Enthusiast laptop winner
Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display (2012)
Verdict
The MacBook Pro gains a staggeringly crisp Retina display and quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU. The result is stunning, and expensive
Review Date: 19 Jun 2012
Price when reviewed: £1499
Overall Rating
Alternative products
Alienware M17x R4
A quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU and AMD’s Radeon HD 7970M combine to make the M17x R4 a gaming force to be reckoned with
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Comparison
| Product |
Apple Macbook Pro with Retina display (2012)
|
Alienware M17x-R4
|
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Part Code | Macbook Pro with Retina display (2012) | M17x-R4 |
| Review Date | 19 Jun 2012 | 18 May 2012 |
| Price ex VAT | £1,499 | £1,533 |
| Price inc VAT | £1,799 | £1,840 |
| Overall rating |
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| Features & Design |
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| Value for Money |
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| Performance |
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| Warranty | ||
| Warranty | 1 yr return to base | 1yr on-site |
| Physical specifications | ||
| Dimensions | 359 x 247 x 18mm (WDH) | 304 x 45 x Unknownmm (WDH) |
| Weight | 2.020kg | 4.370kg |
| Travelling weight | 2.5kg | 5.4kg |
| Travelling weight with extended battery | 410.0kg | |
| Processor and memory | ||
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3615QM | Intel Core i7-3610QM |
| Motherboard chipset | Intel HM77 | Intel HM77 |
| RAM capacity | 8.00GB | 8.00GB |
| Memory type | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| SODIMM sockets free | 0 | 0 |
| SODIMM sockets total | 0 | 2 |
| Screen and video | ||
| Screen size | 15.4in | 17.3in |
| Resolution screen horizontal | 2,880 | 1,920 |
| Resolution screen vertical | 1,800 | 1,080 |
| Resolution | 2880 x 1800 | 1920 x 1080 |
| Graphics chipset | Intel HD Graphics 4000/Nvidia GeForce GT 650M | Intel HD Graphics 4000, AMD Radeon HD 7970M |
| Graphics card RAM | 1.00GB | 2.00GB |
| VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 | 1 |
| HDMI outputs | 1 | 1 |
| S-Video outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DVI-I outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DVI-D outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DisplayPort outputs | 0 | 1 |
| Drives | ||
| Capacity | 256GB | 64GB |
| Hard disk usable capacity | 233GB | 60GB |
| Spindle speed | N/A | N/A |
| Internal disk interface | SATA/600 | SATA/600 |
| Hard disk | Apple SM256E | Samsung PM830 mSATA |
| Optical disc technology | N/A | Blu-ray reader |
| Optical drive | none | HL-DT-ST CA30N |
| Battery capacity | 7,800mAh | |
| Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 | £0 |
| Networking | ||
| Wired adapter speed | N/A | 1,000Mbits/sec |
| 802.11a support |
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| 802.11b support |
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| 802.11g support |
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| 802.11 draft-n support |
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| Integrated 3G adapter |
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| Bluetooth support |
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| Other Features | ||
| Wireless hardware on/off switch |
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| Wireless key-combination switch |
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| Modem |
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| ExpressCard34 slots | 0 | 0 |
| ExpressCard54 slots | 0 | 0 |
| PC Card slots | 0 | 0 |
| USB ports (downstream) | 1 | |
| FireWire ports | 0 | 0 |
| eSATA ports | 1 | |
| PS/2 mouse port |
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| 9-pin serial ports | 0 | 0 |
| Parallel ports | 0 | 0 |
| Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 | 1 |
| Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 | 0 |
| 3.5mm audio jacks | 1 | 4 |
| SD card reader |
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| Memory Stick reader |
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| MMC (multimedia card) reader |
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| Smart Media reader |
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| Compact Flash reader |
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| xD-card reader |
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| Pointing device type | Touchpad | Touchpad |
| Audio chipset | Sigmatek HD Audio | SoundBlaster Recon3Di |
| Speaker location | Alongside keyboard | Front |
| Hardware volume control? |
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| Integrated microphone? |
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| Integrated webcam? |
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| Camera megapixel rating | 1.3mp | 2.1mp |
| TPM |
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| Fingerprint reader |
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| Smartcard reader |
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| Carry case |
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| Operating system and software | ||
| Operating system | Mac OS X 10.7.4 | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| OS family | Mac OS X | Windows 7 |
| Recovery method | Recovery partition | |
| Software supplied | N/A | |
| Battery and performance tests | ||
| Battery life, light use | 10hr 34min | 3hr 2min |
| Battery life, heavy use | 1hr 10min | |
| 3D performance (crysis) low settings | 122fps | 93fps |
| 3D performance setting | Low | Low |
| Overall Real World Benchmark score | 0.92 | 0.94 |
| Responsiveness score | 0.82 | 0.86 |
| Media score | 1.00 | 1.03 |
| Multitasking score | 0.93 | 0.94 |
