MacBook Pro with Retina display review
Apple's new flagship is powerful, thin, and has an industry-leading high-res screen — does it live up to great expectations? Though Apple quietly discontinued the 17-inch MacBook Pro this week, hardly a tear was shed.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the flagship refresh of the line Engadget reviewed as the early-2011 MacBook Pro, and it lands alongside the same-day iFixit teardown showing a thinner chassis, dual Thunderbolt ports, full-size HDMI, and quieter fans — plus a glued, near-sealed interior that iFixit calls the least repairable laptop ever made. Apple also quietly retired the 17-inch model this week with little buyer protest, clearing the lineup around the new high-resolution flagship.
First-order effects
- Buyers get an industry-leading high-res screen in a thinner body, but lose the upgrade path — RAM is no longer user-replaceable in the Retina machine.
- Windows PC makers now have a display-quality benchmark to chase at the premium end, since reviewers single out the Retina panel as the laptop industry's best.
Second-order effects
- Third-party upgraders and independent repair shops lose their business on the flagship Mac, pushing price-sensitive buyers toward the still-serviceable non-Retina models while they remain.
- Rival OEMs face pressure to ship high-DPI panels themselves, which funnels demand to display suppliers able to produce them at laptop volumes.
Third-order effects
- If the sealed, soldered design becomes the template, premium laptops consolidate into fixed-specification appliances, shifting the upgrade cycle from component swaps to whole-device replacement — and putting the burden on software, where Apple is already updating its own apps for Retina but third-party developers must follow.
The trend: Premium laptop design is trading repairability and expandability for thinness and high-density displays, with Apple's Retina MacBook Pro setting the pattern competitors must answer.