This Product Has Been Announced: Apple Announces 13" Retina MacBook Pro
What We Expect
A new 13-inch MacBook Pro will be announced at Apple's October 23 media event.
The main difference from the current 13" MacBook Pro will be the addition of a high-density "Retina" screen. The resolution will be doubled in each direction, giving users a 2560x1600 pixel screen to work with. We also expect the design to become thinner and lighter, just as Apple did with the 15" Retina MacBook Pro.
Regular 15" MacBook Pro vs Retina 15" MacBook Pro
As with the current 13-inch MacBook Pro, the new Retina model will be available in two base configurations with build-to-order customization available on each.
Apple is expected to keep the current 13" MacBook Pro available while pricing the Retina 13" MacBook Pro higher. As a result, Apple will end up with three distinct laptop lines: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Retina MacBook Pro. The 13" Retina models will be priced at approximately $1699 and $1999, a $500 premium over the corresponding non-Retina models. For reference, the entry-level 15" Retina MacBook Pro carries a $400 premium over its non-Retina counterpart. However, the $400 also includes more RAM and an SSD to replace the hard drive.
So you can expect to pay a bit of a premium for the new Retina model.
In early October, alleged photos of the machine's display assembly surfaced in the forums of a Chinese site. Those photos were accompanied by a claim that the machine will be based on integrated graphics only and will contain the same port layout as seen on the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. The report also claimed that the smaller Retina MacBook Pro will contain an "unprecedented" battery design, although it is unclear exactly what is meant by the term.
The use of just an integrated GPU was first reported by an reliable analyst in June.
More Details
While reports of thinner MacBook Pro models circulated for quite some time, specific claims regarding the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display first surfaced in a report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo just prior to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in early June. In that report, Kuo correctly claimed that the Retina MacBook Pro would appear alongside the non-Retina versions of the machine rather than immediately replacing them. Kuo claimed that the 15-inch Retina model would be launching at WWDC but that the 13-inch model would be pushed back until approximately August due to issues with display yield and heat dissipation.
Days later, Kuo revised his expectations to claim that the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro would begin ramping production in September ahead of a launch in October. Information leaked since that time has continued to support that timeline, with display production having ramped up by late August and full production of the machines ramping up in mid-September.
A Geekbench 2 benchmark claiming to be from the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro surfaced in July, with the machine running the same processor found in the high-end model of the non-Retina machine and an unreleased custom build of OS X Mountain Lion.
Discuss
Discuss and ask questions about the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro in our MacBook Pro forum. This document will be continuously updated to take into account new rumors.
