Reviews are already flowing in for Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Most reviewers have general praised the new light, sleeker laptop models, which weigh less than five pounds and are nearly as thin as the MacBook Air models. However, the power of these new high resolution computers does come at a high price, with the lowest model starting at $2,199.
Apple’s Retina Display screens can push the screen’s resolution up to 2880 x 1800 pixels, a step above current HD television sets. While the Retina Display models sit at the top shelf, even the cheapest model features an Intel i7 processor and 8-gigabytes of ram. Of course, for customer’s who aren’t in need of a top of the line laptop, a cheaper model might suit them better.
If you’re in the market for a premium OS X laptop right now, it’s hard not to recommend the new MacBook Pro with Retina display,” the Verge’s Ross Miller said. “If, however, power isn’t your ultimate goal, may we suggest shaving a few pounds and specs for the MacBook Air.”
However, after dissecting one of Apple’s new MacBook models, Kyle Wiens, CEO and co-founder of IFixit,com, an online computer repair company, noted that design flaws prevent the “Retina MacBook” from being easily upgraded or even repaired.
“The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart: Unlike the previous model, the display is fused to the glass, which means replacing the LCD requires buying an expensive display assembly,” Wien’s wrote in an article published by Wire, “The RAM is now soldered to the logic board — making future memory upgrades impossible. And the battery is glued to the case, requiring customers to mail their laptop to Apple every so often for a $200 replacement.”
Apple is known to attract less tech savvy customers who may not be fully aware of these flaws in the computer’s design. Many of them may be okay with buying a new machine when the time comes, but Weins maintains that the decisions of today’s consumers will decide the future path for Apple’s designs.
“Today, we choose. If we choose the Retina display over the existing MacBook Pro, the next generation of Mac laptops will likely be less repairable still,” he said. “When that happens, we won’t be able to blame Apple. We’ll have to blame ourselves”.
