Apple's new 15-inch Macbook Pro: a want or a need?

THE 2012 World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) ended last week to plenty of oohs and aahs by audiences following the unveiling of Apple's next generation Macbook Pro.

The 15-inch Retina Display Macbook Pro easily stole the show at the WWDC, but if most of you are wondering if this is the laptop you want, I'm here to tell you that yes, you'll want it but you certainly don't need it.

First of all, I think it's crazy to brand this laptop as the must-have laptop for everyone. Sure, it's a sweet looking laptop with jaw-dropping specs and features, but do you really need all that power?

Let me tell you who would actually need the new generation Macbook Pro: graphic designers, photographers, videographers and professionals whose tasks require them to have the newest and fastest.

Anyone else still wanting to get the Macbook Pro can proceed to do so if they have money to burn or if they simply must own the best laptop money can buy, because this thing will set one back somewhere around $2,500 once it is shipped here.

But you do get what you pay for. The specs sheet shows that this new ultraportable Macbook Pro can pretty much handle (almost) everything a high-end laptop computer can do, blowing its ultraportable competitors out of the water.

But slapping a Retina Display on the laptop screen isn't exactly a groundbreaking improvement. It's something you can live without.

Personally, I was more interested in the refreshed Macbook Air arena. Laptops today are fighting their way towards achieving better portability without compromising power and performance, and the Macbook Air hits the chord very well.

While the new Macbook Pro is thinner and lighter than its predecessors, they remain heavier than Apple's line of Macbook Airs. And because this new Pro is a 15-incher, it doesn't make the laptop smaller in terms of dimension.

That's a problem when it comes to being an ultraportable laptop computer. It's not just about being lightweight anymore. It's also being able to fit the laptop into pretty much anything. You can fit an 11-inch (or a 13-inch to a certain degree) Air into a smaller bag, and it doesn't take a lot of desk space when you are in tight spaces like in an aeroplane.

And although the new Retina Display powered Macbook Pro beats the Air in terms of power and performance, the Air has also been given a processor upgrade to the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors, along with an updated integrated graphics processor which can handle pretty much all our everyday tasks like work and Internet, while still being capable of chugging out more power for photo editing and video-editing.

Unless you are in the line of work I mentioned earlier, this is all the power you need.

I think that Apple's hardware in its entire Mac product line has long surpassed the bare minimum requirements of being good enough for nearly everyone; over the past couple of years, they have all been good enough and fast enough. So even if you're on a budget, you can still benefit from getting last year's models.

The Macbook Air really strikes that balance, rather than the Macbook Pro. It's highly likely that you would take the Air with you more often when you're going out. Isn't that the point of getting a laptop in the first place?

The Brunei Times