MacBook Pro with Retina Display Starts at $2199, Shipping Today

35 Comments

View All Comments

• rscoot - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Any hard specs on the resolution for the retina displays on the new MBA/Ps?

• KoolAidMan1 - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  2800x1800. That is more than the 2560x1440 on my 27" desktop display, crazy

• quiksilvr - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  That thinness comes at a price though. There is no optical drive nor Gigabit Ethernet port. You have to use a Thunderbolt adapter (fortunately they said it comes with it)

• quiksilvr - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Adapter for the Ethernet, not DVD or Blu Ray.

• inplainview - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Are you the only person in the world that doesn't know about Blu Ray on a Mac? Never going to have native support. EVER...

• KoolAidMan1 - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Native support for optical formats is going away. Windows XP through 7 also lacked native Blu Ray support, and Windows 8 is going a step further and removing native DVD playback entirely. OS X still has a DVD application even with Apple's rapid depreciation of optical drives.
  
  Obviously with both OS X and Windows you can install third party Blu Ray players, but they're all trash anyway. Unless you insist on an HTPC only, why care when the PS3 or numerous standalone players are so much better and more affordable?

• Penti - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Although licensed Blu-ray playback requires boot camp running Windows and Third party application I don't see that as a real problem. A stationary blu-ray player is now $55 dollars which is cheaper then the software for proper blu-ray playback in Windows any way (you will grow tired of none-updated oldish OEM versions). It's dvd support isn't going away. The SuperDrive is a first class peripheral optionally sold along with the computer. Nothing strange there. A external USB Blu-ray player does require Windows for licensed playback, but not to read and rip the discs. It's not going away the support is there if you really want it. You still have optical drives in the MBP 13 and 15 non-retina too.
  
  The Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter is 29 dollars, and remember two Thunderbolt ports here.
  
  Microsoft will never make their own Blu-ray player either, and it's not really Apples fault that the ISV's writing blu-ray software aren't allowed to write one for the Mac. Technically they can, but OS X wouldn't fully comply with licensing rules protecting the video and audio subsystems. If someone would preserver for that non-existing market it might be fine. You still have Blu-ray players for XP so. Licensing isn't straight forward however. They are also, which is important to differentiate here the OEM themselves and chooses not to include it. They deem it's not worth the extra 50 or so. Like most PC machines. Doesn't mean it doesn't work under boot camp. So it works on your mac if you like to do it. You can of course burn BR discs under OS X if you like. Unlicensed playback also works.

• rscoot - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  I think I've used the optical drive on my laptop about 5 times in the 2 years I've owned it, no big loss there. As long as the gigabit adapter comes with the laptop I've got no qualms there.

• KoolAidMan1 - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

  Optical drives are on the way out. I have a BR drive on my PC that I never use, I install operating systems from USB drives, and I download all my games and applications.
  
  Ancient technology that is going the way of the floppy. Optical drives add unnecessary size and weight to a laptop.

• taswallow - Sunday, October 14, 2012 - link

  Hard to believe Optical Drives are on their way out. What other recordable media to you think is coming to replace it? What will they put Movies on for all the millions of Blu-Ray and DVD players there are out there hooked to expensive 1080P TV's? So you spend all that money on the Mac Book Pro with that fabulous Retina display and you are not going to take advantage of it with a Blu-Ray player on your laptop when you are traveling for example? What a shame. I couldn't live without my optical drives on my laptop and computers. And software still comes on optical media which is preferable over downloads which often end up being corrupted or missing files. Nah, I think it will be a long time before optical drives are extinct. The only thing a Retina display or an ISP 1080P display is really needed for is gaming and watching Blu-Ray videos. You don't need it for Micrsoft Office, but it is nice to have for video and photography work but not really necessary. So, I think Apple really missed the mark by not putting a slot load Blu-Ray player/DVD-RW unit in the Mac Book Pro.
  I am buying a new laptop soon and am leaning toward the ASUS N56VZ-D571 because I can customize it exactly like I want it including an ISP 1080P screen and a Blu-Ray/DVD-RW drive. and it's only 1.5 lbs heavier. But I still like the Mac Book Pro with the Retina display.