As expected, there are no changes as far as the quality of the materials, rigidity of the unit, and fit and finish are concerned. Since the design also features an even thickness all around, it doesn't break tradition - the overall look of the Pro series hasn't been altered. The notebook with the high-resolution display features a brand new chassis, which is milled from a single solid piece of aluminum. Slim notebooks are in - and there's no question that the new MacBook Pro 13 Retina fits the bill. Let's see how well the new slim-line notebook performs in our series of tests and how it compares to its bigger brother.

Alternatively, Apple offers the 13.3-inch model without the high resolution display for 500 Euros (~$650) less. Interested? The youngest member of the notebook series from Cupertino is certainly not for the frugal shopper: the price of admission starts at 1750 Euros (~$2275). Upgrades to 16 GB DDR3L RAM and a dedicated (Nvidia) GPU - both are options for the MacBook Pro 15 Retina - are not available. For 200 Euros (~$260) more, the customer can opt for the more powerful Intel Core i7-3520M dual-core processor (2.9 GHz clock speed). Speaking of components: our review model comes equipped with an Intel Core i5-3210M dual-core processor (2.5 GHz clock speed), integrated HD 4000 GPU, 8 GB RAM, and a 256 GB flash drive. The MacBook Pro 15 Retina features an even higher resolution of 2800x1800 pixels and more powerful components to boot. The Apple MacBook Pro only had 1280x800 pixels and was certainly behind the times. The new model sets a new standard for 13.3-inch subnotebooks with a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels and 227 DPI.

It might have been a business decision to not release the 13.3-inch model in parallel with the 15-inch Retina model - after all: the release of the bigger model certainly stirred up interest in a smaller model with a high resolution display. It was just a question of time: after the introduction of the Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Retina and subsequent releases from the competition, Apple probably reacted to the introduction of Ultrabooks like the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A, which features a Full HD display. On October 23 rd, Apple not only released their new tablets ( iPad 4 & iPad Mini) and a few additional updates across the product lines, but also introduced the MacBook Pro 13 with Retina.

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