Apple's MacBook Pro is proof why the basic Macbook now rests in the recycling heap. Featuring a new Retina Display and overhauled guts can't hurt when your only other competition is a fellow Apple product, the Macbook Air.
The Verge already can see the selling point:
"The premiere feature, however, is clearly the Retina Display, which packs a a 2880 x 1800 screen into 15.4 inches, which adds up to 220 ppi.The new Macbook weighs under 4.5 lbs, making it the lightest Pro laptop Apple has ever produced."
A physical hard drive is out with the new flash hard drive boasting 768 GB--on the normal MacBook only, not Retina--and a quad-core Intel processor (i5 or i7 processor depending on the price). Did we mention the weight and size? Because it's barely an inch thick. The lack of optical drive has turned the Pro into a literal shadow of its former self at 0.71 inches. It may as well advertise itself as sentient newspaper. But what's the display mean? Basically you can now view 2880 x 1880 on your laptop, which blows away most HD TVs and former displays. Pixels will be a thing of the past.
On the physical side,there's only eight ports: two for Thunderbolt, a USB 2/3 slot, headphones, SD card, HDMI input and smaller MagSafe 2 for charging. Or as Gizmodo points out, "That means more space for the super skinny next gen MacBook Pros, but it also means you've got to go out and buy new chargers if you use more than one. Worth the tradeoff? Probably. That won't make your wallet feel any better about it."
And with no optical drive, that means no DVD burning or watching unless you cough up the $78 for an external optical drive. Hope you like Netflix and Hulu!
But we can't contest that the next-gen MacBook Pro is the best thing ever. It literally is.
And it started shipping today. Go on. The biggest obstacle in your way? The price tag. Starting price: $2,199.00
At least the Macbook Airs are still "affordable"(ish) at $999.00.
edit: clarified on Retina vs. normal display and the typo on the Macbook Pro with Retina display's price!
