Best quality and performance notebook on market. Best value if you buy used
Bought this as a sorely needed upgrade to my late 2008 MacBook 13" Unibody. I was considering buying the newest, early 2015 model, but the deal I scored on eBay ($1,100 for a 3 month old, pristine condition, mid 2014 MacBook Pro Retina 13" i5 2.8 8GB RAM 512GB SSD) made this purchase a no brainer. Performance wise, the 2015 model only has significantly greater SSD read/write speeds, one hour better battery life (due to more energy efficient Broadwell chip), and the "Force Touch" trackpad. As I do not usually use SSD intensive applications like photoshop, the SSD performance is fine for me on the 2014 model. Especially compared with my old late 2008 model. It would be nice to have the extra one hour battery life of the 2015 model, but 9 hours is still excellent. The Force Touch, while a cool feature (I tried it out at my local Apple Store), was definitely not a necessary requirement. I like the MacBook Pro models over the new 12" MacBook and the MacBook Air because of the ample peripheral ports (2 USB 3.0, 2 Thunderbolt, micro SD, and mag safe 2), and the great overall performance. For those who want/need even greater hard drive storage above your SSD, you can purchase up to 256 GB of "JetDrive" storage for about $170. This option is far cheaper than buying a larger SSD drive from Apple, and the JetDrive fits neatly in the MacBook Pro's SD slot. This SD slot is not available on the 12" MacBook, but is on the Air. While I would love a super lightweight model like the 12" MacBook or Air, the Pro's weight (3.5 lbs) is not too heavy. Especially considering the performance.
I did experience one defect, though. It was an LCD display "mura", which manifested itself as a singular bright spot on my display. Googled this defect and learned that "muras" started when Apple released the retina displays starting in 2012. The mura defects apparently continued through the 2013 model year, but have slowed considerably since 2014. I guess I was just lucky to get one of the few mura defects on my mid 2014. Anyway, Apple replaced my defective display without question, especially as I still had 9 months remaining on the warranty, so the defect was just a short-term inconvenience. Apple customer service remains the best in the industry, and that is why I remain a loyal Apple customer.
Compared with other notebooks on the market, the Apple MacBook Pro remains the best in quality and performance. Apple is pricier than others, but if you are patient and wait to score a great deal on eBay, like I did, you will get the best value notebook computer on the market. No doubt.Read full review
