MacBook Pro with Retina Display: a week later

Last week, I wrote a "first impressions"-style of review of my new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. In it I said that I needed to use the laptop more so that I could give a more educated opinion about certain aspects. So, here we go:

Performance: the machine is very, very fast. Cold-boots in about 10 seconds (and this includes ~2 seconds of the grey bios screen). The SSD + fast ram + i7 Ivy Bridge processors combination works amazing. Anything that I've thrown at it hasn't slow it down. A VirtualBox instance + Adobe Lightroom 4 importing and pre-processing a few hundred RAW images, with a terminal having brew building several packages from source, all at the same time: no problem whatsoever. The computer was just as responsive as when I have a single browser instance open. You really can't tell the difference.

Retina Display: simply put, and to reiterate, it's amazing. Vibrant, rich, contrasty colors. Excellent shadows and blacks. The text looks awesome (specially with Retina-enabled applications). When the screen is off it gives the impression of being incredibly glare-y, but when it's on, even at half brightness, the glare is negligible. Watched a dozen or so "4K" videos and the colors and details were astounding.

Gaming: although gamers probably aren't the target audience of this machine, this machine is very competent in that regard. It played all the Humble Bundle games maxxed out @ 1080p resolution at very decent frame rates. When in boot camp mode, it played a few MMOs on High or Ultra High settings @ 40-50 FPS even on public instances and "hub" towns which is where frame rate drops dramatically on most MMOs. So the NVidia 650M definitely pulls its own weight.

Windows: although Mac purists might chide at the notion of installing Windows on such new machine alongside their revered OS X, truth is, there are some things -- at least for those of us who work in the development arena --  that play nice on Windows. Another issue is games, specially with older titles that don't have Mac versions or if you don't want to spend more money on software you already own. I tried Parallels and CrossOver, but neither gave me the gaming experience I was looking for and both of them have hefty license prices specially considering I can boot camp for free with a Win license I already own.

Boot Camp: The process was fast and flawless. I went from partition to fully installed windows in a matter of 20 minutes or so, no exaggeration. I then installed the Apple-supplied drivers and all was setup correctly: video, sound, trackpad, HDMI, etc.

* Noise: I forgot to mention about cooling fan noise. Apple made a big fuss out of this issue in their marketing campaign and thankfully I don't find noise to be a make or break sort of thing. The machine runs very quiet so long as the NVidia video card is not in use. As soon as the graphics are switched to the NVidia whether for games or anything requiring 3D rendering, the fan noise is very noticeable and I would say it's equally bad as any other laptop sporting a powerful graphics card.

So, after using for both work and fun, I have to say that I am very happy with the purchase. However, it's hard for me to issue a blanket statement whether I recommend it or not, mainly because it's quite pricey. So, all I can do is stand last week's opinion: it's a great machine that won't disappoint, and would definitely recommend it, if you can afford it and you are looking for a Mac.

* added after publishing

MacBook PRO with Retina Display Review

First and foremost, I must caution Mac fans, iZealots and other Apple fanbois that there is content (text and photography) that you might consider NSFW below. Now, I'd be lying to you if I were to tell you that this was an impulse purchase. On the contrary, I already knew I wanted to buy a Mac laptop for some time. What was fortunate is that I didn't decide to buy a different Mac earlier in the year and was able to get Apple's latest model. Another thing that I'd like to make clear is that my expectations for this machine were and are quite high, not just because of the hype, but because it's quite costly relative to "comparable" non-Apple models.

So, moving on to the fun stuff: 

The "unboxing": One of the (positive) things that I remember from owning an Apple laptop some ten years ago, is the care that Apple puts on the customer experience -- this includes the presentation of the box. This time, though, Apple had a lot to live up to. Not only they sold me a new take on MacBook PROs, but at this price tag it better damn be apart from the rest. It was what I expected, but that also means that they failed to blow me away -- again just speaking of the box and product presentation. Below is a slideshow of the unboxing and first boot. 

The actual box is plain and elegant, but nothing to write home about. Inside was: the MBP, the power brick and cord and a getting started book that greeted me "Hello."

Look and feel: the machine looks slick and feels very well put together. All seems to be placed in the right spots and all other things tucked away and snug, as they should. Perhaps this is something most people don't mind, but I cannot stand all the gaudy "Intel Inside" "NVidea" "WiFi" stickers most PC manufacturers place near the keyboard that tend to peel off and leave nasty gooey glue behind. I surely am glad the MacBook Pro was pristine and immaculate. The machine feels solid and by that I mean not just in terms of build quality, but also in terms of weight. Apple managed to cause a bit of cognitive dissonance due to the visually sleek and low profile of this laptop, it gives the impression of being lighter that it actually is. After opening the lid for the first time (i.e. the MBP still off), the retina display stands dark, abundant glare but otherwise unremarkable. The keyboard sits sunk in a sort of embossed plateau so as not to be in contact with the display. The speakers to the either side of the keyboard taking a relatively big chunk of real estate. On the sides are the Thunderbolt, USB3, power and HDMI ports.

First boot: a few moments after I turned on the machine for the first time, the Retina display lit up. A mere seconds later I was already in the account setup screen. After finishing entering the information plus WiFi setup, I was presented with the login screen.

First login: as soon as I logged in for the first time is when the Retina display showed its true self. All I can say is "WOW". It's really, really, really great. Great color, great contrast, great resolution. I didn't think it would make such a big difference, but it does and then some. I don't know if the Retina display costs $400 (over the non-Retina MBP), but after seeing it with my own eyes, it surely made a good case for itself. Another HUGE plus is the complete lack of crapware and bloatware just about every PC manufacturer always include. No Norton pop-ups, no Comcast ads, no game demos, in short, no bulls**t.

Performance: at this price level and looking over the spec sheet it's not hard to infer that this machine is a monster. And this inference does translate to reality. The machine feels very snappy and responsive. I downloaded and installed several applications like VirtualBox, Python, SublimeText 2 very fast and without delay. Granted, I have yet to tax it with heavy video processing or 3D gaming, but as far as I can tell this machine will stand up to any challenge (also, after I try some video editing and gaming, I'll post the info).

Preliminary conclusion: I've had this machine only for a few hours, so I don't think it would be fair or responsible to give a definitive opinion about it; however, for the few things that I have done and the look and feel I can say that this is a serious machine that means business. Whether it's worth $2K+ price tag, it's way too early for me to tell. Do I recommend it? Well, again, given the provision above that I need more of my usage data to make an informed and educated opinion, I'd say if you are itching to buy a Mac and you have the money, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you get one of these.