The 2012 Non-Retina MacBook Pro Is Still the Best Laptop Apple Sells

Usually I don't care about these predictive tech articles: "oh what would this company do next?!" But this somehow seems important because as consumers as individuals and as companies we want to promote the right technology for our future. Buying into another generation of one line of technology can really skew where you'll end up if you wouldn't have known you would be even further off mark in the following generation...

I think high-res ("retina") screens are an interesting line.

Some people cannot perceive the difference. What I think is interesting is that others think they can't see any difference, but in fact they can, if you actually test them (we did this at work a couple years ago). But they don't care at all.

And then others (like me) cannot stand to use a low-res screen. It works but it's like driving a car with a filthy windshield covered in grime and birdshit.

You can't upgrade the CPU.

> An extra $150 gets you a 2.9 GHz dual core Intel i7 processor, which puts it on par with many of Apple’s newer (and more expensive) laptops.

The integrated GPU has improved dramatically, power consumption has improved, performance has improved in the latest generation i7s. A little disingenuous to say performance is on par.

The i7 they're referring to:

http://ark.intel.com/products/64893/Intel-Core-i7-3520M-Proc...

This is the expected CPU in this year's rumored MBP (point remains for the current generation MBs):

http://ark.intel.com/products/91167/Intel-Core-i7-6567U-Proc...

No, on the MBP (15" in my case; I would use a 17" if they still made that) I have to use scaling. Otherwise, as you imply, it's basically like having a super-sharp 12" screen (or something).

I use it at the max

That doesn't look quite as good, but it is still incomparably better than a low-res screen.

But I mostly use a 27" 5K desktop monitor (a Dell UP2715K, which I believe uses the same panel as the high-res 27" iMac). This is fucking the best. I used to have a pair of 24" 4K monitors, which seemed good at the time, but this is massively better.

It looks a lot better than the "retina" 15" MBP, so I think that goes to show that we still need even more pixel density before the diminishing returns really start kicking in...

At the same time, though, I am 41, and my eyesight has noticeably deteriorated (though not so much that they will give me glasses). It might be that the youth of today really need an 8K or higher resolution at 27".

But even my old-ass eyes can tell you that a 4K 27" monitor sucks. 4K is only good up to about 21" and then you start to again see the pixels. 5K really is a major step up, even though the cable is forked at the ends so it can have 2 mini-DP connectors...

> None of that matters. My computer is very rarely running flat out, and I'd venture the same is true 99% of the time for 99% of the people who own them.

> It's very much on par, given the way 99% of people use their laptops.

> But is the difference, in real life, between Max Memory Bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s vs 34.1 GB/s anything to be concerned about? Not for most people.

Emphasis mine. Can you cite a source for the above?

I linked the CPU specs because it shows the difference between what you're buying. The author stated "i7" like all i7s are the same. They're not.

The GPU is important outside of games because the display on new Macbook Pros are retina displays. What the advances in the integrated GPUs and lower power consumption leads to is the latest generation MBPrs can power a screen much higher resolution than the 2012 MBP, but still have the same performance profile (battery life, responsiveness).

To use your argument: The current generation MBPrs come with good enough specs for storage and RAM for 99% of users. No one needs to upgrade pass 16GB of RAM since it's good enough for most people or a 512GB SSD, especially when storage is being pushed to the cloud. You get a better display, better battery life, in a smaller form factor that weights less. For most people the trade off between that and the ability to open up your laptop to stick in new hardware is worthwhile.