First Retina Mac

Temptation — 1, Moderation — 0.

Bought my first “Retina” MacBook Pro on Saturday. No regrets. Powerful, beautiful hardware. This highly totable beast outraces my 2011 super iMac, encoding a feature film in 14m compared to the iMac’s 20. Incredible. It’s been years since I had a MacBook that was obviously more powerful than an iMac (let alone such a good, new one). Impressive.

My official, only-slightly exaggerated rationale for the purchase is that it really will be extremely valuable for web design. The hi-res display on this device makes low quality web graphics look like out-of-focus hobby snapshots at a fine art show. It’s weird how they pop out. “Hey, who made the world wide web all pixelly?”

Update from the future: 20 months later, it still seems like the best Mac I’ve ever owned. Use it constantly, love it.