Apple MacBook Pro MF839LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB Hard Drive, OS X El Capitan)
- 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (Broadwell)8GB of Onboard 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
- 128GB PCIe-Based Flash StorageIntegrated Intel Iris Graphics 6100
- 13.3″ LED-Backlit IPS Retina Display2560 x 1600 Native Resolution
- 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.0, HDMI
- Force Touch TrackpadMac OS X 10.10 or 10.11
- Non-Removable Lithium-Polymer Providing up to 10 Hours per Charge
Just when you thought your MacBook Pro was state of the art, Apple introduces the MF839LL/A 13″ MacBook Pro with new advanced processing power and graphics. New connectivity capabilities potentially speed large file transfers beyond any current connection. All MacBook Pro models are state-of-the-art. This new one takes it out to another edge. New Thunderbolt technology lets you connect high-performance peripherals and high-resolution displays to one port – with data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps. Thunderbolt is based on two fundamental technologies: PCI Express and DisplayPort. And because Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort technology, the video standard for high-resolution displays, any Mini DisplayPort display plugs right into the Thunderbolt port. To connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA display, just use an existing optional adapter. Take everything from games to CAD to HD video projects anywhere. Time makes full-screen HD video calls that are astonishingly crisp. And thanks to
List Price: $ 1,299.00
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359 of 379 people found the following review helpful
 Great high-end laptop, maybe the best Macbook ever (updated 4/4/2015), By
This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MF841LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (512 GB) (Personal Computers)
I’ve used my early 2015 13″ Retina MBP pretty intensively every day. I’m evaluating it relative to my 11″ recent-year fully loaded MB Air and the most recent non-retina MB Pro, which I used for a year at work. Here are my impressions of the 2015 rMBP so far, relative to these other Macbooks: * Display This is the main reason I bought the rMBP and I’m absolutely thrilled with it. It blows away every other Macbook’s display except of course the 15″ retina MB Pro. (The 15″ Pro is too big and heavy for my needs, and is overdue for a refresh.) For years, I’ve been running my MB Airs with an external monitor, a pretty decent 25″ 1080p IPS display, and I was happy with this setup. No more! The external monitor and obviously the MB Air’s display are a major step down from the rMBP’s display. I’m spoiled – it would be really hard for me to go back now that I’m used to the MBP’s gorgeous high-res display. * Weight The 13″ rMBP weighs 3.5 pounds. Whether that feels like a burden or a breeze will depend on what you’re comparing it to. I’m coming from a 2.4 pound 11″ Macbook Air, which I brought with me almost everywhere, including to work every day. The extra pound of the 13″ Pro is very noticeable. The weight of the pro was the only reason I hesitated choosing it over a 2015 MB Air. If you’re comparing the Pro to the 13″ MB Air, the Pro is only 1/2 pound heavier. If you’re comparing the Pro to similarly configured Windows laptops, many of which weigh 3 to 4 pounds, it’s in the same ballpark in terms of size and weight. If you’re comparing the Pro to the 13″ non-Retina Macbook Pro (yes they still sell these), the non-Retina Pro weighs a full pound more than the 13″ rMBP. For me, the Pro’s extra weight relative to the MB Air is a compromise I’m willing to make in order to have a much more powerful machine with a much better display. Plus, I no longer need to bring my laptop with me everywhere now; sometimes it’s fine to just bring my iPad mini 2 and external keyboard. (It helps that MS Office is available on iPad now, and IMHO it’s pretty good.) * Force track pad The “force” part — pressing the track pad harder to activate different features — is not supported in most applications now, but more and more applications will support it in the coming year. Until that happens, it works great as a regular trackpad – better than the (already excellent) trackpad on previous MB Pros and Airs. I like using the new trackpad pretty well. But it’s not a killer feature, and in the future when more apps take advantage of it it will probably be like having a third mouse button–handy, but hardly essential. * Speed & Performance The 2015 rMBP has a newer generation of processor and graphics. Everything feels very fast, including bootup times, app startup, running apps, ripping music CDs, etc. That said, the 2014 model feels very fast, too, and I don’t think most people will notice any speed improvements with the 2015 model over the 2014 model in normal everyday usage. Apple claims the 2015 model’s flash SSD is twice as fast as the SSD in the 2014 model. Independent testing from professional review sites have verified this. However, in normal usage, I don’t notice much difference – the SSD in last year’s model is pretty dang fast. * Battery life Apple claims 10 hours to a charge, compared with 9 hours on last year’s model. Independent tests by professional reviewers largely support Apple’s claim: Laptopmag.com reports 12 hours 4 minutes; PCMag.com gets 11 hours 10 minutes; CNET gets a whopping 15 hours 42 minutes. These figures are stellar, but the testing conditions are not realistic. In real-world usage, there are so many things that affect battery life. During my first 10 days with this machine, I never got more than 8 hours and usually more like 7. After much research & diagnostics, including a visit to the Genius Bar, I tried what all of you reading this must think is the obvious thing to try: I turned down the screen brightness. It turns out that you get a couple extra hours of battery life on 50% brightness compared to 80% brightness. I can now get close to 10 hours, maybe a bit more. I *prefer* having the screen brightness at 80%, and often leave it there while running on battery as long as I know I won’t be away from an outlet for more than 6 hours. But for those rare times when I do need maximum battery life, I know I can get it by dialing back screen brightness to 40-50%. * Summary: should you buy one? Buy a retina MB Pro instead of an Air if you want a MUCH better display, more connectivity, a more powerful system, and don’t mind an extra 1/2 pound relative to the 13″ MB Air (or full pound relative to the 11″ Air). If you choose the 13″ retina MBP, I’d encourage you to shop…
139 of 148 people found the following review helpful
 Read this if you plan to replace a non-retina MacBook Pro, By
This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MJLT2LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (512 GB) (Personal Computers)
Just a background about myself: I owned the early 2008 15" MacBook Pro, and late 2011 15" MacBook Pro. I am a former engineer and now a finance manager. I play videogames, used for programming (C++, Matlab, R, SQlL, etc.) and did normal productivity tasks. I also record music with Fender/Gibson guitars.
The changes from the 2011 15" MacBook Pro: Pros Cons Neutral: Overall, I think it is a great purchase.
326 of 364 people found the following review helpful
 Retina display is not durable at all, By
This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MF839LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB Hard Drive, OS X El Capitan) (Personal Computers)
Paid really big price for something not really durable. Within 7 months, stains started appearing in the screen. I always used wet microfiber cloth and even though I stopped cleaning the stains continue spreading all over the screen. Searching for the issue on internet, I found thousands of people complaining about the same issue, see website […]
Applecare refuses to replace alleging it’s a cosmetic issue |
Gamer
Great high-end laptop, maybe the best Macbook ever (updated 4/4/2015),
I’ve used my early 2015 13″ Retina MBP pretty intensively every day. I’m evaluating it relative to my 11″ recent-year fully loaded MB Air and the most recent non-retina MB Pro, which I used for a year at work.
Here are my impressions of the 2015 rMBP so far, relative to these other Macbooks:
* Display
This is the main reason I bought the rMBP and I’m absolutely thrilled with it. It blows away every other Macbook’s display except of course the 15″ retina MB Pro. (The 15″ Pro is too big and heavy for my needs, and is overdue for a refresh.) For years, I’ve been running my MB Airs with an external monitor, a pretty decent 25″ 1080p IPS display, and I was happy with this setup. No more! The external monitor and obviously the MB Air’s display are a major step down from the rMBP’s display. I’m spoiled – it would be really hard for me to go back now that I’m used to the MBP’s gorgeous high-res display.
* Weight
The 13″ rMBP weighs 3.5 pounds. Whether that feels like a burden or a breeze will depend on what you’re comparing it to.
I’m coming from a 2.4 pound 11″ Macbook Air, which I brought with me almost everywhere, including to work every day. The extra pound of the 13″ Pro is very noticeable. The weight of the pro was the only reason I hesitated choosing it over a 2015 MB Air.
If you’re comparing the Pro to the 13″ MB Air, the Pro is only 1/2 pound heavier. If you’re comparing the Pro to similarly configured Windows laptops, many of which weigh 3 to 4 pounds, it’s in the same ballpark in terms of size and weight. If you’re comparing the Pro to the 13″ non-Retina Macbook Pro (yes they still sell these), the non-Retina Pro weighs a full pound more than the 13″ rMBP.
For me, the Pro’s extra weight relative to the MB Air is a compromise I’m willing to make in order to have a much more powerful machine with a much better display. Plus, I no longer need to bring my laptop with me everywhere now; sometimes it’s fine to just bring my iPad mini 2 and external keyboard. (It helps that MS Office is available on iPad now, and IMHO it’s pretty good.)
* Force track pad
The “force” part — pressing the track pad harder to activate different features — is not supported in most applications now, but more and more applications will support it in the coming year. Until that happens, it works great as a regular trackpad – better than the (already excellent) trackpad on previous MB Pros and Airs. I like using the new trackpad pretty well. But it’s not a killer feature, and in the future when more apps take advantage of it it will probably be like having a third mouse button–handy, but hardly essential.
* Speed & Performance
The 2015 rMBP has a newer generation of processor and graphics. Everything feels very fast, including bootup times, app startup, running apps, ripping music CDs, etc. That said, the 2014 model feels very fast, too, and I don’t think most people will notice any speed improvements with the 2015 model over the 2014 model in normal everyday usage.
Apple claims the 2015 model’s flash SSD is twice as fast as the SSD in the 2014 model. Independent testing from professional review sites have verified this. However, in normal usage, I don’t notice much difference – the SSD in last year’s model is pretty dang fast.
* Battery life
Apple claims 10 hours to a charge, compared with 9 hours on last year’s model. Independent tests by professional reviewers largely support Apple’s claim: Laptopmag.com reports 12 hours 4 minutes; PCMag.com gets 11 hours 10 minutes; CNET gets a whopping 15 hours 42 minutes.
These figures are stellar, but the testing conditions are not realistic. In real-world usage, there are so many things that affect battery life.
During my first 10 days with this machine, I never got more than 8 hours and usually more like 7. After much research & diagnostics, including a visit to the Genius Bar, I tried what all of you reading this must think is the obvious thing to try: I turned down the screen brightness. It turns out that you get a couple extra hours of battery life on 50% brightness compared to 80% brightness. I can now get close to 10 hours, maybe a bit more. I *prefer* having the screen brightness at 80%, and often leave it there while running on battery as long as I know I won’t be away from an outlet for more than 6 hours. But for those rare times when I do need maximum battery life, I know I can get it by dialing back screen brightness to 40-50%.
* Summary: should you buy one?
Buy a retina MB Pro instead of an Air if you want a MUCH better display, more connectivity, a more powerful system, and don’t mind an extra 1/2 pound relative to the 13″ MB Air (or full pound relative to the 11″ Air).
If you choose the 13″ retina MBP, I’d encourage you to shop…
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|Read this if you plan to replace a non-retina MacBook Pro,
The changes from the 2011 15″ MacBook Pro:
Pros
– New ports that were not in the 2011 model: HDMI port, extra Thunderbolt video port (now it has two instead of one)
– New Radeon graphics card (FINALLY!). I had the chance to test the new Radeon graphics card and it’s really good.
– Retina display is actually sharper. I thought that it wouldn’t make any difference, but it DOES on games
– The computer is 1 pound (approx. 500g) lighter. This is a huge plus!
– Drives are now Solid State Drive. That is awesome. Super fast boot.
– (update!) When the computer is working hard, it doesn’t burn my lap anymore (although I do feel some hot air flowing through my fingertips, when I am typing, but I am okay with that).
Cons
– (update!) The new magsafe 2 power adapter is worse than the previous generation. The plug keeps unplugging. I think Magsafe 1 had an optimal grip: if you stepped on the cord, and pulled with enough power to drag the computer, the plug would disconnect. However, for gentle pulls, it didn’t disconnect. With Magsafe 2, even the gentlest pull makes the plug to disconnect, which is very annoying for me.
– New built-in speakers. They look the same compared to the 2011 model, but they are slightly worse. The drums in rock songs look very artificial.
– Memory is not easily upgradable anymore. WHY THIS, APPLE? SERIOUSLY?
– SSD (Solid State Drive) is not easily upgradable. See my comment above
– No ethernet connection and firewire 800 port. Honestly, I think nobody uses these ports anyway.
– No AUDIO IN port. Now audio in and out are combined in just one port… I don’t like this.
– No DVD drive. A separate device from apple is $70. It’s very expensive for such a simple device. There are similar models from $20 to $40.
– The screen is harder to clean. Maybe that’s a consequence of how the retina display is built, but yeah, it’s harder to keep the screen clean.
Neutral:
– Keyboard keys have a shorter touch. I’m okay with that given that the body is thinner.
– Touch feedback trackpad. In the beginning I felt a little weird about this trackpad. I couldn’t drag-and-drop items in it, but after I changed the behavior in settings, everything went well from there. I honestly didn’t think it changed much from my regular trackpad on the 2011 model.
Overall, I think it is a great purchase.
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|Retina display is not durable at all,
Applecare refuses to replace alleging it’s a cosmetic issue
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