Macbook Pro With Retina Display

By Ermal Hajrizi

Wow. Apple just finished up its presentation on the first day of the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) and they shocked the world (read: technology industry). With updates to nearly all of their Mac hardware and both desktop and mobile software offerings, any expectations were completely and utterly surpassed.

Apple began the presentation in the Moscone Center with a lowdown on their new MacBook Pro and Air models. They introduced a slightly updated version of the Air and Pro, but received little fanfare. After all, the only changes included the unsurprising addition of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors and some RAM and storage bumps here and there. Clearly, nothing major at all.

So what about the Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro that everyone’s been clamoring for? Well, they didn’t disappoint. They introduced the “next generation” MacBook Pro, a stunning laptop that obviously carries the genes of the traditional MacBook Pro, except it’s gone on a diet. Apple has managed to trim it down to nearly the same thickness as the impossibly-thin MacBook Air. That chassis also holds the main attraction: an absolutely mind-blowing display clocking in at 2880 x 1800 pixels, all on a 15.4 inch screen. Thats roughly 5 million pixels at a density of 220 pixels per inch: even more than your 1080p HDTV!

In addition to that, they’ve beefed up the internals with a quad core i7 processor, up to 16 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Kepler GeForce GT 650M GPU. With the removal of the optical drive, Apple has thrown in flash storage, just like the blazingly-fast SSD in the MacBook Air. You can configure the Pro to go up to an abundant 768 GB of flash storage if you need it. All of this performance, and somehow, battery life still manages (according to Apple, at least) to come in at 7 hours, just like the original Pro. On the sides, you’ll find a number of ports, including an SD card slot, HDMI, USB 3.0, two Thunderbolt ports, MagSafe 2, a headphone jack, and two microphones.

It starts shipping today, at a base price of $2,199, so head on over to the Apple store if you’re inclined to pick one up.

Update

It looks like Apple has quietly parted ways with the 17-inch MacBook Pro. It is no longer being offered in the store. However, you can still snag a refurbished one, and there are a few different configurations available.