2015 apple macbook pro laptops for sale
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Gallery: táo apple MacBook Pro with Retina display review (13-inch, 2015) | 19 Photos
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Hardware (but mostly the trackpad)
If you already own a recent laptop macbook Pro, or have even futzed around an táo khuyết Store, then you know what lớn expect here. The new MBP, lượt thích so many before it, is constructed from a seamless block of machined aluminum, with springy, well-spaced keys and a crisp 2,560 x 1,600 display, framed by a thin, barely there bezel. As before, the machine measures a slim 0.71 inch thick, though táo khuyết is listing the weight as slightly heavier this time around: 3.48 pounds, as opposed lớn 3.46. Big whoop.
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Around the edges, you get the same selection of ports: two USB 3.0 connections, a full-sized HDMI socket, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, an SD thẻ slot & a headphone jack. Nope, no USB Type-C ports lượt thích on the new laptop apple macbook -- at least not this time around.
Oh, & the aluminum lid & chassis are still scratch-prone. With that, I am done talking about the laptop macbook Pro"s hardware.
Except for the new trackpad, of course. I have plenty more to say about that. For starters: What a risky thing for táo apple to do, replacing the touchpad that"s already the best in its class. Reviewers lượt thích it; users seem to like it. So what"s the problem? If it ain"t broke, don"t fix it, right? Right. Except for the fact that the Force cảm ứng pad can do things the Mac regular trackpad can"t. I already gave the example of pressing down on the skip keys in QuickTime to rewind or fast-forward at 60x speed. But there are other use cases: You can use the "Force Click" in Safari to lớn get Wikipedia previews và word definitions. You can annotate in Mail & Preview. Speaking of Mail, you can Force Click on an address & see it in a pop-up map. You can also use it in Finder lớn preview files. & those are just built-in Mac apps; developers can build this feature into third-party apps as well.
Before I get into the utility of all this, though, allow me to take a step back & explain how this thing works. Though it"s about as spacious as the one on the old model, the new Force cảm biến pad does away with the old-school "diving board" -- the hinge mechanism that makes it easier to press down on the bottom portion of a touchpad than on the top. In fact, the trackpad here doesn"t have any buttons; there"s nothing to lớn depress when you bear down with your finger. Instead, táo apple fools you into believing you"re clicking something. How? With the use of a "Taptic Engine" -- a bunch of wires coiled around a magnetic bộ vi xử lý core that provide vibrating haptic feedback to match whatever you"re doing onscreen. It"s so convincing, in fact, that I would sometimes forget it wasn"t a normal trackpad -- until I turned the machine off, anyway, & was left with a stiff piece of glass.
That said, these "button presses" don"t feel lượt thích using a touchpad on other MacBooks. If you"re coming from an older model, as I am, you"ll notice the new trackpad feels shallower; even though apple makes it feel lượt thích you"re clicking something, your finger isn"t "pressing down" as far as it normally would. This was an adjustment for me, but I found a few ways to get past it. First off, I turned on the "tap-to-click" option in the settings, which helped me avoid "clicking" when it initially felt too weird. (To be fair, I always have tap-to-click enabled on my own Mac, so this didn"t feel lượt thích much of a workaround for me.) Secondly, there"s also an option in the settings lớn adjust the click pressure. Moving it from "medium" (the default) lớn "light" also helped soften the learning curve.
Mostly, though, it just took time. After two days with the Force touch pad, I was more or less used to it. Heck, if I weren"t switching back & forth between the new Pro and my own laptop apple macbook Air, I might have adjusted even sooner.
But back to my original question: Was this all worth it? vì chưng the benefits of a pressure-sensitive touchpad outweigh the inconvenience of taking away the one people are used to? I"m not convinced they do. In Safari, at least, the novelty wore off quickly, particularly since it often took me several tries lớn get it right. Sure, it"s cool khổng lồ be able khổng lồ Force Click on a word và be able lớn see a dictionary definition or a Wikipedia preview, but because I never fully got the hang of the gesture, it was far easier to lớn just open a new browser tab & do a quick Google search. In that respect, the Force cảm ứng pad didn"t change my habits. Same with Finder: When you Force Click on a thumbnail lớn preview it, the actual "preview" is still small, unless you give it a second, harder press at which point it stretches khổng lồ a fuller size. I"d still prefer khổng lồ use a keyboard shortcut: hitting the space bar to open a much larger preview.
I did enjoy the super-fast fast-forwarding, though. For me, at least, that might be the best & most practical reason to have a pressure-sensitive trackpad. Even so, the Force cảm ứng feels lượt thích just another nice-to-have feature; I don"t mind that it"s there, and I ultimately got used khổng lồ it, but it"s also not something I particularly needed. It"s certainly not essential on the cấp độ of the Retina display, which basically spoiled the lower-res macbook Air screen for me and many other users. Every Mac should have a Retina panel; the Force cảm biến trackpad I can take or leave at this point.
Performance và battery life
| 13-inch táo macbook pro with Retina display (early 2015, 2.7GHz core i5, hãng intel Iris 6100) | 6,293 (32-bit) / 7,062 (64-bit) | 487 | 11:23 |
| 13-inch macbook phiên bản pro with Retina display (late 2013, 2.4GHz vi xử lý core i5, intel Iris graphics) | 6,288 (32-bit) | 428 | 11:18 |
| 13-inch apple macbook Air (mid 2013, 1.3GHz chip core i5, hãng intel HD Graphics 5000) | 6,021 (32-bit) | 304 | 12:51 |
| 13-inch apple macbook pro with Retina display (late 2012, 2.5GHz chip core i5, intel HD Graphics 4000) | 6,812 (32-bit) | 378 | 6:07 |
| 13-inch apple macbook pro (mid 2012, 2.5GHz vi xử lý core i5, intel HD Graphics 4000) | 6,817 (32-bit) | 368 | 6:51 |
| 13-inch macbook Air (mid 2012, 1.8GHz bộ vi xử lý core i5, hãng sản xuất intel HD Graphics 4000) | 6,195 (32-bit) | 321 | 6:34 |
The refreshed apple macbook phiên bản pro arrives not long after hãng sản xuất intel started shipping its fifth-generation chip core processors, code-named "Broadwell." As you"d expect, then, the Pro comes with your choice of new chip core i5 and i7 chips, though only dual-core for now, as hãng intel hasn"t released its quad-core Broadwell processors yet. Also not surprising: The performance boost is in many ways a fairly modest one. When hãng intel first announced these chips, it said we should only expect a 4 percent gain in productivity-oriented tasks. So it makes sense, then, that the laptop apple macbook Pro"s results in general-performance benchmarks are only marginally better than they were a year và a half ago. Armed with a 2.7GHz vi xử lý core i5 processor và 8GB of RAM, I saw less than a 100-point difference in tests lượt thích Geekbench & Xbench.
That said, Broadwell promises some bigger gains in graphics -- after all, a whole two-thirds of the die area is dedicated to lớn graphics. In particular, according lớn Intel, Broadwell machines should deliver a 22 percent improvement in 3d graphics benchmarks, và up to lớn 50 percent faster video-conversion time. And the new macbook phiên bản pro actually does most Broadwell machines one better: As before, it uses the cpu maker"s high-end "Iris" solution, instead of the usual hãng sản xuất intel HD graphics. Given that the MBP is mainly intended for prosumers & creative pros, I decided to test the Iris 6100 graphics by loading up Final Cut Pro with a handful of 4K clips. Aside from one dropped frame -- brought on by trying to add a transition -- đoạn clip playback was smooth. In fact, I was usually able to showroom effects in real time without causing any hiccups or slowdowns.
In gaming, meanwhile, I saw a slight bump in Batman: Arkham City (the same trò chơi I used to test the late 2013 model), with frame rates rising from 32 fps khổng lồ 33. Not really surprising, that: The Pro was never intended as a gaming machine, per se.
| Apple macbook phiên bản pro with Retina display (13-inch, 2015) | 11:23 |
| MacBook Air (13-inch 2013) | 12:51 |
| HP Spectre x360 | 11:34 |
| Apple macbook phiên bản pro with Retina display (13-inch, late 2013) | 11:18 |
| Chromebook px (2015) | 10:01 |
| Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus | 8:44 |
| Dell XPS 13 (2015) | 7:36 |
| Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro | 7:36 |
| Acer Aspire S7-392 | 7:33 |
| Microsoft Surface Pro 3 | 7:08 |
Even more than the new processor, though, the biggest improvement might be disk speeds. Though the Retina display apple macbook phiên bản pro has had PCIe-based SSDs (which are faster than mSATA ones) for about a year and a half now, táo bị cắn dở says the PCIe drives used in the latest MBP are twice as fast as the first PCIe SSDs used. Specifically, the company says its new disks can reach peak read speeds of 1.6 GB/s and max sequential write speeds of 1.5 GB/s. Indeed, in the Blackmagic disk kiểm tra I got average read speeds of 1.3 GB/s, nearly matching the promised rate, although my write speeds came lớn an average of 643.6 MB/s. That"s still higher than just about any other 13-inch máy tính I"ve tested recently; I just couldn"t reach those theoretical speeds of one và a half gigabytes per second. In real-world use, this translates khổng lồ snappy performance, affecting everything from tiện ích load times to cold boot-ups (I recorded 13 seconds khổng lồ get to the login screen).
Apple says the new 13-inch Retina display apple macbook phiên bản pro is capable of up to lớn 10 hours of website browsing, or up lớn 12 hours of iTunes clip playback. Sure enough, I logged 11 hours và 23 minutes in curvesvietnam.com"s video looping test, using an episode of Breaking Bad I purchased through iTunes. That does indeed match Apple"s own estimate, and I suspect I could have actually broken the 12-hour mark had I not chosen such punishing battery settings. (As I vày when I chạy thử Windows PCs, I kept the macbook pro from going to lớn sleep or dimming its display when unplugged.) & hey, even 11.5 hours is impressive for a machine in this class -- the only other system I"ve seen recently that matches that is HP"s Spectre x360.
Still, I was surprised the battery didn"t last even longer. First off, though the machine meets Apple"s estimates, the Macs I"ve tested usually exceed expectations -- that"s why the late 2013 model, which was rated for nine hours of runtime, actually clocked more than 11 hours. That brings me to lớn point number two: The battery life here more or less matches what I got a year & a half ago. Also, lớn even achieve flat year-over-year battery life, I had khổng lồ stick with iTunes; when I played movies through QuickTime and/or used a file I downloaded from somewhere else, the battery life was up to an hour shorter. To lớn be fair, even intel warned that battery life gains with Broadwell would be fairly modest over last year"s processors, but still, I did expect more of an improvement. For the record, at least, other reviewers have noted bigger gains; I"m just not sure why I wasn"t able to replicate their thử nghiệm results. I"ll continue running some tests và will update this review if anything changes.
Configuration options
The 13-inch Retina display apple macbook phiên bản pro starts at $1,299 with a 2.7GHz fifth-generation Intel core i5 processor, hãng intel Iris Graphics 6100, 8GB of RAM & a 128GB PCIe-based solid-state drive. From there, you can upgrade to lớn a slightly faster 2.9GHz chip core i5 processor for an extra $100, or a 3.1GHz core i7 CPU for $300. You can also double the RAM to lớn 16GB for $200. Want more storage? táo bị cắn dở also sells a 256GB model ($1,499) & one with a 512GB SSD ($1,799). In the case of the $1,499 model, it has the same specs as the $1,299 variant, just with more storage. If you spring for the $1,799 mã sản phẩm with 512GB of storage, though, you"ll also get that slightly faster 2.9GHz processor. There"s also a $500 1TB SSD option, but it"s only offered as an upsell on the $1,799 model.
One thing you won"t find on the 13-inch Retina MBP: a discrete graphics option. That"s only available on the 15-inch model, and even then, it"ll cost you at least $2,499.
The competition
Mac diehards who want a máy vi tính with decent graphics really only have one option: the Retina display macbook Pro. For those of you who are more OS agnostic, though, you have a few other good PC options. Most don"t have quite the same graphics clout as the 13-inch Retina MBP, but they vì chưng at least offer similarly sharp screens, premium build chất lượng and long battery life. My personal favorites: the Dell XPS 13 ($800-plus) & HP Spectre x360 ($900-plus). Starting with the Dell, it weighs 2.6 pounds and has a nearly bezel-less (up to 3,200 x 1,800) display that allows it to lớn have a much smaller footprint than a typical 13-inch laptop. All told, it earned a score of 90 in our review, thanks not just khổng lồ the compact design & crisp screen, but also a comfortable keyboard, fast performance & surprisingly good audio. My only real pet peeve may have been the occasionally temperamental touchpad.
As for the Spectre, it has a 2,560 x 1,440 screen option and a machined aluminum build that some might say was inspired by the laptop macbook itself. I haven"t published my review yet (working on it!), but I can tell you now, the battery life is impressive: about 11.5 hours of đoạn clip playback in my tests. It"s also lighter than the macbook Pro, with the weight ranging from 3.17 lớn 3.26 pounds, depending on the configuration. Again, still polishing off my review, but I think it"s safe lớn say this is a solid option if you"re looking for a premium, high-performing 13-inch machine.
If, in the end, you find graphics don"t matter that much -- and that you can maybe even live without the sharp screen -- Apple"s 13-inch laptop apple macbook Air is cheaper, at $999. It"s also lighter with longer battery life. And it has the old touchpad too, if that"s what you prefer, but again, you"d be giving up that sharp screen khổng lồ get it. Decisions, decisions...
Wrap-up
The refreshed Retina display apple macbook pro is mostly an incremental improvement over the previous model, with even faster disk speeds and stronger graphics, along with the same comfortable keyboard, slim design, long battery life và stunning screen. The only area where the MBP represents a possible step backward is the touchpad. Lớn Apple"s credit, the pressure-sensitive Force touch pad is interesting, và has the potential khổng lồ become more useful as third-party developers start to incorporate the "Force Click" into their own apps. In fact, I"m still curious lớn see what a potential Force cảm biến iPhone might look like; perhaps the tech would make more sense there, where having pressure sensitivity doesn"t mean forfeiting a best-in-class trackpad. Right now, though, Force cảm biến feels like a solution lớn a problem I"m not sure anyone had. At worst, it"s a gimmick; at best, it"s a nice-to-have feature. Either way, although the new touchpad doesn"t feel quite the same as the ol" "diving board," you should at least get used lớn it quickly.
In the end, too, despite its flaws (the shallower touchpad, the continued lack of a discrete graphics option), the 13-inch Retina display stands as one of the only laptops of this kích thước that offers this cấp độ of portability, screen chất lượng and graphics power, not khổng lồ mention this nice a screen. If you need a lightweight machine with enough processing clout for a little 4K đoạn clip editing, this is still one of your best bets.
