Apple MacBook Pro 13 review

If you dashed to the Apple Store to snatch one of the first unibody MacBooks, chances are you're feeling rather sheepish at the moment. With typical disdain for its adoring, early-adopter fans, Apple has taken its MacBook, added the features that owners have been moaning about for months, and dropped the price. The result is the MacBook Pro 13.

Physically, it's just as iconic as ever. Not everyone will warm to the minimalist aluminium chassis, or the built-in battery, but where most £999 notebooks are lumps of rubber and plastic, the MacBook feels like an object worth every pound. It impresses from the first touch and, even though it feels heavy, it weighs in at just 2.03kg.

The first hint of change comes once you peer around the sides. Apple has supplied two USB ports, a single FireWire 800 socket (missing last time around), an SD card reader for the very first time, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. A single 3.5mm mini-jack triples as a microphone socket, optical digital out and headphone output. Only video connectivity disappoints, with a single mini-DisplayPort out; D-SUB and DVI outputs can only be had via one of Apple's adapters, which cost an affordable but annoying £17 exc VAT.

Apple has also given the MacBook's specifications a welcome spit and polish. The basic MacBook Pro 13 comes with a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 memory and 160GB hard drive - which will set you back £782 exc VAT - while the higher specification comes in at £999, with a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB RAM and a 250GB hard disk.

Our review model was the pricier of the two, and in our application-based benchmarks it posted an overall score of 1.26. It's a fine showing, all the more so when you consider the old MacBook managed just 1.11. The LED-backlit 13.3in display marks another improvement, with fine colour fidelity, good contrast and startling, bright whites.

Whichever model you plump for, Nvidia's 9400M is the graphics chip of choice. It's no 3D speed demon, but 29fps in our least taxing Crysis benchmark does at least promise some modest gaming ability. Another benefit of Nvidia's 9400M, and perhaps more notable is the chance to take advantage of CUDA-accelerated software such as Adobe's Photoshop CS4 or CoreCodec's CoreAVC video decoder.

But if we were to pinpoint the MacBook Pro 13's greatest advantage over its predecessor, it would come down to battery life. Apple promises seven hours of usage, which our tests more than confirmed. We emulated our light-use test in OS X - by setting the screen to 50% brightness, switching wireless off and leaving the laptop to idle - and the MacBook soared past the nine-hour mark. When we switched to Vista, though, battery life took an unexpected hit. Five hours 45mins of light usage still isn't bad, though.

It perhaps isn't surprising to find OS X shows the MacBook Pro 13's strengths in the best light, and it does so in more areas than just battery life. The huge multitouch trackpad for instance, works extremely well. The first time it gives way and clicks under your finger is a strange experience, but it soon becomes second nature.

Apple's Boot Camp drivers could do with a bit of attention, however. In Vista, gestures are limited to basic functions such as zooming and scrolling, while cursor control proves noticeably erratic. And regardless of which operating system you favour, we're not so keen on the keyboard. The narrow Enter key takes some getting used to and the short travel of the keys combined with the hard aluminium surround don't feel particularly comfortable.