Do so and the price skyrockets, in the UK, up to £2,659.
Pay £1,699 and you'll 256GB of flash storage.įurther upgrades at the ordering process include beefing up the processor to a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor and boosting the storage capabilities up to 756GB. The laptop comes with 128GB of flash storage and is powered by Intel's HD Graphics 4000 processor. The model we've had on test for review is the entry level model that costs £1,449 and includes a 2.5Ghz dual-core i5 processor (Turbo boost up to 3.1Ghz) with a 3MB shared 元 cache and 8GB of RAM. What you could always be sure of in the past with the MacBook Pro range was that you were getting something that was suitable for even the most demanding of professions. Apple goes some way in doing that in this Mac, but falls short of what we have come to expect from the Pro range. There is no built-in SIM slot - something we've been requesting for a long time, but something that still falls on deaf ears.
Inside connectivity includes Wi-Fi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0. The arrangement of the ports fixes any previous of overcrowding and those still using Mi-Fi dongles will be pleased to hear that doing so doesn't wipe out all other connectivity options. It's all about adapters with Apple these days, which will add some expense to the cost of buying one of these machines. On the right you get a further USB 3 port, HDMI port, and the faster SDXC card reader.įirewire and Ethernet users worried their favourite ports have now been ditched, needn't be - you can get an adapter that fits the Thunderbolt port to fix those shortcomings. On the left you get Apple's newer MagSafe 2 power socket - that's important because without an adapter you won't be able to use your old MacBook Pro power pack - two Thunderbolt ports which can run at speeds up to 10 Gbps, a USB 3 port and a headphones socket.
With no optical drive we are treated to a bevy of new ports split unevenly down both sides of the laptop left and right. Likewise there is no way to get into the laptop to change the battery and you can't upgrade the memory either. It's clad in aluminium, has a backlit island keyboard, and large glass trackpad. But Apple isn't selling this as a beefed-up Air, it is selling it with the Pro moniker, and while it could be seen to be merely semantics, we feel it's important.Īs a MacBook Pro we worry that this won't be powerful enough for you as a MacBook Air it's a lot fatter and heavier for a device that doesn't give you much above and beyond what the Air delivers. That leaves us wanting more from the MacBook Pro 13-inch, and suggests that if you want real power you'll have to go for the much larger 15-inch model.Īside from the obvious size and weight differences, the MacBook Pro keeps the same design ethos we've seen before. Had Apple branded this new laptop as merely the new MacBook, this review would have been very different, the exclusion of a discrete graphics card wouldn't have been a issue. In our testing during this review we've found the Air does a very good job of keeping up (for clarity it is a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 with 4GB RAM). What doesn't help the Pro is that the 13-inch Air is just SO good. For day-to-day tasks it breezes by with little sign of effort, while still being light enough to take with you on the road. However, as soon as you start doing any real heavy lifting it will start to struggle, which makes us question the "Pro" label.
There is no doubting that the MacBook Pro is a lovely machine.