retina macbook pro 13 inch?

woozor

woozor

woozor

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Im wondering what peoples thoughts and experiences are of the 13 inch retina macbook pro are. £999 model

Im looking for a new laptop, For work based and music recording and just general web browsing movie watching etc.

the 128gb worrys me a touch though? how much are external hds and whats recomended?

How future proof are the specs of this machine, Im guessing for 3 years?


If anyone Has one and uses it Id be interested in what accessories and external hds you use along side it thanks.
 
Well I am exactly a week into my Retina Macbook Pro 13 (first mac ever) and I love it. I also got the £999 model (although got it for £899 with a voucher I had for "PC Planet".

I don't find the 128gb SSD a restriction at all but I don't tend to store a lot on my laptops - my previous ones also a 128gb SSD.

Since I have a PC all my "stuff" is stored on that, my music is on Google Play and my docs are on Dropbox so I tend to just use my laptop as an access point for all this. I also have a 3tb external drive with all my "stuff" backed up on it so if i was going away I can bring that with me and I have all my movies etc available.

A decent 1tb passport drive will only set you back around £40 or £50 so it's not too bad. I've also been pricing 128gb USB Flash drives which are around the same price which could be very handy - thus doubling your storage space. You could buy one of the really tiny Sandisk ones and keep it permanently in the Macbook...
 
Yes it's good, buy one.

Nobody can make a guess as to how future proof a particular machine is, that totally depends on how your habits change in that time. It won't be particularly future proof if 8 months from now you decide that you want to edit 4K movies on the go.
 
I'm also looking to get the exact same MBP within the next few months.

From what I can tell, the only good alternative is by addding £300 and getting one of the MSI gaming laptops.
 
Have an Air, however the rMBP is a fine machine, you'll be more than happy with it.

As for future-proofing, Yosemite is still officially supported on 2007 MBPs and 2008 Airs and MacBooks (first generation 13" Pro, essentially). Quite frankly any machine that you buy today, whether that be running Windows, Linux or OS X, should be more than powerful enough to last for the next six years at least (workload dependent, of course, as GMac11 said).

My recommendation, however would definitely be to save up and buy more storage if you feel you'll need it. It's crazy to buy a small amount of storage just to save here and there only to find it doesn't meet your requirements in the first place! External drives are very cheap (looking at only £40 or so nowadays for a 1TB 2.5" external), though how suitable they'll be for you to carry around is for you to decide.
 
A 64GB USB3 micro stick will give you extra storage with minimal protrusion from the side and be a lot cheaper than the 256GB version. That said I still went 256 - by the time it's a problem i'd expect higher capacity micro drives to be available for very little.
 
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I went from a 15" 2012 rMBP to a 13" mid-2014 rMBP. I didn't go for the 128GB SSD as its too little storage. I also went for 16GB of RAM versus 8GB on the 15".

I went for the 13" mostly due to portability. The 15" was a bit large for that.
 
Great machine. Got the Mid 2014 256GB, 8GB RAM for a fine price due to their 'education discount'.

Finding quality protective cases for it is a right hassle though! Can't find any decent ones that are specifically made for the rMBP rather than the standard.
 
Well having used a mid 2012 13" macbook pro for my last job, 2.5 years and it was still going strong so when I went to my new job I had them get me a 13" retina macbook pro :)

Its awesome, battery is insane, performance is perfectly fine never noticed any sort of slowdown and I genuinely believe we've hit a plateau with performance, even my 2012 felt like it had more than enough overhead available to deal with anything.

Do it.
 
dink said:
The below is a very good solution for extending the hard drive space of a Macbook, I use the 128GB variant and it really good, hardly know its there.

http://www.transcend-info.com/apple/jetdrivelite/
Click to expand...
Most impressive is how the price is actually competitive. Had a quick look and it doesn't seem to be cheaper to buy a 128GB microSD card with an adaptor, and it is barely cheaper to buy a decent 128GB SD (none of that no-brand nonsense).

The downside is that they're only compatible with one model. Redesign or new machine from a different line, and you say bye-bye to that card.
 
lamboman said:
Most impressive is how the price is actually competitive. Had a quick look and it doesn't seem to be cheaper to buy a 128GB microSD card with an adaptor, and it is barely cheaper to buy a decent 128GB SD (none of that no-brand nonsense).

The downside is that they're only compatible with one model. Redesign or new machine from a different line, and you say bye-bye to that card.
Click to expand...

I have the 15 inch version and it worked in a 13 inch MBP, it just stuck out slightly. But yes your right it would most likely mean buying another one if you change your MBP.
 
lamboman said:
Most impressive is how the price is actually competitive. Had a quick look and it doesn't seem to be cheaper to buy a 128GB microSD card with an adaptor, and it is barely cheaper to buy a decent 128GB SD (none of that no-brand nonsense).

The downside is that they're only compatible with one model. Redesign or new machine from a different line, and you say bye-bye to that card.
Click to expand...




quick look at their site suggests the only thing that's model specific is the dimensions for a flush fit,

i'm sure if you wanted to you could use it in a different machine
 
Seeing as my pc has decided to bite the dust along with my laptop im not happy.

Do any of you game on your macbooks? Can they even do it?

Only games i play tbh are diablo 3 and world of warcraft. I was thinking of killing two birds with one stone if it was able to play those smoothly by hooking it upto my external monitor for home use and when ever i need to be mobile Ive got that covered also.

What do you think. Dilema....
 
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