Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Retina (Late 2013) Pro Reviews

The most powerful laptop money can buy, but it’s very expensive and the battery doesn’t last as long as last year’s model

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is probably the best all-around laptop on the market. It checks every box, from “portable enough” to “insanely powerful” to “beautiful trackpad” to “reasonably priced for its market.” At $1,999 it’s a mile from cheap, but compared to other laptops with its capability that price tag isn’t so bad. This is the most versatile laptop I’ve used, one of only a couple that’s at home in any situation, simple or complex, personal or professional. That’s not to say this is the computer everyone should buy — most people don’t need anywhere close to this much power, and would be better served by a cheaper, lighter MacBook Air, or a powerful-but-smaller device like the Toshiba Kirabook. I hope Apple follows its iPad strategy next time, and slims this high-end machine down while bringing its gorgeous display and horsepower to the cheaper, smaller model. (A 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina display would be awfully close to perfect.) This is a 15-inch laptop that can do everything. If you don’t want to do everything, buy something else — there are plenty of good, cheaper, lighter, smaller laptops out there, including a handful made by Apple. But just know this: my back may hurt a little more than yours, and my wallet might be a little lighter, but I played Portal 2 on the subway last night. It was awesome.

Intel’s done a great job with the Haswell processor and its Iris Pro graphics, but the loss of the discrete graphics card is Apple as Ebenezer Scrooge. Nonetheless, the Retina Display MacBook Pro is still a delight, and will justify the high price for many folk who really need that high-quality display - or acres of screen pixels. There are always cheaper PC alternatives, of course, but if you’ve got the cash to splash then the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is still very much at the top of its class.

The 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina Display isn't a must-buy if you own last year's model. But it's still the best all-around laptop we've ever tested. And if you're anxious for something truly new and innovative from Apple, you still have December's tiny but powerful Mac Pro desktop to look forward to.

If you like the idea of investing in a higher-resolution laptop, and can live without an optical drive (a concession that seems more reasonable every day), the updated 2013 version of the Retina MacBook Pro, especially in its 15-inch incarnation, remains an irresistibly powerful yet reasonably portable laptop. This has been a year of incremental, and mostly internal, upgrades for Macs, from the Air to the iMac, but a handful of price cuts to base models help the entire line from feeling too stuck in time. The only really "new" Mac coming this year is the Mac Pro desktop, which is far from a casual/consumer machine, but will be idolized by anyone interested in technology design and aesthetics. Its $2,599 price is a major hurdle (as is the $1,999 base model), but there is no other laptop this year (or last) that combines powerful components, design, display, and flexibility quite like the MacBook Pro.

With an updated Intel processor and speedier Flash Storage, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (2013) leapfrogs over the competition with workstation-class performance and a nine-hour battery life. It's our new Editors' Choice for high-end desktop replacement laptops.

Mac users have never had it so good. The MacBook Air’s Haswell update earlier this year gave the ultraportable the longevity it deserved, with twelve hours of runtime enough to satisfy even the most demanding road-warrior. At the time, only the thought of what Haswell could do for the MacBook Pro gave us pause for flexing our credit cards.Now the Pro has had its own shot at Haswell, and if anything the waters are all the more muddied. The Air is still the mobility machine, perfectly poised to balance the processing demands of the average traveler with the sort of battery life they need. This 2013 upgrade to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display refines Apple’s powerhouse even more, however. What you sacrifice in battery life compared to the Air, you make up for in raw processing grunt and that glorious display. The 15-inch Pro may not quite be as portable as its 13-inch brethren, but it’s still sufficiently slim and light to drop into a bag and carry day to day, and the upshot is a machine that’s as at home whiling away the hours on an intercontinental flight with you as it is storming through media processing and gaming. That’s enough to keep it our pick of Apple’s MacBook range, and while the everyman OS X user would likely be satisfied by the MacBook Air, the combination of flexibility, power, and battery life makes the 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display our top choice for demanding mobile professionals.