Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina Display Review

Apple has added an Intel 4th-generation processor with Iris Graphics towards the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Show ($1,499 as configured), adding substantial punch while increasing the battery existence. Just as important, the starting cost has dropped by $200, to $1,299. Shoppers also get faster flash storage and dual Thunderbolt 2 ports inside a slightly lighter and thinner design. Before you decide to get a Windows-powered Ultrabook, you owe it to yourself to look at this laptop.

Design
No surprises right here: The 2013 MacBook Pro 13 has got the same design as the 2012 edition, which isn't a bad thing. Not just is the all-aluminum unibody design fashionable and sleek, but it also seems sturdy. The MacBook Pro is partially lighter and thinner than last year's edition (3.57 pounds, 0.75 inches), but on the heavy side in comparison with some Ultrabooks.

The Samsung ATIV Guide 9 Plus (3.2 pounds, 12.6 by 8.8 x 0.54 inches), Acer Desire S7 (3 pounds, 12.7 by 8.8 x 0.51 inches) and also the Sony VAIO Pro 13 (2.4 pounds) are lighter and thinner. Still, it was convenient to carry the Pro around with us within our messenger bag as we went in order to and from work. Granted, all of those systems are more direct competitors towards the MacBook Air.

Display
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch along with Retina Display (2013) Display Like last year's 13-inch Retina MacBook Professional, the 2560 x 1600-pixel display about this year's version is absolutely stunning. Regardless of whether we were watching trailers, such because "Thor: The Dark World'; viewing web sites; or looking at high-res pictures, images just popped from the screen.

More important, there are about 250 apps that can make use of the Pro's Retina Display. For example, whenever we browsed Web pages in Safari, textual content and pictures looked incredibly crisp. As the ATIV Book 9 Plus has a level higher resolution of 3200 x 1800, you will find no Windows 8 apps optimized for such high resolutions.

Performance
Apple MacBook Professional 13-inch with Retina Display (2013) Performance Boasting the fourth-generation 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 processor chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB associated with flash storage, MacBook Pro cruised through our benchmarks effortlessly.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro's score associated with 8,249 on Geekbench was a lot more than 2,000 points higher than the actual category average (5,910) as well since the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (5,077), with a 1.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U processor chip, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The Acer Aspire S7-392, which has exactly the same CPU as the Samsung but 8GB associated with RAM, scored 5,184. The VAIO Professional 13, which has a 1.8-GHz Intel Primary i7-4500U and 8GB of RAM, notched 5,507 about this test.

The MacBook Pro took just 12 seconds as well into OS X Mavericks, which is nearly half the average (20 seconds), but slower compared to Samsung (11 seconds), Acer (9 seconds) as well as Sony (7 seconds). Still, the new PCIe flash memory within the Mac was blazing fast, for a rate associated with 299.4 MBps. That's more than two times as fast as the ATIV Book 9 in addition (127 MBps), Aspire S7 (113 MBps) and also the category average (109 MBps). Only the Sony VAIO Pro (392 MBps) demonstrated faster.

The MacBook Pro took 5 min's and 2 seconds to pair 20,000 names and addresses within the Open Office Spreadsheet test. That's a couple of seconds faster than the Acer (5:12), Samsung (5:13) as well as Sony (5:10). All are in regards to a minute faster than average. It took 2 minutes and 28 seconds to transcode a 205MB movie trailer to 720p in iMovie following applying the Dream affect and while using Enhance tool. By comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Professional with Retina Display (and Nvidia graphics) required just 1:06.