Apple Mac Book Pro with Retina Display

Apple used the WWDC keynote to announce more details of Mountain Lion - the next version of its Mac operating system, which is released next month - and iOS 6, the latest update to the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. But the most groundbreaking announcement was the new MacBook Pro with a 'Retina' display.

Mountain Lion and iOS 6 share plenty of features, particularly the iCloud integration that allows content to flow freely from, say, smartphone to laptop.

Apple’s MacBooks are starting to show the influence of iOS devices in numerous ways, whether it’s gesture controls on trackpads, high resolution displays or the fact that the computers are more likely to be sealed units.

Apple is not the first to do these things but it is doing them with an elegance and simplicity that many of its competitors struggle to imitate.

The screen on Apple's new flagship laptop, the MacBook Pro with Retina display, has to be seen to be believed. At 2880 x 1800 pixels, it can deliver double the screen resolution of the previous MacBook Pro and the difference is like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time.

The screen can display a full 1080 video image and still have three million pixels to spare, meaning that tasks that used to require a much larger screen are now practical on a laptop of this size.

The hard drive is gone too - again, as in the MacBook Air. It is replaced by up to 768GB of flash memory. The 256GB default offering assumes that most people will store the bulk of their content on external drives or in the cloud. The benefit is speed; this computer is noticeably faster and more responsive than previous models.

 The standard model, with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 processor, starts at £1,799. The 2.6GHz version starts at £2,299. That said, a Sony VAIO with similar specs and a smaller, lower-resolution screen, will cost you around £2,000.

Posted in: Laptops