Apple's coveted Retina display has finally found its way to a total-size notebook courtesy of the latest MacBook Pro. But anyone familiar with this new system knows that Apple tree didn't merely add a college resolution display to the standard MacBook Pro frame. Instead, at that place's an entirely reworked chassis that'southward almost as thin every bit the MacBook Air and weighs more than a pound less than the standard Pro.

Customers can besides configure a Retina organization with up to 16GB of RAM and 768GB of flash storage, versus a maximum of 8GB of RAM and 512GB of solid country storage on a standard Pro. But hey, who are we kidding, the only reason that virtually people are going to dish over the actress cash for Apple tree's latest and greatest is the 2880 10 1800 resolution goodness of the Retina brandish. And I'll go ahead and permit y'all in a little hush-hush: it'south a thing of dazzler.

Our 'Retina' MacBook Pro review unit is equipped with a tertiary generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz (Ivy Bridge, Turbo Heave up to 3.3GHz), 8GB of DDR3L 1600MHz RAM, 256GB of flash storage, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 650M GPU with 1GB of GDDR5 retentivity and a built-in FaceTime Hd camera. This represents the base model of the MacBook Pro with Retina brandish that sells for a handsome $2,199.

I drew some similarities to the MacBook Air in terms of overall thickness but the two systems certainly don't look alike from the exterior. Where the Air is shaped more like a wedge that gains thickness as you motility towards the back of the system, the Retina Pro features a uniform thickness throughout and is i.5 pounds heavier (4.46 pounds total).

The forepart of the system features the familiar cutout to help in lifting the lid, while on the right side we find a SDXC bill of fare reader, HDMI port and a USB 3.0 port. On the contrary edge is the MagSafe 2 power connector, dual Thunderbolt ports, another USB 3.0 port and a headphone jack. There'south no Ethernet jack on this system but Apple does sell a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter for $29 should you require it. This is a comprehensible design-over-functionality compromise, in our stance.

Under the lid we observe the traditional backlit Apple keyboard and a large touchpad with an integrated click button. Unlike the Air which tucks the speakers under the keyboard, the Pro with Retina brandish has speaker grills on either side of the keyboard that are cut directly into the chassis. I prefer the stealth approach on the Air for artful reasons but I suppose if you have the extra existent estate, you might also brand the best use of it.

If you didn't know that this was the Retina brandish organisation, one look at the display even with the power off would point you in the right direction. For one, at that place is no traditional bezel surrounding the screen. Information technology looks like to say, the Infinity display constitute on the HP Green-eyed 14 merely the cardinal difference visually is that the actual panel is just as nighttime blackness as the "bezel" effectually it.

Information technology really is a stunning look that is achieved partially because Apple removed the cover glass in front of the LCD panel. Equally Anandtech explains, LCD panels typically consist of unattractive squares with 2 pieces of drinking glass and several filters and polarizers. The bezel exists to hide the crude edges of the glass and LCD console, although more recent attempts similar the aforementioned Infinity brandish apply another piece of glass on the exterior to give the illusion that the panel and bezel are a single unit.

Apple has integrated the bezel and the outermost glass into the LCD stack and so you end upwardly with an upshot similar to embrace drinking glass without the extra reflections that it can sometimes introduce. The danger here is that the outer glass and the LCD are essentially a single unit of measurement and then if you lot scratch the glass, y'all're doing damage to the actual LCD panel equally well. It's actually no different than working with a matte display since you're dealing with the panel externally in that location too. It'south sort of a give and take relationship simply so long as you are conscientious when working on your system, the tradeoff is certainly worth information technology.

Above the display is the FaceTime Hard disk camera and on the dorsum of the super thin lid is the trademark Apple logo that glows white when the arrangement is powered on.

Apple tree originally shipped the MBP with Retina display with Os 10 King of beasts and a free upgrade to Mountain Lion when it became available. Any arrangement bought today comes direct with Os X latest version.

As I alluded to in my MacBook Air review a couple of weeks ago, I'grand strictly a Windows user so I'm reviewing the hardware with what could be chosen fresh eyes, although I do have more experience with a Mac nether my belt after using that arrangement. I've also had extensive experience with iOS since the original iPad hit the market.