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Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch Review

More powerful than the entry-level MacBook and more portable than Apple's 15- and 17-inch laptops, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is ideal for students and travellers. Its mid-2010 update isn't as radical as that enjoyed by the bigger MacBook Pros, like the 15inch version we reviewed here, but its faster processors and better graphics chip are still very welcome.

The two new 13-inch MacBook Pros feature 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, up from 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz respectively, with 4GB RAM. While this speed increase can only be a good thing, we have to wonder why Apple is sticking with the Core 2 Duo instead of going for a Core i3 or even a low-end Core i5, taking the entire MacBook Pro range over to the new CPUs. Using a Core 2 Duo as the rest of the MacBook Pro range moves to the Core-i chips makes the 13-inch model look a little dated.

On the outside, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is almost exactly the same as the previous version. Design-wise, we think Apple was smart to approach the new line with the attitude that if it's not broken, don't fix it. The previous line of MacBook Pros was as stunning as it was stark, and the new line carries that torch onward. The silver case, dominated by an aluminum shell with just one seam around the underside, feels plenty solid. Nothing much mars the design of the MacBook's body: On the top of the lid is a simple white Apple logo that lights up when the laptop is in use. And, well, that's about it. The case snaps shut with a magnetic latch, making opening the lid easy without compromising the durability of the body.

Like the previous version, the ports are located on the left side of the chassis and include an Ethernet jack, a FireWire 800 port (backward-compatible with FireWire 400, 200, and 100), a mini-DisplayPort connector (for attaching an external display), two USB 2.0 ports, Dell latitude d505 battery, an SD-card slot, and a headphone jack. Toward the front left of the chassis are indicator lights that allow for a quick look at remaining battery power. On the right side of the body are a security-lock slot and the opening for the slot-loading optical drive, which is a dual-layer DVD burner. As with previous MacBook lines, it doesn't support Blu-ray discs.

Once you open the lid, you'll also notice that little has changed in the design of the keyboard and touch pad (which Apple terms its "trackpad"). The full-size keyboard comes with backlit keys, and it remains perfectly spaced and nicely responsive to the touch. An ambient-light sensor adjusts the key backlighting according to the brightness of the area where you're working.

On the keyboard deck is the generously sized, buttonless multi-touch trackpad, which has a glass surface. Instead of the two-button pad you'll find on most other laptops, the entire pad on the MacBook Pro acts as a button, allowing you to press anywhere to enact a function; you use two fingers to right-click. One new feature related to it is that if you swipe up or down on the pad with two fingers, you'll continue to scroll through the page until it reaches the top or bottom, just as an iPad or iPhone works. We appreciate these touches that Apple keeps adding to further bridge its products together. We also discovered that you can even toggle in and out of full-screen mode when watching a DVD by pinching and pulling on the touch pad, a nice enhancement. We found the trackpad very easy to get used to, especially since it functions much like the touch screen on an iPad or iPhone.

As with previous MacBook Pros, the pad also allows you to use a four-finger swipe to show your desktop, view all open windows, or change programs. Of course, the now-requisite multi-touch functionality is built in here as well. (This is the same as the touch features on an Apple iPhone or iPad, allowing you to zoom, rotate, and slide images around with two fingers.)

The 13-inch glossy screen on the model we tested has a native resolution of 1,280x800 and is not upgradable. Graphic designers who require a higher-resolution screen might want to look at upgrading to the 17-inch model, which comes standard with a resolution of 1,920x1,200. We found the 13-inch base model's screen displays movies and photos with vivid, accurate colors. Artists also take note: Although the option of an antiglare screen is available in the 15- and 17-inch models, it's not offered for the 13-inch screen.

Apple's iSight camera lives in the middle of the top of the screen bezel, along with a camera-indicator light, which lights up to warn you when the camera is on. (That could save you from embarrassing moments when doing something you wouldn't want to be seen doing on camera.) The camera performs commendably, as we noticed very little refresh lag, and it even worked well under low-light conditions.

As we worked our way around the MacBook Pro's body, we finally noted one so-small-you-might-not-notice-it change. The part of the Dell studio 1735 Battery power adapter that connects to the body of the MacBook (pictured at right) is now a silver cylinder, instead of the white rectangle on previous versions.  

Inside the newest line of MacBooks is where you'll find all the new goodies. Unfortunately, the 13-inch MacBook Pro didn't get quite the internal overhaul that the 15- and 17-inch models did. The CPU sees a slight upgrade from a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo to a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. Graphics get a more substantial bump, from an Nvidia GeForce 9400M to an Nvidia GeForce 320M chipset.

Curiously, Apple did not employ a Core i3 processor for the 13-inch MacBook, which would seemingly be the obvious choice, given the Core i5 and i7 chips in the larger models. On the one hand, at the time we wrote this, clock rates on the Core i3 line topped out at 2.26GHz for notebooks, below the 2.4GHz rate in the Core 2 Duo chip Apple used. But on the other hand, Core 2 Duo doesn't allow for multiple virtual threads, or Hyper-Threading. Hyper-Threading allows compatible software to divvy up tasks among twice the number of cores than are actually present in the chip. As a result, it's possible that a Core i3 chip might have presented better performance for Hyper-Threading–capable programs, such as Adobe Photoshop. For the average consumer, however, Core 2 Duo is plenty good, and it likely saves you a little cash at the outset. Plus, professionals who would likely be taking advantage of Photoshop or other Hyper-Threading–optimized software would probably opt for the 15- or 17-inch MacBook Pro instead.

To put the CPU (and 4GB of DDR3 RAM) through its paces, we started with our Cinebench test, which stresses all the cores of a given processor to gauge raw CPU performance. Compared both with the previous MacBook Pro and the average for thin-and-light laptops, this 13-inch MacBook Pro exceeded expectations, with a score of 5,039. The current average for the thin-and-light category is 4,544, and its predecessor managed a still-noteworthy score of 4,908. That's not to say it knocked our socks off: The $1,269 Lenovo ThinkPad T410 scored 8,564 on this same test, but that's the difference a processor makes. The ThinkPad T410 was equipped with a 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-540M chip, and its muscle clearly shows in this test.

Next, we ran our standard iTunes test to further stress the CPU. (In this, we encode 11 standard audio tracks from MP3 to AAC format.) Once again, we were impressed by the score: 3 minutes and 53 seconds, which beat out the thin-and-light category average of 4:42 and just edged out the previous MacBook Pro by 1 second. The ThinkPad T410 had it beat considerably, however, with its time of 3:26.

Battery life is where the MacBook continues to wipe its competition off the board. We ran our highly demanding DVD rundown test, in which we loop a movie until the battery dies. The battery lasted 7 hours and 28 minutes. That time bests the 2009 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro by a whopping 2.5 hours. According to Apple, the battery on the 13-inch model is rated at 10 hours for light-duty work such as Web browsing (or about an hour less for the larger versions). That's a nice perk, because it should reduce the necessary number of recharges, and that's good in light of the fact that replacing the battery means sending the whole machine off to Apple and paying $179 for a replacement cell. (Another replacement option: For the same price, if you call ahead, you can bring your MacBook Pro to an Apple Store Genius Bar and have the battery swapped out while you wait.)

For graphics performance, Apple made another pretty smart choice in opting for Nvidia's integrated GeForce 320M graphics. This graphics chipset is strong enough to handle casual video editing, which is becoming more mainstream, but it doesn't cost as much as the dedicated, high-end graphics processors in the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros. We spent some time editing home video in iMovie and found the graphics to stand up well for this purpose.

Overall video-playback performance was solid. We watched a DVD copy of The Bourne Identity; the film displayed crisp and clear, with no motion blur to be seen. (We would have loved to have watched a Blu-ray disc, but alas, there's no support for that.) MOV video files that we shot on our inexpensive Canon point-and-shoot camera also played back without glitches and looked better than we expected on the 13-inch LCD.

The MacBook Pro comes bundled with the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system (version 10.6), accompanied by the iLife '09 software suite (comprising the superb iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand applications). iLife '09, as we noted when we reviewed the software last year, is a decidedly useful and superior general-purpose suite for media consumption and creation, and it outclasses anything typically bundled with a PC. The MacBook Pro IBM thinkpad r51 battery also comes with a one-year limited warranty and 90 days of toll-free telephone support. An extended AppleCare warranty will cover your system for two more years; it costs $249 extra and was not factored into the cost of our test unit.

If you bought the previous version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro and are happy with what you have, we say stick with it, as this round has seen only minor changes for this screen size. If you're looking to go to a larger model, however, huge improvements in CPU and graphics performance in the 15- and 17-inch models make them attractive upgrade options, so long as you're willing to pay a premium for them. If you didn't upgrade last time, however, the latest iteration of the 13-inch MacBook Pro is solidly ahead of the laptop pack in both design and performance, and it comes at an affordable price, for a MacBook. We applaud the unprecedented battery life in the new line of MacBook Pros. Apple has once again taken what was already an impressive machine and made it even better.

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