Apple MacBook Pro 15.4" Laptop with Retina Display - MC975LL/A (June, 2012)

To put it simply this mac meets and exceeds my expectations , being a pc enthusiast and using pcs for the last 10 years ,building desktops systems that cost well over 4000 dollars this laptop holds no comparison . But for an on the go mobile workstation that is more than capable to meet every day demands you will not be displeased. As many have noted that ifixit has rated this laptop the least repairable which i understand would worry many . But realistically think to yourself "how many people actually upgrade their laptops" . Yes the occasional hard drive upgrade and ram may come in the future but the majority of consumers don't even touch theirs because within 3 years their looking to upgrade to another model anyway.Which brings me to my next subject being ram. The standard 8 gigs of ram initially worried me considering i come from a system with 32gigs and the lungs of my system always aspirated with ease (basic analogy cpu=heart ram=lungs). I have to confess that 8 gigs of ram is sufficient to run all the graphically intense and professional applications with usually 1 gig or 795mb is still in reserve. The only time in which more ram would be necessary is ex running Microsoft flight at max settings or crisis on parallel and then opening up dream weaver and movie editing software in which you could possible see the ram max out. Long story short you have to try and use all the ram in order to max out. The only crux of this system i find is the graphics card. yes everything is fluid and smooth even playing intensely demanding application such arkham city battlefield 3 , mass effect in retina resolution but multitasking with these games running won't work fluidly . Can it be done ? yes ? will it be buttery smooth absolutely not.you will begin to run into the limitations of the gpu. The limits are outlined much faster than a equivalent hp laptop with the same graphics card because of the retina display , the gnu now has to render twice as many pixels as its competitor . Battery life is excellent , basic word processing will yield five hours easily at 4 click away from max brightness hard core gaming will yield your 1 hour and 45 minutes . i was also delighted to find that Charging this unit is extremely quick . Take not that while playing left for dead or any graphically intense game the laptop will use upwards of 65 watts , coming close to the max rated watts of the supplied charger. Sometimes while gaming i will see an "estimated charging time of 3 hours" depending on the state of charge before i started gaming . Overall apple has done more than their research on this laptop . It is magmatic in every sense of the word to pack so much power within such a small form factor and with little comprises. I will continue to purchase macs as my preferred preference for on the go computing and use my pc powerhouses for server applications and braggings rights amongst my friends :).

Extremely fast, Top of the line hardware. I Comparing to other workstation, it packed a lot more processing power in a more compact form. I usually run virtual machine, so graphics are not that important to me. Although, the Nvidia is still good enough to for most of the graphic heavy users.
Usually I need more processing power and ram. This mac also gives me hi-res screen so I cam run virtual machine in standard resolution and still have more space to work with my codes.
This is not the ultimate machine to replace your PC or workstation, but as a student, believe it or not, I don't have much time sitting in front of my desk. So this machine is perfect, because it packed a 95wh battery,and quad core i7 processor so I can work anywhere I want. Also, this machine is not as bulky as the normal mobile work station. It is thin and light, and compare to other ultrabook, it is available in higher configuration. I have 512GB SSD, which gives me plenty of storage to work with. The only down side is the ram, which is soldered on the board, but the 16GB configuration is plenty, and will remain usable for the life span of the laptop. Especially when the closest competitor ASUS ux51 only gives the option of 12GB ram and 512GB ssd.
The OSX is not that tweaking friendly in my perspective, so I switch to linux when I need to do some geeky stuff, and I have to say the new kernel works pretty good on this laptop. But for office use and light web surfing or light video editing, this machine has plenty of power to spare with OSX.

I always wanted a mac and boy I have to say, this is an excellent product. this product is best performance, speed, graphical display, you can run multiple programs

Great laptop! Wonderful display. Fast and easy to use. Much faster than MS OS and apps. Worth the difference in price. Much improved over earlier versions of the MacBook.

Great machine with all the power you need in a lightweight package. The OS is fantastic. The weight balance and feel of the product is solid.

Couldn't have asked for a better machine.