The MacBook Pro took just 12 seconds to boot into OS X Mavericks, which is almost half the average (

The choice between a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air just got tougher. Apple has added an Intel 4th-generation processor with Iris Graphics to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display ($1,499 as configured), adding significant punch while increasing the battery life. Just as important, the starting price has dropped by $200, to $1,299. Shoppers free video converter also get faster flash memory and dual Thunderbolt 2 ports in a slightly lighter and thinner design. Before you get a Windows-powered Ultrabook, you owe it to yourself to check out this laptop.
At 12.35 x 8.62 x 0.71 inches and 3.46 pounds, the MacBook Pro is marginally lighter and thinner than last year's version (3.57 pounds, 0.75 inches), but on the heavy side when compared to some Ultrabooks.
The free video converter Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (3.2 pounds, 12.6 x 8.8 x 0.54 inches), Acer Aspire S7 (3 pounds, 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.51 inches) and the Sony VAIO Pro 13 (2.4 pounds) are all lighter and thinner. Still, it was easy to carry the Pro around with us in our messenger bag as we went to and from work. Granted, all of these systems are more direct competitors to the MacBook Air, but they all also offer sharper screens than the Air. Keyboard and Touchpad
As usual, the keyboard on the 13-inch MacBook Pro is top-notch. Featuring the same layout as its predecessor, free video converter its black keys provide plenty of travel and snappy response. Each key is individually backlit, making it easy to type in dim lighting. We also noticed zero flex as we typed this review. The top row houses several handy direct actions keys, including brightness controls, shortcuts for Mission Control and Launchpad, and media controls.
The 4.1 x 3-inch free video converter glass touchpad on the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is as smooth and reliable as ever. We especially like the ability to show the desktop (spread free video converter with three fingers) and launch free video converter Mission Control (four fingers up). Swiping in with two fingers from the right shows your alerts in the Notification free video converter Center. Unlike on many Windows machines, pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolling are effortless. Display
Like free video converter last year's 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, the 2560 x 1600-pixel display on this year's version is absolutely stunning. Whether we were watching trailers, such as "Thor: The Dark World'; free video converter viewing websites; or looking at high-res pictures, images just popped off the screen.
More important, there are about 250 apps that can take advantage of the Pro's Retina Display. For example, when we browsed free video converter Web pages in Safari, text and pictures looked incredibly crisp. While the ATIV Book 9 Plus has an even higher resolution of 3200 x 1800, there are no Windows 8 apps optimized for such high resolutions.
The stereo speakers beneath the MacBook free video converter Pro's keyboard pumped out loud, powerful and accurate sound. At max volume, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' free video converter "White Walls" more than filled our office. While the bass was a little underwhelming, the audio was well balanced, free video converter and higher tones -- such as the hi-hat -- were clearly defined, with little distortion. Heat
After we streamed free video converter a Hulu video on full screen for 15 minutes, free video converter the touchpad on the MacBook free video converter Pro measured 79 degrees Fahrenheit, free video converter the space between the G and H keys was 90 degrees free video converter and the middle free video converter of the underside was 89 degrees. All are below what we consider uncomfortable (95 degrees); however, the back-right corner of the bottom hit 97 degrees. Ports
The new MacBook Pro features two Thunderbolt free video converter 2 ports, which promise up to 20 Gbps transfer speeds -- four times faster than USB 3.0. While you wait for Thunderbolt accessories free video converter to hit the market, you can use the MacBook Pro's two USB 3.0 ports. free video converter Also included is HDMI, a headphone jack and an SD Card reader; we really wish the cards would insert fully, instead of protruding free video converter from the side. Performance
The 13-inch MacBook Pro's score of 8,249 on Geekbench was more than 2,000 points higher than the category average (5,910) as well as the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (5,077), which has a 1.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The Acer Aspire S7-392, which has the same CPU as the Samsung but 8GB of RAM, scored 5,184. The VAIO Pro 13, which has a 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4500U and 8GB of RAM, notched 5,507 on this test.
The MacBook Pro took just 12 seconds to boot into OS X Mavericks, which is almost half the average (20 seconds), but slower than the Samsung (11 seconds), Acer (9 seconds) and Sony (7 seconds). Still, the new PCIe flash memory in the Mac was blazing fast, duplicating 4.97GB of multimedia files in just 17 seconds, for a rate of 299.4 MBps. That's more than twice as fast as the ATIV Book 9 Plus (127 MBps), Aspire S7 (113 MBps) and the category average (109 MBps). Only the Sony VAIO Pro (392 MBps) proved free video converter faster.
The MacBook Pro took 5 minutes and 2 seconds to pair 20,000 names and addresses in the OpenOffice Spreadsheet test. That's a few seconds free video converter faster than the Acer (5:12), Samsung (5:13) and Sony (5:10). All are about a minute faster th