Retina – The Daily Opinion

On the 23rd of October, Apple held an event as usual telling the world that they’ve got “a little more” to show you. Now Apple is never very subtle regarding these things and from the rumors before, it was beyond all reasonable doubt that the Cupertino giant was going to release a smaller iPad.

The event started in usual Apple fashion with a whole bunch of statistics pertaining to why their company is the greatest. Three million iPod sales, 200 million devices running iOS 6 (not mine) and over three billion iMessages sent. Awesome.

A more significant statistic was the fact that Apple has sold over 100 million iPads in two-and-a-half years. Apple revealed that Apple sold more in the June quarter (Q3) more iPads than any PC maker has actually sold units.

So up came Phil Schiller, and the moment everyone was waiting for: the iPad Mini. The device has a screen measuring 7.9 inches and has a resolution of 1024×768. No retina here. However, having the same resolution as the iPad 1 and 2 means that most apps will work fine. The iPad Mini also has virtually the same specifications as the iPad 2 with the same A5 CPU, same GPU, same RAM and storage options. In fact it would probably be easier to highlight the things that aren’t the same such as the cameras, whereas the iPad 2 has VGA front facing and 720p rear facing, the iPad Mini has 720p front facing and 5 megapixel rear with 1080p video, which I suspect is the same hardware found in the 4S. Another feature the Mini has over the iPad 2 is 4G LTE.

The great question is, why would you buy a iPad Mini? If your iPhone 4S/5 is too small and your iPad is too big then you have problems. The way I see it, most people buying this will be the iSheep who will buy an iPoo without question because it was made by Apple. The other customers will probably include those who want to have an eReader sized tablet that has a bit more functionality than your everyday Kindle. I have serious suspicions over the lack of retina level resolution and I think that Apple may be gearing up themselves for a refresh that brings the higher resolution display. Hey, what can I say apart from ‘mo’ money’. The evolution of Apple mobile products is humourously demonstrated in this photo:

From that track record, these devices much mean in the middle so I predict a Apple iPod Touch Note (Samsung reference totally intentional) measuring in with a 5.5 inch display.

The event was not just about the Mini but also about Apple’s other products. The regular iPad got a minor spec bump to the 4th generation. The newer New iPad has a quicker A6X chip with an updated front facing camera, LTE improved WiFi and 10 hours of battery life whilst maintaining the same price as the original New iPad that it replaces. Now you can buy either the iPad 2 or the better specced iPad Mini for less or the 4th gen iPad. That’s the amazing kind of logic that sees the 6th iPhone named as the iPhone 5.

After the 15 inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, it was only a matter of time before we saw the same design and features to grace the smaller versions. In the same event, Apple unveiled the 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This new iteration has the same slimmer body structure as it is void of any disc drive and with a very high resolution display of 2560 x 1600. The same amount of pixels as was in the once popular Apple 30″ Cinema Display. Apple’s decision of maintaining the same 16:10 aspect ratio will always be constant topic of debate. This will always be confusing for many new customers as the 11″ MacBook Air is 16:9, any of the 13″ or 15″ MacBook Air/Pros are 16:10 and the iMacs are 16:9. Totally logical, I know.

Finally, the Apple iMac was given a much awaited refresh. The 21.5 and 27 inch models have received a complete redesign. The back of these All-In-One’s have a surface that tapers so much that it gives the illusion that the iMac is much thinner than it actually is. The very sides of the new iMacs are a mere 5mm thick but much thicker in the middle. The new iMacs also introduce new graphics cards from nVidia with the top end one being the GTX 680MX, effectively a slightly downclocked desktop GTX 680 which is decent to say the least. However that particular GPU is still a mobile GPU and I expect modern gaming laptops will start shipping with those soon. The new iMacs also introduce some new storage technology called Fusion Drive that seeks to use SSDs and HDDs in tandem to increase performance while maintaining drive size…wait isn’t that what Seagate had as their Hybrid Drive? I seem to remember that Fusion io had something similar, oh and what about Intel Caching technology? Hmm…

And to finish, a closing word – sucks if anyone bought an iPad 3. Actually, sucks for anyone to have bought an Apple product this year at all. With slowing innovation in their mobile line and general overpricing of their other products (some of which I personally think are good in terms of hardware specs), I might genuinely have to think about moving my music library from iTunes to another provider…

Thinking of buying that shiny new 15 inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display? Are you slightly short of cash at the moment so planning on going for the lower spec with smaller RAM and HDD and then upgrading those down the line? If you answered yes to both then proceed to my third question, for which the answer will be the same as the last two: Are you going to be kicking yourself when you realise that Apple’s new flagship portable device is the least upgradable notebook of any in kind?

The kind folk over at ifixit performed their extensive teardowns they do with most electronics that have come to the market. Their findings are pretty disturbing. There is basically no way that the average consumer can upgrade this laptop in any way or shape. At all.

So what can’t be upgraded that could have been in the previous versions? Well the MacBook Pros have always been pretty open giving consumers the ability to add more RAM and hard drive space and more seasoned computer “fiddlers” may have also replaced their optical drive with another hard drive. None of this can be done now, especially the changing of the optical drive as, well, there isn’t one to replace.

As you can see above, two rows of memory chips, plus an additional two rows which are on the reverse, are all soldered onto the motherboard. Planning on getting 8GB and upgrading to 16GB yourself when you need it? No happening. This also spans to the storage space. SSD as standard is great but what happens when you start running out of the 256GB of space on it? With the previous MacBook Pros you just get a bigger SSD, stick it in, and clone from your Time Machine backup and you are up and and running again. Not here.

From what we can see in the photos, that thin strip of chips that is being lifted is the SSD. Some good news is that it is not soldered which means that it can be swapped. Bad news: swapped with what? What looks like an mSATA connection is actually a proprietary slot that only exists in the Retina MacBook Pro so your upgrade options are only viable if you own another Retina MacBook Pro and you want to swap drives with that or have a friend with one who wants a smaller drive. Possible? Sure. Likely? Probably not. And then we come to the battery. The 2009-2010 edition MacBook Pros had removable batteries. The later models had them locked inside of the chassis but they were still replaceable. The batteries on the Retina MBP? Glued.

That’s right, ifixit found that all six cells are glued to the system and any tampering will likely void your warranty.

And finally, we come to that beautiful screen. Surely if there was a dead pixel or some kind of error with the display, all Apple would have to do is remove the lid, open up the display swap out the panel right? Right…? Wrong. The panel is sealed shut inside the display assembly. But that’s not too bad, I hear you say…this also means that if something goes wrong with your iSight camera, WiFi or Bluetooth, then you’d have to replace the whole display assembly as well. Ah. Why? Because the antennas and the camera module are all sealed inside that display assembly. Imagine you just ran out of warranty, and then your iSight camera packs it in or your WiFi stopped responding. On the old MacBook Pros, you’d take it in and they’d charge you for a new camera or some antenna cables. Now, they’ll probably charge you for a whole Retina Display assembly. Ouch.

To conclude, what does all this mean for the consumer and the rest of the world? Well first of all, if you are planning to buy one of these then you need to be thinking far, far ahead and wondering if you would ever need more than what you are configuring your system with now. Oh and did I mention if you didn’t need the quicker processor and opting for the 2.3Ghz one, you then don’t have the choice of the bigger SSD, you are stuck with the 256GB on? This forces you to dish out all the dosh for the higher end model with more configuration options which you don’t need just because you want the larger storage space. This is a classic marketing ploy; giving customers what looks like choice but actually, if they want one small upgrade, they have to take the lot and pay for it.

The new MBPs are also worse for the environment now. With the introduction of the unibody design, the 2009-2011 MacBook Pros were crafted in highly recyclable aluminium and glass. Good. Now that aluminium is glued to the glass, it creates all kinds of difficulties for the recycling industry.

So. The new Retina Display MacBook Pro. A step forward in technology. A step forward in profit. And a big step forward in greed.

Tag: Retina

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