The regular MacBook Pro has the same 7 hour wireless web rating, but with a 63.5-watt-hour battery. Apple claims “7 hours wireless web” time with the Retina MacBook Pro’s 95-watt-hour battery. It stands to reason that a Retina display demands more horsepower, so battery life will be affected.
Since such modules aren’t available from third-parties ( PhotoFast tried to sell a flash storage upgrade for the MacBook Air, but Apple forced them to stop), it’s unlikely that users will be able to upgrade the flash storage themselves.įrom Not a sexy topic and no one seems to be paying attention, but did they improve the battery technology? Apple’s flash storage is a module of flash memory that plugs into a slot on the motherboard. The storage isn’t a drive mechanism that you may think of when you think of an SSD-a small box (2.5-inches in a laptop) that connects to the motherboard with a cable. Since the RAM is on the motherboard-there aren’t RAM slots for you to insert RAM modules-users can’t perform do-it-yourself upgrades.Īs for the flash storage (we may call it a solid-state drive, but Apple calls it flash storage), this also is probably like the MacBook Air. Apple also states that the Retina MacBook Pro is “configurable” to 16GB, which means you can customize your order so that the laptop you purchase has 16GB of RAM. The standard RAM configuration of the Retina MacBook Pro is 8GB, and Apple states that this is “onboard” memory, which means it’s part of the motherboard. We haven’t taken apart a Retina MacBook Pro, but it seems as if the RAM and flash storage implementation in the Retina MacBook Pro is similar to that of the MacBook Air. Macworld Lab will take a look at heat issues with the Retina MacBook Pro, using equipment to measure the heat generated from the laptop.įrom are either the RAM or the SSD 3rd-party upgradable in the next gen MBP? The file conversion took less than 5 minutes, during which time the fans did not run, and the laptop did not noticebly heat up.
I also used Handbrake to convert a movie file for my iPhone-the Retina MacBook Pro doesn’t have an optical drive and I didn’t try ripping a DVD or CD using an external drive. I wasn’t able to trigger the fans while doing this, and the videos ran smoothly. The laptop got a bit warmer than when I installed Diablo III, but not hot enough for me to need to move the laptop off my lap.
I watched several YouTube videos and iTunes movie trailers, all streaming 720p over the Internet.
The heat was from the center of the bottom of the laptop, and it didn’t seem to radiate beyond that. The Retina MacBook Pro, while running the Diablo III installer, warmed up, but not enough to make me uncomfortable while it rested in my lap. I have to take the laptop off my lap and rest it on a table. When running the installer for Diablo III, the 17-inch laptop gets warm enough start the fans. As a reference point, I’m using a 17-inch MacBook Pro on my lap. I don’t have an exact temperature, so I’ll try to give my best subjective observation.
So post them in the comments below or ask me via Twitter I’ll try to address them in our full review of Apple’s latest laptop.įrom Temperature-wise, how hot does the new MBP get? This is a small sample, and there’s no doubt that there are even more questions out there. I’ve spent some time with the Retina MacBook Pro, and I’ve answered some of the more common questions here. So Jason gracefully handed the Retina MacBook Pro over to me so I can address more of your questions, asked via Twitter (through our account). You had so many questions that they couldn’t all be covered in Jason Snell’s hands-on article. You have questions, oh so many questions, about the new Retina MacBook Pro.