I know there are 50 excuses to leave it out, but a laptop top of this caliber lacking a blu-ray drive is bad enough but lacking a dvd drive all together is ridicoulous.
iMac 27, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.8Ghz Intel Quad Core i7 / 8GB / 1TB
It is only the model with the Retina Display that excludes the optical drive. The spec bumped 15.4 MBP without the retina display still includes the optical drive.
If you must have an optical drive you can get Apple's USB Superdrive. I believe there are 3rd party Blue-Ray drives available as well.
Best of luck.
I don't find it surprising. What I find surprising is they still include them on any computer. As has been noted on this board in the past, Apple is getting away from optical media of any kind.
Commentary on DVDs by Klaus1 - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3937413?answerId=18338996022#18338996022
Yes, after waiting more than 3 years (for Apple to catch up) I am delighted to see that a concequently lighter and more compact MacBook Pro is available sans Optical Drive. In 2012 the use of an Optical Drive is an infrequent use case for most people.
Wonder what other "surprises" will Steve be pulling from the grave....
I work in video and find burning to cd, or dvd (and oh, how I wish, blu-ray) absolutely invaluable. Sometimes the client just wants a dvd. And sometimes, believe it or not, I just want to watch a movie on a dvd. Not to mention It's always irked me that they've never bothered to upgrade to blu-ray. "Oh cool, this movies out on blu-ray. I'll rent it on disc and watch it on my MacBook. Oh, no I won't."
LucianF wrote:
I work in video and find burning to cd, or dvd (and oh, how I wish, blu-ray) absolutely invaluable. Sometimes the client just wants a dvd. And sometimes, believe it or not, I just want to watch a movie on a dvd. Not to mention It's always irked me that they've never bothered to upgrade to blu-ray. "Oh cool, this movies out on blu-ray. I'll rent it on disc and watch it on my MacBook. Oh, no I won't."
Rent it from the iTunes store instead!
Yes thats my point, you have to get a super drive in order to burn your edited movies for the client. It's no longer an all in one, its simply a Mac Air on Steroids, which is fine if thats what you want however not even having the option for an optical drive makes no sense to me. I already have to carry an external BD Drive to burn the HD videos, and now one also has to carry a super drive! Yuck.
If this surprises you then you haven't been paying attention for several years.
Sure I have, and I see multiple types of video formats, some are better than others, but you walk into a clients house and say here is the mpv, or divx, or avi, or any othe of a gazillion downloadable media types and say play it on your TV. It's simply not going to happen in most cases however now you give them a DVD or a Blu-ray and most can instantly view it on their TV. Simple as that.
There is a place for no optical drives in portables, they are netbooks and mac air. A Mac Book PRO with now optical drive is for my a Mac Book Air on steroids. Which like I said is fine if thats what you would like but its simply not a PRO in my view. Very nice laptop, very nice screen and specs, a bit over priced for what your getting but thats not unexpected from Apple, but the lack of optical drive is disturbing.
OzziesMAC, if you already have an external BD Drive then there is no need for a SuperDrive.
Unfortunately, there are pros and cons to having an internal drive. I think this is a natural progression. Just look at Floppy drives of yesteryear. If you can recall that far back, there was outrage when the floppy disk went away but look to today, we survived and we've changed our process and it has worked for the best.
I don’t know anything about computers or laptops and I’m hoping someone can help me with this dilemma. I want to purchase the new Macbook ‘13inch laptop but I have reservations about it not having a CD drive. I don’t play video games or anything like that where I would need a drive every day, but I would need one for the occasional DVD or TV show I want to watch. It is more of a slight inconvenience. I mean, every once in a while you need a CD to install something onto your laptop or upgrade something, right?
If I were to by an external CD drive would the retina quality still be projected through the DVD? Would the type or brand of the external drive matter?
All my previous laptops have had a DVD drive so it is hard to imagine not having one. Overall does it really matter that there is no DVD drive?
And, what else doesn’t the new Macbook have that most laptops do? I am a university student who uses it for normal use.
Thank you!
It seems to be missing a firewire port, and ethernet port. So when you are in one of those hotels that still only offers ethernet the only solution is to carry an airport express, if you need an optical drive every once in a while you will have to carry a superdrive from appple, and if you use the firewire port I would think they have some adapter for that you can also carry or you can buy a real Mac Book Pro that has it all built in.
Good luck in your decision but if you get the Mac Book Air on steroids you just might need an extra bag for all the goodies its missing.
no need to carry an airport express there is a cable adaptor for the thunderbolt.
mdobbins wrote:
I don’t know anything about computers or laptops and I’m hoping someone can help me with this dilemma. I want to purchase the new Macbook ‘13inch laptop but I have reservations about it not having a CD drive. I don’t play video games or anything like that where I would need a drive every day, but I would need one for the occasional DVD or TV show I want to watch. It is more of a slight inconvenience. I mean, every once in a while you need a CD to install something onto your laptop or upgrade something, right?
If I were to by an external CD drive would the retina quality still be projected through the DVD? Would the type or brand of the external drive matter?
All my previous laptops have had a DVD drive so it is hard to imagine not having one. Overall does it really matter that there is no DVD drive?
And, what else doesn’t the new Macbook have that most laptops do? I am a university student who uses it for normal use.
Thank you!
Well the 13" Macbook Pro still has an optical drive. It is only the 15" retina display model that does not have it. And the 13" does not have a retina display so your concern about retina quality is a non-issue.
What is it you are concerned about that you think "most laptops do"? I use 3 brands of laptops and they all do the same thing except my new Macbook Pro will have the retina display.
New Mac Book Pro... No DVD Drive... Really?
