Macbook Pro: The Inner Beauty (Part 1)

The Macbook Pro saw big changes earlier this year. The 17-inch, a favourite with creative pros, was discontinued, while Apple introduced a leaner and lighter 15in model with a super-high-res Retina display, the first in a Mac. Now, a few months down the line, it’s brought the same idea to the smaller format.

The Macbook Pro

The MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display has no hard disk or DVD drive, only SSD flash storage, and its screen displays an impressive 2560x1600 pixels - more than the 27in iMac, which has over three times the physical area. It’s available in two con­figurations that differ only in their storage capacity: the $2,174 model has 128GB, the $2,549 configuration 256GB. Think care­fully before choosing the 128G B for creative work: our experience with the MacBook Air is that it’s quickly consumed by large apps, a game or two, and photos or video stored on the internal drive.

Both options are powered by the same dual-core 2.5GHz Core i5 processor found in the $1,499 entry-level MacBook Pro, so it’s no surprise that the 13in Retina MacBook’s scores in Cinebench’s CPU-based rendering test were nearly identical to that model. For $240, the CPU can be upgraded to a 2.9GHz Core i7 with two cores, like the one in the $1,874 non-Retina MacBook Pro. When we tested that model earlier this year, its scores showed a 17% performance boost over the 2.5GHz Core i5, sug­gesting it would be a worthwhile upgrade for video processing and other work that can flex the extra muscle - but only if you definitely want a smaller laptop than the 15in.

The MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display has no hard disk or DVD drive, only SSD flash storage, and its screen displays an impressive 2560x1600 pixels - more than the 27in iMac

Both 13in models have 8GB of memory, running at 1600MHz. There’s no way to fit more, either when ordering or later, so if your work is more demanding of RAM you’ll need the 15in Retina model to boost the limit to 16GB. In our benchmark tests across the whole MacBook Pro range, we saw memory performance vary dramatically according to the speed of the CPU. So although the entry-level MacBook Pro ships with only 4GB of RAM, this Retina model delivered an increase of just 2.5% in memory speed, which is negligible.

In our Portal 2 gaming test, we expected to notice a differ­ence, because graphics processing in all 13-inch MacBook Pros - even this Retina model - is handled exclusively by an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor. In the Retina model, with its 2560 x 1600 screen, it has to render scenes to a total of 4.1 mil­lion pixels, compared to just one million in the non-Retina model. If you wanted a discrete graphics processor to cope with this heavy load, you’d have to choose a 15in Retina. When we tested the 15in, its discrete NVIDIA GPU delivered acceptable frame rates at the full native resolution, achieving 43.4 frames per second with anti-aliasing disabled, despite having about a million more pixels again. In contrast, the13in’s integrated Intel GPU struggled, turning in a relatively poor 20.9fps. In games, at least, lowering the resolution helped, though things inevitably looked less sharp. At 1440 * 900 pixels, Portal 2’s frame rate increased to 46.1fps without anti-aliasing, or to 33.4fps with it turned on.

Our automated battery test repeatedly visits a number of websites, including a high-definition YouTube video, until the Mac’s battery is fully exhausted and the machine goes to sleep. Testing is done over a wifi connection, with Bluetooth turned off and screen brightness at 50%. It’s similar to the kind of test Apple uses to arrive at its quoted battery life figures, although we can’t exactly replicate its testing conditions, since it doesn’t disclose all the details.

The MacBook Pro 15in Renita

In our tests, the MacBook lasted seven hours and 52 min­utes, so Apple is evidently still being very realistic in its quoted figures, as we’ve found with previous MacBooks.

There are two hardware upgrade options available when order­ing: the Core i7 CPU mentioned earlier, and further 512GB and 768GB upgrades to the flash storage. These add an eye-watering $600 or $1,200 on top of the basic $2,549 price tag, so if you need access to a lot of files all the time, rather than relying on external mass storage, there’ll be some serious thinking to do here.

Such external storage can now be attached to two USB 3 ports and two Thunderbolt ports, so you needn’t give up high speeds when moving data outboard, though you’ll have to figure out a combination of storage that you’ll carry or leave at home.

The Core i7 option is a tempting way to boost overall perfor­mance, but even at a relatively reasonable $240 it pushes the cost of the higher 13in model above the base15in. For less money, you could get an i7 with four cores instead of two; the same memory and storage, with the additional option of 16GB RAM if you need it; and most significantly, a dedicated GPU. The 15in has the same integrated Intel HD 4000 for basic work, but also a dedicated NVIDIA unit that takes over when required. For intensive graph­ics work and video editing, it’s not only the better choice but better value.

However, there’s a reason the 15in has integrated graphics as well as its dedicated unit: the Intel GPU copes admirably with many tasks while draining less battery power and emitting less heat. For general work, iLife, web browsing, photo editing and everyday graphic design, the 13in is thus adequately capable and exceptionally practical.