The Macbook pro gains a staggeringly
crisp retina display and quad-core ivy bridge CPU. The result is stunning but
expensive
While PC manufacturers have been busily
updating their ranges with Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, Apple has gone a step
further. Not content with updating the internals, it has transplanted the same
Retina display concept from the iPod to its flagship MacBook Pro.
Just as the iPad’s Retina display left
every other tablet trailing in its woke, the MacBook Pro now promises to do the
same to every other laptop on the market. Squeezing a massive 2880 x 1800
resolution into a 15.4in ¡PS panel, it’s a technological marvel.
The
Macbook pro gains a staggeringly crisp retina display and quad-core ivy bridge
CPU.
Those 5.1 million pixels aren’t quite as
tightly packed as on the new iPad or the iPhone 45, but that hardly matters.
The MacBook Pro’s 22Oppi density is light-years ahead of the laptop
competition, and the moment OS X Lion’s desktop fades into view, it’s
impossible not to be impressed. There isn’t the slightest hint of pixel
structure; not o single jagged edge to be seen. Even the individual icons on
the Launchpad are so clearly defined that it makes the MacBook itself look
slightly out of focus.
Technically, it’s near faultless. The iPS
panel’s LED backlighting delivers a maximum brightness of 333cd1m2, and the
contrast ratio of 1023:1 is exemplary. Apple’s decision to factory calibrate
its displays makes all the difference, too. Put to the test with our
colorimeter, the display achieved an average Delta E of 1.4 and o maximum
deviation of 3.4 in OS X - simply superb colour accuracy.
This is the most refined display you’ll
find on any laptop, at any price. However, there’s more to the MacBook Pro’s
Retina display than mere pixels. While you’d imagine such a high resolution
would make text tiny, and shrink toolbars and icons in applications to unusable
proportions, Apple’s solution is OS-wide scaling. In default mode, dubbed “Best
for Retina”, the MacBook Pro’s desktop effectively mimics a 1440 x 900 pixel
display: text is large and legible, and the icons are big enough to click
without fiddling - but it’s still a 2880 x 1800 screen, and those extra pixels
make all the difference.
However,
there’s more to the MacBook Pro’s Retina display than mere pixels.
Fire up Safari and you’re rewarded with
fonts so sharp and finely delineated it’s almost like viewing text on a printed
page. In fact, text is so beautifully rendered it makes the low-resolution
images on websites look in need of an upgrade. Apple’s own website solves the
issue by using higher-resolution images when the browser detects it’s being
viewed on a Retina display.
Applications face a similar issue. Apple
has updated most of its iLife suite, Aperture and Final Cut Pro X, so they can
take full advantage of the resolution for editing photos and HD video. Other
developers such as Adobe are promising updates very soon.
Applications that aren’t yet Retina
optimised are usable, but stand out like a sore thumb, with pixellated text and
icons contrasting with the crisp OS X desktop. With identical web pages open in
Chrome and Safari, the difference is painfully obvious. (If you use Chrome’s
developer channel, there’s already o superior beta Retina mode, which will
likely have shipped by the time you read this.)
For those craving more desktop space or
larger onscreen text than the “Best for Retina” setting provides, it’s possible
to shrink or enlarge the virtual desktop. There are actually four more scaling
settings, representing 1024 x 640, 1280 x 800, 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200.
Although these scaled modes aren’t theoretically as crisp as the “Best for
Retina” mode, it’s hard to see a qualitative difference. Unlike on a Windows
PC, where moving away from the screen’s native resolution substantially
degrades the onscreen image quality, OS X’s scaling keeps text and icons crisp
and clear.
Redesigning The Pro
The screen is undoubtedly the star of the
show here, but it isn’t alone. Apple has redesigned the chassis to be slimmer
and more refined than ever. Every ounce of fat has been trimmed from the old
model, dropping the weight by half a kilo and the thickness by 6mm.
You can’t lose this much weight, however,
without a radical change of approach. Gone is the optical drive; the mechanical
hard disk has been replaced by an SSD; and upgradability takes a blow too. With
the RAM soldered into the mainboard, an SSD module of proprietary design and a
set of non-user-replaceable batteries, not a single user-upgradeable element
remains in the new Pro.
Apple
has redesigned the chassis to be slimmer and more refined than ever.
Some of these compromises are easily
mitigated. Considering the ease with which new applications and even OS updates
can be obtained via the App Store, the lack of on optical drive is becoming
less of an issue as time passes. Of course, it’s always possible to shell out
the S89 for the USB SuperDrive. While the non-upgradeable RAM may set power
users twitching with indecision, it’s likely aftermarket vendors will soon
begin marketing replacement SSD modules.
Regardless, one look at the MacBook Pro’s
lithe 18 mm-thick frame should banish these worries from mind: this is a truly
stunning laptop. The weight loss doesn’t mean a compromise in build quality.
Viciously wrenching at the base elicits hardly any flex, and it isn’t until you
prod unkindly on the lid that any ripple of distortion passes through to the
LCD panel.
The keyboard and touchpad are good. As
usual, we found ourselves taking a little time to get used to the narrow Enter
key, but this is no major criticism. The keys have a lovely cushioned spring to
each keystroke, and the touch pod is a joy. The wide glass surface gives a
smooth feel under the finger, and in stark contrast to the patchy gesture
control in Windows 7, the multi-touch gestures gel beautifully in OS X.
Connectivity
The redesign hasn’t marked the death of the
optical drive alone, as Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire have also fallen by the
wayside. The two Thunderbolt ports on the left side sit by a headphone output
and the new arrival, USB 3. On the right you have a further USB 3 port, an SD
card reader and, marking another first on this year’s model, an HDMI output.
Those craving o wired connection will have
to shell out $35 for Apple’s Thunderbolt or USB Gigabit Ethernet adapters.
Otherwise, you can make do with the dual-bond 802.lln wireless and Bluetooth 4.
On
the right you have a further USB 3 port, an SD card reader and, marking another
first on this year’s model, an HDMI output.
Performance
With all the fuss over the screen, it’s
easy to forget the new Mac Book’s other standout feature: Intel’s Ivy Bridge
CPUs. The top-of-the-range model has o 2.6GHz quad-core Core i7 CPU, and
couples it with a 512GB SSO for $3199, while our review model - the cheaper of
the two - makes do with o 2.3GHz Core i7-3615QM and a 2 56GB SSD. In either
case, the processor’s HD Graphics 4000 chipset is joined for more strenuous
tasks by one of Nvidia’s Kepler-based GeForce GT 650M GPUs.
By any subjective standards, the MacBook
Pro feels seriously fast. Booting into OS X takes about 17 seconds on average.
This combination of scorching SSO and
quad-core CPU makes for superb performance. Our Real World Benchmarks (running
on a Boot Camp Windows 7 partition) showed just how fast the MacBook Pro is,
with a 0.92 overall score up there with the fastest laptops we’ve tested. It
soiled through our easier Crysis benchmarks, and even at Full HO resolution and
High quality settings it managed a playable 32fps thanks to the GT65OM.
Under
normal use the vents along the hinge and the edges of the base are enough to
keep things cool, but running Crysis for an hour or so saw the case become hot
in areas.
Under normal use the vents along the hinge
and the edges of the base are enough to keep things cool, but running Crysis
for an hour or so saw the case become hot in areas. The wristrest hovered
around 37°C, but the upper portion of the keyboard and the metallic strip along
its top edge rose to an uncomfortable 54°C, and the base approached 50°C around
the hinge.
Boot Camp
As with previous models, the Boot Camp
drivers aren’t perfect. Windows 7 gets no graphics switching: the power- hungry
Nvidio GPU runs constantly, so battery life is significantly reduced in Boot
Camp. We emulated our usual battery test as well as we could in OS X, with
Wi-Fl and Bluetooth disabled and screen brightness calibrated to 75cd/m2, and
the MacBook Pro lasted l0hrs 34mins. Under Windows 7, this figure was only 4hrs
32mins.
Then there’s the Retina display. Running
Windows 7 at 2880 x 1800 is initially impressive, but upping the DPI settings
does nothing to enlarge the painfully tiny icons in applications. Open up Adobe
Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro, for example, and the icons are almost entirely
unusable. Lowering the resolution to 1920 x 1200 is an option, but the clarity
loss is obvious.
As
with previous models, the Boot Camp drivers aren’t perfect.
The gesture controls are improved, and
Windows works fine for the most part, but you only really get the most from the
screen when you are running OS X. For those desperate to use Windows, we’d
choose virtualisation over Boot Comp with the massive pixel density of the
retina display, you could easily just run Windows in o window.
Conclusion
Apple has made some bold decisions in
redesigning the MacBook Pro: the optical drive, lock of upgradability, and, of
course, the need for developers to upgrade their software to take advantage of
the Retina display. But this redefines our understanding of what to expect from
a laptop.
The balance of build, performance and
design is impeccable, and there’s simply no other laptop that comes close to
cramming so much quality into a 2kg chassis.
