The post MacBook Pro Review (Retina Display Mid-2012) appeared first on All About Apple Laptops.
It is not easy to write a review of this computer because what should you expect? The screen is beautiful, performance is certainly good considering it beats the Mac Pro in some areas. It is even possible to play games on the Retina MacBook Pro if you want. Is this the perfect Mac?
I am not one of those that always liked and used Apple products. Before 2005 I really didn’t like anything Apple – related and thought that those colorful iMacs and iBooks was overpriced toys. My interest lied in building my own PC and configuring it exactly the way I want it to. I still have that gene in me and some times I build a desktop rig just for the fun of it with my wife looking at me in despair. Wondering what the heck I am going to do with all computers I build and sell. This hobby is not cheap … you know.
Enough history lesson and lets get straight to it, lets talk about the:
MacBook Pro Retina – Mid 2012
There is no point in me trying to re – write reviews from other sites out there that got access to this computer a lot sooner than I. Meaning I will try to tone down the intense focus on details and specs but instead talk about how this computer is in day to day use. There are already reviews out there you can read that goes into more detail on those things and you should certainly read them. (Ars Technica, Engadget, AnandTech, NY Times).
First Impressions
The first impressions you get from a product like this is when you unbox it. Apple care a great deal about things like that, for some it may seem foolish to spend so much time on packaging but nevertheless Apple wants everything to be perfect and an experience right from the unboxing part. Expect the same thing if you buy this computer.
When you have it in your hands it is easy to feel that it is thinner compared to the regular MacBook Pro. You will also notice that it doesn’t have a optical drive.
Two USB3 ports, one on each side. Two thunderbolt ports, HDMI, SD Card slot and the MagSafe 2 connector. This is the ports you get and if you want Ethernet and fire-wire you need to buy thunderbolt adapters for that. Apple have released their own adapters that should work just fine.
Design
Aluminum all the way, this is something we have come to expect from Apple. They have all of their laptops made in this material at the moment. It makes the computer light but still very sturdy and strong. It is because of the unibody enclosure carved out from a single piece of aluminum.
The model I got had a squeaky sound from the bottom cover if I carried it in a certain way. I had to tighten up some of the screws using the proprietary pentalobe screwdriver from Apple. This is one sign that tells you Apple doesn’t want you to service the Retina MacBook Pro yourself. You need special designed tools to unscrew the screws. Everything except the SSD is soldered to the logic board. You can not upgrade the RAM so you should really max it out if you plan to keep the computer for a while. However the standard 8GB is not too shabby anyway. If you know you need 16GB you should get that. If not, 8GB should be enough for most normal use.
It is possible to remove the SSD though but the connector isnt standard. As far as I know OWC is the only third party that have a replacement SSD available. This may change in the future though.
Retina Display
If you had the original iPhone or iPad and upgraded to a new model with better display (retina model) the difference was pretty good wouldn’t you say? Well, it is the same for the new MacBook Pro. Text looks really sharp, system icons and graphics is of a clarity I have yet to see on any PC display. It is hard to describe it in words. You really should see it for yourself to judge it.
When you surf the web you will notice that the graphics on some websites looks blurry. like buttons, navigation graphics, pictures etc. It doesn’t really bother me but you should know that not everything will look sharp because people need to update their graphics to be compatible with the higher resolution. This also applies for applications using their own UIs etc.
I do some photo editing in my spare time, nothing professional but still. Its a hobby of mine for many years and it is a pleasure to do this kind of work on this display.
It is not possible to configure this new Apple Laptop with an anti-glare option. The display is glossy but they have managed to reduce it some compared to the previous models. If I compare my computer with my wife’s white MacBook the glare is noticeably higher on her model. It is not completely gone on the model I have but considerably lower than before.
Performance
Remember, I come from a breed that like to build their own custom gaming PC rigs and I know what performance is. It is impressive what this thin laptop is able to do. It is almost comparable to the Early 2009 Mac Pro and that says something. Check yourself here: Mac Benchmarks
In day to day use everything is snappy, loads fast and almost no waiting. This is thanks to the SSD this computer have. The hard drive have always been one of the last bottle-necks performance wise in computing and now we see that many manufactures move more of their product lines over to use SSD. The drawback here is smaller storage size and if you want something bigger its expensive. The speed increase you get compared to an old platter based disk makes it all worth it though. Speed is what SSD is all about and the one in this retina MacBook Pro is fast! If you need storage buy an external drive and use that.
For number crunching work my experience with this computer is limited. However I have pushed it to its limits by encoding some video using iFlicks. (really good app btw!). It utilized all 8 (4) cores and made the CPU really hot. When the fans ramped up the temperature stayed between 95 – 100 degrees Celsius. Maybe a tiny bit too hot for my taste. It worked fine though and if by chance it would be too hot the safety feature will kick in and downclock (throttle) the CPU making it slower to get the temperature down. I didn’t notice anything myself after a few successful encodes.
Yes, the computer gets hot. Dont expect anything else from it. Also remember that it is designed to handle the stress. No worries! I am thinking about replacing the TIM but … I am not sure if I want to risk anything.
Retina MacBook Pro: Gaming Performance
We all know that a laptop cant replace a dedicated gaming rig, right? Okay, so why is it that people put up YouTube videos of this machine, playing Diablo 3 in full resolution with.. 20 – 30 fps, all settings to low and says its great!? Come on, its just not that fantastic. Yes I know you are happy about having a rMBP but please, don’t make people disappointed. This is not mainly a gaming computer, if you want to play games it is certainly possible! Just be sure to know what to expect..
I am not saying that The NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M in this Apple Laptop is a bad graphics card with low performance, its actually quite good and it will run most new games great in lower (1920×1200) res with low – mid settings. As always if you want the most performance install Windows in Bootcamp and do the gaming from there.
I did some testing in Windows with gaming and noticed that the graphics began to lag and get choppy after a while. After some more testing I noticed that the graphic card throttled. Meaning it lowers the voltage and speed to keep it within a certain temperature. This behaviour is annoying because it can ruin an otherwise good gaming experience. For me, the reason for this throttling was my external display and the fact I used the computer in clamshell mode (display closed). If I disconnected the external display and used the MacBook Pro Retina display instead the throttling didn’t occur anymore.
Yes, it is certainly possible to game on this computer but it is not fantastic in 2880 x 1800. You have to lower the resolution to get good gameplay with todays modern games.
If you want to overclock your GPU, this forum thread on MacRumors discusses this. You do this on your own risk. I take no responsibility if you happen to damage your logic board or something else but it is possible to get more FPS out of that Kepler based NVIDIA card..
Conclusion
For me this computer is everything that I need and more. It is extremely fast in all aspects considering its size. Battery life is good with 6 – 7 hours on wi-fi and practically noise free when doing light work.
The drawback is the serviceability. It is not possible to upgrade anything on this machine so make sure you configure it accordingly.
Can I recommend it? Yes, if you can afford it, get it.
More?
If you want me to test something just leave a comment and I will see what I can do about it. 
The post MacBook Pro Review (Retina Display Mid-2012) appeared first on All About Apple Laptops.