2012 macbook pro review mac#

But the left- and right-hand edges of the system accommodate enough other ports to make this possibly AppleвЂ™s best-connected mobile Mac to date. The connector wouldnвЂ™t fit on the skinny case, so Apple removed it and offers a $29 USB adapter instead.

2012 macbook pro review pro#

This is also the first Pro without built-in Ethernet. Apple also used a new dual-microphone system to help reduce background noise in applications such as FaceTime video calls. They sound surprisingly good, even when you crank up the volume. The absence of DVD apparently has a happy side effect: Without that pesky drive, an Apple executive told me, it was possible to re-engineer the speakers for better audio quality. If AppleвЂ™s $79 model sounds steep, shop around: Other models are available for more like $40. The drives are still occasionally useful for installing software, but an external USB unit you can stash in a desk drawer works fine.

2012 macbook pro review portable#

But unless you love to watch DVD movies, thereвЂ™s little reason to build a DVD drive into a portable computer anymore.

2012 macbook pro review Pc#

The MacBook ProвЂ™s removal of the DVD drive isnвЂ™t exactly unprecedented, but itвЂ™s a rare omission in a 15вЂі notebook most other PC makers are dragging out DVDвЂ™s demise as long as possible, just as they did with the floppy drive a decade or more ago. Typically, it removes technologies that are on their way out anyhow, but quashes them before itвЂ™s completely obvious to everyone that theyвЂ™re deadwood. Apple often does so by stripping features away. In the Windows world, manufacturers make new computers more alluring by adding more stuff. In retrospect, itвЂ™s not surprising that rumors this would be a 15вЂі MacBook Air turned out to be off base.

Still, no computer this large achieves forget-you-have-it-with-you portability. Changes such as eliminating the DVD burner and hard drive let Apple make the new model 25 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the older-style 15вЂі model that remains in the lineup.ДЇor a powerful 15вЂі laptop, the Retina Pro is a featherweight: At 4.46 pounds, itвЂ™s slightly lighter than the much smaller 13вЂі old-style MacBook Pro. There is, however, substantially less of it. (If youвЂ™re contemplating spending $1799 for this model, my advice is simple: Come up with another $400 and spring for the $2199 one instead.)ДЄesthetically, the Retina MacBook Pro is a close cousin of its predecessors, sporting the basic handsome industrial design that Apple has been refining since 2008, with the same aluminum unibody case, oversized touchpad, backlit keyboard and other familiar features.

2012 macbook pro review update#

ItвЂ™s a modest update to the previous model, removing the DVD burner but retaining the hard drive and adding improvements such as zippier processor options and support for the high-speed USB 3.0 standard. Starting at $1799, that version is one of four other new notebooks Apple released this week, including revisions to the 11вЂі and 13вЂі MacBook Airs and the 13вЂі MacBook Pro. ( MORE: The History of AppleвЂ™s MacBook Pro, 2006 to Retina)ДЄt those prices, you can understand why Apple also kept a cheaper 15вЂі MacBook Pro in its lineup. You can spend as much as $3749 if you beef it up with an even faster processor, double the RAM and 768GB of storage. This new MacBook Pro begins at $2199, for a version with a 2.3-GHz quad-core Intel i7 Ivy Bridge processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage space. And its new Retina display is the most advanced screen that anyoneвЂ™s ever built into a laptop.

But it also retains the Pro lineвЂ™s traditional emphasis on potent features such as fast processors and graphics. Like a MacBook Air, the new model sacrifices the hard disk, DVD burner and other venerable technologies in favor of a more portable design. On Monday, at AppleвЂ™s WWDC keynote event, the morningвЂ™s major hardware announcement was a radically-revised 15вЂі MacBook Pro.

By calling the new machine вЂњthe first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid state flash storage,вЂќ the company all but formally declared that the AirвЂ™s minimalist design would influence future versions of its other laptops. Follow may be legendary for its refusal to talk about products it hasnвЂ™t released yet, but when it announced the second-generation MacBook Air thin-and-light notebook back in October of 2010, it tipped its hand.