13 inch rMBP

Soo I hear the macbook pro 13 inch with retina displays are coming out in october can anyone estimate the price and the specs?

You're asking for an impossibility. You might be able to find some possible specs if they show up on benchmark test sites, beyond that my best guess is ivy bridge, w/ usb3, probably a similarly spec'd CPU (a few higher in the MHz) to what's in there now. HD4000 video.

In terms of price, if they follow what they did with the 15" Mac Pro then there might be 2 versions of the 13" available, one with a superdrive and no retina for about the same base price as now and one with retina without super drive non-upgradeable after purchase for some higher dollar cost.

No one will be able to give you a good accurate answer until the new laptops hit the streets. People can only guess.

Retake said:

Soo I hear the macbook pro 13 inch with retina displays are coming out in october can anyone estimate the price and the specs?

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You're reacting to rumors. Officially a 13" retina MacBook Pro does not exist. Until Apple announces it...it does not exist.

And if it does not exist...then there is no way to have any purposeful discussion related to price...other than it will cost less than a 15" retina MacBook Pro.

- Nick

Retake said:

Soo I hear the macbook pro 13 inch with retina displays are coming out in october can anyone estimate the price and the specs?

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We don't know this to be true of course, but here you go:

1. Cheaper than a 15-inch RMBP.

2. With fewer features.

Nethfel: the non-Retina MBP 13-inch already exists.

Nethfel said:

You're asking for an impossibility. You might be able to find some possible specs if they show up on benchmark test sites, beyond that my best guess is ivy bridge, w/ usb3, probably a similarly spec'd CPU (a few higher in the MHz) to what's in there now. HD4000 video.

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I'm going to imagine that if there is a 13" RMBP, the specs would be slightly different from that. I only say this because those are the specs for the current generation of 13" MBPs.

chas_m: Yes, I know - if you noticed, I didn't say the current non retina didn't have those things, just stating what I am guessing the retina version will be - basically about the same as what's there now except for maybe a faster CPU and no superdrive and that they would maintain a dual model configuration - one with retina and one without.

vansmith: I honestly don't think it'll be much different. I only say that because the retina vs non-retina of the 15" isn't very different spec wise - default SSD vs non-SSD, retina vs non-retina, one more thunderbolt port, one has a super drive the other doesn't. CPU options are the same. RAM may be different at the store, but the non-retina can be upgraded to 16gig after market. I'd hope the 13" retina would have a dedicated GPU vs only having the integrated, but considering Apple has kept the 13 integrated this long I have doubts they would change that but may change the CPU itself to give it some more processing power.

Nethfel said:

vansmith: I honestly don't think it'll be much different. I only say that because the retina vs non-retina of the 15" isn't very different spec wise - default SSD vs non-SSD, retina vs non-retina, one more thunderbolt port, one has a super drive the other doesn't. CPU options are the same. RAM may be different at the store, but the non-retina can be upgraded to 16gig after market. I'd hope the 13" retina would have a dedicated GPU vs only having the integrated, but considering Apple has kept the 13 integrated this long I have doubts they would change that but may change the CPU itself to give it some more processing power.

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You could very well be right especially since the time difference between the releases would be relatively short.

What's interesting is why Apple didn't choose to release them for the back to school sale.

Perhaps when they tested the retina with solely the HD4000 it proved to be too poor of performance? Or if they did put a dedicated GPU in it that they didn't want to harm sales of the 15" (since it seems a lot of people like the 13" size) - I don't know, but I agree that it's an interesting topic that I'd like to know more on myself - I'd think that Apple would want to get out any/all new laptops prior to the back to school sale to really get a sales push (I can only imagine that laptops sell better then desktops during the BTS sales)... Bummer we'll never find out the truth but if I could be a fly on the wall @ apple during a meeting to find out I'd jump at that chance

Nethfel said:

Perhaps when they tested the retina with solely the HD4000 it proved to be too poor of performance?

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Ah, but the retinas come with the HD4000 (along with a GeForce GT 650M). If a 15" screen can be managed by the HD4000, I imagine the 13" can as well.

Nethfel said:

I'd think that Apple would want to get out any/all new laptops prior to the back to school sale to really get a sales push (I can only imagine that laptops sell better then desktops during the BTS sales)

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Speaking as a student, I can tell you that the number of notebooks vastly outnumbers the number of desktops. In fact, it's not even close. So, you're very much right in that respect.

vansmith said:

Ah, but the retinas come with the HD4000 (along with a GeForce GT 650M). If a 15" screen can be managed by the HD4000, I imagine the 13" can as well.

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True, but it can switch to the 650M when it determines that the work load is too high for the HD4000 so there is supposedly a failsafe there should the 4000 become overwhelmed (which honestly either the 650 can't keep it up either or the 4000 is a bit overwhelmed judged on the desktop FPS that anandtech saw in their testing of the laptop)

Most games will also push enough to always use the 650. Granted most people don't use their Macs for gaming systems, but many do for casual gaming - on a non-retina, the HD4000 would be ok for some games but on retina it would just be a wasted effort I'd think. I'll be honest, I game quite a bit on my non-retina MBP and it works very well (have to sacrifice resolution and/or texture quality, but I can deal with that) even with more demanding games. I've even played Diablo III (Win7) on my MBA 11" - it wasn't going to win any medals in terms of FPS, but it was playable at a lower res/quality settings. I'm just not sure how the low resolution that the HD4000 would require to play those games would look on a retina (would it look really splotchy from the upscaling?)

Speaking as a student, I can tell you that the number of notebooks vastly outnumbers the number of desktops. In fact, it's not even close. So, you're very much right in that respect.

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I'd believe it. Although I work for a school, it's a technical school and students rarely bring in their own laptops due to the way the classes are setup so I can't really judge based on what I see here - my entire assumption was on the idea that who likes to lug a desktop to school to have in the dorm room and be tied to ones dorm while working (I remember those days where I had my desktop in my dorm or apartment, there were times I would have loved to have had a portable device to take to the library just couldn't afford it )

no matter what tho - since Apple will obviously be going the direction of the retina, one will have to see how they overcome GPU limitations as they push for higher and higher resolutions.

Nethfel said:

True, but it can switch to the 650M when it determines that the work load is too high for the HD4000 so there is supposedly a failsafe there should the 4000 become overwhelmed (which honestly either the 650 can't keep it up either or the 4000 is a bit overwhelmed judged on the desktop FPS that anandtech saw in their testing of the laptop)

Most games will also push enough to always use the 650. Granted most people don't use their Macs for gaming systems, but many do for casual gaming - on a non-retina, the HD4000 would be ok for some games but on retina it would just be a wasted effort I'd think. I'll be honest, I game quite a bit on my non-retina MBP and it works very well (have to sacrifice resolution and/or texture quality, but I can deal with that) even with more demanding games. I've even played Diablo III (Win7) on my MBA 11" - it wasn't going to win any medals in terms of FPS, but it was playable at a lower res/quality settings. I'm just not sure how the low resolution that the HD4000 would require to play those games would look on a retina (would it look really splotchy from the upscaling?)

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Oh, I have no doubt believing that the HD4000 will struggle when it comes to accommodating certain retina based tasks. I only brought that up as a means of suggesting that retina based displays are possible with the HD4000 and, given that the 13" MBP is for all intents and purposes a MB, I'm sure Apple could spin it as being suitable. Will it? Who knows.

I'm actually surprised at how decent the HD4000 is in the new MBPs. It's lagged a few times in SC2 for me at medium settings but other than a few glitches, it's performed reasonably well.

Nethfel said:

I'd believe it. Although I work for a school, it's a technical school and students rarely bring in their own laptops due to the way the classes are setup so I can't really judge based on what I see here - my entire assumption was on the idea that who likes to lug a desktop to school to have in the dorm room and be tied to ones dorm while working (I remember those days where I had my desktop in my dorm or apartment, there were times I would have loved to have had a portable device to take to the library just couldn't afford it )

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I'd never get anything done with a desktop since my apartment is the worst place to work. Plus, having a computer on campus means that I can bring it to lectures and/or meetings. I have no idea how I'd manage with a desktop but to be fair, I have no idea how to use card systems at the library and I have no idea how people managed writing extensive papers without some sort of word processor.

Oh man now I don't know if I want the 15" RMBP if the 13" may be coming out so soon. I was thinking of getting the MBA 13" but I really talked myself into getting the RMBP. Hmm. I'll keep an eye out for information between now and the time I will be able to purchase one (when I get some money)..

No one knows for sure if there is even going to be a Retina 13" MBP let alone trying to figure out how much it's going to cost. ;P

I understand that. I keep wondering if a 13" screen would be too small for me. I'm used to my 17.3" screen on my laptop but I used to use a 15" laptop and never had problems with it being too small. So I guess I'll play it safe and buy the current rMBP. No sense waiting on something that may not suit me very well. I like my screen real estate.

What boggles my mind is how I used to always "hate" apple even though I knew practically nothing about the company or OS. I wonder what changed in my thinking that made me decide to switch. I decided to switch to Mac OS X just a few months ago, if that. I really had no buffer area where I was thinking about Apple or did research or anything. I think part of my thought is that since I love the Unix environment so much, used various linux distributions since 2002 with very little Windows usage in that time frame and I know that OS X is unix-based so when I had to switch to Windows for college I decided enough of this, I want a compatible operating system for school BUT do NOT want Windows. So I guess that spurred my need or want of OS X. I don't mind learning new ways of doing things. In fact I rather enjoy it. It will take quite a while for me to get used to clicking the max/min/close buttons on the top left of the screen instead of the right side but I'm sure I'll get used to it in time.

Is it possible to have mac os x automatically turn off the trackpad when an external mouse is in use? I know that in Windows you have to find a program to do that for you. I've never been a trackpad lover because when it's on the mouse jumps around the screen, closes windows accidentally and whatnot when I'm typing. So I'd prefer to use my Logitech mouse if possible. Any thoughts on that?

If I were you I'd go to a store (Apple if you have one close or Best Buy or if you live in a city that has a Mac Authority in it) and really play with the different models (air 11, air 13, MBP 13, MBP 15) and get a real feel for what size you will be comfortable with.

In terms of disabling - yes you can. In Snow leopard and higher (lion and presumably mountain lion, I haven't looked at my preference panel on it recently) you can disable the built in trackpad when a mouse or wireless trackpad is present. You go into System Preferences -> Universal Access -> Mouse & Trackpad and click the Trackpad Options - there is a checkbox in the dialog that allows you to select to "Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present"

Well the only problem with that for me is I have a bad back and can't stand for very long. So I use the internet most of the time to buy products. Someone else in my family buys the groceries for us. So going to a physical store would not work for me unfortunately. So it's all a guessing game for me. I really want the retina model so I will most likely buy the rMBP. It's not big enough I don't think or heavy enough for me to worry about taking it somewhere such as on a long car ride (we'll be moving across country sometime soon) or to a wifi hotspot.

Plus that laptop is probably almost 1/2 the weight of my current dell 17". I plan on having that computer at least through college which could be a total of about 6 years. So I do want the Pro since it's more powerful and I will be running Dreamweaver, Photoshop and other apps that are resource heavy though I'm not sure how resource heavy dreamweaver is. I've never used it. So I'm thinking ahead. I don't need an ultra slim notebook such as the Air. I'd be afraid I'd break it. lol I can't wait to see what an HD video loks like on the retina model.. I think it'll be so nice to have. Now I can't decide if I should buy the superdrive or not. I don't really use that many CD's or DVD's on my laptop. Maybe to burn a backup of files but that's it. I'll be using iCloud once I get my MBP. I still do have my 8gig thumb drive.So that could work for transferring between my dell and the MBP.

On the general discussion: the Intel HD 4000 or whatever they're using currently in not-Retina MacBooks appears (by all accounts, I haven't used one) to be a fine choice for non-hardcore gamers. I suspect, however, that the Retina 13" would require a low-end but discrete video card, we'll have to see.

xdunlapx: congrats! Yes, there is a setting in Lion to tell OS X to ignore the trackpad entirely when a mouse is in use. It's just hard to find (bad Apple! BAD!). It's under Universal Access, Mouse and Trackpad, Trackpad Options. Hopefully Mountain Lion will make that a tad more obvious (it used to be more obvious under SL, it just got shuffled around in favor of the videos in the Mouse and Trackpad panels in Lion).

Aha, thanks I'll be sure to remember that when I get my rMBP. Thanks! It's good to know that that is an option for me without having to install yet another app. Haha