Here's our breakdown of everything you need to know about the Apple MacBook Pro Retina.

Pros and Cons

The Apple MacBook Pro has evolved to its third generation now and has received a significant boost in its look and feel. The latest attraction is definitely the 13- and 15-inch Retina display. The signature Unibody built of its single aluminium block is still there and is a little lighter to boot. The new IvyBridge and Haswell processors are introduced for the 13- and 15-inch versions, respectively, andthe Retina display has made the viewing experiences incredible. Its internal storage is fast and reliable, and the MacBook Pro also now comes with a gesture trackpad.

Despite the introduction of so many new features, these models stumble in some areas. The MacBook Pro has no optical drive to burn or watch CD or DVD, nor any ethernet ports or Firewire 800. The cost is also a bit high for the features provided.

Specs

The processor varies from 2.2 GHz to 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 with a turbo boost up to 3.7 GHz and the RAM storage ranges from 8GB to 16GB. The hard disk is 128GB in the 13-inch and 256 in the 15-inch display. The graphics card is Intel Iris Pro. Battery life is up to nine hours.

Talking Points

The MacBook pro has come a long way up to its third generation, and its retina display has definitely made a splash in the laptop market. From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the laptop viewing experience has never been this good. However, the cost remains a question given its performance specs. The Retina originally only had a 2.2 GHz processor, which Apple decided to boost by rolling out 2.6 and 2.8 GHz versions.

Prices

As stated by the official Apple site, the present MacBook Pro Retina has a price range of $1399 to $1899 for the 13-inch screen, and it ranges from $2099 to $2699 for the 15-inch variations.

Conclusion

Apple has created a revolution in screen display capabilities by introducing Retina, and that alone is worthy of giving it a look. For those on a bit of a budget however, there are much more practical options out there.