Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display review (early 2015)

Performance and battery life

The second significant change is the switch to fifth-generation Intel “Broadwell” processors. We tested the base model, which has a dual-core Core i5-5257U running at 2.7GHz. Performance is as snappy as you’d expect, helped by the cohesive feel of the Mac OS X operating system that helps you work through tasks at a blazing pace. Things slow a little when it comes to more advanced multimedia tasks, but it’s still very capable. In our new benchmarks, it scored a hugely impressive 87 in the image editing test, with scores of 60 and 43 in the video editing and multitasking challenges giving it an overall score of 56.

It’s a small performance bump over last year’s model, but Broadwell was designed with lower power consumption in mind rather than raw speed. Indeed, this year’s MacBook Pro took 12h 7m to deplete – an almost three hour improvement over the previous generation model.

The on-board Intel Iris 6100 graphics are also surprisingly capable; we ran our standard Dirt Showdown benchmark (via a Windows 8 install using Boot Camp) and were impressed with the 33.5fps the laptop was able to produce.

When pushed hard, the laptop’s fans begin to whir and the upper section of the keyboard tray get very hot, becoming almost painful to touch. For everything but the toughest of tasks, though, the MacBook Pro remains cool and quiet.

Storage

The 2015 MacBook Pro also gains faster PCI-E-based flash storage. We saw write speeds of 1200MB/s and read speeds of 1251MB/s in the Blackmagic SSD benchmark massive increase from last year’s sub-700MB/s results. This contributes to the MacBook Pro’s zippy performance, too. Capacity is tight at 256GB on our model, so if you opt not to upgrade to a 512GB or 1TB SSD at purchase you’ll need Thunderbolt-based external hard disks to store large video files or photo libraries.

Conclusion

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display isn’t a major leap forward in technology, but it didn’t need to be. A better processor, battery life, faster storage and a Force Touch touchpad make it a worthwhile upgrade for those using almost any non-Retina MacBook Pro. The price premium over similarly specified Windows laptops is vast, but if you can afford it, the superior build quality, great OS and incredible battery life are worth it. If you’re not completely convinced that Apple is the way to go then check out some alternatives in our regularly-updated Best Laptops and buying guide.

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