Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Apple's MacBook Pro line has now gotten an entirely expected upgrade to current-generation Intel CPUs, just in time for the holiday shopping season. In our hands-on initial testing, these new 13-inch and 15-inch models look and feel just like the previous generation, but the promise of longer battery life, somewhat improved performance, faster Wi-Fi, and lower starting prices is enough to make this a significant overall update.
The first Mac systems to get Haswell were the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air back in June 2013. The iMac all-in-one desktop followed. That left the more expensive MacBook Pro a generation behind its less expensive Air counterpart in CPU power and battery life. That's important because our Labs testing has shown that Haswell offers significant improvements to battery life in PC and Mac systems. Apple promises 9 hours from the 13-inch model, and 8 hours from the 15-inch, and we'll offer updated battery life scores as we test the new Pro models.
Note, however, that this update applies only to the thinner MacBook Pro models with Retina Displays. Currently only the 13-inch version of the "classic" MacBook Pro appears to be available for sale. The 15-inch version is presumably relegated to the same lonely afterlife as its 17-inch relative. For the sake of expediency, we'll now refer to the current 13-inch and 15-inch Retina Display models simply as the MacBook Pro.
New & Updated Features At Low Price :
Retina Display retains its very high screen resolution.
Higher-resolution screens.
11ac Wi-Fi, faster PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) storage, and Thunderbolt 2 ports for data and video output.
Fourth-gen Intel CPU (Core i5 in the 13-inch, Core i7 in the
15-Inch)
Intel's latest onboard Iris and Iris Pro integrated graphics
The 15-inch model has optional Nvidia GeForce 750M graphics.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, while the 15-inch version defaults to 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD
The 15-inch MacBook will have faster 2.3GHZ
Price :
We were pleasantly surprised when the 13-inch MacBook Air saw its starting price cut to $1,099 earlier this year. The MacBook Pro follows, with its prices going from $1,499 for the 13-inch version down to $1,299; and from $2,199 down to $1,999 for the 15-inch version. That's a break from traditional Apple pricing, where prices would remain the same generation over generation, with updated components adding value.
