The MacBook Pro is a powerful mobile workstation. While it is not as pricey as it once was, certain models will still set you back a bit. On the other hand, the MacBook has a budget friendly price, while providing all the Mac OS X essentials users have come to expect. But which one is right for you -- and should you buy now or wait a little while longer?

The MacBook Pro comes in three distinct flavors: a *non-Retina 13-inch model, a Retina 13-inch model and a 15-inch Retina model. New Apple buyers will undoubtedly be familiar with this lineup. However, if you haven't purchased a new Mac in over two years or decamped to Windows temporarily and are reentering the Universe of Jobs, this lineup will seem very foreign to you. For instance, the 17-inch behemoth went the way of the dinosaurs, but instead of getting obliterated by a meteorite, it was killed off silently by executives.

Another difference is the vaunted Retina display, which first came to pass with the iPhone 4 in 2010. June 2012 saw the 15-inch MacBook Pro get the Retina display treatment while the 13-inch followed suit in October of the same year. But what exactly is a Retina display? It's a marketing term, but it isn't a gimmick. The pixels in the Retina display are so tightly grouped together that they are indistinguishable to the human eye at normal viewing distances.

Only two Macs have yet to receive the Retina display. One is the iMac desktop and the other is the Air. The latest MacBook Air update came in April. It was a minor, unApple-like update (meaning that nothing revolutionary was announced.) The prices were slashed a hundred bucks across the board and a slighter faster Intel Haswell processor was added.

Rumors have been pointing towards a MacBook Air with Retina Display for a while now. The rumors picked up steam in October 2013 when KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo said the computer would be released in 2014. In addition to the supposed Retina Display, new Intel Broadwell chips will power the Air, as well as the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

The Broadwell chips were previously thought to have been delayed until 2015, but it looks like only their successor Skylake is. The Broadwell chipset will help the 2014 or 2015 iterations of the 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros achieve unparalleled mobile battery life by reducing energy consumption by nearly a third, according to MacWorld UK.

Will you be getting a new MacBook this year? Let us know which model you are considering in the comments section below.

*The non-Retina looks to be in the midst of its swan song.