[Robo]

0.71" thin — 25% thinner.

4.46 lbs — lighter than the current 13" MBP.

15.4" Retina Display — over five million pixels, at 2880 x 1800.

Starting at $2,199.






Well, I want one.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Robo 0.71" thin — 25% thinner. 4.46 lbs — lighter than the current 13" MBP. 15.4" Retina Display — over five million pixels, at 2880 x 1800. Starting at $2,199. Well, I want one.

Yeah... I might have to get a new laptop sooner than I thought...

[709]

Is the bezel thinner than other models? I thought it may be.

[PKIDelirium]

I'm glad I didn't get the 15" MBP with the high-res screen upgrade a few months ago for $2500...

[Robo]

Originally Posted by 709 Is the bezel thinner than other models? I thought it may be.

It sort of looks like it, right? I guess we'll have to wait for the full dimensions to be sure.

I'm pleasantly surprised that it's the same price as the high-end "classic" 15-incher. As soon as they started talking about it — how it was going to be sold alongside the old-style models, and how it had a retina display — I had it pegged at $2,499.

[Robo]

The hardware pages (but not the store) is up.

To answer your question, 709, the bezels are slightly smaller; the new model is about 5 mm less wide than the "old" design.

[drewprops]

Where's ma über-thin ThunderPoon CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive??


...

[Mugge]

Dammit! That's a fine piece of hardware.

I think the part where it really dawned on me that Steve's spirit is still very much with Apple was when I saw that part in the promo video about the asymmetric fans. Shouldn't they wobble and wear down their bearings quicker than ordinary fans. Well, I would think so, but I'm pretty sure Apple has got that issue solved somehow. And I cannot think of any other computer maker that would even think to bother with something like that.

I have a Lenovo (whatever model number) notebook at work with XP and I am beginning to outright despise it.

[Quagmire]

Is this possible that the upgrade to 16 GB is a reasonable price from Apple? Only $200( $180 for me using the edu discount).....

[Kraetos]

Apple's been setting their RAM prices reasonably for a few years now, the problem is that they only set them when there is new hardware. $200 for 16GB is reasonable now, but it's been reasonable for about 6 months and in another 6 months it'll probably drop to $100, but Apple won't follow suit.

It used to be you should never buy RAM from Apple. Now it's okay to buy RAM from Apple, but only if they just released something new. RAM prices drop so fast, if you do otherwise you're probably getting gouged.

[Quagmire]

My question now is the ram serviceable?



I don't see the RAM anywhere( if that is a view from the bottom of the MBP). I see what looks to be the SSD in the middle, but no ram.... Unless the SSD is at the left side and Apple is using desktop class ram in the MBP....

[Kraetos]

I highly doubt the RAM in the retina MBP is serviceable. If it's like the Air, it's soldered onto the logic board.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Kraetos I highly doubt the RAM in the retina MBP is serviceable. If it's like the Air, its soldered onto the logic board.

So it probably makes the $200 more possibly worth it. I don't know what I would ever need 16 GB of ram for, but with OS X gobbling more and more RAM with each release, it would be a nice future proof decision.....

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by Quagmire So it probably makes the $200 more possibly worth it. I don't know what I would ever need 16 GB of ram for, but with OS X gobbling more and more RAM with each release, it would be a nice future proof decision.....

For $200 I would certainly do it, not because I need 16GB of RAM today, but I probably will in two years, and with the new one you can't make that call down the road.

[pscates2.0]

I don't mind Apple soldering this stuff and not allowing for user RAM upgrades...if they're good about loading it up with a reasonable, useful amount from the factory. After today, nothing less than 4GB (and on certainly machines, yeah...8GB seems to be the standard).

I can't imagine ever needing more than 8GB (not anytime soon), so I'd be okay with getting a machine with that in 2012 because I tend to keep them for 4-5 years...I just wouldn't want 4GB in 2014 feeling like 2GB today, once Ocelot and new apps are released down the road.

I have a feeling the iMac is about to get welded shut on its next go-around...

[Quagmire]

Demand for it seems to be healthy. Shipping dates have slipped from 5-7 days to 7-10 days.

[PB PM]

Looks nice, but way to expensive for the specs.

[Matsu]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 I have a feeling the iMac is about to get welded shut on its next go-around...

That would be a colossal mistake. Factory sealed integration is possibly acceptable in the name of achieving class leading power/portability ratios. iPhone, iPad are good examples. The Air and MBA Retina sort of depend on the base config. But there's just no such case you can make for a desktop, even an AIO. It's defining character is one of simplicity and ease of integration, not ultimate portability. The desktop needs a modicum of serviceability - if anything the iMac needs a little user accessible door so we can get at both the RAM - four slots - and HDD/SSD.

[pscates2.0]

Well, the current iMac (all the aluminum ones, and the latter white plastic ones) don't allow user access to the hard drive as it is. And if, like the MacBook Air, a new iMac has the RAM soldered on, then there's no need for an access door if you can't change/remove/upgrade it.

Mind you, I'm not saying I agree with or like this approach (I'd like the RAM and hard drive on every Mac to be easily accessible, especially for those of us who hold onto our machines a little longer than the average bear). I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if Apple, in the pursuit of sleek, slim seamlessness just make a unibody shell with no user access. It's not a far leap, as a) RAM is all that's accessible now, and b) that could easily go the MacBook Air route if it helped them achieve a certain thinness or design.

[Matsu]

I need four RAM slots in my desktop. This thing has to last me four years and do some heavy lifting - I can easily see adding 32GB of RAM, and SSD and as much storage as possible (externally). Drives fail, I don't need the machine to be a brick if they do.

[PB PM]

I believe the current iMac can only accept 16GB of RAM (4 slots), due to the on chip controller. Not sure if the next gens chipset will support more or not. Don't expect to see user replaceable drives on the iMac, ever.

[Matsu]

My info says it will take 4 8GB modules and recognize them. The guy at our college has outfitted a few this way, though usually he stops at 24GB, so he's not tossing out good modules.

[Yontsey]

Ughhhhh....I want one. Tempted to grab one with 16gb RAM and 512SSD. It's between that and property taxes I suppose.

[Majost]

Ok, now this is awesome. From Anand's brief overview of the display:



The crazy thing supports multiple resolutions at amazingly good quality. When selecting the 1920 x 1200 option, OS X actually is rendering *that* resolution in a retina-like pixel doubled 3840 x 2400 pseudoscreen of ridiculousness. Then that retina-enabled super high res version is downsampled to the native resolution. Or in other words, the OS is still upscaling everything with retina graphics, just at a ratio of 2 to 3 instead of straight doubling. What does this mean? Retina LCDs are no longer fuzzy when emulating non-native resolutions!! Check out his images from the gallery -- all the resolutions above the 'retina' option are amazingly crisp.

Very wild.

[Moogs]

Shipping dates went to 2-3 weeks last night. Quite a few former Mac Pro users in that queue I wager.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by PB PM I believe the current iMac can only accept 16GB of RAM (4 slots), due to the on chip controller. Not sure if the next gens chipset will support more or not. Don't expect to see user replaceable drives on the iMac, ever.

Sandy/Ivy Bridge's integrated memory controller is not limited to 16GB. You can definitely install 4x8GB DIMMs and maybe even 64GB provided you're willing to dig up some 16GB DIMMs. The Retina MBP has a replaceable SSD like the MBA's and also a replaceable wireless adapter by the looks of it. I can definitely see Apple making a user accessible slot at the bottom to slide a 'blade' SSD in/out.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Eugene Sandy/Ivy Bridge's integrated memory controller is not limited to 16GB. You can definitely install 4x8GB DIMMs and maybe even 64GB provided you're willing to dig up some 16GB DIMMs. The Retina MBP has a replaceable SSD like the MBA's and also a replaceable wireless adapter by the looks of it. I can definitely see Apple making a user accessible slot at the bottom to slide a 'blade' SSD in/out.

The SSD doesn't look replaceable to me. I was wrong on my guesses. The two rows in the middle is the RAM. The SSD is below the left fan.

Via Apple.com

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Quagmire The SSD doesn't look replaceable to me. I was wrong on my guesses. The two rows in the middle is the RAM. The SSD is below the left fan. Via Apple.com

Not replaceable by who? I think that whitish thing to its right is a socket, and it really looks like the Flash chips are on a card. I'm sure it's a proprietary spec, but it sure seems like it's at least technically replaceable.

The RAM looks soldered, though

[PB PM]

The RAM on the Air has always been soldered. The flash chips are on a removable card. OWC has been selling upgrade SSDs for MBA for a few years now.

[pscates2.0]

I think it is, which is the reason Apple seems to be offering such high levels on a pro-geared machine. They knew they couldn't get away with putting 4GB of non-upgradeable RAM in a $2,200 "next-generation" machine. People would riot.

All this bodes well for the next iMac and Mac mini. The 2GB RAM days are obviously past. Thank goodness. 4GB-8GB, depending on Mac and price level, should be the new stock amounts.

Yeah, the SSD in a MacBook Air (been prowling around OWC a bit lately) is on a DIMM-looking slab (long and skinny).