Is retina display worth the extra 400 quid it would add to the price of a Macbook? My inclination is to say no but I thought I'd see if I could get any informed opinions round here .

Also before anyone says save the money and get a Dell, I can't.

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bastard monkey hands

Yes.

( in a nutshell )

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GiraffeIT.com / Installations / Support / Training
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Yes and no.

If you value a good display - and it's truly a bloody excellent display, great viewing angles, everything looks 'painted on', great colour rendition etc then that alone should be enough to sell it to you.

If you work in any kind of graphics-based medium (professional designer or hobby photographer) then it's a no brainer. Get the Retina model. The display alone will make up for the cost in day to day use.

If it's your money, and you just want something nice and powerful with decent portability for doing web browsing and office-y tasks, then TBH there's f-all wrong with a regular MBP or, if even a MBA 13" at a push. Their non-IPS/eye-popping display is still a cut above most regular notebooks you care to mention. And that extra £400 can go towards speccing it up some.

Or more realistically, banging more RAM and an SSD in there yourself, or by an authorised apple store for warranty purposes, say a week after you buy it - not something you can do with a Retina with it's soldered in RAM and custom SSD connection. And Apple upgrades on CTO are stupid expensive, FACT.

If it's a case of you have a couple of grand to throw at a laptop however, little touches the MBPr for all round use - the PC manufacturers haven't managed a decent answer yet IMHO. My problem is I can never envisage having a couple of grand to put on a laptop, so your milage may vary.

Still haven't bought the Mac I was banging on about. Was so close to, then went onto Alienware to check what laptop I could get for the same price, pulled a facial expression like
(It was something silly fast like 2gb graphics card, 16gb Ram, hard drive and SSD, i7)
So thought fvck it, I'll buy that. Then thought that I already have a gaming PC, I don't need another bloody Windows product, and I don't feel like spunking £1.5k's on a Mac.

Now I'm totally confused and might just wait till January when the new Microsoft surface tablet comes out

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Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

The retina display is worth it imo. If you can, go have a look in an Apple Store; they have a comparison screen on a RD Pro. It's not just better viewing of pics and videos; websites and documents/spreadsheets are much clearer and so you get more workspace as you can read things when you're zoomed out.

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Cheers,

Ian

Thanks for the replys chaps, I'm still not sure it's worth it. Especially as I'm already spending about that much on a copy of Logic. I might take a wander into town and see if anyone has one out to look at.

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bastard monkey hands

Dude. 4 people replied. 3 said yes and one did a Munkii and talked about what they wanted to buy but probably wont.

Seriously dude. Logic or not - get it sorted.

( and PM me once you have been to apple and got a logic quote - I might be able to beat it ... )

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GiraffeIT.com / Installations / Support / Training
Renault 5 GT Turbo and Renault R26

£400 for some software? If only there was a way to get it for free

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Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Mito Man said...

£400 for some software? If only there was a way to get it for free

We already have a dodgy copy on the imac but we're getting the macbook to be part of a portable studio/gig setup so it'd be better to have a legit copy.

I get what you're saying andy. I just can't make myself believe it's that much better .

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bastard monkey hands

My reasoning for getting a MBPR is this:

I spend most of my day looking at a screen. I also like my digital photography / Photoshop. Therefore, having the best screen I can afford isn't too much of a price to pay. Plus, after I spec'd the next best laptop (the Sony Jobbo has) it was over £1650! It wasn't that much more for the Mac!

zedleg said...

Mito Man said...

£400 for some software? If only there was a way to get it for free

We already have a dodgy copy on the imac but we're getting the macbook to be part of a portable studio/gig setup so it'd be better to have a legit copy.

I get what you're saying andy. I just can't make myself believe it's that much better .

Your real question should be, how good will HD Pron look?

As far as I am concerned at present, retina display is the ONLY reason I would ever consider an Apple product.

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