Apple Drops MacBook Pro Retina, Air Prices, Improves Specs

[Guest]

@Vladislaus
Not all Macbooks comes standard with an SSD. All MBA's do and all MBP with Retina comes
with SSD as standard but the MBP non Retina all is standard with a normal harddrive.

I think that the Macbooks are very good priced right now.
But I'd like to see their desktop computers drop in price as well.
The Mac Pro needs a very big upgrade, otherwise the price needs to drop extremely.
The iMac is not too bad priced actually Apple is making the best AIO computers on the market
as far as I know but a small price drop would be nice anyway.
The Mac Mini needs to drop it's price too, not that good specs for that price even if you
count in that it's very small. Why not drop it's price with $100 and come with a SSD standard?
I think they should let you choose either a 500GB HDD or a 64GB SSD for no extra cost
since they are almost the same price if you go out and buy it yourself.

 

[SneakySnake]

[citation][nom]Vladislaus[/nom]Well the Lenovo does come with a higher resolution screen and a touch screen.[/citation]

The Lenovo's screen is 1600x900. The MBP's screen is 2560x1600.

 

[d_kuhn]

Most people I know with macs just use them for internet browsing, word processing, and other basic computing tasks.

I don't really understand why the current generation would be better for video editing. For the money you'd save getting a PC with similar specs, you could buy professional video-editing software. I guess if you work on 4K the screen resolution is better suited.

True, most people use any computer for browsing, email, word... and most of us can get by with a $600 economy model. I would never argue that Mac's aren't a 'vanity plate' for most users, but I would argue that they're capable of doing real work and can be really good at some things.

For what you get... I think the Mac is competitively priced - I know it's a lot more than many PC based systems, but you get a lot for that money. The system I ended up buying last time I shopped (last year) wasn't a Mac, but it wasn't because of price (the laptop I got was >2x more expensive than the MBP).

 

[anonymous_user]

Find me a 13" Windows laptop with 256 GB SSD (not hybrid), 8GB ram, 2Ghz 3rd gen i7 dual-core, less than 3 lbs and .75" thick, and more than 1440x900 resolution...that costs less than $1520. Let's see:

Dell = xps13, same config, 1080P screen, lesser power i7, less battery but $1599
HP = Doesn't make a comparable product, the $1099 Envy is i5, 4gb ram, heavier, thicker, 1366x768 display, 128 SSD
Lenovo = X1, same config, only avail in 14", heavier, thicker and $1673
Asus = UX32VD, same config, 1080P screen, lesser power i7, less battery, dedicated video card, keyboard issues, $1530
Samsung & Sony = Way more expensive

You can't say Macbook airs aren't a good value anymore, because somehow the PC world still doesn't have an ultrabook that will beat the high-end MB Air one price given same specs and quality hardware. These are facts folks.

Anandtech has a review on the Vizio Thin+Light CT15-A5 which looks good except its 4GB of RAM is not user upgradeable:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6543/vizio-thin-light-ct15-something-new-and-edgy

You could also wait for its successsor:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6664/vizios-new-touch-notebook-and-aio-pcs-at-ces

However it supposedly have a HD+SSD cache instead of a full SSD.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]SneakySnake[/nom]The Lenovo's screen is 1600x900. The MBP's screen is 2560x1600.[/citation]
To my knowledge the MacBook Pro isn't an ultrabook, but whatever...

 

[1zacster]

[citation][nom]guvnaguy[/nom]As if you'll notice a difference from 100MHz and 16GB of RAM....I have 8GB and rarely use even half of it[/citation]

Then you don't use a mac book pro for what's it's designed for. A very good 3D, Compositing, Visual effect system. These applications requires alot of memory, and this change is welcome. Not that I am using a macbook pro. But it's a really neat addition I suppose.

Really now? a "Really good 3d copositioning visual effects system" To me that screams something more powerful than the meager 650m for gpu acceleration and a cpu more powerful than their i3 status i5 and i5 status i7 due to how underclocked they are compared to a good workstation, something made for actually doing what you say.

 

[1zacster]

I thought media was one of the areas where people DID use macs? It used to be the Mac was king of Video editing... and while it's not as true as it once was (most tools are available on both systems), I think they're still particularly strong in that area.

Good one. A mac can't hold a candle to a 3770k 5ghz + 32gb 2133 ram + raid0 ssd