Apple MacBook Pro ME294LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (OLD VERSION)

I stayed away from the MacBooks for years, because they seemed to be overpriced inferior laptops to me. When the Retina version of this laptop came out, the MacBook finally had something the competitors didn't have - the most gorgeous screen I have ever seen on a laptop.Something that wasn't clear to me before purchase is how light and thin this laptop is compared to similarly equipped laptops. The thickness of this laptop is amazing. It's thinner than my 4th Generation Ipad in a leather case. Albeit, a little bit heavier.You'll definitely want a lap desk if you use this thing on your lap to watch video or play games, because it gets VERY hot. This is to be expected because of all the high end hardware squeezed into this. It's more of a desktop replacement laptop, in the form factor of a travel friendly laptop.

Delivery was fast but packaging was crap I meant if u r delivering a 1000$ product at least do the reasonable packaging...laptop was almost out of its original box when I opened the amazon std box...laptop cosmetic condition was just like FAIR bcz 2 keyboard keys were broken and still not fitted properly after adjusting..there were dents on the side corners seems like laptop was felt in past....i can tolerate all that point but the point which dispointed me most was the battery... it was not even charging at all...otherwise laptop was functioning properly...with very high speed impressed me most i will definitely buy this model somewhere else rather thn buying expensive 2015 model which only differs bcz of its force touchpad...

Save a few dollars and buy from Amazon! This laptop is top-of-the-line with 15" Retina display, 512GB PCI-Express Flash drive, 16GB RAM, etc. Ordered from Amazon and received a few days later. Saved a Benjamin versus Apple online store. Apple products are very impressive. Much higher quality than Dell and other commodity Wintel vendors. If you're looking for something comparable in terms of product design, but don't want to go Apple, the next option is Samsung. Sammy laptops, tablets and phones are on-par with Apple, while the software is Windows and Android versus Apple Mac OS X & iOS.This laptop can run both Mac OS X and Windows (and/or Linux), as it has an Intel CPU. Running Parallels virtualization product now to allow running Windows in a VM alongside Mac OS X, best of both worlds. VMware Fusion and Virtual Box are also available options to run VMs on the Mac, or use Bootcamp to dual-boot between Windows and Mac OS X.Given the crazy state of cyber security breaches for Windows, recommend moving to Mac OS X, and use a VM to browse the Internet, etc. Reset the VM on a regular basis, ensuring no malware remains present. Don't trust anti-virus and other security products to keep the enemy out.

I know the headline sounds fanboyish, but what can you say? If you've owned a Mac before, you know what to expect. If you never have owned one, let me tell you. From the packaging to the construction of every last part of the machine, Apple builds these things to the highest standard. You won't find a more solid machine out there. The unibody construction feels sturdy, and it's very light. The hardware is the best you can get at the time of construction. Whether you love Apple or hate them, there's simply no denying the quality. Yes, you can buy a similarly spec'd laptop for far less. But similar specs, does not make an equal machine overall. Let me explain why:1) Future proofing. When you buy a Mac, yes it costs more. But rest assured, you won't need to upgrade again for at least half a decade or more. This is my first MacBook upgrade in 6 years, and the previous machine was only just starting to get slow enough to warrant replacement. It could probably easily have been stretched another year minimum. The only issue we had with the other one in all that time, was the hard drive died. That could happen with any laptop, and was a cheap/easy replacement. Macs are built to last. It's a big expense, but you won't need to spend money on another laptop for years.2) Quality. Through my work I have worked on a lot of laptops, and desktops. Even in the $1,000 and above PC market, I've yet to find a Windows machine built to the standard of a Mac. They feel better in hand than anything else. The wear and tear is less than anything else. Though it must be said, aluminum scratches and gouges easily, however that can be said of plastic too. When you pick this thing up, it's extremely light, but also manages to feel SO sturdy. There's no flexing, creaking, etc.3) Apps. This is purely personal. Everyone feels different about operating systems, applications, how they like to do their work on a computer. OS X just works better than any version of Windows I've ever used. It's intuitive, beautiful, reliable, safe. The applications available, both through Apple and third parties, are just far more carefully done. Everything screams quality, ease of use, but also workhorse. There's a reason Macs are the go-to in anything media related, and are fast becoming the same for everything from word processing and beyond. Most big name games are even being made for Mac now. The few areas they were behind Windows on, they are now easily on par, or exceeding by quite a large margin.4) THE DISPLAY. My goodness. You hear people talk about Retina, and how beautiful it is. Words can't really explain it. You have to see it to believe it. The deepest blacks, brightest whites, absolutely NO light bleed, you cannot see pixels to save your life. The resolution is so high you can't even stand to use another machine after looking at it. The glossy display on this model is far better than my old one. My old one had high quality, but nowhere near this. You can look at this screen from any angle now, any distance, and it's crystal clear. It's just stunning.5) Battery life. Apple advertises 8+ hours on this laptop in particular. It delivers. Of course that depends on what you do. I mean, if you watch YouTube videos naturally it will go down faster than if you're composing emails or working in Pages. But casual web use, word processing, and a bit of photo editing, it easily meets the advertised battery life. That was with brightness on auto, all settings as far as display and energy saver on default. If you "power saved", turned brightness all the way down, keyboard backlighting off, etc... You could probably easily exceed the advertised by a noticeable amount. It charges fully from completely dead in about 3 hours. As far as degradation over time, I can't say yet obviously. However on our old MacBook (6 years old mind you) the battery still is about half as good as it started. So I am not worried about this one at all.You won't be disappointed. Some things to note however. Apple has moved to the "App Store" format completely. There are no discs with this device. Everything is done via the app store. It does come with iWork, iLife, Mavericks, all free, but no discs. There isn't a disc drive on this device at all. Personally I like it. I can't remember the last time I used a disc anyway. If you need to restore OS X simply download it from the app store, create a USB from it with Apple's included software for that, and install from USB. You can buy an external DVD/CD drive though if you like. It is supported.There's a lot of hype with Apple products. There's a reason for that. They deliver.

LOVE my new Macbook Pro Retina. I gave my old 15" to my Mom (Go Mom!) and needed a new one. I always hoped that Apple would come out with a 15" Macbook "Air" and this is about as close as you can get. It's much thinner and lighter than my old Macbook Pro and solved the one problem I had with it. It was too heavy...However, it introduced one new annoying flaw that I didn't have on the old one... the new Magsafe 2 power adapter comes unplugged constantly. In short, the new magnets are too weak. See the reviews on the Magsafe 2 on Apple's website to see just how much people hate them now. The good news is there is a fix. Google "Snuglet" and you'll find a new product that addresses this problem. My new Macbook is now perfect again! I hope this helps.