Superb design, fine performance and
excellent battery life - well worth shelling out for
While all eyes were on the Retina display
of the 15in MacBook Pro, Apple quietly wheeled out an updated 13in model.
There’s no Retina display, but this little laptop retains its pint-sized
appeal.
At 2.06kg, it’s relatively light, and the
build quality is superb; the taut metal chassis makes most laptops feel cheap
by comparison.
Apple
MacBook Pro 13in
Two ports on the left see USB 3 make its Mac
debut alongside FireWire 800, Thunderbolt, Gigabit Ethernet and an SD card
reader. Meanwhile, the optical drive and the LED battery meter are a welcome
sight - both items have since disappeared from the larger Pro models.
This is the better specified of the two
13in models and has a dual-core Core ¡7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a
750GB hard disk. It can’t keep pace with
the quad-core models here, but a result of 0.81 in our benchmarks is
impressive. The huge battery does its job, too, lasting only 5hrs 23mins in our
light-use test in Windows, but surviving a much more impressive 9hrs 20mins
with a similar test in OS X.
With no dedicated graphics chip, you’re
stuck with Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 4000 chipset. Still, an average frame
rate of 24fps in our Medium quality Crysis tests proves there’s enough power
for basic gaming.
Image
quality is great, however, with the high 362cd/m2 brightness combining with a
593:1 contrast ratio and the most accurate colour reproduction in the group.
Using the Pro is a delight. The large
touchpad makes light work of pinching, flicking and gesturing your way through
OS X, and the keyboard is great. Every key bounces back with a crisp, lively
feel, and the layout is perfect.
If there’s a disappointment, it’s that the
13in display has a low 1280 x 800 resolution. Image quality is great, however,
with the high 362cd/m2 brightness combining with a 593:1 contrast ratio and the
most accurate colour reproduction in the group.
The MacBook Pro 13in is superb. Those who
want more power should look to its 15in stablemates, but this 13in machine is a
long-lasting laptop that’s well worth the money, even if it doesn’t have a
fancy retina display.
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Details
Price: $1,689
Supplier: www.apple.com
Verdict
·
Performance: 3/6
·
Battery life: 5/6
·
Feature & design: 5/6
·
Value for money: 4/6
·
Overall: 5/6
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