Chosen Solution

I know it sound stupid, but is it possible? Do the connectors, hinges etc. match?

The short answer is no. But the long answer:

  1. The retina macbook pro has a totally different hinge design that the non retina mbp.
  2. The display on the retina display actually anchors onto the back of the top lid, so the assembly is different.
  3. And even if you were able to shoehorn the retina display into your non retina mbp, it would be ^##$. Check out the retina display disassembly from iFixit - even they cracked the glass trying!
  4. The retina display pushes the graphics card on the mbp to the limit, and sucks a lot of battery power. So your computer wouldn’t last very long on a non retina battery. So the answer is no. Sorry!