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Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it". Wow. This is like saying "the iPad i

Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it". Wow. This is like saying "the iPad is just a tablet you can touch." You're completely trivializing the rMBP's benefits. It's not just "slightly slimmer," it's a 15" laptop that weighs 4.6 pounds. I see one laptop in that range (Sony Vaio S series), and it has an i5 and a spinning platter. A "higher resolution" is also too hand-wavey, since the screen has 220 ppi. I couldn't find a 15" screen that comes within 80 ppi of that mark. [0] Apple's ridiculous marketing ("the most magical, splendiferous touchscreen device since the last touchscreen device we produced!") can be too much, but, I mean...have you used one of these? They're amazing in person--it weighs less than my 13" MBP, the screen is infinitely nicer, and apps launch so fast...[1] [0] http://sortable.com/find-laptops/high-PPI-laptops-15-to-16-screens http://sortable.com/find-laptops/high-PPI-laptops-15-to-16-s... [1] Granted, I don't have a SSD in my laptop, but still.

Tichy 14y ago
I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before? For what it's worth, I think broad availability of capable netbooks for 300$ was probably more of an evolutionary jump. Or things like the Rhaspberry PI - those things open up new use cases. Like, it makes a difference if everybody can afford to buy a notebook instead of a desktop PC, because it makes mobile computing take off (in turn leading to localized services).
- achompas 14y ago
  I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before? You're doing it again. Do any of those machines have a quad-core CPU with SSD, 8GB RAM, a 220 ppi screen, and ~7 hours of battery life? I'm not arguing that the rMBP is revolutionary or magical or whatever, but give it it's due: this is a uniquely practical and powerful machine. I'm sure you've used sub-4lb laptops before, but I bet none of them posted Geekbench scores over 7000, much less 13000. [0] [0] http://www.maclife.com/article/features/benchmarking_macbook_pro_retina_display http://www.maclife.com/article/features/benchmarking_macbook...
xtractinator 14y ago
I've used one, it's just a laptop. Granted, I like to toot my own horn too, and my machines are no slouch so the performance benefit of SSD and high resolution was not something that was new to me. I have a new iPad and the 220 ppi is completely wasted on white space and sharp fonts. It offers no usability benefits in my experience. I don't do any media work. I hate to be that "640k should be enough for anyone" guy but I'm not seeing much benefit to having all these extra pixels. Even if you did do some kind of high-detail image editing, you'd zoom in... Now if it could run games at this resolution, that would be another story, but it can't. So who cares.

Tichy 14y ago

I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before? For what it's worth, I think broad availability of capable netbooks for 300$ was probably more of an evolutionary jump. Or things like the Rhaspberry PI - those things open up new use cases. Like, it makes a difference if everybody can afford to buy a notebook instead of a desktop PC, because it makes mobile computing take off (in turn leading to localized services).

achompas 14y ago
I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before? You're doing it again. Do any of those machines have a quad-core CPU with SSD, 8GB RAM, a 220 ppi screen, and ~7 hours of battery life? I'm not arguing that the rMBP is revolutionary or magical or whatever, but give it it's due: this is a uniquely practical and powerful machine. I'm sure you've used sub-4lb laptops before, but I bet none of them posted Geekbench scores over 7000, much less 13000. [0] [0] http://www.maclife.com/article/features/benchmarking_macbook_pro_retina_display http://www.maclife.com/article/features/benchmarking_macbook...

xtractinator 14y ago

I've used one, it's just a laptop. Granted, I like to toot my own horn too, and my machines are no slouch so the performance benefit of SSD and high resolution was not something that was new to me. I have a new iPad and the 220 ppi is completely wasted on white space and sharp fonts. It offers no usability benefits in my experience. I don't do any media work. I hate to be that "640k should be enough for anyone" guy but I'm not seeing much benefit to having all these extra pixels. Even if you did do some kind of high-detail image editing, you'd zoom in... Now if it could run games at this resolution, that would be another story, but it can't. So who cares.