IMac or MacBook Pro with retina?

I am having a crisis. I purchased both an iMac (2.7GHz/1TB/8GB) and a base 13" MacBook Pro with retina display. I purchased both with the intention of weighing out which one is best for me and returning the other. Both have great things about them in my eyes. I adore the big, bright screen of the iMac, along with the extra storage space and extra RAM (should I ever need it). I love the clarity of the retina display on the MacBook Pro, along with the portability and great battery life. I own an iPad, which will suffice for 85% of my mobile computing needs. On top of all of it, the iMac is going to be about $200 more expensive because of the sale I got on the MacBook Pro. Any and all recommendations will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time!

Blake Gentry wrote:
I own an iPad, which will suffice for 85% of my mobile computing needs.
How important are the other 15% of your mobile computing needs? The main point of decision is generally need for portability or what you use it for (for example, a professional photographer or graphic designer would prefer the larger screen of the iMac), someone who uses a computer for casual use can easily use the base model MacBook Pro.

Similar Messages

Should I purchase an iMac or Macbook Pro with Retina display?

I'm off to uni is September to study Design and Im going to be running lots of Photoshop and CAD design software so Im gonn aneed a Mac up to scratch for that. I've been looking at the iMac and the rMBP for this. Has anyone got any ideas of which one would be more suitable?

You are welcome, Will.
I have an iMac and MBP and eally am happy with both...run large FORTRAN codes on both with great success.
My daughter is the senior Art Director (graphic design degree) at an ad agency in NYC. She has the MBP at home with the high-res screen (15"), and a fully loaded 27" iMac in her office with a 30" Apple cinema display attached, almost 5' of display. Is very successful using both machines for heavy-duty graphics work. The larger iMac just means it is much easier having multiple applications open, multiple windows, side-by-side instead of using the maximize/minimize process. So, both are workable, but one is more convenient than the other.
Go to an Apple store or reseller and spend an afternoon with both machines you are interested in and get a goof feel for them and the image quality.
Good luck making a decision.
Ralph

MacBook Pro with Retina display to imac

Hi
Can i connect a MacBook Pro with Retina display to a mid 2010 imac 27" ? in ANY way? to use as a second screen... HDMI to mini display.. ive a feeling i know the answer but its worth asking.....
thanks!

Ha, "their" my teenagers would certainly point that out.
"true to say the imac isn't the most upgrade friendly"
Well it's just taking that front glass and the LCD off. The earlier ones had the hidden latches and the special tool to release it. "Took quite a technique to remove it. I just did one where someone had just broken the latch and glued it back.
"i just replaced the dvd drive, i could never go back to mechanical."
That's for sure. As soon as I put my first SSD in this early 2011 MBP 13" I realized that there was a reason why all the Airs could get buy with just 2 or 4 GB RAM.
"currently budget isn't an issue"
That must be nice.
"this is testament to apple - there is no way a pc would have held up this well,"
Yes, I'm still using a 20" and 2 22" ADC Apple Cinema Monitors on my workbench w/ a 2002 Power Mac MDD G4, a 2011 Mini i5 and a 2006 iMac. There's a working SE and IIfx in the closet.
" initial pain of purchase"
Yup that IIfx originally cost $9,900 in 1990. I got it for half price!
There's a 27" iMac for sale here in the NW. I'm looking at it to replace the Core 2 Duo.
"imac is still a great machine with a georgeous screen"
Yup until last year I administered 88 PCs at a charter school. I found looking at those displays and jittery windows all day long really irritating. Of course I'd try to "2 finger scroll" and use "Gestures" to move to a new desktop until I remembered "Oh right, PC, crap."
Good luck and thanks for the checkmark.

The quality of built-in camera on macbook pro with retina display is far worse than any other mac. Why?

I just got the new macbook pro with retina display like a week ago and I've been noticing that the quality of the built-in camera on it is so bad.
It's even worse than my 2009 iMac or my sister's 2012 13" macbook pro. I don't get why this is a facetime HD built-in camera when i can obviously see that is not even near HD. Or is it just my computer. Do i have to bring it to the apple store??

it's advertised 720p so yes it is the same as all the other MBP. it may just be the resolution of your monitor is stretching the pixels. Don't worry about bringing it to the apple store.

How to Clone Hard Drive from Macbook Pro to Macbook Pro with Retina

Hey everyone! I had a question about cloning my laptop's hard drive. I was considering buying a MBP with Retina, but was wondering how I would accomplish copying over my current hard drive to the retina, as I know you can't take out the retina's hard drive, and it is flash. Any suggestions?

Connect the two with a Firewire cable if they both have Firewire ports (or use Thunderbolt if the both have Thunderbolt ports.) Boot the new computer into Target Disk Mode and the old computer normally. The new computer's disk drive should appear on the Desktop of the old computer.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination
entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new computer's drive Source means the old computer's drive.
Be sure the old computer is running a version of Mountain Lion that is later than the version installed on the new computer. After cloning you will probably need to run the new 10.8.2 updater for the new computer. OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Update for 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display, 21.5" iMac (Late 2012), Mac mini (Late 2012).

Installing CS4 to Macbook Pro with Retina Display

Hi, I just got a Macbook Pro with the Retina Display and I have tried installing CS4 to it, but apparently the version of adobe air does not exist. I do not know if this has anything to do with the flash storage since adobe products do not work with it. I installed CS4 to my iMac just fine. I read on another forum that CS4 is not compatible with the Macbook Pro with Retina Display and there were people who suggested installing CS6.
However, I also read that adobe is just installing retina display support to the products in the upcoming Fall to some of the CS6 applications (not including InDesign, which I need). Should I switch to the Macbook Pro w/o Retina display?

Adobe CS4 applications do not work properly with Mountain Lion 10.8. See table:
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
CS6 works fine. I believe Adobe updated CS6 to work better with retina display. Check at the Adobe web site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog.html?promoid=KAWQI
Should you switch or not is your decision.

HOW DO I FIND THE EJECT BUTTON ON MACBOOK PRO WITH RETINA

i have a macbook pro with retina display , and i want to know how i eject the disc from the apple external optical drive i can't see the eject button on the keyboard layout.

Ralph Landry1 wrote:
Works for me every time without failure.
It's not a matter of failure, it's the idea of training people to associate the Trash with unmounting a volume. The Trash is a mechanism for the permanent deletion of your data, and designed to appear as such. Apple haters used to laugh at this..."Eject by dragging to the Trash? And you say the Mac is intuitive? Ha ha ha..." And they were right. It's better to teach ways that actually make more sense.
The great thing about all the newer ways is that they are easily discoverable, you don't have to remember or figure out that you have to virtually trash your disk. A new user would naturally expect to find an Eject command or button, and there they are in plain sight.
SwankPeRFection wrote:
I always find a ton of mounted installers left behind by users who install stuff on their systems. I don't understand why Apple cannot make an automated process to unmount the installer once it's done. Just seems stupid to me I guess. I've seen that mounted installer confuse people into clicking on it each and every time they want to start the app because they don't understand that once it's installed, that installer should be ejected because they're done with it.
I agree about the installer volume behavior...and Apple made it worse in Mountain Lion by putting the volumes on the bottom of the Finder sidebar, which is often out of view. Incidentally, drag-to-trash does not seem to work with volumes in the sidebar, but the other Eject methods do.
The "installer problem" is another reason I love the other methods much more than dragging to the trash. To eject multiple volumes by selecting them and pressing Command-E is much faster than the time taken to gather them up with the mouse and drag all of them to a specific spatial target.

Should I get a 13" or 15" Macbook Pro with retina laptop?

I, FINALLY, after one year of wanting to get a new laptop to use as my primary computer replacing my desktop computer at home.........have decided to switch gears from a Windows computer to a MACBOOK PRO with RETINA laptop. It's not an easy decision when you are spending SO much money on something you hope will last a long time as I do NOT plan on getting a new laptop once I buy this one for a very long time (until it breaks / can no longer function)!
My dilemma now is whether to go with the high end 13" Macbook Pro OR get a similar if not higher end 15" Macbook Pro. Here's background on myself and what I plan on using the laptop for:
I plan on using it as my new primary computer for home so primarily for my personal use, but I will be using it also for work so I will be using it for basically EVERYTHING!
I will use it to do word processing (MS Word), to do my finances (reconcile my bank stmts/accounts), using MS Excel for accounting work, check my emails, research the Internet, photo editing (pretty much basic, definitely not advanced) and creating slideshows with my photos/music, downloading/playing music. I do not plan on using it to play any games.
I use alot of MS Office / Excel and some Powerpoint - either for work or home.
I need alot of storage space for photos (recreational - up to 400 per vacation trip) and I plan on creating slideshows with the photos using Apple's great photo/video/slideshow apps! At last count, I had about 100GB of photo files.
I also need alot of storage for my music files - I have @ least 12GB of music right now and am always downloading more each year.
I plan on taking it with me outside of home only on the weekends for the most part like to a cafe (Starbucks) or library, but not for anything further than that (not for travel as I will just take my ipad).
I know it's only ~1lb difference in weight, but a couple of my concerns is since it will be my primary home computer (i.e.I'll be using it in the evenings/on the weekends and probably more (since it's an Apple!) to work on photos/slideshows, if the screen size difference will matter in the longrun in terms of having any impact on my vision (not sure if the 2" will make a difference in that). I'm only 45yo, but I do worry about that! I tried both the 13" and 15" in the Apple store and the only difference I saw was that the 15" screen allowed you to have multiple programs visible on the screen side by side, but viewing the actual programs was the same (in size). I don't really view programs side by side right now (I use the ALT-TAB shortcut alot to view multiple programs I have open at once), but I could see how having programs viewable side by side could come in handy.
I had a Toshiba 17" laptop before that was too HEAVY to lug around even if on the weekend so I no longer want a heavy laptop and want something more portable to take with me on my weekend excursions to the local cafe/library which basically means going from home to car and car to location at most, but when I go to use the restroom, I like to take it with me (do not feel safe leaving it behind on table) so I don't want it too heavy.
I do plan on getting me a Western Digital external hard drive to backup ALL my files yet since I plan on keeping the computer for as long as it'll hold up, I want to make sure I have alot of storage to keep up with me. I like the flashdrive component because there are fewer moving parts so less likely to have problems in the long run and given that (despite my need for alot of storage), I'll backup my photos/music to external drives should I end up maxing out on my storage.
I value your opinions, please help me DECIDE!!!!! I'm frustrated and it's driving me nuts!!! I know it's too much to ask, but if they had a 14", I would probably go with it! A 2" difference seems pretty big. :-)
THANK YOU!!!

Thanks guys. I'm set on the 15" now and am now deciding on whether I should go with the standard MBP or the MBP with retina display? I'm not an advanced photographer, but I do like to take alot of photos especially when travelling and I do plan on creating slideshows with my photos synched with music. I don't think I'd be one to really be able to tell the difference between a retina vs. non-retina screen given that since I can't really tell the difference between a tv screen with vs. without HD. So for me, I don't think it'd be about the retina display at all. It is more about the storage capacity AND the fact that I hear with the retina/flash storage, that there are less apt to have problems down the road so a more sturdy a machine. Given I take alot of photos/will be creating slideshows wth my photos, and downloading/playing music, I'm thinking the standard MBP might be better storage-wise. But also given I plan on keeping this laptop for a long time (basically, until it breaks or becomes too slow to function productively), that makes me want to go the retina/flash storage route. SIGH.
Should I not be so concerned about the longevity of the machine, but rather opt for the one with more storage?

How do I get the most out of my Macbook pro with retina display?

Hi,
I am new to apple had an Iphone and loved it and was drawn in by the advertisment for the new macbook pro with retina display and decided to get myself one. I have pretty much taught myself everything so far and I think I have a basic enough knowledge now of working my way round my mac and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how I can look to develop as I feel I have got all the gear but no idea!\
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated,
Cheers

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

How do I connect an external microphone to a Macbook Pro with Retina display ?

How do I connect an external microphone to a Macbook Pro with Retina display ?
Alternatively how do I connect an audio input at a level that would normally have gone into a 'line input' socket ?

Plug it into the linein/headphone jack if there's just one. It'll switch between the two modes automatically depending on what you plug into it.

13" Macbook Pro with retina or MacBook Air?

Hello All,
This is my first post to this forum and I need an advice for buying my first MacBook ever. The time has come that I have decided to invest into a Mac and have always been a PC user until now. I was planning to buy the 13" 256GB version (1500 USD). My goal is to learn coding (JavaScript, PHP/MySQL, and HTML, Drupal for Web design) on the bust commute, with little to none intention of doing gaming on the machine. But plan to watch video/tutorial files, movies etc.
But I am reading some concerning reviews/complaints of people about the MacBook Pro with Retina series and I want to know whether the latest version (as of today, Feb 21st, 2014) of rMBP is problematic. Here is what I have learned about the existing issues so far and I would like if folks here could give me a piece of advice which one should I choose (Air vs Pro)?:
1) The trackpad/system sudden freeze;
2) The image retention/persistence problem;
2) Overheating when watching a video;
Honestly, I feel disappointed that Apple computers are having so many issues.
Are these issues still a problematic as of today for rMBP? Will the heating be problematic fo watching a movie for 1-2 hrs? Is it better to go with the air rather?
Please advise!
Thanks.
Frank

Also, would the applecare be strongly recommended for my situation?

Is there a way to digitize audio using the headphone input on the 15-inch (late 2013) Macbook Pro with Retina display?

I'd like to digitize audio from a minidisc player into my 15-inch (late 2013) Macbook Pro with retina display, but can't see a way to change the internal mic input. I understand that previous MacBooks allowed the headphone jack to double as a mic input, but mine doesn't seem capable of switching. I've tried using a mini to mini cable, with no luck, and also tried using a headset splitter adapter (3.5 mm 4-pin to 2x3-pin 3.5 mm headset splitter adapter from Amazon) because I read that that would allow me to plug in headphones and input audio. But in both cases, the only "input" available in my sound preferences is the built-in internal microphone. Am I missing something? Is there a way to digitize audio through the headphone jack?

Not likely. headphone jacks are usually output only devices unless specifically stated to support input, and even then, it may not be audio input that they support, but merely control input for volume and such.
You can get a USB audio input instead. i.e:
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-iMic-Audio-Device/dp/B000BVV2IC

What cable do I need in order to migrate from Macbook Pro (December 2008) to the new Macbook Pro with Retina display?

It's driving me crazy; I have a firewire, but it isn't compatible with the ports on the new macbook pro with retina display.
Thanks for your help!

hanskra wrote:
I wish to know from Apple,
These are user-to-user forums where everyday folk post "technical" questions and offer answers to each other voluntarily. No one here works for Apple nor does Apple get involved in responding.
You can either contact Apple Care since you are still under warranty or click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this website.

Macbook Pro with Retina wont detect monitor on mini display port to dual-link dvi adapter

So after reading Jeff Atwood's post, I decided to jump and give it a shot. So this week I got my monitor in from Korea, and I already had my Apple mini display port to dual-link dvi adapter, hooked everything up - and nothing. Monitor doesnt show a signal, and no display shows up in user preferences.
To verify the monitor actually works, i plugged it into my windows box - and boom, right away there it is in all its glory. So I called apple support, after spending about an hour going through the "are you sure its plugged in stuff", the tech finally admitted to being stumped and blamed the adapter. Not to be deterred, I then went to my local apple store and talked them into trying their adapter to rule out the adapter - regardless of the adapter, the mbp wont detect the monitor.
Just for fun, i tried my old single mini displayport to single dvi, the monitor is recognized, but that obviously cant drive the right resolution, so i just get a backlight. Same deal when i try the hdmi port with a hdmi to dual-link dvi adapter on the end of it. Also tried display port to the same hdmi with adapter on it (the joys of working in a dev shop - cables to test everywhere)
I have read / tried a ton of things:
re-installed / uninstalled air display, just to be sure it was gone. went through all my apps just to see if there is anything like this i could think would be effecting it
install gfxCardStatus to ensure i am on the nvidia (discrete) and not the internal card
Played with different settings on SwitchResX to try to force the res over hdmi - no love - os rejected each one
I bought the monoprice adapter wondering if it was just the apple adapter since the apple adapter has been panned, no love from it either
Reset the PRAM countless times
I have two other adapters coming in to test with in a day or two - maybe one of those will be magic, but at this point i kinda think its software on the mac. My Spec:
I am running Mountain Lion with all the latest updates
New MBP with Retina (2.6g processor, 16gig ram, nvidia video card)
Here is the ebay link to the monitor
Now the other weird thing is pretty much universally these auctions say the monitors cant be run on a laptop - which makes no sense to me, because its just a connection, if the video card is strong enough (which my machine better be) it shouldnt matter the source. The listing mentions its a "by-pass" monitor, which is something I and google have never heard of.
So any sage words to make my day?

Magic was, I have to have the adpter plugged into the mac, let it recognize all with the monitor powered off.
then power on the monitor, and boom gloriousness
For future generations, setup that works:
1) MacBook Pro with Retina
2) Monitor From Korea (example auction)
3) Accell Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Active adapter (amazon)
4) Boot mac, plug in adapter, let it recognize the monitor, power on monitor

I know many have this issue but i can't find a solution to the problem. i get message saying insuffisiant disk space in the volume iPhoto library and i have plenty of space available. i have the new macbook pro with retina display.

I know many have this issue but i can't find a solution to the problem. i get message saying insuffisiant disk space in the volume iPhoto library and i have plenty of space available. i have the new macbook pro with retina display. i have never seen this message before and i have 2 other macbooks and have had many other also. i am assuming this is a problem with the new macbook retina. does anyone know the exact fix to this issue? i have seen many sugestions to try to fix this issue but none have solved the issue for anyone that i can find in the Apple Support Community. thank for looking into this in advance.
******A true apple fan********

Actually your suggestions are the ones that i have tried. i have seen that you have tried to help others with this issue and the only one that i could find that said they found the problem said that it was an ilife update issue and it fixed it and i have no available updates. i know it has to do with something in photo stream because it happens when i create a new library and it is loading the photos but i get the message before i reach the maximum 1000 photos. so i've tried updating, new library(first backing up photos and then deleting them from iPhoto), reinstalling OSX many times, running disc utilities. I called Apple the first day i had this issue and i was the first person to call them for support with the retina display and i actually had it escalated to a senior advisor and we thought we fixed the problem but we did not. i am pretty fluent in dealing with troubleshooting these type of issues and this is the first time i'm reaching out to the community. i figured now that the retina has been out some time now that there would be an obvious answer to this issue. thanks for the quick reply.
Bebers5

IMac or MacBook Pro with retina?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for