With the release of Apple's 12 inch MacBook, Cupertino tech giant Apple extended its notebook lineup with the unveiling of the 2015 Retina MacBook Pro, which possesses a slightly larger form factor of 13.3 inches than its 12 inch counterpart, and features a Retina Display, which ends up making the display quality far more crisp than ever before. The resolution present on the Retina MacBook Pro is an astonishing 2560 by 1600 pixels, so in order to provide the consumer with a fluid experience, the notebook is armed with Intel's fifth generation processor, which is a 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU.
Supplementing the processor will be Intel's iGPU, named the Iris 6100, along with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, and 128 GB of PCIe-based flash storage.This form of solid state flash storage is much faster compared to regular SSDs, but they also carry a higher price tag due to its high sequential and random read/write speeds.
The 13.3 inch product's battery timing is stated as the following:
- 10 hours wireless web browsing
- 12 hours iTunes movie playback
In addition, the Retina MacBook Pro also features the following connectivity outputs:
- 2 Thunderbolt 2 ports
- 2 USB 3.0 ports
- One HDMI port
- One SDXC slot
- One 3.5mm audio in/out port
Compared to the 12 inch MacBook, which only features one Type-C USB and one 3.5 mm audio in/out combo, the MacBook Pro provides a boatload of options for users. The product also features the latest wireless adapter, which is able to deliver theoretical wireless speeds based on the 802.11 ac wireless standard and a Bluetooth 4.0 module. The only disappointing thing about the product is that it currently does not feature any option to upgrade the total amount of RAM and users will have to choose an upgrading option from Apple's website, which will no doubt cost them far more than purchasing RAM modules from stores.
Coming to the pricing details, the Retina MacBook Pro costs $1,299, which is the exact same tag present on the base model of the 12 inch MacBook. It is expected that the larger form factor product will be available from April 10, 2015, alongside the company's smaller notebook.
