New Retina Screen VS. Prior Anti-Glare Screen

That part I agree with, but seeing how anti glare is no longer an option, I don't think I'll be buying any Mac Laptops until the option to have anti glare is available again

Maybe Apple removed the 15" non-retina a month or two ago but I just noticed. Very dissappointed.

I faced this same dilemma last year and went with the anti-glare. As price was not an issue, I upgraded to the 256gb ssd, 8gb w/2.6ghz and find that it flies. Starts up almost as fast as my iPad and iPhone and runs cool and silent, unless I throw a DVD in the drive, which I rarely do. Very rarely shut it down.

After getting the anti-glare and dealing with heavier dell's at work, the "heft" of the OLD macbook pro, unibody is not so bad as it feels solid. I do love the form factor of the retina but just wish it had the antiglare and the ability to upgrade the memory, HD and battery with little pain.

I find battery life to be awesome. I typically use it unplugged and run the battery down to <10% before recharging. I use it primarily for research. Matlab, Maple, Fortran, xCode.

Hopefully, going forward, Apple will bring back the anti-glare option and get rid of the glue in the Retina, making it a true pro. On the rare occasion I use the super drive, I think the external will do just fine.

On another side note, check out Waterfield Designs for cases. Got the midsize bag with the MB pro sleeve (velcro top) and cable cord carrier... Great laptop case, designed specifically for macbook pros... Retinas, airs or non-retinas. Plus they are made in the US...

I guess the main point here is if folks have a price range and want to save some money, getting a refurbished 15" with antiglare, mid 2012, you will not be dissappointed. That said, if money is no option, I imagine the newest retinas will melt in your laps. In a good way.

Hope this helps or adds some fuel to the fire

I also wish the new MacBook Pro Retina had dual Audio Jacks ( I really love having both digital in and digital out since that does not degrade sound) Plus I'd like to find a MacBook Pro with a non-solid-state drive (Solid State= almost no chance for data recovery, and with the recall, I'm not sure if it is a good idea to use solid state)

Good thing I back up. I think SSD is a fact so get ready to back up. You bring up a good point. I have been using an external with TimeMachine to keep my MB pro backed up. Same with the iMac.

In the past and currently (since both MB pro and iMac I have still have super drive) I have used DVDs to back up as well. I kind of use both but I like my LaCie, NetGear and Western Digital externals. I have been a bit more religous on this since my iMac hard drive died (~2 years ago) and Apple needed to replace it. Luckily a very expensive service was able to salvage my newborn daughter's pics, otherwise I would still be in the doghouse...

That said, after a lot of money, I was able to get my daughter's pictures. I had the "traditional" hard drive which proved to be as useless as all the others.

Back up weekly. My 2 cents.

To accomplish such a resolution like that, there is always the thunderbolt2 DaisyChain Display option

joshcali wrote:

The "anti-glare" 15" is a crappy 1440x900 and the retina only runs at a crappy 1440x900

Although the 1440 is enhanced when apps take advantage of the retina calls, you don't get screen real estate like you do on a 1920x1200 screen unless you're using the screen at 1920x1200... in which case the mac has to interpolate all the pixels.

Apple's left the consumers who need a lot of real estate nothing but crappy crappy options.

they've made 1440 spectacular, but most people I know who do serious graphics work or programming just don't like that resolution.

Indeed. 1440x900 (2880x1800 with @2x ui size) hardly falls within the 'pro' needs category.

If only Apple offered a rMBP with native 3360x2100...

I agree. Have never like the glossy or retina. All my MBP have had the anti glare option, it's terrible that they eliminated it, with no warning or recourse to still buy the anti glare 15". Just like that, it disapears from the apple store. Thanks apple...

Sager Notebooks have 15/17" 1920 x 1080 HD anti-glare screens (17" MBP is 1920 x 1200), Windows 7 or 8, up to 32GB of RAM and the most kick-butt graphics options as they are primarly 3D gamers machines, so their low end model is like a high end MacBook Pro. (costs a lot less also)

What's good about gamers machines is they are powerful and tend to last longer through operating system updates and a upgrade, unlike the nealy all inferior Intel CPU graphics of the new MacBook Pro models. The Sager ones can be opened to clean the dust out of the cooling fins, unlike the newer MacBook Pros.

Due to the high cost of the top end MacBook Pro and Sager machines, one has to take extremely good care of it to make it last, buy the 3 year warranty on both, use exernal keyboards and mice.

I hope this resolves your problem needing a anti-glare option.

Anyone is welcome to my 17" anti-glare MBP, when they pry it from my cold dead hands. 🙂

I can't tell you glad I am I got the last of the hi-res antiglare models a few months back with a SSD. I hope Apple find some way to combine a proper anitglare matte-finish with the retina pixel density. I'll be holding on to this one for as long as possible. I almost consider it my perfect MBP.

Mike-B wrote:

I hope Apple find some way to combine a proper anitglare matte-finish with the retina pixel density.

Not going to happen and this is likely why.

1: "Oh shiny" sells to idiots without hard computing experience, Apple's target market.

2: Near 100% anti-glare glass and clear acrylic is closely held trade/military secret that can't be made in China with it's demands that companies making/selling products there give up their secrets (or it's process would be found out by workers). Apple makes a lot of it's hardware in China to take advantage of cheaper labor, shortcuts and lax environmental controls.

3: The anti-glare screen portion of Apple's customers isn't large enough for their desired limited product line.

4: Mac's are not increasing in market share due to iPad/iPhone cannibalization, poor economy, high prices compared to PC models of the same caliper.

I just received a new late 2013 retina mbp (2599 euros). The high-res antiglare screen is ABSOLUTELY better in terms of visual quality. It even has a higher optimized resolution: 1680x1050, with more space for work.

Retina set of 1680x1050 looks horrible. Try to work 8 hours (or even much less) in front of an antiglare and on a Retina... to see what is the difference.

I guess that doubling the high-resolution (3360x2100) and make an antiglare version was too expensive, and Apple just decided for the marketing-oriented upgrade which is an ugly and mostly useless improvement, in my opinion. We are paying for a market transition to better future screens.

Retina is just a low resolution screen (1440x900), with a very bad glossy surface that can destroy your eyes. Cool. And useless. They could have invested on better quality screens, not only on marketing decisions for stupid fishes like me...

I wish Apple would bring back the anti-glare matte screens. My next Macbook Pro will probably just be a used 15" with anti-glare and maxed out specs from the current early 2011 model that I have. The retina display is just too distracting annoying to use while color correcting and editing images.

Is anyone at Apple listening??? Matte screens are the best. Got a retina and returned it after a week. Was lucky to get some of the late model 17" and 15"...and would have bought another 15" until they hanked it from the stpre without notice!!

I can't believe they took this option away. I bought a 15" macbook pro, antiglare, in 2008. I was never happier with anything in my life. In 2009, it was stolen from my home. I promptly went to go buy another--and poof! Antiglare was no longer an option! So, I scoured used macbook ads until I found a 2007 model.

The 2007 is full and slowing down, so I'm looking for an upgrade. Apple has discontinued antiglare all over again.

I went to the the apple store to check out Retina, and when the "genius" showed me one, I said, "oh, I see it! MY CLOTHES! I'M LOOKING AT MY REFLECTION!"

The reflective screens are total crap. I was ready to buy right then and there, but the option was taken away. Now I'm shopping for Dells.