Funny you should ask....I just got the 15" macbook pro and this is my very first post with the new machine. I have to admit, that esp for my old eyes, the retina display is awesome. I haven't even been on it long enough to notice a speed difference yet. I'm sure that will come. I haven't even figured out this new force pad track thing, but I'm sure I'll get there.

I'm no youngster, but for me, I don't switch out machines that often, so when I do upgrade, I do prefer the latest and greatest as I know I'll be far behind technology when I do finally upgrade again in 5 years.

Hi, Annie.. congrats on your new macbook!
She'll get the 13"-- it's far too small for me but it's much easier for her to cart around and slip into a pack. Yes-- the retina display is awesome-- I am just not sure it's it's worth giving up a true hard-drive for a student. I know flash storage isnt new but I've never used it for primary storage. I don't think it would matter that there's not a cd/dvd drive on the retina display version since they stream music and videos-- but i do wonder about document and data storage.

They are both new computers and highly regarded-- I just want to choose the best for her.

Funky art, my DD bought a MacBook Pro 13" with retina display about a year ago. She was starting grad school and needed a new computer and wanted to move to the Mac. She has a lot of music (a really insane amount) & also does a lot of photography so storage was important to her. I believe she bought the extra RAM package and bought the external CD/dvd drive which plugs into one of the ports. It was around $100 iirc. You really will be ok with a smaller storage unles your niece stores a lot of movies and music on her computer. But I would get the retina display.

Annie, congrats on your new MacBook!

What a generous gift!

The flash storage is the better reason to get the upgraded version. It's so fast and reliable and it's great for the student life. The retina display is excellent, but their regular display is pretty sweet too. I notice the retina most when working with text on a page. It lets my eyes relax. I don't notice it with graphics.

Either one will be great, the MacBooks are amazing workhorses. Congrats to your niece for the next big chapter in life!

Thanks for all the info and experiences. The customer service agent I spoke to really didnt have much personal experience and wasn't as clear on the specs until she looked them up to confirm what I was telling her.. for that reason, I didn't really trust anything she said from that point on. I do hear that the flash storage is very fast for retrieving/editing images with lightroom-- and also with videos. I just wasnt sure that it had the same advantages for documents. I did see that the external hard-drive wasn't very expensive so that could be an option if she wanted to use CDs or DVDs.. but again, I am not sure how much the kids are using them these days. She'll use netflix and spotify to stream music and vids. Karen, I find the same-- the apple displays are all very nice. I do noticed the difference with the retina dsplay but the regular version is very nice also.

I feel much more comfortable with the retina display/flash storage now. I think that's the way we'll go.

Thanks for the recommendations for the air model as well. Niece very specifically asked for the macbook pro-- and while the air IS much lighter, the processor is not as good-- nor are the graphics as good. The 13" model is still compact and surely easy to carry about.

Thanks again.. all this shopping has me drooling for a mac myself. I've entertained the idea of getting one-- but I'll have to wait as all my pcs are going strong!

When we decided to replace my 6 year old Dell laptop a few months ago my adult sons urged me to get the 15" Macbook Pro Retina. Since I also had to replace my 5 year old Droid I opted for an iPhone 6. I've never had an Apple anything so the learning curve was rather sharp. It's not as intuitive as everyone claims when you've only ever used a PC. Then a month later I won an iPad Air. I feel like I've gone to the dark side or as DH says I'm sliding down the Apple hole a la Alice. For Mother's Day he surprised me with an iWatch which arrived this week and which I'm returning this afternoon. He was thrilled with his purchase but the iWatch isn't for me.

I've read the reviews for the Air and you're right about the processor and graphics. Some of the reviewers said Apple merely introduced it so that they'd have yet another 'new' model to market and that purchasers should opt for the Macbook Pro or wait for the next model which they assume will better.

What a great gift - your niece is a lucky girl.

So far I'm quite delighted with the 15". It is fast, esp compared to my 5 yr old model. I still haven't figured out the force pad thing, but it isn't annoying at all and can actually be disabled. So it's not the issue I feared. It also has dual speakers so the sound is tremendous compared to the old one. That's one nice thing about infrequent upgrades...the benefits of upgrading are really noticeable.

The retina display is very nice, but there is a big ol' problem if your software isn't optimized for it. Programs that aren't (and there are still a fair number of them) look just like regular def TV on a high-def tv screen.

Hi, I am a long time lurker, but this is something I feel confident addressing. My daughter, who graduated last year with a degree in Chem E and is going to start graduate school this fall, just replaced her previous Macbook Pro with the 13" Pro Retina and absolutely loves it. As an engineer, she needs a powerful machine. She had both a laptop pc and the Macbook Pro during her undergraduate years, but she never used the pc unless she was using some specialized engineering application requiring Windows. In fact, when she purchased the Pro retina, she had her old Macbook Pro completely reconditioned and updated and has kept it as a backup should anything happen to the new computer. The model she purchased has a 3.1 GHz Duel-Core Intel i7 Processor with 16GB of memory; however, the upgrades my daughter has on her machine may be more than your niece requires, depending upon her intended major.

I forgot to mention that supply times are slipping for the MBP right now, which many take to mean that there will be an upgrade announced at ADC next month.

I did have to wait 2 days for mine as they just started shipping this new version with the force touch pad.