Retina may be the buzz word of the moment, but we're not sure it's really all that necessary in a computer. Even when they're resting in our laps, our eyes aren't all that close to our laptop screens; and besides, are Mac developers really going to rush to support one model with a relatively small number of users? Bragging rights are nice, but the hefty premium attached to the Retina display might not be as worthwhile as it seems.

Because the Retina display doesn't sit behind a pane of glass, Apple says the new screen cuts down glare by 75 percent when compared to the other glossy MacBook Pro displays. But for a small $100 upgrade, you can still configure your regular MBP with a matte screen for 100 percent less glare. That's not available on the Retina MacBook, so you may still have to deal with some nasty reflections.

The MacBook Pro with Retina display is configurable up to a jaw-dropping 16 gigabytes of RAM, but there's a catch: If you choose to save the $200 and stick with the standard 8GB configuration, you won't be able to upgrade down the line. The Retina MacBook is all sealed and soldered shut, but the rest of the line is still very user-serviceable (to at least 16GB, despite Apple's stubborn refusal to admit it).

It might not seem like much, but the non-Retina MacBook's 300MHz upgrade over its same-priced, pixel-enhanced brother is nothing to sneeze at. It's like the difference between screaming and yelling really, really loud. Getting a MacBook Pro with Retina that matches the processor specs of the $2199 standard MacBook Pro will set you back another $600.

It looked really nice rotating behind a cylinder of glass, but first-generation technology from Apple has been known to have glitches. The MacBook Air had fan and overheating issues, the PowerBook G4 Titanium suffered from faulty hinges and paint peeling, and G3 iBook users had display and logic board troubles. The tried-and-tested MacBook Pro is happily used by millions and won't let you down.

Super-fast flash drives may be standard on the Retina MacBook, but you get nearly three times as much storage (750GB vs. 256GB) with the run-of-the-mill 15-incher for the same price. And you can apply the same logic as we did with the RAM: You can always swap it out for a cheap SSD drive later. The only way to expand the Retina Pro's storage aftermarket is through a SDXC card, which can be more expensive than a solid-state drive.

You get the same three USB 3 ports with each model, but the Retina MacBook adds a Thunderbolt and HDMI port while dumping Gigabit Ethernet and one of our favorites: FireWire 800. Apple is selling $29 Thunderbolt adapters to address both of these needs, but if there's one thing we hate, it's cable clutter. So until the whole world of peripherals embraces Thunderbolt (which might take a while), that one little missing port is a really big deal for us.

One of the biggest sacrifices in the Retina MacBook Pro is the loss of its optical drive. Depending on your needs, this might be a major drawback to the new machine. Of course, Apple's external USB SuperDrive might do the trick, but what's the point of shaving a pound when you just have to carry around the extra weight anyway?