13" MacBook Pro with Retina display appears in Geekbench benchmark
Back in mid-May, we reported on sightings of MacBook Pro and iMac benchmarks on Geekbench that appeared to show the 15" Ivy Bridge-based MacBook Pro with Retina display that was announced about a month later. Now MacRumors is reporting that a similar benchmark for what appears to be a 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display has shown up on Geekbench.
The listing in question is for a MacBookPro10,2 running a special engineering build of Mac OS X 10.8 (build 12A2056). While this model number could be faked, it's in line with model identifiers for the 15" models. The 15" MacBook Pro is MacBookPro9,1 and the 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display is MacBookPro10,1. The 13" MacBook Pro carries a designator of MacBookPro9,2 and it's assumed that the Retina model would follow the scheme as a MacBookPro10,2.
The benchmark shows the device as having an Intel Core i7-3520M running at 2.90 GHz, but loaded with only 4 GB of RAM -- that's inconsistent with the non-Retina 13" MacBook Pro, which comes with 8 GB of RAM when paired with the same Core i7 processor.
Of course, Macs showing up in benchmarks isn't always an indicator of new devices appearing in stores. The May Geekbench post showed new iMac models that haven't yet made it to market. But moving the entire MacBook Pro line to Retina display is in line with KGI Securities Ming-Chi Kuo's assertion that Apple's laptop line will eventually consist of the 11" and 13" Retina MacBook Air and 13" and 15" Retina MacBook Pro.
If the new 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display is imminent, it would make sense for Apple to try to get the product into stores prior to the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.
