That time is back. It's the time of that dreadful, yet delicious, moment when you need to decide what new Mac to buy.
The old that my wife owns is slowly dying. It is unbearably slow for the tasks that she has to do, and downgrading is not an option. As is customary in our family, I am going to give her my current Mac — a s — and buy a new model for myself.
The last time I bought a Mac, I vowed to buy it with an SSD drive. This time requirement #1 is to have a Retina display. I've already discussed how I believe Apple is planning for a Retina world, so this requirement should not come as a surprise to my readers.
The other reason for wanting a Retina MacBook Pro is because at my age, my eyesight is not as good as it used to be. As much as I love (and I dearly do) my MacBook Air 13", sometimes I squint to read fonts at 12 points or less. For example, in Mail I use fonts at 13 points.
There are two models of Retina MacBook Pro, the 13” and 15”. Which one is right for me?
Performance
I love my MacBook Air 13". It's by far the best laptop I've ever had. It's fast, light and the battery life is incredible. It also runs extremely cool and it has all the power I need.
Any additional power would be a waste, because I don't do video or audio processing, and what I really do these days is normal home tasks. Seven years ago I got a MacBook Pro because I was working as an independent IT consultant. That was a job that forced me to use virtual machines all the time. Those (technical) days are mostly gone, so I am not so sure if I need any more power than I currently have.
Retina MacBook Pro 13"
I love the 13 inch form factor. For my current usage pattern, this is the right size. It's the right balance between portability and screen real estate. The only gripe I have with the Retina MacBook Pro 13" is that the Retina display is able to display the same content as in a 1280×800 screen.
The minimum resolution I've worked in the past ten years is 1440×900, which is the native resolution of both the MacBook Air 13" and the MacBook Pro 15" (Retina and non).
The MacBook Aluminum 13" that my wife uses has the same 1280×800 resolution. Whenever I happen to work with it, I always find that the screen space is not enough for me.
The second doubt that I have is about the graphics card. The Retina MacBook Pro 13" has an integrated Intel Iris. Every review I've managed to find swears that it's more than capable of driving a Retina screen. Is that future proof though? I am sure that one day integrated graphics cards will be on par with discrete ones, but now? Will this integrated card be powerful enough for OS X 12.12 (it’s not that far away, only two years…)?
Moreover, this afternoon I found this review that shows that a MacBook Air 13" is for the most part equivalent, if not faster, than a Retina MacBook Pro 13". This fact alone makes my subconscious think that buying a Retina MacBook Pro 13” is not going to be an upgrade at all.
Retina MacBook Pro 15"
The Retina MacBook Pro 15” is The Machine. No other Apple laptop comes close to it.
I loved my old MacBook Pro 15” 2008, and was sad to sell it. And yet, after buying my MacBook Air 13” I no longer missed it. Soon after switching on the MacBook Air I realized that the old computer had been overkill for me, especially after quitting my job as an IT consultant.
The doubts I have about getting a Retina MacBook Pro 15” are of the same kind. Is this going to be too much? Do I really need a discrete graphic card? I am well aware that Apple sells an entry-level Retina MacBook Pro 15” with only an integrated graphics card, but I don’t think that it makes sense to go for a 15” Retina display and not getting a discrete graphics card. Driving more than 5M pixels is not a joke after all and with all those shadows in OS X Yosemite I think that an integrated card could run into problems.
These are valid concerns, but then I tell myself that maybe I won’t be able to change computers every two years. Maybe it makes sense to buy something that’s overkill now, but that in three-four years will be just barely able to run the latest operating system (again, this is my subconscious at work again. As I tried to prove here, there’s not much difference in longevity between Mac models). Also, buying a Retina MacBook Pro 15” feels like an upgrade compared to my current MacBook Air, something that I don’t feel with the Retina MacBook Pro 13”.
More realistically I start thinking that maybe the 15” is actually the right screen size for me. I used to love that size after all, and in any case the additional power is almost an insurance on what could happen next. Tough questions (#modernproblems).
Conclusions
This post has been a sort of self-analysis. Writing things down quite often helps you come up with a conclusion by clearing your mind.
My decision is that I am going to buy a Retina MacBook Pro. Which model I still don’t know. Thoughts?
I was/am in a similar conundrum. I decided on the portability and power that is the rMBP 13. If you are a “home user” as you write, and want a strong small portable machine then the Air is probably the way to go. If you want a bigger screen and significant power than the 15″ rMBP is your best choice. I find from reading reviews that the rMBP 13 will be a sweet spot. It’s more than powerful enough for light audio, image and video editing, and the screen will display my graphics in a pristine quality. Yet it will be plenty portable. I made sure I met my minimum requirements for RAM and storage though (16GB / 512 GB). I decided it was better than the Air because of the screen resolution / quality (hi res IPS), Iris graphics, and RAM capability (Air maxes at 8GB). If I didn’t already have a quad core i7 iMac I’d have strongly considered the 15 inch version but I don’t need that power in my laptop.
Thanks for the detailed comment Mike. What you’re saying makes lots of sense.
I agree with Mike above. I’d say if you were a developer who needed the extra power of the quad-core processor, the 15″ rMPBs are a great value/”the best of class” build for 15″ laptops today. However, you can run the 13″ rMBP at 1440×900 (below 2x) and it looks quite good and the machine is a little bit faster at the base price-points configurations compared to the 13″ Air. And I’d also agree with Mike that the 16GB/512SSD is probably the most future proof option in terms speed over time (though by the time you add an i7 into the mix you probably should buy the 15″). You didn’t mention battery life but 5-6 hours is the max probably on the 15″ rMPB vs. 9-10 hours on the 13″ rMBP.
When I’ve done a side-by-side of the 13″ Air vs. the 13″ rMBP, the screens just simply do not compare, it’s retina all the way. I ran Aperture (granted Apple is killing it off) on both machines and it did seem like the 13″ rMBP with 16GB of RAM was the fastest, but in all honesty people buying the 8GB/256SSD configuration are still getting a pretty killer machine.
Personally, I like having the extra ports as well and like everything it’s a bit of trade off for that extra .5lb of weight vs battery for the screen quality, but it seems more more people are optioning for the 13″ rMBP.
Mark,
Thanks a million for your comment. Already two readers would go with the 13″ Retina MacBook Pro….
If I went with the Retina MacBook Pro 13″ I’d go for the 16GB/512 SSD. No real preference between i5 vs. i7.
Thinking…
I often check out Apple’s refurbished store’s pricing, and I will say that the Core i7 pricing is a bit screwy. Because right now on the refurb store the 8GB/512SSD 13″ i7 Air is about $1400, vs. $1700 for the 8GB/512SSD i7 13″ rMBP and then $1649(!!!) for the 15″ quad i7 base 15″ rMBP w/ 8GB/256SSD.
So I agree, it’s not just you, as the prices seems to make it difficult to have any obvious winner here. Either the i7 13″ Air is a great deal, or they’re overcharging on the 13″ i7 rMBP and/or the base 15″ rMBP w/ Iris is just that good of a deal.
FWIW I’ve had my 15″ MacBook Pro 1,1 for 8 years and it still runs 10.6.8 well (I did put in a 320GB 7200RPM HDD at some point). Granted, it’s not _fast_ but it runs well, a bit like a diesel engine.
Anyhow, I think the pricing on these machines in the $1500-2000 range is a bit difficult to maximize for in speed vs. options categories.
I mean, they’re all good machines, and they do each balance against certain factors among them (weight/battery life for the 13″ Air, battery/ports/screen for the 13″ rMBP, and of course power/screen for the 15″ rMBP).
Also, when I’ve tested the 15″ rMBP I’ve liked bumping the resolution up to 1680×1050 option (again not 2x scaling) but it does work well unless you’re running 3D games or something intensive.
Your last paragraph is actually another reason why I’m still biased towards the 15″. I used to have the MacBook Pro 4,1, great machine and I can’t remember being particularly bulky to carry around.
As you can see I’m trying to convince myself that I want a 15″
Did you ever end up buying a new machine? They bumped a 2014 refresh on both of the rMBP’s again.
My only thought is to chose your overall price-point: ~$1400 gets you a 2013, 13″ i5 Duo rMBP in the 8GB/512SSD config. But once you configure it for greater than $2k you should buy the new 15″ i7 Quad 16GB/512SSD because at around $2100 or so the 15″ rMPB is not much more than you’d pay for a maxed out 2014 – 13″ Retina i7 Duo 16/512. Unless size/weight is a huge premium, maxing out the 13″ is really not a great value proposition compared to the 2014 15″ rMBP stock pricing.
Yes, I did. I got it just last week while I was in the US on a business trip. I haven’t had time to follow up due to the crazy work schedule of these weeks. I got a refurb late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro 15″, 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Lovely machine, I am typing on it now…
I was worried that coming from a 13″ MacBook Air, I would’ve found the 15″ too big. Well, the first two nights it looked huge but now when I look at the Air, I already start noticing that everything is too small. If portability is not an issue for you, get the 15″.