MacBook Pro customer Beau Hodges has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple because customers have no way of telling which MacBooks had an LG display monitor at the time of purchase. When the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display was launched in June, there was a large number of complaints from customers that experienced issues with the screen.
Today Apple has announced a new version of the MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro has a Retina display and all flash storage. The 13-inch MacBook pro is 0.75 inches thin and weighs 3.57 pounds. The MacBook Pro is 20% thinner and a pound lighter than the current 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Mike H of Other World Computing wrote a blog post that shows his awesome workspace setup that he put together after buying a 15″ MacBook Pro with the built-in Retina Display. He is running four displays at their native resolution. When he moved images and media, there was not any lag. In case you were looking for a reason why you should buy the MacBook Pro, this is a pretty good reason why. This is how he set it up:
- Retina on laptop @ “best for Retina”
- iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt
- iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
- LG monitor @ 1920 x 1200 via HDMI
If you buy a MacBook Pro with Retina Display, you will NOT be happy to hear that replacing the battery after your warranty or AppleCare expires will cost $199. The 95-watt battery in the MacBook Pro with Retina Display will see a $70 increase from the price of $129 that Apple charges for battery replacements on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
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iFixit has disassembled the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The insides of the MacBook Pro are similar to the MacBook Air. The RAM of the MacBook Pro is soldered to its logic board, which means that you will be stuck with whatever amount you get at point of purchase. Apple is also using proprietary screws and Flash memory. The battery is affixed using glue rather than screws. This makes it more difficult to replace because it is right above a fragile trackpad cable. The fan has asymmetric blade spacing to reduce the noise and components are made by Samsung. It has a 95Wh battery at 10.95V compared to the 77.5Wh that was in laptops previously. There is a pair of Broadcom chips with 802.11n dual-band wireless support and Bluetooth 4.0.
At WWDC Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller said that Apple’s new MacBook Pros would start shipping immediately. However buyers are reporting today that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display will not start shipping for another 2-3 weeks. It is unknown whether Apple sold out of these units or if this was because of a miscommunication. FYI: Amazon is offering the MacBook Pro for $5 off.
At WWDC, Apple announced a new line of MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros that have Retina Display with 2880×1800 resolution (220 ppi). The MacBook Pro is 0.71-inches thin and weighs 4.46 pounds. The new laptops will have high contrast ratios, better angels, and reduced glare. The MacBook Pros have 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA Kepler GT 650M graphics, quad-core 2.7GHz Core i7 processor, 768GB of storage (SSD), and seven hours of battery life. The laptops have Ethernet, FireWire 800 ports, USB 3.0 ports, a pair of Thunderbolt inputs, and one HDMI port. The price starts at $2,199 for a 2.3GHz unit with 8GB of RAM and 256GM of storage.
Rumor has it that a new line of MacBook Pro laptops will arrive this summer. The new MacBook Pros are expected to have an ultra-thin design, Retina Display, and USB 3.0. The 15-inch model will not have an optical disc drive and the power button will take the place of the eject key on the keyboard. The processor will be powered by Intel’s new Ivy Bridge line.
