Apple MacBook Pro ME294LL/A

Apple MacBook Pro ME294LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display NEWEST VERSION... 4.8 out of 5 stars CONSUMER REVIEWS(29) 2.3 GHz Intel Core-i7 quad-core processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache 512 GB PCIe-based flash storage; 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory 15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display, 2880x1800 pixel Resolution; LED-backlit with IPS technology NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory Mac OS X Mavericks, Up to 8 hours of battery life Deal Price: $2599.00

Description A groundbreaking Retina display. All-flash architecture. The latest Intel processors. Remarkably thin and light 13-inch and 15-inch designs. Together, these features take the notebook to a place it's never been. And they'll do the same for everything you create with it. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has the power to do even more amazing things. Fourth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processors provide the fastest performance ever in a MacBook Pro. Display  15.4-inch LED-backlit Retina display with IPS technology; 2880-by-1800 native resolution at 220 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors Processor 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz) with 6 MB shared L3 cache Storage  512 GB flash storage Memory  16 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3L onboard Graphics  Iris Pro Graphics (integrated, with 128 MB of embedded memory) NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (discrete, with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching) Video  Thunderbolt digital video output (native Mini DisplayPort output); compatible with DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI output using optional adapters HDMI video output Audio Stereo speakers; dual microphones; headphone port; support for Apple iPhone headset with microphone; support for audio line out (digital/analog) Connections  Two Thunderbolt ports (up to 20 Gbps) Two USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps)< Aside from an iPod I had purchased some years ago, this is my first Apple product.First a bit of a preamble:I have many years of professional and personal experience using a variety of computers and operating systems as a professional and a personal user.I had no intentions of buying this computer, but I was kinda "forced" into it. Here's why:I purchased the 13" Macbook Pro with retina display for my wife (her old laptop with Windows XP was becoming a nightmare. (I had to be on 24x7 call as in-house admin, to fix any number of daily problems). But there was a rub. Safari uses black fonts on a dark gray background for the toolbar and tabs (I didn't notice this when I was in the store). I expected that there would be a preference option to change the font, color and background. Incredibly enough, there are no such options. Apple support confirmed this. I installed Firefox and while there's a free extension to change colors and font... This is a wonderful laptop. It's thin and light but feels extremely solid. The retina screen is absolutely gorgeous to look at. The only down side to retina is that many websites don't have high enough resolution images so they end up looking a little blurry. I just hope those sites increase their image resolutions because the retina display is truly amazing... it makes all my photos look a lot better :)The machine is very fast with most apps opening instantly. Even heavy weight ones like XCode. The battery life is very good; I haven't really gotten to test if it gets the advertised 9 hours though.The built in SD card reader is handy. The only thing I miss is an ethernet connection (you can get a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter). I rarely need it but there have been times.All the stuff I've come to love with Apple in a convenient package. The free copy of Numbers, Pages and keynote are nice too. I highly recommend. This thing is a solid performing development powerhouse, for example a project that used to take a few minutes to build on my old 2010 macbook pro, now builds in seconds. The screen is brilliant and provides plenty of desktop space for actually using serious software like XCode or Photoshop to their full. On the flip side install windows on a boot camp partition and you have one of, if not the most powerful portable steam boxes in the market.