GHz 512GB) on the HE store. In terms of optional upgrades on them: 16GB RAM is £135.60, the upgrade to 2.7GHz is £204, and the upgrade to 768GB SSD is £339.60.
 
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Westyfield2 said:
I personally am against finance for anything other than a mortgage on a house (I always save up to buy things), and would point out that an item of consumer electronics is a depreciating asset.


The two retina display models are £1,528.80 (2.3GHz 256GB) and £1,953.60 (2.5GHz 512GB) on the HE store. In terms of optional upgrades on them: 16GB RAM is £135.60, the upgrade to 2.7GHz is £204, and the upgrade to 768GB SSD is £339.60.
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I only use finance for high end pcs, and cars :), i am a student who would never have enough to afford that in cash. and i know it depreciates but as would it if you buy in cash!

Are they worth it? I mean I want to downsize from my PhenomX4 desktop and alienware M11x and have something in between, so high end laptop seems the way forward?

any help would be appreciated

Ste
 
What are you going to use the system for? You may be better off buying a cheaper model and an external display for similar money depending on your requirements.
 
I want something that will be good for the new 4 years, with no upgrades at all, mostly games, video editing, and i want to get into photoshop and music editing too as a hobby. I already have a M11x r1 and know how well they are built, and have been to the apple store a few times and know how good the Macbook feels.

Ill be a student so obvious carry it around a lot, the retina screen has my eye just because HD screen will become standard soon.

I just wish to get peoples opinions who've had these laptops in day to day use.
 
I personally don't think you'll go wrong with a new rMBP. Only thing you'll have to do is drop the res and/or detail on the gaming side but if you don't mind the compromise I think it'll be stellar for you :cool:

I'm ordering one as a DTR at the end of the month :D
 
well ive heard and seen that the 650m you get isnt half bad at games!! even at 1920x1200, its playable on diablo 3 and crysis 2,

And DTR? whats that mean?

Im persuaded by the MBP RS, see what some others say :)
 
The base rMBP is worth it. In fact it's a STEAL! Try to spec match the normal MBP to the level of the retina one. You'll easily go over budget and still not have a retina screen.
With Apple I find that base models are bang for the buck but their options are too pricey. The base rMBP with Apple care (and the £70 student gift card) comes to £1588.80 which is a pretty good price for students.
 
xsistor said:
The base rMBP is worth it. In fact it's a STEAL! Try to spec match the normal MBP to the level of the retina one. You'll easily go over budget and still not have a retina screen.
With Apple I find that base models are bang for the buck but their options are too pricey. The base rMBP with Apple care (and the £70 student gift card) comes to £1588.80 which is a pretty good price for students.
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Agreed, I just dont like the fact i wont be able to upgrade it, but other wise its a steal, especially as itll be with the 3 year warranty,

base macbook pro it seems it is :)

Is the ThunderBolt 27inch monitor worth it as a extra? I would be paying monthly and am trading it for my desktop so would need a monitor to run with it.??
 
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I found getting finance through Apple very hard. I originally ordered a iPad through them at the start of the year as the rate was really good and got declined on that. I was notified that their lenders, Barclays, use experian to get their credit checks.

I registered to experian and checked out my score through them as previously i'd used checkmyfile and they found everything about me no problem at all and my score was high. Experian couldn't find anything about me, electoral roll, credit cards, bank account, standing orders, nothing! After multiple calls they found the issue and changed my address by putting my address into their system wrong!

After that my score went up from 939 to 999 out of 999. I ordered a new MacBook last month thinking i'd easily get it on finance but got declined again. So i can only think it's because I'm a student.

I've just done what i should have done in the first place and waited till i had the cash and buy the thing out right. I went for the normal MacBook Pro. I don't really care that the price of the rMBP is the same once i've specced for the things i want on the normal one. I want the upgradability and want to have two internal hard drives (SSD and large storage) and that's impossible with the rMBP. The user replaceable hard drives are going to make the normal MacBook Pro cheaper in the long run if you're going to replace them as SSD's are only going down in price. To be fair though, the display isn't that much better looking than the hi res option on the normal MacBook Pro when viewing from a normal viewing distance.
 
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Logsi said:
I've just done what i should have done in the first place and waited till i had the cash and buy the thing out right. I went for the normal MacBook Pro. I don't really care that the price of the rMBP is the same once i've specced for the things i want on the normal one. I want the upgradability and want to have two internal hard drives (SSD and large storage) and that's impossible with the rMBP. The user replaceable hard drives are going to make the normal MacBook Pro cheaper in the long run if you're going to replace them as SSD's are only going down in price. To be fair though, the display isn't that much better looking than the hi res option on the normal MacBook Pro when viewing from a normal viewing distance.
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Sound advice really!!

Another thing that can affect credit ratings is seeking and being refused credit within a short space of time.

You could always apply for a credit card that offers up to 20months interest free. The interest rate will be far higher than apple 14.9% at the end of the promotion but if you think you could clear it within 20months than its a no brainer as your get it for £1588 opposed to just less than £2k in total with apple finance.

If you do go for the credit car option. Be sure to set up a direct debit as a monthly payment rather than "worry about it later". That was always my downfall with credit cards. I had the best intentions but let things slip. Took along time then to get balances paid.
 
I haven't had problems with getting finance on phones and other pcs before,

And do you mean pay it outright on a card and then pay the card back?

Well the Ssd problem wouldn't be a problem as I plan on using a home network to save all the data, and using my various clouds / Dropbox,skydrive, ICloud to access all large data I need, and if anything did go wrong I'd get the full student 3year warranty,

And this is the problem, would it be worth spending the extra money on the base rMBP, or wouldn't I see the benefits of it, and have a easier time getting a normal pro, remember this is to replace a desktop.

Even a different make maybe? Alienware?
 
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Alienware m14x
Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Free Flight Promotion. I approve Dell passing personal data to TLC Marketing
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M
8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive 6Gb/s
14.1" WideHD+ (1600x900) WLED with TrueLife
Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read only, DVD, CD, read and write)
Killer Wireless-N 1202 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0
Anti Virus Not Included
1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware & Premium Software Phone Support
1 year Accidental Damage Protection
Alienware M14x Cosmic Black

Price =£1986
Or

Macbook Pro with Retina Screen
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
Apple USB SuperDrive
Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User's Guide (English)
Apple 85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter (for MacBook Pro with Retina display)
Apple USB SuperDrive
Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User's Guide (English)
Apple 85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter (for MacBook Pro with Retina display)


Price =£2306


These are the two I'm stuck between,
 
Gamble19 said:
I haven't had problems with getting finance on phones and other pcs before,

And do you mean pay it outright on a card and then pay the card back?

Well the Ssd problem wouldn't be a problem as I plan on using a home network to save all the data, and using my various clouds / Dropbox,skydrive, ICloud to access all large data I need, and if anything did go wrong I'd get the full student 3year warranty,

And this is the problem, would it be worth spending the extra money on the base rMBP, or wouldn't I see the benefits of it, and have a easier time getting a normal pro, remember this is to replace a desktop.
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Nope, neither have I. Cars, Phones, renting properties etc. Never had a problem. I'm not sure if i've overlooked something on Experian in my rage or what but whenever a creditor uses Experian i never get the finance. I am very careful with how much i apply for and when i do also.

The reason i wanted to go finance initially was because i like paying things off in small drips and drabs. It's a bit OCD but i like to manage my finances this way. I just had to bite the bullet and pay in full. Luckily my old Mac can sell for an alright price so i can recoup costs relatively quickly.

Personally, for my needs a normal one is what i need. It's plugged into an external display desktop setup 90% of it's life. I opted for the Hi Res Matte display as i feel the 1680x1050 resolution on a 15" monitor yields a good enough PPI at the distance i view it at. Not a fan of glossy display even though the retina is slightly less glaring.

I need a fast SSD and a large storage drive for photo, video, sound as i don't want externals or extra peripherals. When SSDs inevitably come down in price i can upgrade with a sensible price instead of some bespoke drive in the retina. My data storage consumption is constantly on the rise and won't get smaller so the ability to upgrade internal storage in particular is a must for me.

Also, i didn't fancy having all this silly thunderbolt accessories to have firewire 800 and ethernet. The DVI one i have at the moment is annoying enough. I'm slightly peeved that Apple changed the expresscard slot in the newer Unibodies.

I i didn't need the internal storage i would have gone for the retina but purely as it was top of the line.
 
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Gamble19 said:
Im a student about to go to uni, Has anyone bought from the Uni store? What are the reductions like? and as i cant afford it straight i would need to get it on finance, would it be worth it? or should i save some money and head towards another alienware laptop and just use dual boot?
and i cant get an offer on the website and my phone off for the next week, although i have just got another job so was looking to treat myself :)

Ste
Click to expand...

Not sure I would bother buying the Retina even if money was no object. Some of the reviews have been mixed, not about the display but the actual hardware running it. Apparently the graphics are being run right at the very edge of what todays technology can provide and some have voiced concerns about just how long the card will hold out being run like this. The other issue is sufficient bandwidth to run the display. I say leave it to the early adopters with long pockets and let the technology develop further before investing.
 
It's a superb machine imo. The more I play with our one at work the more impressed I am.

It's horrendously expensive, but it has every right to be. The screen is just amazing and the feel of the whole computer is incredible. I'm so impressed with the way display technology is going these days.
 
And what do you say Mo when people complain about the choppy GUI? :p

Are all yours set to the 650m all the time to avoid this?
 
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