MacBook Pro Retina Review

Intro
The MacBook Pro Retina is as powerful as it is beautiful. The display is stunning, the performance is outstanding, and the experience is a pleasure. This was my first experience with a Mac and I just wish I had hopped on the Apple train a long time ago.

The Build
I purchased the base model which I spec'd up to the 2.6GHz processor, with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. The price of this spec came to $2,599 (AUD). Although I was hesitant on spending this much initially, in retrospect I am all too glad I went ahead with my purchase.
As I mentioned before, this is my first experience with a Mac, but the build quality was definitely the first stand out for me as compared to other notebooks. The body is so thin, yet so solid, yet so light. I initially was looking at purchasing the MacBook Air because of its thin and light form factor, but I needed the power of the MB Pro. I was happy they brought out this new model as it met both my needs and my wants.

The keyboard has just the right spring tension, the keys are spaced just right, and for some reason, my quality of typing has dramatically improved; coincidence? The trackpad is also a trademark feature of this machine. Its responsive, accurate and... well... just works properly. I'm still learning all of the multi finger tap/scroll gestures, but after a couple weeks use it is becoming a natural part of the experience.

That Retina Display
OK, so really when it all boils down, the main reason people are interested in this machine is usually because of the inclusion of its retina display. The first time I saw the retina display was on the iPad 3 (well really it was on the iPhone 4 but for some reason the larger screen sizes makes the images just pop off the screen). The retina display on the MB is just beautiful. I'm sure you've heard that before or if I'm not mistaken the word "gorgeous" has been thrown around a bit too. But I couldn't agree more. The retina display is so complementing when viewing high quality photos that you find yourself really appreciating every pixel you can can't see. But what I love most is reading text on this thing. Damn its sharp! I find myself forehead slapping the screen as I move closer and closer in trying my hardest to find any imperfection in the text.
You may have read that in some cases the display actually looks worse than a non-retina display as many websites are not optimized for this crazy pixel count. Well yes that's true but don't worry, its not that bad. While its not any better, it is still usable (like watching a DVD on a 1080p display (its not Bluray quality but after a while you don't seem to notice). Probably the only terrible looking thing I have come across so far is Microsoft Excel - they really need to put out a retina update some time soon.

Performance
I bought this machine for a couple of reasons. Firstly for the Mrs as she wanted a laptop/tablet which she could use to check emails, Facebook and some word processing. Secondly this was a secondary machine for me to use the Adobe suite for websites, photoshop etc. This is why I chose to spec up the MacBook just to make sure it would run nice and fast well into the future. Well guess what... it runs quick... very very quick. I just have not experienced this kind of speed before and I have always purchased the latest and greatest in PC hardware. I am usually always one step ahead of my PC. As frustrating as this can be sometimes when you're waiting for it to catch up, after a while you get used to it. But with the MacBook, it keeps up so well that it doesn't give me that opportunity anymore to be thinking ahead of time.
There are other machines out there (non-Mac) which are technically superior on paper, and you may be finding it hard to justify the MB price tag for something which (according to the raw numbers) appears slower. Let me be the one to assure you that you will not be disappointed. Speed is not an issue for this thing. Even if I opted for the base model I don't believe that speed would have been an issue whatsoever.

The Verdict
I just wish I had have got myself a Mac earlier on. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy my PC, but its just that I enjoy the Mac so much more. Even the Mrs made a comment that she loved the MB because it "just worked properly" and "did things logically". So if you are thinking of investing in one of these machines, I have to say that I am very happy I made that decision to do so. At first it felt like an expensive purchase, but now it feels like money well spent.

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