Apple's MacBook Retina Display can be considered as one of the best around. This line of device is powerful, thin, light and chic. People looking for style and portability can find in it in this series. However, despite being one of the highest performing devices around, it can take a while for a Retina MacBook to shift from sleep mode to full function. It can be frustrating to wait for the laptop to become fully alive. Fortunately, there are several tips and tricks to speed up this process.

Apple has incorporated the "standby mode" into its Retina MacBook Pro series along with other post-2010 MacBook Air models. Standby mode is the primary reason why the latest MacBooks takes slightly longer to wake up. Fortunately, there is a simple terminal command users can input in OS X to speed up the timing.

Understanding the Standby Mode

The screen of the Retina Pro remains frozen as users only see the display's screenshot before the device went to sleep mode. This is the reason the password box becomes static and the time on the display is not accurate initially. Newer models with SSD drive usually around eight to ten seconds before they become fully awake. The duration corresponds to the transition the laptop goes through when changing from standby mode.

MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros go into standby mode if they are left sleeping normally for around one hour. The main purpose of the standby mode is to allow the battery to remain in limbo up to 30 days without having to charge it. The laptop has to be operating with battery power with no Bluetooth or USB devices for it to go into standby mode. The laptop should also not have external displays or SD cards attached to it.

Speeding it Up

So how do you change the transition time and speed up the device when coming from standby mode? Follow these steps as discussed in Ewal.net:

1. Open Terminal under Utilities folder under Applications.

2. Copy and paste this: sudo pmset -a standbydelay 86400

The end number corresponds to seconds which means 24 hours. Users can change the value according to their preferences. The following command indicates the latest timing for the laptop's standby mode:

pmset -g

Users should not worry about the tradeoff of battery life. Those charging their MacBooks everyday should be fine with just 24 hours on their time. People can experiment with different timings to find the best setup according to their preference.