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Macbook Pro or Macbook Pro with Retina?

I am a college student and am looking for a laptop... The Macbook air wouldnt be powerful enough and I dont see a good windows competitor that comes close to the Macs in the laptop world...

With that being said, I have narrowed down to the Macbook Pro 2012 or Macbook Pro Retina. I understand that the Retina does not have a CD Drive or an Ethernet Port, but a better screen

What I want to know if:

1) Which one would you buy? and why

2) If I upgraded the Macbook Pro to the 2.9HZ model, would it be faster or slower than the new Retina base model

1 Answer

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  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I faced the same dilemma last year when I bought my first Mac. I was torn between the non-Retina model and the Retina model. Ultimately I went with the non-Retina MacBook Pro, only because the customization would work out in the long run. Unlike the Retina MacBook Pro, the RAM isn't soldered to the board and you can replace the hard drive and the Superdrive if needed.

    The non-Retina MacBook Pro also has a lot more storage space. Although it runs on a traditional hard drive, it starts off with 500GB of space which is a lot more compared to 128GB or 256GB. Also, when it comes to replacing the battery for your computer a few years from now, you'd be paying a lot more money replacing the battery for the Retina model.

    If I were you, I would go with the non-Retina MacBook Pro. However, if you have a big budget, then go with the Retina model. And regarding 2.9GHZ, are you getting a 13-inch or a 15-inch? The 13-inch model has a dual-core processor, while the 15-inch has a quad-core processor. Whichever computer you choose, if you upgrade it to 2.9GHZ, you won't experience any speed increases in mundane tasks such as web browsing and watching videos on YouTube. You'd see some speed increase and power performance boots during heavy processing tasks like Final Cut Pro or something that uses a ton of CPU power.

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