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MacBook Pro with Retina display review (13-inch, late 2012)
Look down the aisles at any Apple launch event, across the laps of dozens of journalists liveblogging or in some other way documenting the goings-on, and it's inevitable that you'll see MacBooks. A lot of MacBooks. And, since many of those laps are irrevocably linked to owners who spend their days jetting around the globe to other companies' events, those laptops are quite often the travel-friendly MacBook Air. So, while we were excited to see a thinner, lighter 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display unveiled earlier this year, many of us were left asking one question: "Where's the 13-inch version?" Now, a little over four months later, here it is. Why the wait from one to the next? That's for Apple to know and us to speculate about (supply chain concerns? engineering issues?), but the important thing is that it's available now and it is, in many ways, an uncompromised, slightly smaller rendition of the 15-inch version that came before. It's thinner and it's lighter than the current 13-inch Pro but promises better internals and the same battery life as the 13-inch Air. Perfect portions of portability and performance? Let's find out.
Apple announces 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display: 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, Thunderbolt and HDMI starting at $1,699
If the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was feeling lonely up there on its high-resolution pedestal, it needn't any longer. As expected, Apple just announced a 13-inch version to keep it company. The 2,560 x 1,600 resolution means that 13-inch screen offers a ppi of 232, marginally more than its larger brother's 226. As well as that lovely new display, there's a pair of Thunderbolt ports, and a full-size HDMI port to let you make good use of it with, as well as a pair of USB 3s. While this might not be the primary focus of the day, it will definitely be one of the more hotly anticipated reveals from the company's San Jose event this afternoon. The base model will run you $1,699 and comes with a 2.5GHz i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory. At the top end you can expect 768GB hard drive, atop a Core i7. And, like last time, to top it all off, all the new goodies come in a slimmer, desire-stoking design -- weighing a whole pound less than the 2011 13-incher and at just 0.75-inches thick, 20 percent thinner. Already full of want? Then don't hang around, as it ships today! In the meantime, keep your retinas locked right here for our hands on. For more coverage, visit our Apple Special Event hub!
Tips have 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display joining iPad mini at rumored Apple event
While Apple's supposed October 23rd event still exists only in the land of leaks and rumors for now, there's mounting suspicions that it won't just be a one-trick pony if it becomes real. Both AllThingsD and 9to5Mac claim to know that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display is also on the cards for the presentation and would be just what you'd expect: a smaller version of the 15-inch model with four times the screen resolution of its conventional equivalent (2,560 x 1,600 here), all-flash storage and a price premium. There's not much more to go on beyond talk of a D1 codename versus the 15-inch D2, although we won't have long to find out if the rumor represents more than just wishful thinking. You might want to hold out on buying that MacBook Air for a week as a precaution.
MacBook Pro review (13-inch, mid-2012)
When the MacBook Pro with Retina display is in the game, Apple's "regular" Pros may seem a bit like also-rans. After all, why would you choose them when you could get a brilliant 15-inch 2,880 x 1,800 IPS panel and a Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor? Well, price, for one thing. While we walked away from our Retina MBP review mighty impressed, that model starts at $2,199. The latest crop of Pros, meanwhile, keep the same pricing scheme as last year's models ($1,199 and up), but step up to Intel's third-generation Ivy Bridge processors. We took the entry-level 13-incher for a spin to get a feel for how the dual-core Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics 4000 stack up to the competition. Read on to see how it fared. %Gallery-161394%
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.
IRL: The CES 2012 Edition, featuring AirDrop, a new MBP and Crumpler
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We came, we saw, we collapsed. After seven days in Vegas and 700-plus posts, we'd love nothing more than to catch up on The Daily Show, eat something other than In-N-Out Burger and bask in what we hope will be a slow news week. Alas, though, the show must go on, and so must our gadget ramblings. And what better place to start than with the gear we schlepped to CES? You'd think, like marathoners prepping for a race, that we'd stick with the high-tech equivalent of broken-in sneakers, red gatorade and other safe bets. But in fact, the week saw a few of us taking a chance on unfamiliar tech -- everything from the Elgato Turbo H.264 to the Sony NEX-C3. For Darren, the transition from thumb drives to AirDrop was benign, though largely ineffectual. In Terrence's case, an impulsive foray into the world of Macs left him without functioning USB ports. Good times, right? Meet us past the break for a few tales of what went right (or dreadfully wrong) last week in Vegas.
MacBook Pro (mid 2009) in-depth impressions
Let's be straight here: we're a little perplexed by the new MacBook Pro line. On one hand, Apple didn't really make enough changes to warrant a whole new review of the unibody lineup, and minor speed bumps aside, briefly using one of the new machines feels pretty much like using most any recent Mac: it's OS X on a really nice, albeit extremely glossy screen. On the other hand, after a week in the trenches, it's clear that all those seemingly minor changes will have a big impact down the line -- especially the move to sealed-in batteries across the board, which is a decision with decidedly mixed consequences. What's more, we think these changes impact the 13-inch and 15-inch models very differently -- the $1,199 13-inch configuration might have a shiny new Pro label on it, but even Apple admits that it's an entry-level consumer machine, and consumers and professionals don't have the same needs. So while this isn't going to be a full-on review, we think just slightly more than just our usual bullet-pointed impressions are in order -- and we think it's important to actually break things down by model. How do Apple's latest laptops stack up? Read on for more.
