I ordered the base model MBP. It still isn't here, but I got to play with one in the store today.
The display looks amazing. it is easily the best notebook display I've ever seen. Looking at the non-retina models next to it, they just look like crap. Not just in terms of sharpness but also in terms of viewing angles and color saturation. This is a seriously nice display and it should not be dismissed.
Scaling to 1920x1200 on the OS gives you a ton of usable screen area and looks amazing. The 1440x900 level of real estate is usable though. I'm looking forward to a true resolution independent OS though where you don't have to use scaled resolutions.
battery life is more like 5 hours (based on the OS X estimate) than 7 hours, but this is still worlds better than PC laptops.
You can get a PC with similar specs for about $700 less. It's kind of crazy, but the compromises you make in quality are real and, for me, are deal breakers.
The keyboard isn't as good as the old MBP. Being used to a mechanical desktop keyboard, I am pretty disappointed to be honest. I might end up buying a desktop as well just to be able to continue using my mechanical keyboard.
So regarding the CPU in this thing, how will the 2.3GHz compare to my 3.5Ghz 3-core Phenom II? Does it have 8-thread hyper threading? If so, that's kind of awesome.
Currently, I'm planning on getting rid of my gaming desktop. I can run games like Starcraft, Civ V and Diablo on the macbook. Meanwhile, I will be first in line to get a next-gen XBox or PS4. The reality is that PC gaming is quite unrewarding, and the best PC games are actually very much not graphically intensive. Consoles deliver gameplay with consistent frame rates and, overall a much smoother user experience [/disgruntled PC gamer]