OS X includes scaling options that can make the laptop look like it has a 1440×900 or 1680×1050 screen in exchange for small drops in sharpness and graphics performance.

Using Apple's own terminology, by default the screen looks like a sharper version of a 1280×800 screen, which means that out of the box you can actually see fewer things at once on the Pro than you can on the Air. The Retina MacBook Pro has a 2560×1600, 227 PPI IPS display that has much better detail, color, and viewing angles. Size and weight is still an advantage for the MacBook Air, but not by nearly the margin it was a couple of years ago.Ĭhoosing the slightly heavier laptop fixes the single biggest problem we have with the 2015 MacBook Air: its screen. The Retina redesign slimmed the Pro down by around a quarter of an inch and dropped it to 3.48 pounds. Compared to that, the tapered 2.96-pound 13-inch MacBook Air design was indeed svelte. The original aluminum unibody MacBook Pro was nearly an inch thick and weighed 4.5 pounds. Webcam, backlit keyboard, dual integrated mics Specs at a glance: 13-inch 2015 Apple Retina MacBook ProĢ.7GHz Intel Core i5-5257U (Turbo up to 3.3GHz)ĨGB 1866MHz LPDDR3 (soldered, upgradeable to 16GB at purchase)Ģx USB 3.0, 2x Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, card reader, headphonesġ2.35' × 8.62' × 0.71' (314 mm × 219 mm × 18 mm) Good screen, relatively compact design, and the Force Touch trackpad If you were hoping for a more straightforward Retina refresh of the Air without the more drastic changes of the Retina MacBook, this is the laptop you should be looking at. Between the performance improvements and battery life gains, the new Pro acts as good alternative to the 13-inch Air rather than a laptop you only buy if you need the extra performance. The design is the same as last year's, and it picks up only a handful of truly new features-Thunderbolt 2 and improved 4K support are probably the biggest ones. We've already compared the Air and the Pro head-to-head, but today we're taking some time to talk about the Pro by itself. Its design is just a couple of years old, and it still makes a strong case for itself next to the MacBook Air and the MacBook Air-alikes that dominate the market for high-end 13-inch laptops.

The 2015 MacBook Air is a bit out-of-step with the times, but the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro doesn't have that problem yet.

Early 2015 macbook pro 13 inch specs