I’m still sitting at my desk wiping the froth from my mouth dreaming of how much better my life is going to become once I get Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina display. It’s totally the most beautiful laptop computer I’ve ever seen, and I haven’t even really seen it in real life, but I know I want it. All my friends want it too, so of course after the keynote we talked about who’s going to get it, who’s not, and why not.
And then we all realized that there’s really no reason for any of us to buy it, and there might not be any reason for you to get it either. Here’s why:
To deduce whether or not all your hard earned dollars should go to the purchase of Apple’s latest magical computer, it’s important to understand what type of computer user you are, and which machine is best for the type of stuff you do on your computer. You don’t go buy a Ford F-450 when you really just need a small car with great gas mileage, and you shouldn’t buy a top of the line computer when all you need is something basic and dependable. If you’re debating whether or not you should buy the MacBook Pro with Retina display, then ask yourself this question:
I spend most of my computer time:
A) Watching cat videos
B) Sharing cat videos on Facebook
C) Writing about cat videos on my blog
D) Creating cat videos while on an African Safari
If your answer was either A, B, or C, then you probably don’t need a MacBook Pro with Retina display. Don’t be sad. A shiny new MacBook Air will suit you just fine and will be a great machine for you over the next few years. The Air is light, fast, and really cool looking. Rather than spending an extra $1,000 on computer specs you don’t need, you can go buy 200 Chipotle burritos, or a personal trainer, or a plane ticket to Guam. I don’t know what you’re going to spend the money on, but it’d be a waste for you to spend it on some fancy new computer features that you don’t need and won’t ever use.
Now if your answer was D, then yes you need a MacBook Pro with Retina display. You need one not just because you need an amazingly powerful machine to create some ballerific videos for us to watch, but because it’s light as hell so you can run the heck away from the jaws of those terrifiying jungle kitties! The MacBook Pro will allow you to view your video in full HD while editing it at the same time, and run an audio sampling app in the background so you can put pieces of that new Kanye West track in your video and win an award from National Geographic.
The new MacBook Pro is crazy. It’s mind-boggiling. But it’s not for most consumers because not everyone is a professional who needs to wring out every last drop of performance from a computer. Most of us use our computers for storing our pictures, listening to music, surfing the web, creating documents in Word or Excel, downloading videos, and creating a short video to post on Facebook every once in a while. For those types of tasks, Apple’s MacBook Air is the perfect answer because it’s fast, dependable, stylish and cheap.
90% of consumers don’t need a powerful laptop anymore. In fact, many of us don’t even really need a laptop at all now that we’ve got iPads, but we can’t help but lust after the newest wonder Apple dangles in front of our faces. Who can blame us? The MacBook Pro is supermodel hot, just not really practical for everyone. And the Retina display is really more of a sign of things to come for future MacBooks.
Maybe you fall into that category of people who need a powerful MacBook. Maybe you’re like me and fall just outside of that category. No matter what your need, Apple has some incredible new machines to choose from, but the MacBook Pro is set apart from the others because it’s for those with ambitions to push the boundaries of digital creation. It’s not a bad thing if you’re not one of those guys, but it’s just plain silly to waste your money on a computer that has phenomenal cosmic powers many of us don’t quite need.
