Macbook Pro *cough*

[GMac11]

Alright guys, before I start I know there is an Apple section on the forums but I didn't want a load of Fan Boys replying unnecessarily

Recently I have been looking into the Macbook Pro (Retina display obviously) and having mucked about with it in-store I am amazed by the screen on it!

I'm not quite approaching Laptop replacement time yet (I have a good 9-12 months I reckon) but the Macbook seems too good to pass by.

I have firmly avoided Apple and any of its creations in the past and have been loyal to Windows and Android so I'm obviously familiar with them.

Does anyone reckon or even know if there will be any competition from other manufacturers with regards to the Retina display?

I read somewhere that Acer unveiled some sort of prototype but we all know prototypes mean very little.

 

[SMN]

Chromebook Pixel has a similar spec screen, from what ive read.

 

[Raikiri]

It's also priced around the same (13"), considerably slower and runs Chrome OS

Most similar windows machines comparable in size and screen quality are ultrabooks and don't offer the same level of performance. Although if you're not upgrading for 12 months I wouldn't even bother looking until then.

Also you can just run Windows on the MPBr anyway, if like me you prefer it.

 

[hugobosslives]

yer if funds isn't an issue. the new retina macbooks are pretty decent.

wack a nice sized SSD in the optical bay, and upgrade the HDD to terabyte if needed and then install windows and linux on seperate partitions. Then you can choose to boot into OSX, windows, or ubuntu depending on what you want to do that day

got to admit that the pixel is tempting tho. i'd say very soon i will be tempted. hopefully at google IO they will announce a big chrome OS update.

 

[L33]

yer if funds isn't an issue. the new retina macbooks are pretty decent.

wack a nice sized SSD in the optical bay, and upgrade the HDD to terabyte if needed and then install windows and linux on seperate partitions. Then you can choose to boot into OSX, windows, or ubuntu depending on what you want to do that day

got to admit that the pixel is tempting tho. i'd say very soon i will be tempted. hopefully at google IO they will announce a big chrome OS update.

You could do that on a non-retina MBP, but on the retina models there is no optical bay, and the SSD is proprietary so can only be replaced with another retina MBP SSD or one from OWC.

 

[MagicBoy]

yer if funds isn't an issue. the new retina macbooks are pretty decent.

wack a nice sized SSD in the optical bay, and upgrade the HDD to terabyte if needed and then install windows and linux on seperate partitions. Then you can choose to boot into OSX, windows, or ubuntu depending on what you want to do that day

got to admit that the pixel is tempting tho. i'd say very soon i will be tempted. hopefully at google IO they will announce a big chrome OS update.

What optical bay and HDD?

 

[Ksanti]

It's also priced around the same (13"), considerably slower and runs Chrome OS

Most similar windows machines comparable in size and screen quality are ultrabooks and don't offer the same level of performance. Although if you're not upgrading for 12 months I wouldn't even bother looking until then.

Also you can just run Windows on the MPBr anyway, if like me you prefer it.

Stop reading into the specs too far. Chrome OS is really lightweight and so on the Chromebooks, particularly on the Pixel, it is as responsive as much much higher spec windows machines, given the fact that the OS runs entirely off of RAM. If it's not a matter of wanting to use certain desktop applications like Photoshop etc. that won't be any fast just as an effect of the Chrome OS being snappy, pretty much everything you're meant to use a chromebook for gets done very pleasingly quickly on a Chromebook.

On the Windows front, there are plenty of 1080p panels on 15" laptops at the moment, which imo is as much as you need as text starts getting too small to read if you want to really start making the most of that sort of detail. I'm sure higher resolution versions will come out as time goes by.

 

[GMac11]

It's a good debate guys, one thing I WILL give Apple credit for is they are innovators. Without them we wouldn't be sitting with fancy smartphones and tablets.

So do we think that in light of the MBPr that within the next year or so various other laptop manufacturers are going to follow suit ?

Also, Ksanti, can you recommend any 1080p laptops around right now? I would prefer not to spend silly money cos once I get anywhere near the £1000 mark I would probably just plump for Macbook tbh

 

[Raikiri]

Stop reading into the specs too far. Chrome OS is really lightweight and so on the Chromebooks, particularly on the Pixel, it is as responsive as much much higher spec windows machines, given the fact that the OS runs entirely off of RAM.

But you're still running Chrome OS. Much like WebOS (which I liked) it's pretty useless vs. Windows and OSx (even Linux).

If it's not a matter of wanting to use certain desktop applications like Photoshop etc. that won't be any fast just as an effect of the Chrome OS being snappy, pretty much everything you're meant to use a chromebook for gets done very pleasingly quickly on a Chromebook.

Which is great, if all you want to do is web based. A great idea for the £200 Acer, but when you're spending over a grand on a laptop it needs to be capable at everything.

On the Windows front, there are plenty of 1080p panels on 15" laptops at the moment, which imo is as much as you need as text starts getting too small to read if you want to really start making the most of that sort of detail. I'm sure higher resolution versions will come out as time goes by.

I agree about the resolution, but most aren't IPS. If they are they're usually on ultrabooks running relatively slow hardware as I mentioned.

Currently there isn't a single Windows laptop with a high res, IPS screen that's slim and offers good performance. Apart from the MBPr.

 

[TommyV]

It's also priced around the same (13"), considerably slower and runs Chrome OS

Most similar windows machines comparable in size and screen quality are ultrabooks and don't offer the same level of performance. Although if you're not upgrading for 12 months I wouldn't even bother looking until then.

Also you can just run Windows on the MPBr anyway, if like me you prefer it.

Parallels rocks! We use it at work so we've got the choice on our macbook airs/pros!

Having said that, being forced into using a bit of mac os is my new job, it really isn't as daunting as a long time windows user may think