Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (2013)

performance, price, design, usability, screen

90% of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk give this product a positive rating.

86% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Stunning design and build quality ; Outstanding retina screen ; Cool and quiet ; Class-leading battery life

Graphics performance is nothing special ; You'll need to start saving

Regrettably Apple has long since abandoned selling matte versions of its laptops, but there's some comfort in the fact reflections from the screen are much better than average. The combination of coatings, filters and the tight 'air gap' between the...

Retina display ; Doyble RAM ; Processor speed bump

Not huge update ; Battery life ; MacBook Air instead?

Fast Haswell processors ; Fantastic Retina screen ; Thunderbolt 2 ports ; Good range of bundled apps

No integrated optical drive ; No matte screen option ; No discrete graphics in this model ; Expensive ; Almost impossible to user upgrade

Intel's latest chip and Thunderbolt 2 make Apple's Retina display laptop the one to beat.

Apple’s ‘best’ configuration MacBook Pro with Retina display of late 2013 sees the reintroduction of a discrete graphics processor, now removed from the entry-level model. This will be useful for some OpenCL-based professional applications as well as...

The second generation of Apple's Retina-screen MacBook Pro adds internal upgrades to its Wi-Fi, Thunderbolt, SSD, graphics card and CPU. The result is a faster laptop with better battery life and a lower starting price.

The changes are internal-only, and not significant enough to upgrade if you have last year's version. At $1,999 to start, this is still a very expensive laptop. Both the 13-inch MacBook Air and Pro have much better battery life.

The slimmer body and higher-res screen of the original Retina MacBook Pro were a revolutionary leap. This revamp adds modest internal upgrades for modest improvements, but price cuts to both the 13-inch and 15-inch models sweeten the deal.

Haswell chips and Mavericks increase battery life; faster 11ac Wi-Fi, same great Retina display

Memory still soldered, upgrades overpriced, still no >HD output from HDMI

We can see why Apple decided the time was right to offer a 15-inch MacBook Pro without nVidia or AMD graphics. Intel’s Iris Pro has finally brought the kind of improvement that unlocks decent gameplay and rendering power. Power users will still be...

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is very expensive and, of course, significantly larger and heavier than its 13-inch counterpart, so business travellers who value portability above all else will prefer the slimline MacBook Air or a Windows Ultrabook. The...

Outstanding display; All-day battery life; Excellent touchpad; Plenty of software bundled; Beautiful design

Bulky; Expensive; Poor user serviceability; Sharp corners

This is one of the best large-screen laptops on the market. Battery life, responsiveness, display quality and versatility are unmatched. However, the high-price and limited serviceability prevent this from getting a wholehearted recommendation.

For us, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro is the best portable that Apple makes. It has all the power that 99% of people will ever need, is extremely well put together and has one of the best operating systems out there.

Stunning display; faster

Memory not upgradeable

The new Retina MacBook Pros represent a subtle refresh to the line of beautiful, ultra-high-resolution portables introduced last year. The price reductions for the 13-inch models make them a better bargain than before, while the 16GB of RAM in the...