MacBook Pro

The new 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display adds a screen that's nearly as high-res as the 15-inch version, making for incredibly crisp text and images. The slimmer body feels much more modern, and the excellent keyboard and trackpad remain.

By adding a high-res Retina Display to a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple has taken the odd man out of its MacBook line -- the previous 13-inch Pro -- and turned it into a sleek, modern laptop sitting at the midway point between slim ultrabook and mainstream powerhouse. 

At a starting price of $1,699, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is a big step up in price from Apple's other 13-inch laptops, but it also offers features they cannot. Like the 15-inch Retina Pro, this new model includes a high-resolution display -- at 2,560x1,600 pixels, it's the highest resolution you can get in a 13-inch laptop -- plus two Thunderbolt/DisplayPort outputs, and even HDMI.  

$1,699 too much to ask for a 13-inch laptop? I've recently seen some flagship Windows 8 laptop with similar prices. The aforementioned Acer Aspire S7 is $1,649, but that includes a low-voltage Core i7 and a 256GB SSD. The convertible Dell XPS 12, with a slightly smaller 12.5-inch screen, starts at $1,199, but our review unit of that system also traded up to a Core i7/256GB SSD combo for $1,699. Both of those laptops have 1,920x1,080-pixel display.