Apple announces thinner 13" Retina MacBook Pro with Intel Iris graphics, 9 hours of battery life

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has been updated with a thinner, lighter design featuring Intel's latest-generation Haswell processors and a new lower starting price of $1,299.

MBP


Featuring the latest Intel Haswell-series processors, the latest 13-inch model is both thinner and lighter than the last generation, at 0.71 inches thick and 3.46 pounds. Apple has also managed to squeeze more juice from the battery, pegging runtime at up to nine hours --?two hours more than before.

Some of the battery life gains come from Apple's new OS X Mavericks operating system, which Apple software chief Craig Federighi said was a major push during Mavericks's development.

The new MacBook Pro also gains 802.11ac Wi-Fi, just as the MacBook Air did earlier this year, increasing Wi-Fi transfer speed to up to three times that of 802.11n. Two Thunderbolt 2 ports deliver up to 20 gigabits per second of data throughput to connected devices, though current third party hardware is limited.

MBP


The base $1,299 model comes with a 2.5 gigahertz dual-core Intel i5 processor, 4 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of solid-state storage. Intel's Iris graphics chipset is responsible for pushing pixels to the high-resolution Retina display. Apple says Intel's Iris chip is up to 90 percent faster than the graphics processors found in previous-generation systems.

Higher-priced variants can be specced with faster dual-core Intel i7 chips up to 2.8 gigahertz with Turbo Boost up to 3.3 gigahertz. All Retina-equipped MacBook Pro models now feature faster PCI-e storage interfaces.

Apple's legacy 13-inch non-Retina MacBook continues to be available, now as the only Apple laptop that does not feature a high-resolution display. Apple quietly discontinued the 15-inch version of the optical drive-wielding model after Wednesday's event.

For those planning to buy a new Mac, who may still be using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or OS X 10.8 Lion, Apple has provided Migration Assistant software to ease data transfer.

Check AppleInsider's Mac Price guide for a full model listing in the coming hours.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 38

    Yay! I think I'm getting a new MBP!

  • Reply 2 of 38
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member

    What a deal.  Phenomenal value now with the Intel 5000 graphics.

  • Reply 3 of 38
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    andysol wrote: »
    What a deal.  Phenomenal value now with the Intel 5000 graphics.

    They also have 16GB RAM options, which they didn't on the 13" but the entry 13" rMBP isn't great as it was dropped down from 8GB to 4GB, likely to aid the price drop and it will still allocate 1GB for the GPU so that leaves 3GB for apps.

    Nice to see them using Iris, although it isn't much different from the 4600. Iris Pro is the one for performance. Iris is closer to a 630M. Iris would be around half the performance of a 650M for real-time graphics. For OpenCL though, it should still rival a 650M. I'd have liked to see a quad-core CPU at the top-end but I think they should perform well enough at these price points and the quads have quite a high TDP.

    They might have kept the bottom cMBP around because of the storage issue. It doesn't matter so much on the 15" as it starts with 256GB but 128GB is quite low.
  • Reply 4 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Andysol View Post

     

    What a deal.  Phenomenal value now with the Intel 5000 graphics.


    The updated 13" at 1299.00 only comes with 4GB or ram which is a downgrade from the previous model. Not really that great of a deal. No "Pro" model should come with less than 8GB of ram standard. My opinion anyways. 

  • Reply 5 of 38
    Wow 4GBs of RAM, like in 2010? What is this?
  • Reply 6 of 38
    Originally Posted by gotApple View Post

    Wow 4GBs of RAM, like in 2010? What is this?

     

    An optimized OS. Why, do you think computers actually NEED 8GB to even run? This isn’t Windows.

  • Reply 7 of 38
    Glad I've never liked Laptops. I wouldn't want to be limited to a 1TB PCI-E SSD drive, no matter how `cool' it is to have reduced that read/write gap.

    Limited to 16GB of RAM is a non-starter for myself. Make it 4x8GB DDR3 1866 RAM upgradeable and they'd own the laptop world, top-to-bottom.
  • Reply 8 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    An optimized OS. Why, do you think computers actually NEED 8GB to even run? This isn’t Windows.


     

    Stop being a contrarian for a second. OS X running any serious applications will want 16GB never mind 8GB. They should have covered the broadest professional market possible, and they didn't.

  • Reply 9 of 38
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post

    I wouldn't want to be limited to a 1TB PCI-E SSD drive, no matter how `cool' it is to have reduced that read/write gap.

     

    *coughMacProcough* ;)

  • Reply 10 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post





    They also have 16GB RAM options, which they didn't on the 13" but the entry 13" rMBP isn't great as it was dropped down from 8GB to 4GB, likely to aid the price drop and it will still allocate 1GB for the GPU so that leaves 3GB for apps.



    Nice to see them using Iris, although it isn't much different from the 4600. Iris Pro is the one for performance. Iris is closer to a 630M. Iris would be around half the performance of a 650M for real-time graphics. For OpenCL though, it should still rival a 650M. I'd have liked to see a quad-core CPU at the top-end but I think they should perform well enough at these price points and the quads have quite a high TDP.



    They might have kept the bottom cMBP around because of the storage issue. It doesn't matter so much on the 15" as it starts with 256GB but 128GB is quite low.

     

    The only reason the Iris Pro graphics for OpenCL might be decent wrt the 650M is because Nvidia's design is garbage for OpenCL. Now if Apple had the 8900M by AMD you would be grinning from ear to ear on how Apple got serious about OpenCL on the MacBook Pro.

  • Reply 11 of 38
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AtlApple View Post

     

    The updated 13" at 1299.00 only comes with 4GB or ram which is a downgrade from the previous model. Not really that great of a deal. No "Pro" model should come with less than 8GB of ram standard. My opinion anyways. 


    But to be fair- this isn't really their "pro" model- I would think most pros would either upgrade their specs or get the 15".  Better to get it 4gb ram at $1299 for consumers and have the option to go to 8gb for an additional $100 for the "pros".  And unless my math has deteriorated- $1,399 is still less than $1,499.

  • Reply 12 of 38
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member

    The new MacBook Pros make the Air-versus-Pro decision harder, and that's a good thing.  My last 3 MacBooks have been Airs, I expect my next will be a Pro--and I only add half a pound of weight.

  • Reply 13 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Andysol View Post

     

    But to be fair- this isn't really their "pro" model- I would think most pros would either upgrade their specs or get the 15".  Better to get it 4gb ram at $1299 for consumers and have the option to go to 8gb for an additional $100 for the "pros".  And unless my math has deteriorated- $1,399 is still less than $1,499.


    Maverick makes 4GB of ram acceptable. Just hard to see someone that truly needs a Pro model use 4GB or ram and 128SSD. I agree that 4GB of ram is different in any version of OSX compared to 4GB on any version of Windows. With Maverick even more so. 

  • Reply 14 of 38

    Hello. Can someone tell me - if a person gets a Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM is it possible to upgrade later to 16GB or are you stuck with what you first get? Asking because I read something about not all Apple computers are upgradable.

     

    -Thanks.

  • Reply 15 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    An optimized OS. Why, do you think computers actually NEED 8GB to even run? This isn’t Windows.


    True. Maverick is truly remarkable when it comes to it's resource usage. My main point was the price reduction was at least in part to the reduction of ram on the standard configuration. They need to take the word Pro off the 1280x800, 4GB of ram and 5400hdd model. Better yet dumb it. 

  • Reply 16 of 38
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mesomorphicman View Post

     

    Hello. Can someone tell me - if a person gets a Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM is it possible to upgrade later to 16GB or are you stuck with what you first get? Asking because I read something about not all Apple computers are upgradable.

     

    -Thanks.


    What you get it what you'll get.  Get what you'll need for however long you plan on having the system.  The good news is that Apple hardware holds its resale value tremendously, so you'll never take a huge bath either way.

  • Reply 17 of 38
    Hello. Can someone tell me - if a person gets a Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM is it possible to upgrade later to 16GB or are you stuck with what you first get? Asking because I read something about not all Apple computers are upgradable.

    -Thanks.
    No, you may not upgrade later (unless your a pro at it) you are stuck with the internals you buy at start, so if all you need now is 80 gb and 4 ram, but in 3 years, you need 200 gb and 10 ram you need to buy it now. The only upgradable ones now are out of date and desktops(most of them).
  • Reply 18 of 38
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Andysol View Post

     

    What you get it what you'll get.  Get what you'll need for however long you plan on having the system.  The good news is that Apple hardware holds its resale value tremendously, so you'll never take a huge bath either way.


     

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Curtis Hannah View Post





    No, you may not upgrade later (unless your a pro at it) you are stuck with the internals you buy at start, so if all you need now is 80 gb and 4 ram, but in 3 years, you need 200 gb and 10 ram you need to buy it now. The only upgradable ones now are out of date and desktops(most of them).



    Thank you, both. Appreciated.

  • Reply 19 of 38
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    The only reason the Iris Pro graphics for OpenCL might be decent wrt the 650M is because Nvidia's design is garbage for OpenCL. Now if Apple had the 8900M by AMD you would be grinning from ear to ear on how Apple got serious about OpenCL on the MacBook Pro.

    Anything 89xx would draw too much power. Realistically it would be the 8790M, which is still a lot faster at OpenCL but dedicated GPUs are clearly going away from the laptop line. This helps with reliability and they'll run cooler too. Phil said 25% less power draw so down from about 90W to under 70W meaning no draining the battery while maxed out and the 85W power supply should stay cooler at full load.
  • Reply 20 of 38
    I can get Lenovos with a quad-core Haswell CPU and discrete 755m SLI GPUs, 1080p display, 15", 2.7kgs for less than 1200 euros. Do I want to pay 2600 euros for a similar setup in the form of a late 2013 MBP 15" but little less weight and better display?
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