Therefore, we will also use the Asus N550JK and evaluate the performance of the new Nvidia GeForce GT 850M.
Macbook pro late 2013 review update#
We are talking about notebooks with graphics cards based on Nvidia's Kepler architecture, which was already replaced by the Maxwell architecture in March 2014, so there is probably going to be an update from Apple and other manufacturers soon. 300 Euros (~$408) cheaper than the Samsung is Acer's Aspire R7-571G that offers a high-quality IPS panel and multi-touch support. Significantly less expensive is the Samsung ATIV Book 8 that uses a standard Full HD display, the similar GPU and an Intel Core i7-4700HQ for 1,300 Euros (~$1769).
However, it has a higher-resolution touch display with 3200x1800 pixels. For starters, there is the Dell XPS 15 (Late 2013) for around 2,060 Euros (~$2803), which is also equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GT 750M and a slightly less powerful Intel Core i7-4702 CPU. We will use notebooks from several price ranges for a comparison with the MacBook Pro Retina. Thanks to the combination of performance, a sturdy aluminum case and the comparatively low weight, it qualifies for multimedia purposes. Our review unit differs from the entry-level configuration with a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 750M graphics card, twice the amount of flash storage (512 GB) and memory (16 GB) as well as a more powerful Intel Core i7-4850HQ CPU clocked at 2.3 GHz. The cheapest MacBook from this series is currently available for around 2,000 Euros (~$2722), which is 300 Euros (~$408) less compared to the first Retina version from 2012.
Macbook pro late 2013 review mac os#
However, fans of Mac OS and the Retina resolution can be happy about a positive price development. The price for such a notebook is still very high. The first models with this IPS display had issues with ghosting, but that was fixed very quickly. Thanks to its pixel density of 220 DPI, the human eye could not see individual pixels.
With the introduction of the Retina-series in 2012, which was equipped with an IPS panel and 2880x1800 pixels, Apple was the first company to integrate ultra high-resolution displays in this notebook category.
For the original German review, see here.