Have you seen the "new" MacPro line?

[gjnl]

NL and I went to the Apple Store today. (Disclosure: NL and I are Apple/Mac people since the Apple 2) NL needs a replacement for her oooold MacPro laptop. Sooooo disappointed. Looks like the MacPro 17" is history. Max screen size on the new (and improved???) MacPro is 15". We were not blown away by the new MacPro line. MacPro with the Retina screen was...hohum. NL is thinking about buying a discontinued, but updated (for her) MacPro 17 and letting time pass until Apple comes up with something that blows her socks off...the new line of MacPros doesn't do it.

Have you looked at the new MacPros...any thoughts.


All the best,
GJ

[Wise Young]

gjnl,

I purchased a late 2011 macbook pro 15" two weeks ago (without knowing or thinking that Apple was going to come out with a newer one). So, it was with some chagrin that I found that that they were going to introduce a newer, better, and more powerful version this week. Of course, I immediately went to compare the features.

The new Macbook Pro has several features that mine doesn't have. First, mine does not have the retina display which has 4x the resolution (2880x1800) compared to mine (1680x1050). Second, it has a slightly faster CPU of 2.7 GHz with turbo boost to 3.7 GHz compared to mine (2.5 GHz with turbo boost to 3.5 GHz). Third, it is thinner and lighter. Weighing in at 4.46 lb, the Macbook Pro 15" retina is a full pound lighter than mine at 5.5 lb. It is 0.71 inches thick compared to 0.95 inches of my older model. Fourth, it has a new graphics chip that is 60% faster. Fifth, it has USB 3.0 ports which are significantly faster (5.0 Gbps compared to 2.0 Gbps).

The new Macbook Pro is missing a couple of things. First, it does not have an built-in DVD drive. Second, it is missing an ethernet and firewire ports. You have to bring dongles to connect to the Thunderbolt port and an external DVD drive. This actually adds up to close to the weight savings of a pound. I don't think that the slight difference in CPU and RAM speed will make any difference. The higher resolution display should make a big difference once all the software can take advantage of it. At the present, only Apple software can use the extra resolution. But, in a year or two, most of the third party software should have caught up. On the other hand, I find the resolution of the current screen to be more than adequate. I am not a professional photographer and the difference in resolution doesn't make that much difference to me.

The two machines have similar prices. Mine with 512 Gb SSD and 16 Gb RAM cost about $3200 while a similarly equipped Macbook Pro 15" Retina cost about $3249. Actually If I bought all the dongles ($29 each) and the extra DVD drive, it would add to $3400. So, I don't feel so bad after all. In the meantime, I am very happy with my computer. Previously I had a 13-inch Macbook Pro with a dual-core 2.2 GHz CPU and 8 Gb RAM and a 340 Gb hard drive. It was too slow for me to run both Windows and the Mac OS. My new computer has nearly three times the processing speed and 4 times faster disc access. It boots in about 20 seconds, compared to 2 minutes. It saves large excel spreadsheets in 2-3 seconds compared to 5-10 seconds before. It was worth the investment and I think will last me for a while.

Wise.

[gjnl]

The MacPro laptops are offered in two variations:
*MacPro (13" and 15") with DVD/SuperDrive

*MacPro with Retina display (15"), without DVD/Superdrive.

There had been rumor that the MacPro would come in a 17 inch display in late fall, but at the developers conference, Tim Cook quashed that rumor.

Everything inside these new MacPro models is glued in. Don't expect to add memory yourself after market. You'll have to send it back to Apple for that.

And, if you need to replace the battery, it is glued in as well, and will have to go back to Apple for replacement at about $200. In older models, battery replacement could be done by repair shops for a lot less than the Apple replacement, which ran about $125.00.

The "Multi-Touch Track Pad" in the new MacPro laptops isn't quad finger friendly (don't know what access features Apple might have added in Preferences). Not that it matters much to me, because we are buying this laptop for NL. But, there is a learning curve to the 2, 3, and 4 finger swipe settings that allow you to navigate through content. It is not quite the seamless approach that has been an Apple hallmark.

Dr. Young, I think you made a good buy. Hoping to find a 17 inch for NL that will suit her needs.

All the best,
GJ

[-scott-]

FYI: you can "turn retina off" & scale to 1920x1200.

[Mac85]

I bought a late 2011 macbook pro 17 inch with Lion installed, before I used windows. I LOVE my new Mac

[fulltree]

I switched from windows to Mac having bought three top of the Line iMacs two 17' Macbook Pro's fully loaded and 3 15' Macbook Pro's, 2 24' Cinema displays, and 3 27' Cinema Displays, an Airport Extreme Base Ops, 5 Time Machine Back-ups and did this the day before the free upgrade offer to OSX Lion was announced and therefore had to purchase OSX Lion for all my just purchased not even shipped yet computes in order to get OSX Lion.they did tell me once they where shipped and i recieved them i could return them get credit for them and repurchase them BUT i would be responsible for shipping both ways on the entire order- so it was cheaper to just buy the software than it was to do anything else,but i do love my Macs and hate windows with a passion Mac is everything that windows wants to be but cannot .

[crabbyshark]

This info is useful in determining if you should purchase a new Apple product now or if you might be better off waiting.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/