Apple refreshes MacBook Pro Retina laptops with Haswell, cuts prices

Julio Franco

Posts: 9,190   +2,115
Staff member

As expected Apple was ready to announce a refresh to its MacBook Pro line of laptops today. Both 13-inch and 15-inch Retina laptops will receive a speed bump thanks to the Intel Haswell + Intel Iris graphics update, but most importantly they are bound to get a much improved battery life due to the new hardware and the OS X Mavericks upgrade that is focusing heavily on power consumption optimization.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro gets slightly thinner and lighter. At 3.46 pounds it's barely any lighter than the previous model but the reduction in thickness down to 0.71" seems more relevant considering this is what the 15-inch model already measured -- the 13" used to be the thicker model before.

Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros receive upgraded PCI-e based flash storage. Apple is claiming a huge 60% performance boost which sounds a bit extreme though we're sure a decent performance increase will come with the change.

The base 13-inch MacBook Pro has received a price cut down to $1299, which sounds pretty competitive in my book, for that price you get the high DPI display, a 2.4GHz dual-core i5 Haswell CPU, 4GB RAM, Iris integrated graphics and a 128GB SSD.

The new MacBook Pro 15-inch is fitted with Intel's quad-core Crystalwell processor (a variant of Haswell) that adds Iris Pro graphics and 128MB of eDRAM on-package. On the new base $1999 15-inch MB Pro you get no discrete graphics, showing that Apple feels more confident about driving the high DPI panel with the upgraded integrated Intel graphics. An optional GeForce GT 750M (2GB) discrete GPU will be offered as well.

The 15-inch model remains the same on the outside, and like its smaller sibling gets upgraded to PCI-e based flash storage, Thunderbolt 2 and WiFi 802.11ac.

Although a formal announcement was not needed, this launch marks the end of the legacy non-Retina MacBook Pro line moving forward. In fact, as of today the legacy models were removed from Apple's website.

Permalink to story.

 
For a $2000 Laptop the 750M should have been there by default with an option for 780M.
This is Apple they are not the most value for money company out there... It's like the Porsche GT3 RS... you get charged more for less, only in the case of Apple you even get the engine from a mid range VW Beetle :)
 
$800 for this kind of hardware?! Whoever said that should go back to school and learn to count... and read, too.
 
Go find me a laptop with this resolution for $800 and I'll give you $200. There are no comparable laptops so spend your $800 on a shitbox, Envy 17.
 
Go find me a laptop with this resolution for $800 and I'll give you $200. There are no comparable laptops so spend your $800 on a shitbox, Envy 17.
Windows users currently have no need for high-PPI screens, because the OS doesn't work on them.
 
Wow another scam by apple. Those specs are very bad and a better computer could be gotten for $500. If you really want to spend over 1K on a computer, then get an alienware laptop instead. The Alienware will easily outperform the mac by over 20 times for a cheaper price.
 
*Wow another scam by apple.

*Those specs are very bad and a better computer could be gotten for $500.

*If you really want to spend over 1K on a computer, then get an alienware laptop instead.

*The Alienware will easily outperform the mac by over 20 times for a cheaper price.

* Scam?
* Desktop, sure. Laptop/notebook? doubtful.
* At the expense of a much heaver/thicker and almost assuredly worse battery life. Screen is crap too.
* I think your math is made up.

Bottom line here is I think you are totally confusing purposes. I looked through the specs on the only Alienware cheaper than the 13" MBP, it is over twice as thick and nearly 3lbs heavier (6.12lbs vs 3.46). The base model screen is atrocious, next two steps up get you 1920x1080 which is still less than the MBP. They are for completely different audiences.
 
Back