Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch

This time around, as you’d expect, Apple used Haswell processors, though it also went with Intel’s brand-new Iris and Iris Pro chipsets, which haven’t actually been used in that many notebooks yet. And, in the case of the 13-inch model, it’s cheaper too: the starting price is now US$1,299, versus US$1,699 a year ago… more importantly, with a lower price, lighter design and a claimed 10 hours of battery life, is it starting to veer into MacBook Air territory?

They were deliciously thin, yes – especially compared to the legacy models – but you would never have mistaken the 13-inch one for an Air. To be honest, you still wouldn’t, but on the continuum that separates the Air and MacBook Pro, the 13-inch Retina model is starting to look more and more like an Ultrabook. Really, if you were to stack them one on top of the other, you’d only be able to tell the difference because of the Air’s signature wedge shape. And that’s more of a cosmetic flourish than anything else; it’s not like the MBP is a fatso or anything.

Well, not a fatso, but it is noticeably heavier at 3.46 pounds, compared with 2.96 for the Air. All told, the new Pro is light enough that I was easily able to tote it around in my pack for a weekend without any strain. But listen carefully because this trade-off is ultimately going to decide your purchasing decision: Given that these two machines cost about the same and each deliver long battery life, you’re only going to pick the heavier one if you need the spectacular graphics performance.

Step up to the Pro and you’ll get two USB 3.0 ports, along with a full-sized HDMI socket, SDXC card reader, a headphone jack, dual Thunderbolt 2 ports and a MagSafe 2 connector. Aside from the move to Thunderbolt 2 from regular, old Thunderbolt, this is the same selection of ports as on last year’s model. As ever, too, the port selection is exactly the same on the bigger 15-inch version, so it’s not like you gain anything by moving up in size (except for, you know, more screen real estate).

Lift up the lid, and you’ll see the MBP sports the same island-style keyboard as the last generation, with springy, well-spaced buttons and a strong white backlight emanating from underneath. Incidentally, when we installed Windows 7 on a separate partition, the trackpad worked just as well in Windows as it did in OS X.

Although the MacBook Pro’s Retina display is important enough that it belongs in the headline, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. This is the same 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display used in last year’s model, and it’s as lovely as ever. Color reproduction is good; viewing angles are wide; and individual pixels are, indeed, impossible to make out when you’re sitting a natural distance from the screen. Even if the resolution was lower and we could spot some pixels, it would still be a nice panel, thanks to the very low-glare finish. Throughout testing, I used the MBP in a variety of lighting conditions, from a harshly lit office to an airplane seat, with sunlight streaming through the window next to me.