MacBook Pro 15" Retina Upgrades

The MacBook Pro 15" with Retina display was introduced in June 2012. Its groundbreaking feature was its high-resolution 2880x1800-pixel "Retina" display. It also added a second Thunderbolt port, HDMI and USB 3.0. However it lost its DVD drive, along with ethernet and FireWire 800 ports (Thunderbolt adaptors for ethernet and FireWire 800 were sold separately).

It is much less upgradeable than previous models, with RAM being soldered onto the board and non-replaceable, the battery glued in place, and the SSD drive, while being upgradeable, is of a non-standard type. The case is put together with pentalobe screws.

The first, mid 2012, revision of the MacBook Pro 15" Retina was released in a 2.3GHz, 2.6GHz and a BTO option of 2.7GHz quad core Intel Core i7 CPU. RAM options were either 8GB or 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory and there were 256GB, 512GB and 768GB SSD options. Apple specs here.

The line was refreshed in February 2013 with a 2.4GHz (BTO 2.7GHz option) and 2.7GHz (BTO 2.8GHz option) variants. Apple specs here.

New models were released in July 2014, with very little differences to the previous models beyond slight differences in CPU speeds - 2.2, 2.5 and 2.8GHz i7 models. Apple specs here.

In Late 2016 a new revision came with the new Touch Bar. These models have both soldered in RAM, and a soldered SSD, making them completely non-upgradeable.

The main distinguising feature between the MacBook Pro 15" with Retina display, and the MacBook Pro 15" Unibody is its very high-resolution display. It also has no optical (DVD) drive, no FireWire port and no ethernet port.

The machine is similar to the MacBook Pro 13" Retina with the screen size being the main difference.

Memory is soldered onto the logic board in these machines, and cannot be upgraded after purchase.

There is no internal DVD drive in the MacBook Pro 15" Retina, to use optical disks it requires an external device.

The MacBook Pro 15" Retina's SSD drive is a non-standard part, rather than the 2.5" SATA drive used on previous MacBook Pros. There are different parts available depending on the age of the machine. They come with USB 3.0 enclosures for the removed Apple SSD - allowing easy data transfer and leaving you with a handy (and blazingly quick) external SSD.

The Late 2016 (Touch Bar) models have a soldered in SSD and cannot take upgrades.

If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.

Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.

The graphics card is not upgradeable in this machine.

The MacBook Pro Retina does not have any expansion slots, however with its Thunderbolt ports a wide range of equipment can be used.

Desktop keyboards and mice can be used with the MacBook pro 15" Retina via USB.

The battery for this machine is glued in. We do not at present have power supplies for this machine.

Listed below are tools, cables and related products we supply for this Mac.

The MacBook Pro 15" Retina has USB 3.0 which can allow it to control a wide range of external storage. For high-end use it also has Thunderbolt ports.

Any complete machines of this type or similar that we have for sale are listed here. Please note that these are refurbished models with a 3 month warranty, and that delivery is likely to take 3 - 5 working days. These can be purchased online with the standard website courier delivery charge for the mainland UK only. Please contact us for a quote on shipping to other areas.

Here are the various repair services we offer for this Mac. You can have us take the machine in for evaluation, or book a fixed-price repair if you already know what the fault is and the service is listed below (for services without parts, please see the relevant tab on this page for compatible parts that we sell). If you know what the fault is, but we don't have a fixed-price repair listed below, please contact us for a quote.