Apple MacBook Pro 13in
Simply the best? Um…
Review Shock horror – Apple laptop in so-so review scandal. The latest MacBook Pro with Retina Display may be setting a new standard at the top of the range, however, this modest update for the standard 13in MacBook Pro looks rather like it’s resting on its laurels.
Apple's MacBook Pro 13in: available with Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPUs
Admittedly, it’s got some pretty good laurels to start off with. The one-piece aluminium design may be unchanged but it’s still one of the smartest, most attractive 13-inch laptops on the market. The build quality makes most of its rivals look like a lump of Lego.
The screen is bright and sharp, and the keyboard and multi-touch trackpad are well-crafted and comfortable to use. And let’s not overlook the fact that included is Apple’s iLife multimedia suite that provides an impressive range of creative and authoring features straight out of the box.
After a long wait, USB 3 makes its debut
The problem for this year’s model, though, is that Apple is still charging a top-of-the-range price for what – in 2012 – now looks like a fairly mid-range specification. The £999 starting price remains unchanged, although the 2.4GHz Sandy Bridge Core i5 has now been replaced with this year’s Ivy Bridge version – a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-3210M.
The modest 500GB hard disk stays the same, as does the 4GB RAM, although the RAM does get its own speedbump from 1333MHz to 1600MHz. And at this price you should really be hoping for an SSD, rather than a plain old hard drive.
There’s another 13in model priced at £1249, which runs a 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-3520M CPU, doubles the RAM, and increases the hard disk to 750GB, but that is pretty much it for the 2012 edition. The only other significant change is Apple’s belated adoption of USB3 – which is welcome, but at least a year overdue.
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COMMENTS
Oh god no!
This review was going okay then went out the window when you said - "although its 1280 x 800 resolution should perhaps have been tweaked to the slighter more widescreen 1366 x 768 that is now standard amongst 13in PC laptops."
No.
1366x768 is a total curse in the laptop world. It's the lowest of the low for laptop screen res.
The screen would be better as a 1400x900 or higher for the price.
For a device that probably will mainly be used for browsing you don't really want to lower the depth do you!
75%??
Look into my Apple Logo, look into my Apple Logo, the Apple Logo, the Apple Logo, not around the Apple Logo, don't look around my Apple Logo, look into my Apple Logo...and you're under.
This is actually a fantastic laptop and is rated at 95%
Three, two, one... You're back in the room.
16:10 vs 16:9
I prefer the extra vertical pixels of this 16:10 display format instead of the 16:9 (1366 x 768) "standard amongst PC laptops". 16:9 is only good for watching TV.
My desktop Dell 24" monitor is 16:10 as well. Why change it when going to laptops? That makes no sense.
My guess is it's because of people like Seanie Ryan (above), who think anything with an Apple logo on it is a fine bottle of wine (because it has an Apple logo on it, evidently), whereas everything else is just fermented cat piss.
howcomes Apple get a full review for every hardware refresh? no matter how small... Dell has done a much larger refresh of the Vostro and Lattitude lines with the Ivy Bridge upgrade, introducing design changes and several new 13" models, but no review inches....
