MacBook Pro family
Get the best of both world’s with this portable desktop replacement, which offers all-day battery life
Who needs a desktop and a notebook when you have the MacBook Pro? It’s the power user’s notebook, with desktop power packed inside a chassis that – while not as slim and svelte as the MacBook – is still something you can take on the road without weighing yourself down too much.
The MacBook Pro comes available in two sizes: 13-inch and 15-inch, both sporting Retina displays. The April 2015 refresh saw it gain the Force Touch trackpad, improved battery life, Thunderbolt 2 ports and even quicker flash storage, powered by the latest generation Intel Core processors. Yet despite this raw power, battery life is still impressive – over six hours between charges, even with the larger, 15-inch model.
While the vanilla MacBook restricts you to a single USB-C port, the MacBook Pro offers more flexible connectivity. There are two Thunderbolt 2 ports for hooking up to external displays, extra storage or even a Gigabit Ethernet port (all you need is the right adapter). The MacBook Pro also has two USB 3.0 ports, one on either side, and a handy SDXC slot that – paired with the right adapter – offers a convenient and discreet way to add extra storage, if you need it.
The 13-inch model serves as a neat half-way house between the ultra-portable MacBook and the raw power of a desktop machine – its dual-core processor is quick enough to handle quite demanding tasks, although if you need desktop levels of performance while on the move, then the more expensive 15-inch models are the way to go.
High performance
These are powered by quad-core Intel Core i7 processors and a healthy 16GB of RAM, making it easy to run multiple applications at
once without performance penalty. The top-of-the-line model even ships with a powerful AMD Radeon R9 card, allowing it to hold its own when video editing or gaming.
This versatility makes it perfectly possible to make the 15-inch MacBook Pro your one-stop shop for computing, enabling you to phase out your desk-bound Mac completely. Take advantage of its portability on the road, and then simply hook it up to a keyboard, mouse and external display (or even two) when at home or in the office. No wonder the MacBook Pro is a firm favourite with everyone from home to professional users.