What to write about in a review of the MacBook Pro 13 2018, which costs a quarter of a million rubles in the top? It is clear that the machine is brutal and very productive. It also automatically increases your social status, causing the envy of everyone around you. However, if you dig deeper, you can find a second, third and even fourth bottom. This is what we will talk about today.

We will study the new MacBook Pro 13 according to the classics - let's start with the screen and end with autonomy. Along the way, I will talk about the nuances of operation and the emotions that each laptop node evokes in abundance. Go!

Display

The frames around the screen are far from minimal, as, for example, in. However, they are not annoying at all and do not distract from the content. Especially if you put a black wallpaper that will smoothly “flow” to the borders of the display. With the release of the new macOS Mojave and the dark theme, the display will definitely sparkle in a new way.

By the way, the black color looks very natural. Almost like on OLED matrices.

In general, screens on Macs are always perfectly calibrated for professional processing of images, videos, and other things. You buy any Mac, except, perhaps, and by default you get a top-end display. A great help for those who know nothing about color profiles, but want uncompromising picture quality.

• P3 color gamut support (25% more than sRGB)
• brightness 500 nits
• dot density 227 ppi

By the way, the screens in 2018 MacBooks received proprietary True Tone technology. Exactly the same as on and. Now the picture adjusts automatically to any lighting. The trick has one general rule - the image is always in warm colors, which is, of course, very pleasing to the eye.

If anything, you can always disable the feature in the settings in order, for example, to evaluate the image as it is.

Design

Thin. Easy. Metal.

Perhaps this is all you need to know about the laptop. No emotions, just facts.

The hinge of the top cover gives the impression of a very reliable mechanism. The screen opens to approximately 135 degrees. This is enough for comfortable work both at the table and on your knees. Moreover, even on the sofa, in a reclining position on a poppy, it is convenient to work.

Metal in the case is very nice and practical. And all because this material removes heat perfectly, even without taking into account active cooling by coolers.

But there is also a minus. More precisely, even two.

The first is working at a computer for hours. As a rule, wristwatches are equipped with either a metal bracelet or a strap with a metal clasp. When typing on the built-in keyboard, you place your hand on an empty area next to the touchpad, and the clasp can scratch the case. There are two ways out: remove the watch or stick some kind of sticker in this place. Or try to work carefully, moving the watch higher on your forearm.

The second nuance is the sharp corners of the body. When working with the laptop on your knees or in another non-standard position, this is felt especially strongly - the edges literally dig into the flesh. Of course, there is no pain, but there are slightly unpleasant ones. What to do? Be patient, get used to it.

Now about emotions.

At first, you get a kick out of any opportunity to work on a MacBook Pro. Tactile sensations make you smile stupidly, and your ears move from any touch on this machine. Literally every element of the case is thought out and pleasant to the touch. The metal is matte, the perforations for the speakers are very small and neat, the surface of the Touch Bar is perfectly smooth and does not leave fingerprints. Bliss!

After some time, you get used to all these joys, and your perception becomes dull. But working on any other Windows laptop after a Mac causes downright physical pain. Yes, maybe I'm exaggerating. But I’m sure everyone will experience something similar to one degree or another, first working on a MacBook Pro, and then on a regular “weeper”.

Ports. Yes, there are few of them.

There are 4 USB C connectors, each of which supports Thunderbolt 3. However, this is only true for the model with the Touch Bar. The panelless predecessor only has two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

The connector can transfer data at speeds of up to 40 Gbps, charge devices, connect external 5K monitors or eGPU video cards, and much more. All this, of course, is very cool. But only Jony Ive knows why they cut out a slot for an SD memory card, but did not touch the audio output for headphones.

For everything else, there are adapters, the fleet of which has expanded significantly since 2016. You can use the right and expensive accessories from Apple or partners, or you can find alternative adapters that are decent in both quality and price. You just don’t need to panic, but approach the issue with a cool head.

Personally, I used aftermarket accessories and everything worked fine.

I was especially pleased with the ability to connect charging to any port and from any side - it’s cool.

Sometimes the outlet is on your left, and sometimes it’s on the other side. But in this case, you don't care. Especially with the included adapter, the cable of which is unexpectedly long - 2 meters.

How was it before? The LED responsible for charging was located on the MagSafe plug itself. It is very comfortable. Nowadays, it is impossible to know whether the Mac is charged without looking at the display. I wish Apple engineers would drill a hole somewhere and insert an LED indicator there. Such a seemingly trifle, which for some reason was neglected.

Butterfly No. 3

With the 2018 MacBook Pro lineup, we get to try out the third generation of the butterfly keyboard for the first time.

As you know, the first and even the second generation were not as successful as we would like. Over time, the keys failed and became stuck. Apple met users halfway and expanded the warranty terms. Anyone who owns a computer with a butterfly keyboard will receive official warranty repairs if a manufacturing defect is confirmed.

In the third generation of the “butterfly”, all childhood ailments were eliminated, simultaneously reducing the noise level from typing.

The key travel on the new keyboard is extremely minimal. Those who have been sitting on the company's old laptops for a long time will have to get used to it. It took me about two days and a couple of reviews of 10 thousand characters each to adapt to the new keyboard.

The keyboard cannot be called silent. It still knocks, even if you type on it carefully, without much enthusiasm. However, in any case, there will be characters who will hit the buttons with considerable zeal. There are people like this in every editorial office, they infuriate everyone. And buying him a new firmware for 2018 will not solve the situation. It's better to fire him.

Touch Bar

Last year, the user had a choice: buy a MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar or take a model with buttons, saving 15-20 thousand rubles. However, in the 2018 line there is no longer such an opportunity - if you take it, it will only be with the Touch Bar. True, the previous 13 without a touch panel is still on sale.

In general, the Touch Bar is a cool and useful thing.

Maybe in 2016, when the first release of this option took place, the panel was not particularly needed. It worked either in proprietary Apple applications or in key ones from partners. Today, almost every second self-respecting developer has added Touch Bar functionality to their products.

It is extremely convenient when, in specialized applications like Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro, some of the tools are displayed on the Touch Bar. I've gotten used to the hotkeys, so editing images using both the keyboard and touchpad is even more convenient than before.

The emoticon strip is a special delight. As soon as you switch to a chat, the Touch Bar immediately displays the usual set of faces.

Moreover, this works not only in stock applications like Messages. Smileys pop up even when you launch the Telegram desktop client or VK messages. Very cool!

Some forms on websites (via Safari) provide access to autofill. For example, in the field for entering a phone number, the Touch Bar immediately highlights previously filled in numbers - you just need to click once on the desired number. Super!

Well, the last feature of the Touch Bar is perhaps the coolest - the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Unlocking your computer after sleep, making a purchase directly in your browser—everything goes quickly and without questions. Just like on smartphones. The only pity is that not every time you can log in to the system using your fingerprint; sometimes the system asks for your Apple ID password for additional confirmation.

Safety

The new Macs place special emphasis on security. A separate Apple T2 chip with a built-in Secure Enclave coprocessor is responsible for processing the Apple ID account, encryption and access to data, including even the system core. Literally all system operations go through it, and this especially applies to loading the OS itself. Even before its launch, a separate check is carried out to see if the kernel is compromised and if there is any malicious code in the system. Moreover, this applies to macOS, and even Windows installed via Boot Camp.

Sound

The laptop is equipped with two external speakers. Accordingly, there is an excellent stereo effect.

But the main thing is sound quality and volume. Both of these parameters are at the highest possible level for a laptop.

The sound of the MacBook Pro 13 is so loud that if you watch a movie at close range (about a meter), the speakers deafen you during action scenes. It becomes uncomfortable and your hand reaches out to turn down the volume.

However, at its peak, quality may suffer. Explosions and booms lack low frequencies, and the mid range whistles unpleasantly. It’s better to set the volume to 90%, then the sound changes and becomes comfortable. From all sides.

Balance of performance and compactness

I always thought the MacBook Pro 13 was a compromise. On the one hand, it is compact, but still not as small as the MacBook Air and especially the MacBook 12. On the other hand, it is not powerful enough to qualify for solving truly adult tasks. To do this, it is better to buy a 15-inch wire right away.

Having tested the MacBook Pro 13, I realized that this is not a compromise, but rather a balance. A computer that balances at the intersection of mobility and power.

Here are some numbers to make sure of this:

• thickness only 1.49 cm
• weight 1.39 kg

And this subtle miracle is powered by an Intel Core i5 2.3 GHz processor in the base and a Core i7 2.7 GHz in the top. Using the word “compromise” next to such specs is at least inappropriate.

MacBook Pro 13 2018 Specifications

We figured out the nuances of use. It's time to evaluate the filling of our beast.

• 8th generation processor to choose from: Intel Core i5 (i5-8259U) with a frequency of 2.3 GHz (Turbo Bust mode up to 3.8 GHz), built-in 128 MB eDRAM memory, based on a 14 nm process technology or Intel Core i7 ( model i7-8559U), 2.7 - 4.5 GHz, eDRAM 128 MB, 14 nm
• Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 (up to 1200 MHz, 9.5 generation)
• 8 or 16 GB LPDDR3 2133 MHz
• 256 or 512 GB, as well as custom configurations in 1 or 2 TB SSD
• Ports: 3.5mm audio out and 4x USB C 3.1 (two with Thunderbolt 3 support)
• networks: Wi-Fi (802.11 ac), Bluetooth 5.0
• 720p FaceTime webcam
• sound: two external speakers, three microphones
• OS at the time of release - macOS High Sierra
• battery 58 Wh (standard power supply 61 W USB C)
• Dimensions: 30.41 x 21.24 x 1.49 cm
• weight 1.37 kg

It is worth mentioning that the 15-inch model at the top is even more powerful. As a chipset, you can install Intel Core i9 with six cores, and the amount of RAM can reach as much as 32 GB of LPDDR4 standard. True, in this case the price tag should be expected at the level of... 500,000 rubles!

What can he do?

I’ll say right away that in my test I had the maximum configuration of a 13-inch Mac. Under the hood was the following:

• Core i7 2.7 GHz (model i7-8559U)
• 16 GB LPDDR3 memory with 2133 GHz bus
• 2 TB SSD with write speeds up to 2.6 Gbps

Thanks to all this goodness, the new machine is twice as fast as the previous generation of 2017. Accordingly, video encoding, code compilation, running 3D models - all this will happen faster.

The basic model differs in processor (Core i5-8259U installed) and memory capacity (RAM and storage).

However, we will still test the top configuration. At the same time, we’ll figure out where this compact beast’s ceiling is.

Games?

Well, why not!

As it turned out, even the integrated graphics in the form of Intel Iris 655 is capable of pulling out some not very productive games.

For example, my configuration ran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive without any problems at high graphics settings and at a resolution of 1680 x 1050. The frame rate jumped in the range of 40-70 FPS. The only BUT is that the native resolution of the display is much higher, and therefore the picture looks blurry - it takes some getting used to. If you set a higher resolution - 2048 x 1280 pixels, then the graphics will improve, but the frequency drops to a not very comfortable 20-40 FPS.

Older toys feel better on this Mac, as expected. Left 4 Dead opened without problems in stock resolution, although the graphics settings had to be lowered to medium. Otherwise, there were unpleasant drawdowns at the moment when tens of three zombies ran out at you.

There is only one caveat when it comes to games. For example, in CS:GO the case in the Touch Bar area warmed up to 41 degrees, and in Left 4 Dead up to 43 degrees. Of course, the coolers worked to the limit of their capabilities.

As for the speed of work in specialized applications, I refer you to the official Apple website for this data. There are tons of charts for every professional application.

Autonomy

Full charging from the included 61 W power supply takes exactly 2 hours. In half an hour the laptop is recharged by 35%, which is enough for a couple of hours of battery life in any case. In one hour, the computer has already scored 63% - you can leave the house and count on at least 4-5 hours of productive work.

As with most Apple laptops, it's best to use Safari for browsing. Google Chrome is a good alternative, but only when the Mac is plugged in. Even with one hanging tab, the browser begins to unreasonably load the processor, accordingly, coolers are turned on for additional cooling and energy consumption increases.

Is one MacBook Pro charge enough for a day of productive work? And how! Most likely, even two. As an example, my real use case:

• 2 hours of watching Full HD video in VLC
• 2 hours of surfing the web using Safari
• 2 hours of work in Pages

And after all this, there is still about 15% charge left.

For some reason, watching videos ate up the most battery power. Perhaps VLC player is not suitable for saving battery and it is better to use standard QuickTime or iTunes, as Apple itself recommends. In any case, if you remove multimedia entertainment from the equation, you can count on at least 8 hours of work in the browser and with documents. At the same time, official data is 10 hours of autonomy.

One more indicator. During the week of unused sleep mode, the Mac spent only 10%. At the same time, the Power Nap function was enabled in the settings, which is responsible for checking new messages and notifications directly in sleep.

Accessories

For new laptops, Apple showed its own genuine leather cases. They are thin, light, thoughtful and... expensive. Each costs 14,990 rubles.

The thing, of course, is good, and if you have several hundred thousand for a computer, then you can also find a dozen and a half for a case.

However, I personally did not understand their specific purpose. I either had my laptop on my desk at home, or I carried it with me in a special compartment of my backpack. Inside, the laptop is perfectly protected from external influences and scratches. Therefore, I personally don’t see much point in the original or in general any case for the MacBook Pro 13.

“Why is it so expensive?!”

I did not find a test configuration of the MacBook Pro 13 on the official Russian Apple website. But it was on the American page, where, using the configurator, we were able to find out its cost - $3,699 or 245 thousand rubles. Taking into account Russian taxes and duties, the final price should be expected in the region of three hundred or even a little more than a thousand rubles.

Is this too much? I think you already know the answer without me. However, if you buy this MacBook Pro 13, you probably clearly know why you need it. In addition, it’s not for nothing that the name has the prefix “Pro”. She seems to be hinting that the device is not intended for sitting on VKontakte and watching YouTube.

There are better options for all this. Both in terms of price and needs. If you want a compact, equally stylish and cool Mac, take the MacBook 12 for 80 thousand. If you need something cheaper, buy a MacBook Air for plus or minus 55 thousand. If it seems that this too is expensive, then you should look into an electronics store and refresh your ideas about the current prices for laptops.

Hence the simple answer. The MacBook Pro 13 is not a laptop for everyone. However, those who really need it will be absolutely delighted with the new generation.

Bottom line

It’s best to end the review of the MacBook Pro 13 2018 with a simple and specific conclusion. The new 13 is an exceptionally pleasant machine, no matter how you look at it. Thoughtful design, powerful hardware, convenient macOS and a bunch of nice bonuses like the Touch Bar, a chic keyboard, excellent sound and a top-of-the-line screen.

The maximum configuration that I had in the review is suitable for an extremely limited number of users. For everyone else, there are standard or similar modifications that are cheaper, and are not qualitatively different from the top-end version.

However, the main thing here is not the processor model or screen resolution, but something completely different - emotions, comfort and impressions.

The MacBook Pro motivates you, so to speak. He inspires to work, create, create, learn, and ultimately earn more.

For example, what can you be inspired to do by an ordinary plastic Windows laptop with a bunch of ugly “Intel” and “GeForce” stickers, disgusting build quality and the cheapest possible case materials? To download torrents and watch the latest season of Supernatural? Perhaps this is his ceiling.

With the MacBook Pro it's completely different. I'm sure Mac owners will immediately understand what we're talking about. Try to understand too.

You put a brand new Mac on your computer desk, bought in the early 2000s, look around and realize that you can’t live like this anymore. Neither you nor your image matches this computer. And the latter seems to whisper to you: “Come on. Start living better. We can do this!".

And the first thing you want to do is replace the table under the brand new MacBook with a more modern and stylish one. Then you see that the updated workplace never fits into the interior. You need to re-glue the wallpaper, but it’s best to renovate the entire room at once.

Then you catch yourself thinking that you can’t stop, you want more. You need to develop a regime and follow it unquestioningly, stop eating all sorts of rubbish, start eating normally, find a good and decently paid job, visit, for example, Bruges before the end of the year, and not go to Antalya for the 17th time.

Is it worth 100 thousand rubles, 150 or even more? I think yes.

And by the way, such a device can also be taken on credit, because it will not become obsolete in a year or even two. This is a serious tool, a kind of machine on which you not only create something new for the world, you yourself become better, you develop, you create yourself. And that's great!

The Macbook pro 2016 model combines the best features of a laptop that you can only dream of. Let's review the model that made a splash on the market of Apple gadgets - macbook pro 2016, and describe its characteristics, functions and features.

Designed for everything

For the most advanced users, we will remind you of the technical characteristics of this gadget, but we will not dwell on their description in detail. MacBook Pro 2016 has the following specifications:

• dual-core or quad-core Intel Core i5, i7 processor;
• SSD drive with a capacity of 256 gigabytes;
• 8 or 16 gigabytes of internal memory;
• 13 or 15 inch screen;
• built-in Toch Bar and Toch ID technologies;
• discrete Intel Iris or Radeon Pro$ graphics processor
• up to 10 hours of operation without recharging the battery;
• improved keyboard and larger touchpad;
• up to 4 high-speed Thunderbold ports;
• Mac OS operating system;
• very overall dimensions: the body is light and thin;
• Intel Skylake-U Premium PCH motherboard.

About 2016: any of your ideas

Thanks to such a “tasty filling”, this model can help you realize any of your ideas. Like any other MacBook, it performs great when performing everyday tasks:

• typing and editing documents of any complexity;
• working with videos, music and pictures:
• surfing the Internet safely;
• games in modern computer innovations;
• connecting various devices, working with each of them, even on solving one problem.;
• classes in video editing and 3D graphics.

Not standard, but no less useful functions

Now, thanks to the Toch Bar, you will always have at your fingertips all the tools you use every day - volume and screen brightness controls, functions for managing your video and audio files, text input functions and many others.

Also, you can always answer calls coming to your iPhone without even moving the cursor. And that's not all: with this panel you can always have quick access to all your accounts. These features of the Macbook pro 2016 with touch bar will significantly save your time.

Macbook pro 13 retina 2016 and its characteristics point to other important “buns” for the user. This is its speed when processing graphics, which it achieves thanks to the built-in powerful graphics processor. This means that your activities in video editing, 3D graphics, or simply being interested in modern computer games for Macbook are a feasible and familiar task.

In addition, the 2016 MacBook, thanks to the Mac OS operating system and the presence of high-speed ports, can be used as a portable workstation: through the OS it has the ability to synchronize with other Apple devices, and you can also connect several other devices to it that will work smoothly and without glitches.

It so happens historically that Apple rarely changes the design of its computers. For example, 15-inch PowerBook computers (and after them the MacBook Pro) were produced in the same case from 2003 to 2008 - that is, by computer standards, an eternity. The current generation of 13-inch MacBook Pros is difficult to distinguish from previous generations, which, in turn, were almost identical to the original aluminum MacBook that debuted in the fall of 2008. But inside, the 2011 MacBook Pro has virtually nothing in common with its predecessors.

13-inch MacBook Pro (2011) specifications

• Operating system: Mac OS X 10.7.0 Lion.
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2514UM, 2.3/2.9 GHz, 2 cores, 4 threads.
• Chipset: Intel HM67 Express.
• RAM: standard 4 GB, DDR3 1333 MHz, in our copy 8 GB.
• Disk: 320 GB, 5400 RPM.
• Optical drive: SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW DL).
• Display: 16:10, glossy, 13.3 inches, 1280x800, LED backlit.
• Video card: integrated, Intel HD 3000.
• Dimensions and weight: 32.5x22.7x2.4 cm, 2.04 kg.
• Battery: lithium polymer, 63 Wh.
• Communications: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet.
• Connectors: 2xUSB 2.0, 1xFireWire 800, 1xThunderBolt, Gigabit LAN, audio, SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader.
• Webcam: FaceTime HD (1.3 MP).

Appearance and design features

As I mentioned above, the appearance of the MacBook Pro has remained unchanged for three years. It still features the best body on the market, the top of which is cut from a single piece of aluminum. The rigidity of the case is such that you can easily lift the laptop at any angle and not worry about the consequences at all. By the way, Apple processes the metal of the case in some special way, so that it practically does not scratch: my previous computer was just an aluminum MacBook, which I spent 2 years chasing, carrying it with me on all my trips and once dropped it hard . All these vicissitudes had absolutely no effect on the appearance of the laptop.

Of course, like all modern Apple devices, the 13-inch MBP is damn good looking. Almost all PC laptops next to it look, frankly, clumsy. In general, it is useless to describe the appearance of Apple devices; they must be admired in silence.

However, from a practicality point of view, MBP is not doing well. The sharp edge of the laptop cuts your wrists quite noticeably, and the maximum opening angle of the lid is clearly insufficient for comfortable use of the laptop in a lying position.

All ports are crowded on the left side. The set of ports, by the way, is small: two USB, a gigabit LAN socket, FireWire 800 and a slot for SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards - that's all. Although I’m lying, there is also a proprietary Thunderbolt connector, which can be used to connect monitors and various high-speed peripherals, for example, external RAID arrays. True, there have been only one or two sales of such peripherals so far.

Screen

To put it briefly, the 13-inch MBP's screen can be summed up in one phrase: it is one of the best laptop screens on the market in terms of image quality. Contrast, viewing angles, black level - everything is at a very high level. Unfortunately, there is no talk about IPS; the MBP uses a TN+Film matrix - but a very, very worthy one.

The only thing that lets us down a little is the screen resolution, which is 1280x800 pixels. However, this is better than the newfangled 1366x768 - after all, 32 vertical pixels are never superfluous.

Sound

As usual, the built-in speakers in the MacBook Pro are very good. In addition to two tweeters, the laptop also has a “subwoofer” (I put this word in quotation marks on purpose, since in this case it reproduces mid frequencies rather than low ones). The volume and quality are enough for a sociable movie viewing, and even for listening to some simple music, especially if you are not demanding on sound quality. It’s also difficult to find fault with the quality of the headphone output - it’s quite decent. However, as always with Apple.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is very good and is one of the best chiclet keyboards on the market. The layout is traditional for Apple laptops (note that I am using an American model with an engraved keyboard; localized options have a worse layout, with a vertical Enter and a short right Shift).

The keyboard is equipped with a white LED backlight that automatically turns on in the dark. You can adjust the brightness of the backlight using the F5/F6 keys.

There's hardly anything new to say about the touchpad; it's still great. I just can’t understand why in the 3 years since the first glass touchpads appeared in the Apple line, PC laptop manufacturers have not been able to offer anything similar in terms of convenience.

Performance

Until the beginning of 2011, Apple stubbornly continued to produce laptops with Core 2 Duo processors, although all other manufacturers had long since switched to Core i5/Core i7. But in 2011, the new “crusts” finally reached the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Our experimental specimen is equipped with a Core i5-2415M processor (Sandy Bridge). This is a dual-core processor with support for Hyper-Threading technology and a nominal clock speed of 2.3 GHz, which can temporarily increase to 2.7 GHz with a dual-threaded load and 2.9 GHz with a single-threaded load. It goes without saying that this processor is much faster than the Core 2 Duo. Unfortunately, my favorite Xbench benchmark doesn't work on Mac OS X Lion, so I used iMovie'11 video editor as my main performance yardstick. A MacBook with a Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz processor took 10 minutes 46 seconds to export the same video, while a MacBook Pro with a Core i5-2415M processor completed the same task in 5 minutes 29 seconds and thus demonstrated almost double the speedup. But the graphics in the new MBPs have not so much worsened, but rather not improved: instead of the NVIDIA GeForce 320M, users will now have to be content with the Intel HD 3000 graphics core built into the processor. In terms of performance, it is approximately equivalent to the GeForce 320M, so there is little loss.

Power and autonomy

The 13-inch MacBook Pro has a 63 Wh non-removable lithium polymer battery. According to the manufacturer, it should be enough for 7 hours of browsing the Internet via Wi-Fi. A month of using the laptop showed that when surfing the web it actually works for 6-7 hours, and if you use it exclusively as a typewriter (combined with an MP3 player), you can safely count on 8 hours away from the outlet.

Like all laptops in the MacBook Pro line, the new “trinashka” is equipped with a special button, pressing which brings to life the LED battery charge indicator.

The laptop comes with a very convenient and compact charger, to which, if desired, you can connect a plug (and plug it directly into the outlet) or an extension cord. The charger also has folding “horns” on which you can wind the cable going to the laptop.

Noise and heat

Like previous aluminum Apple laptops, the new firmware is silent in office mode. A slight rustling can be heard only by placing your ear close to the laptop body. But under heavy load, alas, the MBP begins to make quite a noise, and while my previous MacBook simply hummed at a low note, this one howls quite disgustingly. Fortunately, I haven't had to deal with this howl very often so far.

Bottom line

I'll be honest: it's quite difficult to impartially write a review of a device that you use every day for several hours, but the 2011 MacBook Pro is a truly unique laptop. Of course, someone may say that there are a lot of devices on the market that are faster, more portable, cheaper, and so on. This is true. And relatively recently I myself was agonizing over whether I should jump off the Apple platform, but in the end I decided to stay for one simple reason: in the price range of up to 15 thousand hryvnia there was not a single laptop that could compete with the 13-inch MacBook Pro in terms of a combination of factors (performance, battery life, screen quality, case strength, keyboard and touchpad comfort). So if you need a convenient, productive, reliable and relatively compact workhorse, and at the same time you do not work with any very special software (like programs for controlling oil rigs), then the MacBook Pro will be an excellent choice. We recommend. 6 reasons to buy a 13-inch MacBook Pro:

• This is a Mac;
• unsurpassed aluminum body;
• excellent display;
• good performance;
• comfortable keyboard and excellent touchpad;
• Gigantic battery life.

3 reasons not to buy a 13-inch MacBook Pro:

• This is a Mac;
• weak graphics core Intel HD 3000;
• non-removable battery.

It introduced the iPad 4 along with the iPad mini, updated all-in-one iMac and compact desktop computer Mac mini, as well as a 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, which combines the advantages of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air: professional capabilities and compactness.

The laptop is 20% thinner and almost half a kilogram lighter than the current 13" MacBook Pro model - it is only 1.9 cm thick and weighs 1.62 kg. Thanks to its small screen size and redesigned internal component layout, this mobile computer has become the lightest in the MacBook Pro line.

The 13.3" IPS screen with LED backlight has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 with a pixel density of 227 ppi, which is 4 times higher than the current 13" version of the MacBook Pro and twice the resolution of Full HD 1080p. The company also took care of such important display characteristics as glare levels and contrast: the first value was reduced by 75%, and the second was raised by 29% compared to the current 13" model.

The technical characteristics of the computer are inferior to the previously released 15" model with a Retina screen in the processor and graphics subsystem. Only dual-core Intel Core i5 and i7 Ivy Bridge models are available to buyers, and there is no discrete graphics card at all - users will have to rely only on the built-in Intel HD graphics core Graphics 4000, which has good performance for its class, is unable to compete with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M installed in the 15" version of this laptop. However, the video core allows output in addition to the main screen to two external ones with a resolution of 2560 x 1600, which is important for professional users.

In terms of other specifications, the laptop does not differ from the older model. There is 8 GB of DDR3L memory @1600 MHz installed on board (there is no expandability to 16 GB), disk space is located on a fast solid-state drive with a capacity of 128 to 768 GB.

A FaceTime HD 720p webcam with a stereo microphone is installed, among the ports there are two Thunderbolt, two USB 3, HDMI, MagSafe 2 and a 3.5 mm jack with optical digital audio output for connecting regular headphones or an iPhone headset. Thunderbolt allows you to connect monitors via the Mini DisplayPort interface, as well as through adapters - via DVI, Dual-link DVI and VGA. Network capabilities are represented by Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 modules.

The sound system with improved speakers migrated from the 15" Retina model. The laptop is equipped with a full-size keyboard with 79 keys and backlighting with an ambient brightness sensor, as well as a multi-touch touchpad.

Thanks to the use of a smaller screen, a simpler processor and the absence of discrete graphics, Apple managed to keep the battery life of the 13" MacBook Pro at 7 hours when working on a wireless network - the same as the 15" Retina version can offer.

As for prices in the US, they are $1,700 for a model with an Intel Core i5 @ 2.5/3.1 GHz processor and 128 GB flash drive and $2,000 for a model with a 256 GB SSD. By paying extra, users can install a faster Intel Core i7 processor @ 2.9/3.6 GHz with support for Hyper Threading technology and an SSD with a capacity of up to 768 GB. The laptop comes with the latest OS X Mountain Lion operating system.

We evaluate it as a regular laptop

This material consists of several parts:

1. A general story about the modern laptop market and the place of the Macbook Pro 13 Retina (Late 2013) in it;
2. Review of this laptop according to the standard methodology, including performance testing;
3. In the future, we will conduct a series of performance tests on both OS X 10.9 Mavericks and Windows 8.1, and also compare subjective feelings about the functionality and usability of the two operating systems, including the most important thing - is the Retina screen as good as it is and how good is modern software works with ultra-high resolution screens.

So, in the first part of the article we decided on several things:

1. Modern Macbooks are built on the same principles and on the same platform as modern Windows laptops. They may differ (or be better) in details, but in essence they are the same. And Windows gets up and running on them. In addition, unofficially we can say that it was the Macbook that served as the prototype for the ultrabooks that Intel is now promoting on the market.
2. Macbooks come with their own OS X operating system. Today, this system is quite functional and easy to learn, and its interface is not so different from Windows - it is relatively easy to relearn.
3. Macbook comes with a lot of software with which the user can perform all the basic tasks. This includes the iLife home photo and video package, a multimedia combine and the iTunes online store. Starting in September, Macbook buyers can install free iWork apps, which include the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet software and Keynote presentation software. These programs do not have as many features as Microsoft Office, but are very easy to use and learn, which for some users will even be an advantage.
4. The new generation of Macbook Pro 13 Retina differs from the previous one only in the platform using new Intel processors (Haswell) instead of the previous generation (Ivy Bridge). The main components (body, screen, etc.) and appearance remain absolutely the same. Therefore, it’s not worth replacing the previous generation with a new one - most likely you simply won’t notice the difference.

Well, if so, then it simply begs to be compared with the latest generation Macbook Pro 13 Retina with regular Windows laptops. But in order to do this, you need to look at it from the same point of view as other laptops. And in this material we will try to evaluate it from the same positions as all other laptops that we test.

Case: appearance and reliability

Box and packaging

The box and packaging of Macbook has already become the talk of the market. What? Have you ever heard of her? In fact, the packaging of most expensive (I emphasize: expensive) modern ultrabooks and laptops is “copied” from the packaging of Apple products.

This is a small white cardboard box with dimensions slightly larger than a laptop, with a “portrait of the contents.” The lid is removed upwards, under it lies a laptop in a plastic form, and under it - instructions and additional accessories. By the way, here they are.

We tested the American version, but the store that provided the laptop for testing completed the set with a separate long cable for the Russian (European) standard. The wire is thick and heavy.

Apple power supplies have an interesting solution: a special seat for an attachment with a plug of any regional standard. This allows you to use the same power supply, changing only the nozzle. Well, on a trip you can not take a large universal adapter, but only the corresponding attachment (you can also buy it locally). By the way, the attachment from the iPad power supply will also work, they are the same. Moreover, in an emergency, a regular power cord from household appliances without grounding (two-core) will do; these come with almost any tape recorders, stereo systems, etc.

As you can see, the American version has a cool cover on the power supply with retractable socket pins. In the Russian version this is not the case; the pins will always stick out.

In general, the design and organization of space in a box has now become practically a standard on the market - for expensive fashion models. Previously, laptops, even expensive ones, were packaged completely differently. Also, many buyers may be familiar with this packaging from modern smartphones.

Dimensions and appearance of the case

Let's start with dry numbers:

When assessing the size of the case, you should first take into account that the Macbook Pro 13 Retina has a 16:10 form factor screen, while its competitors have a 16:9 screen. In theory, this should also affect the aspect ratio of the body. Windows laptops in our case are almost the same in width, but 2 cm longer. However, Yoga 13 has always been considered large for its class. For comparison, the recently tested Sony VAIO Pro 13 has dimensions of 322x216 mm, i.e., almost a centimeter shorter in length, and it is almost the same in thickness (its thickness is from 12.8 to 17.2 mm).

The difference in aspect ratio is more noticeable in the X1 Carbon: it is also 2 cm larger in length and 6 mm larger in width, but its matrix already has a diagonal of 14 inches. However, the Macbook Pro has relatively narrow screen bezels: less than a centimeter on the sides and a little more than a centimeter at the top and bottom. So it has practically no reserves for reducing the size of the case with such a screen.

The weight of the Macbook Pro 13 Retina seems relatively heavy for its class, but it still has a full metal body. Yes, the VAIO Pro 13 weighs significantly less (only 1.07 kg), but its body (as far as I understand, it is made of carbon, but there is also plastic) “plays” very strongly under any strong impact (although the manufacturer claims that nothing there's nothing wrong with that). In general, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina can only be accused of being overweight, and even then...

Appearance and style

Let's be honest: MacBooks are very beautiful to look at. They have their own style, and this is truly a top-level style: the laptop looks simple and laconic, but at the same time everyone understands that this is an expensive and beautiful thing. It feels like a team of good designers worked on it, and they worked on it for the long term. Overall, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina looks very good, if you like their styling at all.

Recently, Apple laptops are increasingly taking pride of place in the sales floors of large electronics retailers, so more and more buyers have the opportunity to evaluate their appearance in person. Moreover, all Apple laptops are very similar to each other, except that the Air has a narrower body towards the front edge, while the Pro has a flat body. So if you've seen one Macbook, you've seen them all. This, by the way, is their weakness in comparison with the cohort of laptops and ultrabooks on Windows: if you don’t like the appearance of MacBooks, then you don’t have any options. Well, maybe just buy a case, but that’s really strange.

In general, we don’t currently have a particular problem looking at Macbooks live (at least in cities where large retail chains are present) - unlike, by the way, expensive Windows laptops, which are often not presented live due to limited demand, and they have to be selected and purchased mainly to order.

All modern Apple laptops have silver aluminum cases with a matte finish. To my taste, it looks better than polished aluminum from other manufacturers. Somehow more solid. The cases are strictly rectangular, with rounded corners (this has both an aesthetic and practical meaning - less wear and tear) and panels that are gently beveled towards the edges (and here aesthetics go hand in hand with common sense: a laptop with beveled edges is easier to put into a bag or case).

In addition to the fact that the design of Apple devices always stands out very strongly on the market and is done, so to speak, without regard to “trends,” it is also stable: devices of different lines and several generations, as a rule, have a similar visual style, allowing you to instantly understand that this is an Apple laptop. Apple is also in the process of updating the internal hardware without changing the design, which allows you to extend the life cycle of the product: on the one hand, new users buy a Macbook on the latest version of the platform, on the other hand, the purchased Macbook will look like the “newest version” for two years instead of one.

This approach is very different from what is currently happening in the Windows laptop market. There is very tough competition there, and innovation and appearance remain almost the only motive when changing a laptop. Manufacturers are forced to change the design in each new generation, and the lifespan of models on the market is also gradually decreasing. In addition, it is not always possible to maintain your own style: market trends and fashion change too quickly, and in this situation it is more important to correspond to the market rather than to your own style (another difference from Apple).

As a result, manufacturers of laptops for Windows come up with very beautiful solutions, which are very often killed in the new generation by alien design elements or simply blur into jelly: in “restyling” they add new elements, slightly change the shape of the case, this destroys the single concept - and that’s all.

In a situation of crisis of ideas on the market, many manufacturers began to borrow certain stylistic solutions from Apple, but blind copying rarely leads to good results. For example, the Macbook has a very clear combination of black and silver elements. It is worth changing this ratio, for example, by making the keys not black, but also silver, and the design will immediately lose its attractiveness and style.

Speaking of the combination of elements, let's take a look at the Macbook Pro 13 Retina in working position.

I’m very used to laptops, and until recently I considered the laptops of the Lenovo Thinkpad T line to be the standard, but I like the Macbook Pro 13 Retina in appearance, both in closed and in working condition, in which it completely retains its attractiveness. A matte aluminum keyboard panel with a large clickpad (it’s a bit big for my taste, but I’m just used to touchpads of the usual sizes for laptops), a black keyboard, a semi-gloss screen with a black frame - it looks like glass, but it doesn’t glare. It looks expensive and high quality.

In general, there are different visual styles, but the Macbook is practically the standard in its own way. At the same time, it is also very attractive in appearance - this is the kind of thing that you immediately want to get for yourself, and not that you buy according to the principle “but the platform inside is good.” And this is one of its main advantages: it is pleasant to look at it every day.

Some Apple design decisions

There are a lot of things in design that Apple has introduced into mass use.

For example, a luminous logo on the lid. It's funny to note that attempts to introduce a luminous element into the lid (usually a letter logo) have existed before, but rarely and in a few expensive models - after which the luminous logo disappeared from the lid. Apparently, such elements were not perceived very positively: they say, “you need to be more modest.” Apple managed to change the perception of this element, making it a sign of style.

Apple has mass-produced the design of a hinged corner with L-shaped hinges, in which the opening lid does not just rise up, but seems to move back relative to the body. A laptop with this opening pattern looks more beautiful and elegant.

By the way, MacBooks emit hot air into the gap between the matrix and the body. Thanks to this, they don’t have an exhaust grille at all, and nothing gets clogged with dust and dirt... However, with high heat generation from the processor, this solution is less effective, and under high load, old MacBooks got very hot - to the point of overheating. On modern platforms, the problem of overheating has gone away, but the advantages of the solution remain.

Apple has introduced bottom-lit keyboard lighting, where only the outlines of letters are illuminated. Before it, there were practically no models with backlit keyboards on the market. Only Lenovo's Thinkpad T series corporate laptops had a diode above the matrix (roughly where the webcam is now) that shined down onto the keyboard. And this was considered one of the fantastic features that set the Thinkpad apart from other laptops. You can think of several other laptops with similar functionality, but these were all the exceptions, not the rules.

Or a rubber edging around the screen frame. For example, it prevents dust and dirt from getting inside the laptop (closed), and also creates a soft springy layer between the case and the lid. And in this case, the only analogue that can be remembered is the Thinkpad T, but there the solution was different: the lid had sides that covered the keyboard panel. Other laptops always had a gap between the case and the lid, and the lid rested on a pair of rubber feet in the corners.

In general, the Macbook Pro today is practically the standard in appearance and functionality of the case. Maybe not in the sense that it is definitely the best, but no matter what they do, they still look back at it one way or another (while missing out on a lot of other interesting solutions that often leave the market).

And convenience

Finally, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina is not only beautiful, but also functional. For example, you can easily lift the lid with one hand: there is a special depression in the body that allows you to easily pick up the lid with your finger, and the force of the hinges is calculated so that the lid can easily rise to the desired position, while the body will not rise behind it and slide along table.

Even now, in early 2014, such simple and convenient behavior is rare for Windows laptops! Most of them cannot be opened normally; I specifically test each one for ease of opening. For them, this opportunity is a rare advantage, characteristic of some expensive models. And here it’s just one of the self-evident aspects of functionality. The Macbook Pro is comfortable to carry in your hands, holding it by any edge - it doesn’t cut your palm (although it’s better to hold the Air by the back edge; sometimes the front one cut my palm).

I personally can’t say anything about the durability of the Macbook Pro: I managed not to drop it or hit it against the wall during testing. According to my feelings and reviews, it is very durable in terms of strength and can withstand heavy use. But it is probably subject to the same problem as other laptops with a metal body: even not very strong, but unsuccessful impacts can lead to the formation of dents. Plastic cases spring up to a certain point, and then crack (but a lot depends on the quality of the plastic). In general, the result is a strong laptop, but you shouldn’t throw it on the floor.

Set and location of ports

Apple goes its own way in many ways, and expansion ports are no exception. At one time it had FireWire, now the new toy is Thunderbolt. While other manufacturers were hesitating whether to support this technology or not, Apple decisively began to implement it, abandoning everything else. A bold step, although it doesn’t always work.

Even now, this interface cannot boast of widespread distribution or a special variety of compatible peripherals (it exists, but it is scarce and it is relatively expensive), but Thunderbolt can also work simply as a Mini-DisplayPort, i.e. it can be used as a digital video output .

The Macbook Pro 13 has two such ports, both located on the left side of the case. By the way, the new Macbook Pro 13 Retina on Haswell uses a new version, Thunderbolt 2, with increased bandwidth and support for transmitting a 4K video stream to an external monitor. On the left there is one USB 3.0 port, as well as a headphone jack (the left side is the most convenient place for it, since the wires and the plug itself do not get in the way during operation). Next to it are two small microphone holes. On the same side, closer to the back wall, there is a connector for the power supply. The connector is also new, it’s called MagSafe 2.

The main feature of Apple MagSafe is that the plug is held in the connector not by friction (that is, it goes deep into the connector), but by a magnet. If you accidentally pull the power cord or lift the laptop from the table without turning off the power, the plug will simply bounce off: you will not drop the laptop from the table in the first case and will not break the connector in the second (I personally saw how the contact was broken due to a jerk and I had to resolder the connector).

Now the shape of the plug has been changed: in Magsafe 1 the cable went back, but in the new version it goes perpendicular to the body. It has become more convenient to connect, but the wire now sticks out to the side. Many experienced Apple users complain that the magnet in the new connector has become weaker, and the connector falls off even with weak tugs. There is an adapter from the old standard to the new one on sale (but it costs a lot, around $30), which allows you to use the old peripherals with a new laptop.

In addition to the magnetic fastening, Magsafe has another very nice feature: the charging indicator is located in the plug. The small LED lights up orange when charging and green when the battery is full. You can instantly see whether the laptop is charged or not, even if it is not turned on and the lid is closed. It also seems like nothing special, but the vast majority of laptops throughout their history have had charging indicators located so that they are not visible when the lid is closed or if you stand in front of the laptop (they only shine from the side). Plus, they often had a strange operating algorithm, which even I got confused about.

On the right side there is another USB port, an HDMI port and an SD card reader. The only thing that confuses me a little is the placement of the HDMI port: if you insert a cable there (and they are thick and have large plugs), then using a Macbook with an external mouse becomes less convenient. But, on the other hand, MacBooks are rarely used with a mouse...

And in general, it seems to me that this connector is not made for permanent connection of an external monitor. Rather, we are talking about situations when, for example, you come to visit and want to connect your laptop to the TV (there is always an HDMI cable in a modern living room) or connect to a projector for a presentation. To permanently connect your monitor, it is better to use one of the Thunderbolt connectors on the left, because they fully comply with the Mini-DP 1.2 specification.

We did not disassemble the laptop, so the only thing we can pay attention to is the absence of ventilation slots on the bottom. Macbook Pro 13 Retina can be safely placed on dusty surfaces, sofas with animal hair, etc. - the ventilation system will not become clogged.

In principle, it is possible to disassemble the Macbook Pro 13 Retina, but there is little point in doing so, since there is nothing to change inside. All components are either soldered on the motherboard, or have non-standard connectors, or something else. Even the battery is glued. Therefore, the ability to disassemble and upgrade on the Internet is assessed as “completely absent.” To be honest, considering how small a number of users are generally interested in upgrading a laptop (although there are quite a few such users in our audience), this position seems quite justified.

If we return to the connectors, even without taking into account the two Thunderbolt ports, they are quite enough for home use cases. And for most workers too, especially given the general increase in popularity of wireless connections. However, at your workplace you can organize an external dock via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, through which you can connect any high-speed peripherals. In addition, the company offers a large selection of adapters (although not cheap) for almost all occasions.

By the way, other manufacturers are actively adopting this particular feature of Apple laptops, reducing the number of connectors on their flagship models (especially ultrabooks). At the same time, my experience shows that for laptops with Windows it is desirable to have at least three USB ports (the mouse will come in handy there much more often than for MacBooks), and a LAN port, as a rule, is still desirable.

In general, I think that the specified set of ports will be more than enough for the vast majority of Macbook Pro users.

Input Devices

The input devices are very traditional: keyboard and clickpad (touchpad without buttons). Apple, one of the pioneers in popularizing touchscreens among the general public, does not use them on laptops, while Intel has made touchscreens mandatory for Ultrabooks.

The keyboard is virtually indistinguishable from the keyboard of any modern Windows laptop. It is island-type, with isolated keys. The keys are black, strictly square, made of smooth, slightly slippery plastic. The working surface of the keys has a recess in the center - thanks to this, the finger rests more accurately on the key, this allows you to increase typing speed and reduce the number of typos. The fonts are very good and easy to read in any light. The Russian fonts on the tested laptop were engraved (i.e. unofficially), but there were no problems with them. Official supplies shouldn't have any problems with fonts either.

The keyboard has LED backlighting “under the keys” of a white, slightly bluish tint. The contours of the keys and the silhouettes of letters (both Russian and English) are highlighted. The diodes do not shine into the eyes in the gap between the keys and the backing; the Macbook Pro 13 Retina does not have this problem.

The backlight has multi-stage brightness adjustment, and the adjustment can be carried out both automatically (from the sensor) and manually (using the keys). In the settings you can set whether the backlight is on or off, and you can also set it to turn off a few minutes after the last press. In general, the backlight is very flexibly adjustable.

All modern keyboards have two types of key layouts: they are conventionally called European and American (there are also Asian ones, but they are not found here for obvious reasons). They differ in the Enter key (it is vertical and horizontal, respectively) and in the fact that in the European layout, another key with a backslash “” is inserted between the left Shift and Z (I still don’t understand why). For me (and for a significant part of people who can touch type - most likely for the majority), the “American” keyboard is much more convenient to use than the “European” one.

Unfortunately, for Russia, Apple, unlike most manufacturers, uses the “European” layout. Therefore, I would recommend that those who type a lot and actively and who may be annoyed by this layout, look for American models - they have a long Enter and no extra keys. Because hoping that Apple will meet some users halfway is pointless.

The layout of laptop keyboards today is almost completely established and is the same for all manufacturers. Discrepancies occur only in the location of the cursor keys and the so-called “over-cursor block” (i.e., the keys that are located above the cursor on a desktop keyboard). However, the Macbook keyboard has several more features.

1. Macbooks do not have a Delete key, but instead have a Power key. At first, sometimes you send the computer to sleep, although to trigger it you have to not just press it, but hold it down a little. Quite quickly you get used to using only Backspace. But for me, when editing texts, having Delete would be much more convenient.
2. The keyboard has an “extra” Command key (Control and Option are the traditional Ctrl and Alt). The problem is that the combinations familiar to Windows users (such as Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, etc.) are performed with the Command button, and not with the Control button. Fortunately, these three buttons can be changed among themselves in the keyboard settings. For those who use Windows at the same time, I advise you to swap Command and Control - life will immediately become much easier. By the way, when connecting an external keyboard, its Win button can be reassigned, i.e. the functionality of these three buttons will not be affected.
3. They dealt with the keys of the over-cursor block simply - they are not there at all. The combinations Fn+cursor keys work as Home/End/PgUp/PgDn, and Fn+Backspace as Delete, but it is often inconvenient to use the combinations.
4. The cursor is inscribed in the bottom row of keys; for this purpose, the bottom row keys were made a little larger vertically, and the “up” and “down” keys were made half the size. But they have grooves in them (on the bottom edge of the “up” key and on the top edge of the “down” key), so you can’t press two keys together. They are convenient to use.

When printing, you pay attention to two more features. Firstly, in the lower left corner is not the Ctrl button, but the Fn button. In a Macbook, using Fn you can implement the functionality of the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn buttons (they are on the cursor) and F1-F12, although I don’t even know if these keys are needed somewhere in modern versions of OS X.

The Fn key placement in the corner is an outdated option. Previously, it was used in almost all laptops, but it created big problems for users switching from desktop keyboards (where there is Ctrl in the corner). In addition, if Ctrl is not in the corner, it is inconvenient to perform Ctrl+ combinations (you cannot press this key with your thumb, you have to move your entire hand - which is bad for touch typing). Gradually, common sense prevailed, and all manufacturers began to put Ctrl in the corner and push Fn deeper. But Apple, as we see, decided to stick to tradition and not force its users to relearn.

Apart from Macbooks, the Fn button in the corner is now only available on Thinkpad, Lenovo's top professional series. And also mainly as a tribute to the memory and respect of old professional users who were accustomed to this layout. All other series have long had keyboards with Ctrl in the corner. However, apparently, Lenovo Thinkpad will soon switch to the generally accepted standard.

The top row of keys is used to control the laptop. Controlling screen brightness, keyboard backlight, media player, volume... Windows users are familiar with everything except the actions on the F3 and F4 keys. F3 calls up Apple's proprietary feature - thumbnails of open applications, looking like a table with cards scattered on it. Beautiful, visual, but inconvenient if several windows are open in one application (for example, in Word) - then they are layered, and it is impossible to understand where everything is. The classic (for Windows) Alt+Tab menu also exists (and works exactly like in Windows), only it is Command+Tab. Well, you get the idea... F4 brings up the "quick launch" panel for Launchpad applications. Launchpad can also be called up from the dock, and application thumbnails can be called up with a special simple gesture on the touchpad panel.

Another feature that is worth remembering is that by default, for some reason, Apple computers are installed with an old version of the software Russian “typewriter” layout, in which periods and commas are called by the combinations Shift+5 and Shift+6, respectively. And where we are used to seeing a dot is the “e with two dots” key (my keyboard doesn’t have it, so I can’t display it correctly). This is very inconvenient for modern users accustomed to Windows (and in general inconvenient, because punctuation marks with Shift take more time). Therefore, you need to select “Russian - PC” as the layout, then everything will be the same as in Windows.

The typing feel of the Apple keyboard is one of the best on the market. The average pressing depth, high clarity and pleasant key travel allow you to type a lot at a high pace, with a low rate of typos and without finger fatigue. On the downside, I would note that the keys still hit the backing a little, especially if you hit the keys hard. The keyboard chirps quietly when typing, but the sound is quiet, and you are unlikely to disturb others.

Overall, the keyboard is very good, one of the best.

Clickpad

It is Apple that is responsible for the spread of clickpads (i.e., large touchpads without buttons on which you need to press on the surface) on Windows laptops, and the spread was thoughtless and brought a lot of inconvenience. However, this is not Apple’s fault: this is an initiative of manufacturers and Microsoft: they tried to make their own version of multi-touch gestures. As a result, the buttons were removed from the touchpads, and convenient multi-touch was not created.

So, the Macbook Pro has a large glass clickpad. To left click, you need to click on the lower part on the left or lightly tap the surface with your finger. To right-click, you need to tap the surface with two fingers, not one, but in the settings you can supplement this with the traditional Windows solution (clicking in the lower right corner). After getting used to it, the first option became more convenient for me.

The touchpad has very good clarity and acceleration, there are practically no complaints about them. The cursor moves smoothly and quickly across the screen.

The main advantage of the Apple clickpad is a number of proprietary gestures that make working with a laptop much easier. Some of them are available on Windows, but they are not always convenient to use there. I recommend taking the time to learn these gestures (especially the four-finger gestures), they greatly improve your experience.

It is worth noting that the convenience of using touchpad gestures is largely tied to the organization of the OS X operating system. For example, there you can move between desktops with a special gesture. But OS X treats each full-screen application as a separate desktop, so the same functionality cannot be implemented in Windows: there is only one desktop, and switching between applications is Alt+Tab.

Among the minuses, it is worth noting, for example, that drag-n-drop or selection cannot be done with two taps; you have to press the hardware button under the surface. I don’t understand why this is so. Is the feature simply not implemented in the driver?

Unfortunately (and to my surprise), the Apple touchpad also suffers from a common flaw of all modern touchpads: it sometimes gets caught when typing with your left palm, which results in text on the screen being highlighted and erased. This does not happen very often and depends very much on the position of the laptop (if it is located low, then you cannot cling to the touchpad), but nevertheless, there is a problem. You can solve this by disabling the left click on a touch, but then every time you have to press the touchpad hardware key to click - this is also inconvenient.

Overall, the touchpad is excellent, and the operating system's gesture control capabilities make it very convenient for everyday use - much more convenient than in Windows. The presence of a problem with a false touch on the touchpad is very frustrating, let's hope that the manufacturer will solve it.

Reflections on the touchscreen

The more I got acquainted with OS X, the more I was surprised: why, in fact, is there no touchscreen? The fact is that this system uses very large on-screen buttons, drop-down menus with large inscriptions, etc., i.e., adapting it to control finger presses is many times easier than Windows with its small hierarchical menus, where it was necessary write a new interface from scratch. Even the situation with the top context menu, I am sure, is very easy to solve here. The control panel with large icons and a small number of settings also lends itself well to optimization for finger control. At the same time, the touchscreen as a control tool is much more convenient and more intuitive for users.

It’s just a shame that with such great starting opportunities, Apple missed the opportunity to become a leader in this area.

Screen

The screen is one of the main advantages of the Macbook Pro Retina, which takes these laptops to a level unattainable by competitors. And I’m not kidding at all here.

First, let's look at the main technical parameters of the matrix:

The Macbook Pro 13 Retina screen has several important features, which we will discuss below. Firstly, the aspect ratio is 16:10, which Windows laptops moved away from several years ago in favor of 16:9. Compared to modern laptops, MacBook screens look obscenely square. Secondly, a very high screen resolution and high pixel density, despite the fact that the amount of information on the screen has not increased. Thirdly, a high-quality matrix with an extremely effective anti-glare filter.

However, let's go in order, and first let's evaluate the overall quality of the screen, and then we'll talk about resolution and working with the screen. So, the floor to Alexey Kudryavtsev:

General characteristics of the Macbook Pro 13 Retina monitor

The front surface of the screen is apparently covered with a scratch-resistant glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface. There is an anti-glare filter, and it is so effective that even direct reflection of bright light sources practically does not interfere with work. This filter is one of the most significant factors determining the reason that the screens of modern Apple laptops in real-world use scenarios are significantly superior in image quality to the screens of laptops from other manufacturers. The ghosting of reflected objects is not noticeable, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. The outer surface of the screen has a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (less effective than that of the Google Nexus 7 (2013)), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a slower rate than with regular glass. Note that all hardware tests were conducted on the native operating system and with color management disabled.

When manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was about 405 cd/m², at the first step from the minimum brightness control value - 6.5 cd/m², at the minimum - the backlight turns off completely. As a result, at maximum brightness in bright daylight (taking into account what was said above about the anti-glare filter), you can work on the laptop, and in complete darkness, the screen brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located near the front camera eye). If you initially set the brightness adjustment slider to zero, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 6.5 cd/m² (this is very dark), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 400 lux) the brightness is set to 14-55 cd/m² (depends on the angle at which the light hits the sensor, but in any case it is quite low), in a very bright environment (corresponding to the lighting of a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) - rises to a maximum of 405 cd/ m² (as you would expect). If you first set the brightness to maximum and enable automatic adjustment, then under the conditions described above the values ​​are as follows: 6.5, 100-405, 405 cd/m², respectively. In principle, automatic brightness adjustment more or less adequately responds to external conditions, but since the laptop screen can be located at very different angles relative to the incident light, in order to more correctly adjust the brightness, the light sensor should have been made less directional. At lower brightness, there is virtually no backlight modulation (its amplitude is low, and the maximum frequency is at 39 kHz), so no flickering is visible.

The MacBook Pro uses an IPS matrix, so the screen has very good viewing angles without inverting shades and without significant color shifts, even when viewing large deviations from perpendicular to the screen. True, as is typical for any IPS matrix, the black field, when deviated diagonally, becomes lighter and, depending on the direction of the deviation, acquires a red-violet tint or remains close to a neutral gray color. However, the increase in the brightness of the black field when the gaze is deviated diagonally is very weakly expressed. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is excellent. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 22 ms (12 ms on + 9 ms off). The transition between 25% and 75% gray halftones (based on the numerical value of the color) takes a total of 33 ms. The contrast is high - about 970:1. The gamma curve constructed using 32 points did not reveal any blockage in either highlights or shadows, and the approximating power function index is 2.35, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, that is, images on this screen will look a little darker. In this case, the real gamma curve coincides with the power-law dependence:

Color gamut is sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components with each other:

As a result, the images on this laptop's screen have a natural saturation (remember that most digital images - illustrations, photographs, videos and movies - are optimized for display on screens with a gamut of sRGB or very close to it). Note that such a spectrum with a relatively narrow blue peak and wide humps of green and red colors is typical for monitors that use LED backlighting with a blue emitter and a yellow phosphor. The color temperature balance is excellent - shades of gray have a color temperature close to 6500 K, which varies little over the entire relevant part of the gray scale. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is about 5 units, which can be considered a very good indicator for a consumer device. Similarly, ΔE varies very little, which is of fundamental importance for the subjective perception of color balance. (Dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

The screen has a high maximum brightness and a very effective anti-glare filter, so you can use the laptop without much difficulty even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. It is also possible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works more or less adequately taking into account the excessive directionality of the light sensor and with the exception of conditions with complete darkness, in which the brightness is set to an uncomfortably low level. The advantages of the screen include the presence of oleophobic properties on the outer surface of the screen (even though it is non-touch, users love to poke their fingers at the screen), the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, high black stability to deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane, sRGB coverage and excellent color balance. Overall, this is a very high-quality screen with no significant flaws.

Retina display of the new Macbook Pro 13 - user experience

Now let's talk about subjective impressions of using this screen and its features.

First, our objective measurements confirm that the Macbook Pro 13 Retina display is the best on the market. But this is clearly visible in a subjective comparison, if you put a Macbook Pro 13 Retina and a Windows laptop next to each other (in our case it was Yoga 2 Pro, also kind of one of the leaders, with an innovative screen). Natural colors, excellent angles, even illumination, good blacks.

Separately, I note that the Macbook Pro 13 Retina does not have the “light leak” defect. Its essence is that the light from the matrix backlight diodes breaks through the frame, and the black screen looks like a theater curtain illuminated from below by spotlights. The problem of light leakage occurs in a huge number of laptops, even with good IPS matrices.

I also want to emphasize that the “screen problems with new Macbooks” that many have heard about only apply to versions with a 15-inch screen. But since we ourselves have not encountered them and cannot assess their scale, we will not talk about it here. In any case, the 13-inch model does not have them.

Secondly, although the Macbook Pro 13 Retina screen is glossy, it has a very effective anti-glare filter. Therefore, in comparison with modern laptops on Windows (especially with touchscreens), its matrix glare is much less.

On the one hand, the matrix mirrors a little: on a switched off or black screen during the day you can see your reflection. The same applies to direct reflections of light sources. However, in the case of the Macbook Pro 13 Retina, the reflection is very dark, as if looking through, for example, sunglasses. There is no glare on the screen, and you should only be afraid of direct reflections, and even then, only in specific conditions. Given the good brightness of the backlight, in the vast majority of situations neither reflections nor glare will bother you.

In everyday work, the unusual screen aspect ratio of 16:10 does not manifest itself in any way. In theory, this aspect ratio gives you extra vertical space. For example, a Macbook Pro 13 Retina has a screen resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels, while Windows laptops have the same screen resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. How useful the extra 160 pixels will be is for the users to decide. Moreover, by and large, only the physical size of the screen is important, and the scale of interface elements can be chosen from several options. One drawback is that there are small black bars at the top and bottom when watching movies with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

Finally, ultra-high resolution, Retina. Why is it needed? The eye is no longer able to distinguish the individual pixels that form the image, so it appears to us smooth and smooth. They say that the experience of fonts on Retina screens is similar to the experience on paper, and I tend to agree with this comparison. The most noticeable changes are in the rendering of fonts: small ones have become much more legible, they are easier to read... however, large fonts look much better. And after working for some time on the Retina screen, returning to regular screens is quite uncomfortable: the shortcomings in the display of fonts are simply striking.

The Retina display resolution on the 13-inch Macbook Pro 13 Retina display is 2560x1600, which is exactly double the resolution of 1280x800. The screen area remains the same, so if you want to understand how much information will fit on the screen, then it is best to take the 1280x800 resolution on a regular screen as a starting point. Scaling in OS X exists and works; you can easily reduce the size of the interface and fonts - and more will fit on the screen. But at the same time, everything would be small, and for me, for example, it became uncomfortable to work.

If we don’t get distracted by the theory (we already got distracted by it in the five-part material about scaling), then the most important thing to remember is that applications also need to be optimized for Retina screens. Retina-ready apps produce very beautiful, crisp images with smooth, curved lines, great fonts, and a clear interface (especially icons).

Applications that do not have such support look bad, and the fonts look especially bad. To understand exactly how, take a picture with text and enlarge it by 200% - you can roughly understand what it will look like.

Enough time has passed since the advent of Retina screens for “everyone who wanted to have introduced optimization.” I don't need many apps for my needs, and almost all of them have had Retina-ready updates over the past year. The only exception was the FileZilla FTP client, which has no support (and doesn't look good), which is strange, since the latest version was released in the summer of 2013.

Thus, if you use applications that have a large audience and are updated frequently, then there will be no problems with optimization. If you need something specific, then there is a good chance that there will be no optimization for the Retina screen, and you simply will not want to spend a lot of time in this application.

In principle, the situation is very similar to what is happening in the Windows ecosystem. There, too, applications must meet certain rules in order to display well on high-pixel-density screens. True, for applications without such optimization, Microsoft offers two scaling options (one preserves the markup, but blurs the fonts, the second tries to preserve the fonts, but the markup moves apart), but in general it seemed to me that in Windows the scaling algorithms themselves sometimes work worse (for example, font scaling).

Finally, internet sites. The vast majority of them are not optimized for high pixel density screens. But we don’t notice this: the site is displayed by the browser, which itself draws both fonts and markup, i.e. it can adjust them to the desired scale. Safari has no problems with the display scale of markup and fonts. On Windows the situation is a little worse, where browsers often get confused, and the site may open as a narrow column on a quarter of the screen, or some of the fonts will be too small. Then you have to resort to manual scaling.

The real problem, noticeable on both platforms, is the display of graphical elements (including Flash). They have a rigidly specified size in pixels, so when the pixel density increases, they either become half as small, or the browser stretches them twice to maintain the original size, but at the same time scaling artifacts appear - the pictures become “blurry”, and the letters and numbers on them become fuzzy. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to this, but my colleagues (who, among other things, develop these same banners) constantly noted the blurriness of the pictures and admitted that it annoyed them.

Thus, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina screen can be considered one of the best laptop screens on the market today. It delivers superb images with excellent brightness and correct colours, has a powerful anti-glare filter, and has a high pixel density that makes fonts and graphics look paper-like and very easy on the eyes. And most importantly, its advantages are very clearly visible in real use.

Sound

Evaluating sound in mobile systems is difficult primarily because its quality is always a compromise. Any external acoustics will sound better than the built-in acoustics of a laptop (with very rare exceptions). However, moving a laptop is much easier than moving a laptop and speakers - so very often we put up with worse quality. Well, don’t forget that large multimedia models have more opportunities to accommodate high-quality acoustics than thin small laptops with a 13-inch screen. Another thing is that manufacturers do not take advantage of these opportunities everywhere.

All things considered, the sound on the Macbook Pro 13 Retina is good for its class. The acoustics sound loud, yet intelligible - speech is easily distinguished. Quite often, laptop speakers drone (or are poorly placed), and speech (especially English in films without dubbing, where they do not speak directly into the microphone) becomes unintelligible. Everything is good here - clear and discrete. You can definitely watch movies without any problems. For music, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina should only be used as a compromise travel option, but the fact that this is possible is already a plus.

Comparisons with competitors are only approximate, but in my opinion, most 13-14 inch laptops sound worse than the Macbook Pro 13 Retina.

conclusions

Thus, even if we take only the construction, design and ergonomics of the case, the Macbook Pro 13 Retina is one of the best laptops on the market today. Both in general and in many areas separately. The case is both beautiful and high quality. The keyboard is one of the best on the market. The screen is definitely the best without question. The remaining parameters are also at a high level. We'll talk about the platform next time, but it is either at the level of the best examples or higher.

As a result, it turns out that even if you buy a Macbook Pro 13 Retina with the expectation that most of your work will be done in Windows, even then it looks like one of the favorites for those buyers who value ease of use.

The main disadvantage: practically no possibilities for customization, upgrade, single and only style. If the Macbook Pro 13 Retina does not suit you for some reason, then you have no choice. Either you adapt to the capabilities that the Macbook Pro 13 Retina gives you, or you need to go look for another solution. But for my taste, for most users the features offered to it are more than adequate.