MacBook Pro Retina - why it is a bad product

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Last week, Apple updated the line of its products and introduced a new version of MacBook Pro: the Retina version. This version brings to the personal computers’ woröd the concept of ‘higher resolution’, with its display of 15.4" at a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, for a sum of 5 Millions of pixels. Cost of solution: 2199 € or,with accessories from the store, 2999 €.

This feature is really impressive and interesting for the so-celebrated 'User Experience’ Apple wants to give to its clients, but here we demonstrate this feature is just an excuse for a new money-making product.

As AnandTech reported, the resolution is amazing, but the quality of the display isn’t as good as the normal one, used on the MacBook Pro (no anti-glare), because offers darker colours and sometimes bad contrast. The interesting detail comes from the 3D benchmarking. With a game such as Diablo III, at the Retina’s resolution, the MBP Retina suffers and offers just only 20 fps. This fact should be just an alarm for those who want to use this kind of machines for 3D works at the maximum resolution: absolutely this isn’t the product good for you!

The reason of this slow performance comes from the Nvidia Optimus technology which combines the Intel HD4000 (offered by the 3rd generation of Core i5/i7) and  a Nvidia Geforce GT650M with 1 GB of VRAM. For this problem, a better graphic card would be nicer.

Another problem is the impossibility of repairing or modifying the hardware of MacBook Pro Retina, as iFixit reported: RAM benchs are soldered on the motherboard, disallowing users to make upgrades or changing the benchs with faster ones, and the SSD drive isn’t compatible with the aftermarket ones, blocking the users’ choice towards faster and cheaper drives. Also the battery is soldered, so, if it will break, basically you can’t change it. The unique way of safety for this product is to buy the (in)famous Apple Care Protection, not so cheap (around 300€) for an extension of the warranty for 3 years. Really, this is the worst commercial strategy from a Computer company as Apple is, because forces users to refer directly to their Apple Stores and disallows them to use aftermarket products. It looks like a car-vendor, who disallows you to change the tires with other types, cheaper and better: stupid or whatever?

The last, bad consideration, is about the choice of hardware: the top configuration of MacBook Pro Retina is slower than the top configuration of the MacBook Pro 'normal’: funny, really? Why don’t they used a better hardware for the Retina model? The normal model uses an HDD at 5400rpm (old fashioned!!!), while the Retina uses SSD. The normal model uses a Core i7-3770, while the Retina ones uses a Core i7-3670 (less cache and speed).

Of course, comparing this model with the older ones, it is faster, but why none is comparing yet this model of notebook with the other vendors’ ones?