Haswell rMBP 13" first impressions

[TreVader]

Which means the performance is much, much lower.


Who cares? IPC is not the concern here.


For you and me, the performance of the Air is fine. If I were say a video jockey I would most definitely get a Pro for the much increased performance.


Not sure what you mean. They do this all the time. Sure, there are other features as well that are different, but the CPU is usually quite different in the lower end models. In fact, Apple often does not allow higher end processors in lower end machines, even if the design allows for the higher end processors. Same goes for GPUs.

If I were a video jockey, I would buy a quad core 15". There is no reason to go 13" unless I need a retina and don't need big performance.


I mean that Apple will not create an entirely different model based on a difference in processor speed. It just doesn't happen. Can you show me one example where apple has every created any product in the last 10 years where the only notable difference was processor speed?

 

[Smartazz]

Does anyone know how much free space you should keep on these SSDs? Is there space already allocated that you can't use?

 

[joshhedge]

Does anyone know how much free space you should keep on these SSDs? Is there space already allocated that you can't use?

I think it's something like 5 or 10%. I personally wouldn't go below 20GB for my 256GB SSD.

 

[TangoJuliet]

So a software update was released today to solve the keyboard and trackpad freezing.
Glad it was just a software issue!

 

[MrX8503]

Just got my rMBP13 and its a stellar notebook thus far. The retina is just plain gorgeous, best laptop I've ever owned. As for performance I noticed that there is lag when scrolling through app purchase history in the Mac AppStore. Overall performance is good though.

 

[gus6464]

Just got my rMBP13 and its a stellar notebook thus far. The retina is just plain gorgeous, best laptop I've ever owned. As for performance I noticed that there is lag when scrolling through app purchase history in the Mac AppStore. Overall performance is good though.

Mac app store just lags no matter what you use.

 

[amyklai]

Mac app store just lags no matter what you use.

True. They should just rename it To "Lag Store" and be done with it.

 

[TreVader]

I just powered my Haswell 15" rMBP on and I work in an office with the constant noise of computers running and for a good 2 mins I thought the thing was broken! It makes zero noise and unfortunately after being off for 14 hours it was very very slow to give any indication (keyboard backlight, anything) that it was functional. I pressed the on button several times, then held it down, then started looking at the thing and suddenly boom it's on.


I don't understand why apple doesn't have the keyboard light up when it powers on. In a computer this quiet, surrounded by other very loud computers, it is impossible to know if it's even on and that can be really annoying.

 

[Bootleg Betty]

Okay, so my rMPB13 arrived.

The screen is beautiful. The colors are ridiculously pretty, and fonts are perfect. There's no color anisotropy or yellow patches. I haven't tried IR test yet. The machine is completely silent.

My only problem with it now is that both Firefox and Chrome are ridiculously laggy. Light sites are alright, but even medium-complexity sites like reddit lag (while they didn't lag on 2007 core 2 duo macbook with 3 GB RAM) and high-complexity sites like facebook or the verge are basically slideshow (those were laggy on the 2007, but much less than on this computer).

This doesn't happen is Safari, though, so it's a software thing, I'd guess. I'm not sure what to do about it, though. Otherwise, the computer is really good.

If anyone of you still has any questions, go ahead.

 

[RossMAN]

If anyone of you still has any questions, go ahead.

After a few days of actual usage, can you comment on battery life?

 

[StinkyPinky]

After a few days of actual usage, can you comment on battery life?

Roughly took about 8 hours to go through my battery doing regular tasks like youtube (a lot), word documents, browsing, downloading skydrive data. Screen brightness was probably about 70%.

 

[TheStu]

Roughly took about 8 hours to go through my battery doing regular tasks like youtube (a lot), word documents, browsing, downloading skydrive data. Screen brightness was probably about 70%.

Jeebus... I don't think I've ever had a laptop that would last 8 hours just sitting still...

 

[MrX8503]

Jeebus... I don't think I've ever had a laptop that would last 8 hours just sitting still...

I got about 7hrs or so doing heavy tasks. This kind of battery life is mind boggling. I'm used to killing a laptop in 3-4hrs.

 

[Smartazz]

Is the 13" much better with battery than the 15?

 

[Bootleg Betty]

Few more impressions:
- No IR on my part. I tested for 10 minutes.
- Wow, that thing is cold in the morning!
- I had one keyboard/touchpad freeze, but fixed it with closing and reopening the computer, and it never repeated after the firmware update apple pushed yesterday.
- My only problem is that the keyboard light flickers a bit. I'll play with it a bit more.

 

[Eug]

Is there any difference with the touchpad click travel? I was in the store yesterday and the few new model 13" Retina Pros I tried seemed to have less travel distance on the touchpad when compared to the 13" non-Retina Pro. The non-Retina had a satisfying deep click, but the Retinas didn't.

In fact, a couple of the 13" Retina Pros had almost mushy feeling touch pads. I don't know if this reduced travel was intentional, or if it's a manufacturing issue. I'm thinking the latter, since I know that the latter has been a problem in the past, with MacBooks getting returned for mushy-feeling touchpads. I also noticed it in a couple of Airs as well.

 

[Bootleg Betty]

I can tell you, that it has more travel than the button on Macbook 2007, but I'm not sure it's the answer you're looking for

 

[Eug]

I can tell you, that it has more travel than the button on Macbook 2007, but I'm not sure it's the answer you're looking for

The MacBooks from that era had very common button mushiness problems. Our 2008 MacBook has decent travel for the button though.

 

[Bootleg Betty]

After a few days of actual usage, can you comment on battery life?

Not really 'few days' but I'd say about 7 or 8 hours, depending on how much flash there is and stuff.

 

[Rottie]

OP, is your new rMBP much BETTER than my 8 months old 2012 rMBP?????

 

[pakotlar]

OP, is your new rMBP much BETTER than my 8 months old 2012 rMBP?????

nm