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Say goodbye to 15in Non-retina MBP

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While thats fine for people that have no need for them but I rip my CD's to lossless and having to buy a USB optical drive is just more things to clutter the desk and IMO they retired it to early and some would have wanted a BD drive but that will never happen.
Now if they offered lossless selections in iTunes I might never miss my optical drive.

Whoops, I meant a USB thumb drive. 64GB can be had for $25-30. I can plug that into my car/home stereo/TV/other computers/etc. Same goes for movie rips. Easily downloaded, transferred to thumb drive, then plugged into the TV.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
15" rMBP Mid-2014 ~ iPad 4 16GB ~ iPhone 6 Plus 16GB
I think that many folks agree on around 3 years being a good number. But I think 3-5 years probably encompasses a large majority of users.

I'm typically on a 3 year replacement cycle for laptops - that is until I bought my current 2011 MBP. I have a feeling this one will have legs for another 2-3 years. In the next year, I will probably go with a 480GB SSD and maybe replace the battery and go to 16GB, but for now, it has plenty of horsepower for my needs.

Thanks guys. About 3 is what I'm on as well, but with these interesting new OS developments it's going to be interesting to see if the cycle can be lengthened.
 
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MacBook Pro M1 Pro - 16 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD - macOS Monterey
What's getting me about the rMBP is the lack of/price of storage space.

RAM? Two hundred extra bucks up front, okay. That's reasonably priced compared to the market for upgradable RAM on Newegg.

DVD drive? I'll miss it, but I'll find a way.

Display? It's nice. I like it quite a bit.

Storage? EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR ONE TERABYTE OF STORAGE. EIGHT. HUNDRED. That's obnoxious. I'm not lugging around a portable hard drive just to carry the things I need. You hamper the portability of the machine, and might as well get an iMac at that point.

So, I bought a Mid-2012 MBP before the announcement, knowing it was probably gonna disappear after that. Put a big ol' hybrid hard drive in it. Upped the RAM to 8GB. It's great. The best machine I've owned.

I got almost 7 years out of my old MacBook, I'll hopefully get at least five out of this new MacBook Pro. At that point, maybe SSD storage costs will come down and I'll be able to get 2TB in there for a reasonable price. Until then, I'm just not interested in the rMBP. It's not prime time for SSDs. Not quite yet.
 

cwa107


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It's not prime time for SSDs. Not quite yet.

How do you figure? I would have agreed with you 2 years ago, but modern SSDs are reliable, the pricing is really starting to come down (under $1/gigabyte) and drives from mainstream vendors are pretty solid from a reliability standpoint.

$800 for 1TB from Apple is ridiculous, but then, they've never priced storage reasonably. I still find it laughable that a 32GB iPad is a $100 premium over 16GB. When a 32GB flash drive is $20, that's just ridiculous.
 
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How do you figure? I would have agreed with you 2 years ago, but modern SSDs are reliable, the pricing is really starting to come down (under $1/gigabyte) and drives from mainstream vendors are pretty solid from a reliability standpoint.

$800 for 1TB from Apple is ridiculous, but then, they've never priced storage reasonably. I still find it laughable that a 32GB iPad is a $100 premium over 16GB. When a 32GB flash drive is $20, that's just ridiculous.

Oh, I meant specifically for Apple's pricing, since they're a "non-user serviceable part".

On the whole they're getting cheaper, I still think they're overpriced to all heck, but definitely not like they were a few years back.
 

dtravis7


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MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Oh, I meant specifically for Apple's pricing, since they're a "non-user serviceable part".

On the whole they're getting cheaper, I still think they're overpriced to all heck, but definitely not like they were a few years back.

See that is the issue with the new MBP and Air and even Mac Pro.. You are stuck with some proprietary drive that you at least for now have no way around the high price.

You were very smart Derek getting that last model Normal MBP when you did. It should last you a long time to come.
 
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See that is the issue with the new MBP and Air and even Mac Pro.. You are stuck with some proprietary drive that you at least for now have no way around the high price.

You were very smart Derek getting that last model Normal MBP when you did. It should last you a long time to come.

Thank you! The fact that I just now started to feel the pinch on a base-model C2D MacBook from 2007 says that this machine probably won't feel cramped for quite some time. Definitely glad I upgraded when I did. Finally got the machine I wanted in the first place, haha.
 

dtravis7


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That is cool. I am still using my C2D 2007 Santa Rosa Macbook like yours. Still works great, just the typical cracks around the trackpad area.
 
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L2012 Mini, i7 2.6Ghz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD(fusion), BenQ 32" 2.5k QHD Display
See a lot of post about users not liking the Retina MBP? I thought this would be a sought out upgrade. While I would like the 17" model, the 15" retina offers more screen real-estate. As a amateur photographer. The retina displays are just amazing and something I would want if getting a MBP. Though I suspect pricing is the reason they dropped the 17" models in favor of 15". Perhaps when manufacturing cost on the displays drop they will re introduce a 17" model with retina display.

EDIT:
Noticed the issue is more with the storage.. Yea.. Not supper thrilled about that either.. Much rather had a 1TB Samsung Revo in it and saved a ton of cash.
 
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See a lot of post about users not liking the Retina MBP? I thought this would be a sought out upgrade. While I would like the 17" model, the 15" retina offers more screen real-estate. As a amateur photographer. The retina displays are just amazing and something I would want if getting a MBP. Though I suspect pricing is the reason they dropped the 17" models in favor of 15". Perhaps when manufacturing cost on the displays drop they will re introduce a 17" model with retina display.

EDIT:
Noticed the issue is more with the storage.. Yea.. Not supper thrilled about that either.. Much rather had a 1TB Samsung Revo in it and saved a ton of cash.

Yep. For most of us it's entirely about having soldered in RAM and a non-standard SSD. If it had upgradable RAM and a standard, readily available from third parties SSD, we'd be all over it. It's a gorgeous machine, just, those two things are important to power users, and we're all feeling kind of ignored because of it.
 
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RavingMac

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See a lot of post about users not liking the Retina MBP? I thought this would be a sought out upgrade. While I would like the 17" model, the 15" retina offers more screen real-estate. As a amateur photographer. The retina displays are just amazing and something I would want if getting a MBP. Though I suspect pricing is the reason they dropped the 17" models in favor of 15". Perhaps when manufacturing cost on the displays drop they will re introduce a 17" model with retina display.

EDIT:
Noticed the issue is more with the storage.. Yea.. Not supper thrilled about that either.. Much rather had a 1TB Samsung Revo in it and saved a ton of cash.

In the stores, with side-by-side comparison, the Retina screen was better. But I really don't notice the loss at home, and I still have a 27in monitor when I want screen real estate.
 
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Yep. For most of us it's entirely about having soldered in RAM and a non-standard SSD. If it had upgradable RAM and a standard, readily available from third parties SSD, we'd be all over it. It's a gorgeous machine, just, those two things are important to power users, and we're all feeling kind of ignored because of it.

Yea. that would make someone not want it. Upgradability is a big thing.

I dont understand why Apple wants to make their own SSD anyway. Samsung and Intel both make very reliable SSDs. At this point in time, any drive that can hit 500MB/s transfer rates is fast enough that the only thing that would notice it being faster is a benchmark tool.

I understand this reason to do this on the MBA series (ultra thin), they are affordable enough that one can live with say 4GB DRAM and say a 128GB SSD for the life of the computer. But MBP series is much more costly and users need to be able to keep those investments going until they have paid for themselves. This can mean the user will need some level of upgradability. Toting a external HDD around the size of the brick to store your files is not "upgradability" IMHO.

I understand CPU being fixed or soldered into the system board. But users always want to upgrade RAM and drive space at a later date. Just when MS was making users turn away from PCs with Win8. Apple does something like this to force them to go back to that mess..

Despite what Apple thinks the reason their computer market share has grown, its not what Apple has done, its what MS did wrong..

IMHO,
Joe
 
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Yea. that would make someone not want it. Upgradability is a big thing.

I dont understand why Apple wants to make their own SSD anyway. Samsung and Intel both make very reliable SSDs. At this point in time, any drive that can hit 500MB/s transfer rates is fast enough that the only thing that would notice it being faster is a benchmark tool.

I understand this reason to do this on the MBA series (ultra thin), they are affordable enough that one can live with say 4GB DRAM and say a 128GB SSD for the life of the computer. But MBP series is much more costly and users need to be able to keep those investments going until they have paid for themselves. This can mean the user will need some level of upgradability. Toting a external HDD around the size of the brick to store your files is not "upgradability" IMHO.

I understand CPU being fixed or soldered into the system board. But users always want to upgrade RAM and drive space at a later date. Just when MS was making users turn away from PCs with Win8. Apple does something like this to force them to go back to that mess..

Despite what Apple thinks the reason their computer market share has grown, its not what Apple has done, its what MS did wrong..

IMHO,
Joe

Yeah, I doubt I would go back to Windows. It's been quite some time since I've had to use a Windows PC for more than a few minutes at a time (Probably close to 7 years now. I haven't had a Windows machine for personal use since 2006, and even then only to play CounterStrike.) I've tried every iteration since XP, and they've all left me feeling cold. I know my next computer will be a Mac, I'll just have to spend more up front on it.
 
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2012 15" MBP 2.6 i7 GT 650M 16GB RAM/2012 27" iMac 3.4 i7 Radeon HD 6970M 2GB 24GB RAM
Yep. For most of us it's entirely about having soldered in RAM and a non-standard SSD. If it had upgradable RAM and a standard, readily available from third parties SSD, we'd be all over it. It's a gorgeous machine, just, those two things are important to power users, and we're all feeling kind of ignored because of it.
And no disk drive, and one switching aux in/out, and not having a graphics card standard now.... and the resolution being confusing, I mean its great for photography and supported apple aps but what else?
 
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Apple seem to be taking away CHOICE…..
Why would they do that? The beauty of using a machine/device is its flexibility - a MBP user myself.
So we now have non standard drives and and hard memory as well as no local syncing - only via iCloud.
They are beginning to paint themselves into a corner and divest themselves from a market that wants diversity in a device.
For the conspiracy theorists - perhaps the manufacturers have got together and now only provide what they want, not what the market wants, that's why people make and look for jailbreaks.
Bring on the jail-breakers!
 
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I've been putting off buying one for quite awhile. I came across a 15" non ret at our Base Exchange (store on an Air Force base). It was a display model and the only one they had. I wasn't sure if I wanted a display model. That same day I found out that the non-retinas were discontinued. The next morning I went and purchased the display model and they knocked off 10%. I was a bit irritated that if I wanted 15" I would be forced to pay over $2000 and not be able to upgrade later if I choose. I'm not sold on the "everything soldered" idea yet, nor I'm I ready to move to a smaller size SSD for more money.
 
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15" rMBP Mid-2014 ~ iPad 4 16GB ~ iPhone 6 Plus 16GB
I've been putting off buying one for quite awhile. I came across a 15" non ret at our Base Exchange (store on an Air Force base). It was a display model and the only one they had. I wasn't sure if I wanted a display model. That same day I found out that the non-retinas were discontinued. The next morning I went and purchased the display model and they knocked off 10%. I was a bit irritated that if I wanted 15" I would be forced to pay over $2000 and not be able to upgrade later if I choose. I'm not sold on the "everything soldered" idea yet, nor I'm I ready to move to a smaller size SSD for more money.

Your 15" will last you a nice long time and the dust will have settled on this new soldered/SSD/Retina thing by then. I love my 2012 15" MBP, very fast and a pleasure to work on - I'm sure you'll experience the same. On a side note, since it's a display model, why not take some edge off by getting AppleCare?
 
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I feel very sad about this development, i upgrade my 2009 13' macbook pro to mac15' non retina last august and its 5 months old honestly i dont like the mbp15' retina, i am a music person i have a library of CD ones in a while ripped those that i often played and and then delete to ease the memory HD but with mbp retina i can no longer do it...
 

cwa107


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I feel very sad about this development, i upgrade my 2009 13' macbook pro to mac15' non retina last august and its 5 months old honestly i dont like the mbp15' retina, i am a music person i have a library of CD ones in a while ripped those that i often played and and then delete to ease the memory HD but with mbp retina i can no longer do it...

Why not? All you need is a USB external CD/DVD drive, which can be had for as little as $30.
 

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