[Gandhi]

Looks like everyone missed a major detail that they've removed the optical drive from new generation MBP. I'm sure it will be a deal breaker for many.

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Looks like everyone missed a major detail that they've removed the optical drive from new generation MBP. I'm sure it will be a deal breaker for many.

This was already hitting in the rumors long before and looks like the optical drive will not be missed because Apple thinks that only their OS ships in a CD and now that is not needed anymore as the OS upgrade can be done through the App store. So Apple decided to part off with the optical drive and cajole the customers with the slimmed MBP.

Even I miss the optical drives in the new MBP with the retina display.

By the way, is the Apple care protection plan valid globally? How is the situation in India. Does the Apple service center considers the notebooks purchased abroad? Any experiences that could be shared?

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Yes, APP is valid globally. I have gotten my previous gen powerbooks purchased abroad repaired here for free under APP.

[M5_fan]

Originally Posted by joe1980

This was already hitting in the rumors long before and looks like the optical drive will not be missed because Apple thinks that only their OS ships in a CD and now that is not needed anymore as the OS upgrade can be done through the App store. So Apple decided to part off with the optical drive and cajole the customers with the slimmed MBP.

Even I miss the optical drives in the new MBP with the retina display.

By the way, is the Apple care protection plan valid globally? How is the situation in India. Does the Apple service center considers the notebooks purchased abroad? Any experiences that could be shared?

All apple products except the iphone have international warranty provided they are brought from a legit store. So there is no issue if you want to get a macbook from abroad.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by joe1980

This was already hitting in the rumors long before and looks like the optical drive will not be missed because Apple thinks that only their OS ships in a CD and now that is not needed anymore as the OS upgrade can be done through the App store. So Apple decided to part off with the optical drive and cajole the customers with the slimmed MBP.

In addition to optical drive, the fire-wire port and the Ethernet port are also gone. Apple is going towards no-cables MacBook Pro. May be they'll come up with some efficient wireless charging technology in future .

[Parthasarathig]

Originally Posted by _raVan_

The MBP prices have changed. Its starting from $2200 to $2800 for 15". No 13" and 17" MBPs (with Retina displays) :(

The price tag is quite hefty for that display.

Only 15in MBP have been launched with retina displays. There is discontinuation of 17in models.
Only 15in retina display MBP has no superdrive. And it is all flash storage.

The prices of 13in and 15in normal or fat MBP hasnt changed. And they now come with quadcore as standard and also have the Superdrive.

Just to clarify everyone's doubts. And you still get 100$ off on the 13in MBP and 200$ off on all the 15in models with or without retina display as education discount.

I think apple has rightly stopped 17in production as it was quite high priced and at that range people would rather opt for Alienware or other 17in windows models.

[khanak]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Looks like everyone missed a major detail that they've removed the optical drive from new generation MBP. I'm sure it will be a deal breaker for many.

I have used the optical disc drive on my computer twice since i got it three years ago. With external drives available I dont see it being much of an issue. Taking the cd drive out allows apple to put in a much larger battery which imo is a lot more important than having a cd drive. Imo they should mot have retained the other 15" model and kept the product line up simple.

It can only be a few years before apple's entire product line up has retina displays.

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

The old models have been upgraded without the retina display. Only 15in models have the retina display and flashdrives. Rest all is the same. Only benefit of opting for the slim MBP is the retina display. Seriously i feel 512gb is quite less for this day and age. The non retina display aka the fatter MBPs have traditional HDDs but no retina display. Dilemma really. I would want both the hdd and retina display together. Seemingly not possible.

That is a 512gb ssd i believe. A lot faster than regular hdds, isnt the new one thinner, lighter and faster than even the 13" pros?

[Parthasarathig]

Originally Posted by khanak

.

It can only be a few years before apple's entire product line up has retina displays.

That is a 512gb ssd i believe. A lot faster than regular hdds, isnt the new one thinner, lighter and faster than even the 13" pros?

I think at the next change of the mac lineup as in 2013, all Macbooks will be made with retina displays.
Yes, the new one is supposed to be 2.4times faster.

Now one silly doubt from my side. Will 1080p videos look good on retina displays in full screen? I mean the retina on the 15in is 3 times more pixels than normal 1080p hd. What will the effect of that be on the videos? Im talking about viewing the videos in full screen.

[adroit_91]

Originally Posted by M5_fan

All apple products except the iphone have international warranty provided they are brought from a legit store. So there is no issue if you want to get a macbook from abroad.

All Apple "portable" devices except the iPhone have international warranty. The iMacs, Mac Minis and Mac Pros are NOT covered under international warranty.

[M5_fan]

Originally Posted by adroit_91

All Apple "portable" devices except the iPhone have international warranty. The iMacs, Mac Minis and Mac Pros are NOT covered under international warranty.

Mac mini is also covered. Dont know about iMac and Mac Pro.

[khoj]

Try Dell with their 'complete cover'. Of course no one in their right mind would break their own machine or any one else's for that matter but accidents happen. I have experienced this first hand with my Latitude ATG. Spilt coffee on to the keyboard and while trying to soak up the same with a tissue, I dug a little too deep and inadvertently broke a couple of keys. Reported the issue and the keyboard was replaced. Funny incident that one as the keyboard itself is spill proof. There was yet another incident when my laptop kept in a sleeve fell from an overhead bin in flight and the bezel was broken, again replaced as soon as the issue was reported.

With all of the above and more on record, Dell had no issues in selling me an additional 2 years complete cover warranty when the original 3 year warranty ran out.

Originally Posted by adroit_91

As far as I understand, self-induced damage is covered only under insurance, never warranty!! For every brand!

[joe1980]

Can anyone please post the price of the old MBP 13 inch model in India? Here in Europe, it has come down to 980 Euros. I was about to buy it today, but somehow decided against it. But definitely, it is moving. The stocks when I enquired last week was almost the half of it today available. The shops are confident that the remaining will be sol out in a week.

[DriveLogic]

Originally Posted by khanak

Or try getting something from the Apple refurbished store if you want to save some dough. They carry the same one year warranty and everything. I don't know where you are located but I don't think India has access to the Apple store. Infact I don't know why Apple seems to be ignoring India so much.

I'm also quite appalled by the fact that India is being ignored by Apple a great deal.

But I think things are changing. If you saw the keynote, the starting video on Apps showed great detail on Mumbai. Given Apple's attention to detail, thats surely a positive sign.

Another thing is, they are really known for their focus. They do "market penetration" slowly, but when they do, its perfection to a level that no other companies match, maybe even not auto companies. Right now, Apple's attention is on China. And China is getting the best of Apple. So there its very likely that India may be next

Another evidence is this, Apple exec. Neil O'Connor visiting Bangalore:

Apple CIO O'Connor visited Bangalore in January: Will it be iNDIA after iPhone, iPad? - Economic Times

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by DriveLogic

I'm also quite appalled by the fact that India is being ignored by Apple a great deal.

But I think things are changing. If you saw the keynote, the starting video on Apps showed great detail on Mumbai. Given Apple's attention to detail, thats surely a positive sign.

Another thing is, they are really known for their focus. They do "market penetration" slowly, but when they do, its perfection to a level that no other companies match, maybe even not auto companies. Right now, Apple's attention is on China. And China is getting the best of Apple. So there its very likely that India may be next

Another evidence is this, Apple exec. Neil O'Connor visiting Bangalore:

Apple CIO O'Connor visited Bangalore in January: Will it be iNDIA after iPhone, iPad? - Economic Times

Looks like nothing more than a discussion for an Outsourcing deal. Like the article mentions, Apple has a love-hate principle with India. If it was economical for Apple to do business in India, then why would they close their development centers in 2006?

But it is certainly a good news for India Inc. It should feel great working for such companies.

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

In addition to optical drive, the fire-wire port and the Ethernet port are also gone. Apple is going towards no-cables MacBook Pro. May be they'll come up with some efficient wireless charging technology in future .

They've taken out dedicated ports but are also providing two thunderbolt ports and adapters for thunderbolt-to-firewire and thunderbolt-to-ethernet conversion. However, these would not come free with the laptop!

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Now one silly doubt from my side. Will 1080p videos look good on retina displays in full screen? I mean the retina on the 15in is 3 times more pixels than normal 1080p hd. What will the effect of that be on the videos? Im talking about viewing the videos in full screen.

It's actually 4 times the pixels of a Full HD screen. Apple would not take an odd multiple for the pixels.

If you take two displays of the same physical size, one with retina display and the other with a normal Full HD display, the video will look exactly the same on both, no pixelation.

This is similar to the retina conversion of the iPhone display(4 times) and achieves a similar effect. If you compare the old and new iPhones, the same video playing on both will look exactly same.