Retina MacBook Pros get hefty upgrade and price drop
Apple today announced the availability of the Late 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina with its usual mix of strained enthusiasm and geeky awkwardness.
The latest version of the flagship laptop comes in both 13-inch and 15-inch versions as before, and upgraded Thunderbolt ports (to Thunderbolt 2), increased battery life (up to 9 hours), a PCIe-based flash drive, new Intel integrated graphics (Iris on the 13-inch, Iris Pro on the 5-inch), and upgraded NVidia graphics on the 15-inch version (GeForce GT 750M with 2 GB RAM). The price has been dropped for both by $200, starting at $1299 for the 13-inch, $1999 for the 15-inch. Both are available now.
Update: Looking at the Apple Store prices for the MacBooks, the “price drop” seems a bit disingenuous. The lowest-price versions of the 13- and 15-inch laptops are cheaper than the lowest price versions of the previous generation, but the lowest-price versions of the new generation seem to be significantly worse specced than the lowest-price laptops from the previous generation. Or to put it another way, you get less for your money.