Yes!
But there are some caveats… Not the ones talked about on other review sites. Who cares about the price!? It’s cheaper than what I would have predicted watching the keynote. It is an investment. I’m playing Skyrim on a 4 year old laptop (more on gaming in a bit). Other than the wine smell it will definitely become an awesome server and backup solution, that will work for years still! I paid that laptop 3000$ and it was worth every penny.
The main problem about the Retina Macbook Pro is the graphics chip. A non-GTX chip, with only 1GB of VRAM! Now I understand a Mobile GTX would overheat, and the VRAM is less important because of the SSD drive. Still, why would Apple mention Diablo 3 in their keynote? This games graphics’ aren’t impressive… Really. I have no trouble believing you can run it at 2880×1800. How about Battlefeild 3 at Ultra? How about Skyrim at Ultra? Of course without anti-aliasing. Forget it!
Anyways, that’s my main throw-down. The glued battery is also a serious problem. It means that in three years, you’ll need to replace the whole bottom of your computer since the battery won’t keep its charge. It will be VERY expensive to swap (think 1000$ more like 200$). I’m not worried about the soldered RAM though, just put 16GB in there and you’ll be good for a while. I’ve rarely experienced long-term RAM problems.
So, Apple still aren’t trying to cater to gamers (I’m being harsh here, playing at 1920×1080 is definitely feasible). But they have made this laptop a WOW device again. It’s been a while since I’ve been WOWed by a laptop, the Air didn’t interest me the least.
What really surprised me is the HDMI port. I would never have guessed that, and it’s just a great thing. Congrats on that!
Final thoughts: I’m waiting for mine, hehe. I just won’t be gaming as much as I wished 😦
slowTech 