Apple - MacBook Pro with Retina display - 15.4" Display - 16GB Memory - 512GB Flash Storage - Silver

MY USAGE • I'm excited about the purchase because it's my first laptop. I've been using Mac's since 1989. All of them desktops and towers because of my power-user needs. This MacBook Pro Retina is up to spec. • It handles Photoshop, Graphic Design apps, Video creation & playback very well. It would handle web design easily. I don't use it for gaming. So I don't know how that performs. 2.5GHz processing, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 1 to 2GB VRAM all combined make this very a fast yet quiet machine. It hasn't had to use Virtual Memory yet. It probably won't need an external scratch disk. The 2.8GHz 1TB SSD step-up model would be nice. This is more than capable. • I'm confident it can replace my old Mac Pro as a portable workstation. I can Network them in System Prefs File Sharing via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, thru a modem or router, or directly. DISPLAY & GRAPHICS • Retina Display is beautiful saturated & crisp. No backlight bleed. The glass helps contrast. It isn't so super-glossy to be too reflective in normal light. The screen is just the right size. You can connect a MiniDisplayPort or Thunderbolt-capable monitor to a Thunderbolt port for a dual or mirrored display. You can move the Dock and menu bar to one screen or the other. You can use it in clamshell mode with the cover closed. • NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M GPU w/ 2GB VRAM turns on automatically for Photoshop, iMovie, video playback. Otherwise it defaults to the Intel Iris Pro GPU w/ 1GB VRAM. Rendering is smooth and fast. • A soft cleaning cloth is included in a plastic sleeve. POWER • The Battery is rated for 8hrs. In a test, it went down from 100% (it's actually 103-105% fully charged) to 8% in 6hrs 15 min with lightweight apps. That also included 1.75 hrs of movie playback, iMovie, light Photoshop use, and occasionally a lot of apps open, and peripherals and backlit keyboard on. Otherwise it would have lasted close to as rated. It alerts you when it's on reserve power and it will shut down apps but keep System files from shutting down. • Apple's tech said there's nothing wrong with leaving it plugged in nor draining the battery. There's no need to drain it occasionally. It's pre-calibrated. Note: The Mac comes with 1yr of AppleCare and 90-days free tech support. But the battery has to be defective to be replaced. Not discharged under normal use. It should last more than that. The battery cannot be replaced. But it's rated for 1000 cycles. A cycle is when it's discharged to any percentage. Then charged to 100%. For example, 80% one day, followed by 20% the next equals one cycle. • The Finder menu shows when apps use significant energy such as Video, Graphics, and Photography. Safari with lots of tabs open can also qualify. But it normally doesn't. Wi-Fi drains any laptop's battery. Turn Bluetooth off and unplug peripherals to save battery power when not plugged in. Keep monitor brightness halfway or below. Backlit keyboard is a nice white LED. Turn it off if not plugged in. • Apple's web site tells you how to extend battery life. • The MagSafe magnetic power connector fits very tight. A small LED glows orange for charging or discharging and green when fully charged. The 3x3x1" power adapter has pieces that pop out to wrap the 4ft cord for travel. A thicker 4ft power cord with a 3-pronged plug hooks into a removable piece on the power adapter to extend the length. Otherwise a separate piece with foldable double prongs slides into place for shorter connections. I might recommend a portable surge protector for mobile use. WI-FI AND ETHERNET • High spec Wi-Fi works well. But mobile coverage can be spotty. Not the fault of the Mac. It finds locations very quickly. If locations don't show up right away then try System Prefs Network Renew DHCP Lease. • The optional Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter fits and works very well. Very reliable. OTHER PORTS • The two 3.0 USB ports are fast. Thunderbolt is faster. But this is still fast. I use a hard drive on the left and USB mouse on the right side. You can connect an optical drive like a Blu-Ray reader/writer. You need third-party software to playback Blu-Rays. HDMI connects to HDTV. Thunderbolt has better resolution for monitors. Five ports including an audio port are on the left yet all peripherals fit. Internal SDXC card reader for cameras and camcorders works fast. BUILD • Solid Aluminum build doesn't get hot. Fans don't have to turn on often. It's not too heavy. It fits in a bag perfectly. It's thinner than previous models. Which is why it doesn't have an optical drive nor Ethernet. I use the Ethernet adapter in the Thunderbolt port connected to a modem or could also be a router or Time Capsule. • Keyboard has a really nice responsive feel. Easy to type on. It's not extended with numbers on the side but you get used to it. The function keys work well with OS X 10 Yosemite's features. • Glass track pad is nice and solid. System Prefs have video clips of how to use the multi-touch. I'd use a mouse for Design, Photoshop, or Video. YOSEMITE AND APPS • OS X 10.1 Yosemite is pre-installed. You update it via About this Mac in the Finder menu. I don't like the Finder Translucency. So I went to System Prefs General > Use Dark Menu Bar and also Dock and Accessibility > Reduce Transparency. Otherwise I'm getting to like Yosemite. I read that it's best not to revert back to Mavericks since Yosemite's optimized for these latest Macs. • The iLife and iWork Suites are downloadable from the App Store icon in the Dock so you can install only the apps you need. The others are always in the App Store Purchased Tab. BlackMagic Speedtest app is provide for free to marvel at the speed of the SSD. • The installed apps include iTunes, iBooks, Maps, Reminders, Notes (both useful), Calendar (formerly iCal), Mail, Contacts, Safari, QuickTime, Activity Monitor, Terminal, Disk Utility, FaceTime (The Mac has a web cam), Messages, App Store, GameCenter, and other Apple standards. • Apple Mail can send and receive gmail and others. Look at Help menus for correct account settings. • I haven't used iCloud or AirDrop. But they're accessible from the Finder Sidebar. • Spotlight is easier to use. • Notifications from apps like Mail and Calendar slide out from the top right. • Apps open extremely fast. Total boot time approx 45 sec. • You may have to upgrade some of your third-party apps. But most older ones released within the last few years do work. • The OS X installer can be downloaded from the App store should you need reinstall the OS or create a bootable USB with options to run Disk Utility or restore from Time Machine. Search Apple's site for instructions or call the free tech support. They answer promptly and take the time to answer all questions. • This Mac won't run OS X 10.6 which is the last OS that includes Rosetta for legacy Power PC apps. But it will run it on this Mac with third-party virtual software and doesn't require rebooting. CONCLUSION • Bottom line if you need power, speed, and a top notch display that also can be used with another monitor, then this fits the bill. If you use a lot of apps that don't need the processing power, lots of RAM, or dual GPU's, then get the lower spec models. • Great Open Box Geek Squad Certified price was less than online retailers even including tax. I received a fair amount of Rewards points. 15-day return or exchange period from the time you receive it is piece of mind. Buy with confidence. I hope this info helps. It's the type of info I like to read from actual owners. • I'm very pleased with my purchase.

This is my 2nd MacBook Pro 15" -- it replaces my first, which had served me pretty well for nearly 6 years, but was showing its age by struggling more and more to keep up with editing my ever larger camera RAW image files. When I saw the latest version on a slight sale, and BestBuy matched that, I knew I had to jump on it. Major changes from my original MacBook Pro really make this a knock out. The Retina display is fantastic -- software built to take advantage of it (Lightroom 5, for example) are just amazing to look at and work in, with larger effective working spaces, and dramatically better-looking image thumbnails; I was actually motivated to go back into my image archives and edit some photos I'd skipped over before, just because the higher resolution on this screen gave me a much crisper view of what the image looked like. Software that isn't optimized to use Retina, still works - but doesn't "look as good" as software that leverages Retina. (Such as my older Photoshop 4 -- the images all lose their crispness compared to Lightroom5, so it becomes a little harder to tell how much of any editing effects (in PS4) I might want to do, since I don't feel like I get a full, accurate visual representation, compared to Lightroom5. As a result, I find myself trying to do as much as possible in Lightroom5; I may opt to buy Elements13 just to get a Retina-enabled photo editor... Also notably changed from before -- 16g RAM (vs. the standard 4 I had originally, which I'd later upgraded to 8) definitely helps run these heavy programs like Lightroom & PS, even simultaneously, which was not really workable on the old machine. Perhaps the most amazing difference in daily use, is the Solid State hard drive. For comparison, Lightroom5 takes about 50 seconds to fully launch (the first time), on my old, spinning-hard-drive MacBook. On the new one with SSD, it launches in just under 6 seconds. This new model eliminates an internal CD/DVD drive -- which I rarely used before, so I don't miss it... but that elimination makes this laptop even thinner and lighter before -- which is a subtle, but very impressive enhancement, once you were accustomed to carrying the older, heavier model. This new model has a Thunderbolt port, giving up the previous FireWire port of my old one -- which meant I needed to buy a separate accessory -- a converter from Thunderbolt to FireWire, since my older external hard drive was FireWire and USB2 only. On the topic of connections, there are only 2 USB connections on the laptop (both are USB3 however) -- I'm pretty sure my old laptop had 3 USB connections, and I find myself wishing I had a third -- so a USB port multiplier might be another accessory purchase I need to make soon. There are 2 Thunderbolts too. Beyond that, everything else is pretty much standard, high-quality, well-finished Apple design. I never regretted my switch from PC to Mac about 6 years ago, and this laptop continues to make me happy with the choice.

Although this notebook is quite expensive, it offers only the best quality both for hardware and software. The 2.5 GHz Haswell Processor and PCI Flash Storage accomplish almost all tasks instantly. Boot up time is less than 10 seconds and there is no slow down immediately after boot up. The Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics chip is quite capable, with the higher power NVIDIA chip only necessary when playing graphically demanding 3D games (even then, Iris Pro can handle some less demanding 3D games). Apple is second-to-none when it comes to build quality. From the aluminum unibody design to the multi-touch glass trackpad and backlit keyboard, the notebook screams quality. The Retina display is something to behold, with text appearing razor sharp and images/video rendering gorgeously. Finally, the included operating system, OS X Mavericks works great; there really is a tremendous advantage to using a notebook whose designer (Apple) built both the hardware and the software. The only drawbacks are the lack of an optical drive and ethernet port, but honestly, these really aren't too critical anymore. By eliminating these ports, Apple has made the laptop incredibly thin and light. The battery life is also pretty good (I can manage around 6-8 hours on a full charge). If you have the budget, there is no better notebook.

My employer reimbursed me for this laptop and I originally intended to install Windows directly on it but after reading that Mac OS' power management is a lot better than Windows' power management on this laptop, I decided to tough it out and try to get used to Mac OS. For about the first 2 weeks I had to relearn how to do many tasks that I commonly perform as a software engineer. I have to say, there were dozens of instances in which the Mac was NOT AT ALL intuitive, and I had to search online and/or get help from coworkers who had been using Macs for years. In several cases, what I wanted to do either wasn't possible or required a hack which only halfway worked or introduced even worse problems. This is a great laptop, and I've even managed to switch from Windows to Mac more easily than I thought. It's still annoying that dozens of keyboard shortcuts that I've memorized either work differently, don't work at all, or are extra annoying to use on the laptop's built-in keyboard. I really wish Apple had included a NumPad and Home pad instead of putting the speakers on either side of the keyboard. That's my biggest gripe, hardware-wise. I used the Del key all the time on my PC, and I still use it on my external keyboard. But I have to use Fn+Delete (which is actually Backspace) to perform the same action on the MacBook Pro. Even when I do have an external keyboard plugged in, Home and End don't work correctly. I still use Windows in a VM for some things, and some keyboard commands get captured by Mac OS instead of getting sent to Windows, which is annoying. There are a lot of other annoyances, too, but overall the laptop is pretty well designed. I like the screen, the light weight, incredible touchpad and gestures, and the awesome battery life. I also really like the "spaces" concept although there is still room for improvement. I still don't think I could have afforded to buy this laptop myself if I wasn't being reimbursed, but I think there are a few things I would miss if I switch back to a non-Apple laptop, like "spaces" and the awesome battery life and touchpad. If and when that day comes, it'll be a tough call.

So, after many years of debating and a lot of back and forth from friends on why I should or why I shouldn't join the cult, I gave in and purchased a MacBook Pro 15" with Retina display. Let me tell you, this is a life altering decision. If you're contemplating jumping over to the dark side(or bright side as I consider it now), do it. Just do it and get it over with. You'll never be happier. Granted, I'd been a 4x Dell owner and I'm typing this on my old Dell because I'm at work and my MacBook is at home relaxing on the couch. The Dell's served me well, not going to deny that one bit. But with the Dell computers I got a lot of junk programs I didn't need, thus having to uninstall them and/or reinstall Windows, it was a pain in the rump. The power of the Mac is phenomenal. Mostly I use it for running Adobe Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC. No waiting after making an adjustment with the slider before making another, no freezing while waiting for changes to occur and I look cool when sitting at Starbucks editing photos despite the fact I'm a 6'3", bald powerlifter with a beard that couldn't get his arms in a pair of skinny jeans let alone a leg. Transferring files over from the Windows machine was a breeze and the programs for the most part have no issues running Word or Excel files. Yes, this was a little bit more expensive than a Dell of comparative stature, but it is thinner and thus taking up a lot less room in my gear bag when going on a shoot. If you're debating it, just make the jump, it is a great piece of Chinese/Japanese/Whateverese made machine and it looks cool. I mean after all, image is everything. Plus it works.

Mixed feelings? Love the retina display monitor and instant on feature of the cool running solid state HD. It's nice not to worry about battery life so much now. The Safari does hang up if too many pages are open making it a questionable multi-task search engine. I'm trying to stay loyal to Safari vs Chrome for security reasons. 1. - Safari does not load single pages consistently - frustrating. Are my expectations too high? 2. - Chrome loads pages instantly and consistently. 3. - No back space key for easy editing - what? That means two key movements for editing. 4. - Full page scroll is not in print anywhere that I could find. I found it by accident. Unfortunately it's only one way "up". This is a handicap for me as I journal a lot with multi page resourcing. Keep in mind these comments are just what I have come across in the short time l have used the MAC book Pro. For now I boot up my old Dell right beside the MAC as a tutorial source. Makes it handy as a time saver when teething on the MAC. I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to feel I need both - a PC and the MAC - Hmm - time will tell. Hopefully this review doesn't sound critical of the MAC - - I feel both systems are good "just different". Why did I want to venture into the Apple System - - mostly because of the auto sync of the iPhone and iPad. I knew the cost would be significantly more than the PC but I wanted the "system". Only time is going to tell if the mileage of use will justify the cost. All in all - I do like the esthetics of Apple products. Would I recommend it to a friend - only after I listen to their expectations. I'm still learning so "once again" these points of interest are from short term ownership.

I love apple products. I love how they look and feel, and they have pretty much everything figured out. I upgraded to this new 15" Macbook Pro w/ Retina from my 5-year-old 15" Macbook Pro. The battery on that old thing was pretty shot, and would only last a couple hours. I was looking forward to the "up to 8 hours" of battery life I'd enjoy on my new laptop. Well... "up to 8 hours" seems a bit generous from what I've seen. It was lasting around 3 hours while checking email and online shopping with Chrome. I'm a photographer, and I expect the battery to drain much more quickly when running photoshop and editing giant files, but the "up to 8 hours" statement was made in reference to using the machine simply browsing using wifi. The "Genius-Bar" employee at the Apple Store said it was probably because I was using Chrome instead of Safari, so I've tried to do my basic browsing on Safari instead, but there are some things about the browser that I just can't stand--like when it won't load pages, claiming they can't connect to them, and then they open fine in Chrome. I ended up exchanging the initial MBP to see if I just got a bum battery, and I think the new one is a bit better (haven't timed it yet, though). I definitely haven't had my mind blown by the battery life. Maybe the upgraded specs just take a lot more out of the battery--it's a workhorse, and I love how fast everything works with the flash storage and 16GB of memory. Overall, I love it, and I have to mention that the service I received when I went through the exchange process was phenomenal. :)

The first day I got it, it was incredible ... It looked so thin and well built at the same time. It's very silent you won't hear it (unless you're playing games or really intensive apps even tho only games for me) . I had to download games in order to hear it's fans because I was like this is impossible! Truly amazing ! It's lightning fast, as you click an app it opens. and the screen overall looks great! With this laptop I can now easily see when a picture has been taken by a DSLR or HD camera vs Less quality cameras because you will see the difference easily and instantaneously. The gestures of the trackpad are great !! I can do so much with them! After a while of getting use to them, they become a big part of your daily experience and makes everything just run smoothly. The thing I like about it over Windows is that everything works flawlessly with no errors and everything looks amazing. I tried out Bootcamp on it as well and it worked great ! I have Windows 8.1 on it and it runs smooth! But OS X looks way better so I prefer it. I think I'm done with windows for now. It took me a while to master most of the functions of OS X but online tutorial videos on youtube really helped me out and if I needed help on how to do anything I just google it and the answers were always there! Thanks again Best Buy! It was an alright shopping experience! Hope this laptop lasts many years with little or no problems :)