13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Bottom line

If you need an ultraportable laptop with lots of power -- and especially if you want the best screen possible -- experts say the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is your best bet. It's our runner-up Apple laptop behind the 13-inch MacBook Air (Est. $1,100 and up) simply because the Air is plenty of laptop for most people's needs. Even so, top review sources recommend the 13-inch Pro with Retina Display more often than any Windows laptop.

Performance

Multi-tasking muscle. It's not as brawny as the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Est. $2,200 and up) , but most testers find the 13-incher plenty powerful for even heavy multi-tasking. In CNET's test, "the Pro felt fast and lag-free, even when rapidly switching between apps, or juggling multiple Web pages, office documents and video streams." With no discrete graphics, this is no hardcore gamer, but "it'll do fine for 'World of Warcraft' or a 'Call of Duty' game in a pinch," says Dan Ackerman.

The current Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) processor delivers 6.5 to 7.5 hours of Wi-Fi web surfing or movie watching in tests, but expect the Haswell refresh due this fall to boost that by several hours.

Ergonomics

Slimmer, lighter. Apple has slimmed down its 13-inch MacBook Pro until it's smaller than many Ultrabooks. At a hair over 3.5 pounds, it outweighs the 13-inch MacBook Air by a half-pound, but the Pro still feels extremely travel-friendly. As usual for MacBooks, it packs a superb keyboard and multi-touchpad. It has an HDMI jack that's missing from the Air, but no optical drive or Ethernet jack; a Thunderbolt-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter (Est. $30) is sold separately.

Design

"This is what computer screens should look like." The 13-inch MacBook Pro's Retina Display is breathtaking, testers say. Text looks crisper, colors are more vivid and fine detail emerges without even zooming, which is great for photo and video editing. "This is what computer screens should look like from now on," says Nilay Patel at TheVerge.com. Only the 15-inch Pro's higher-res Retina Display (2,800 by 1,800 pixels versus 2,560 by 1,600) beats it.

The speakers sound rich and loud, and the classic aluminum case "feels rock-solid and meticulously crafted," Laptop Magazine says.

Support & reliability

Head and shoulders above the rest. Every year, Apple outshines all other computer brands in PCMag.com's owner satisfaction survey. Its laptops and desktops rarely break, users report, and if they do, Apple repair is friendly and capable. Tech support is just as superb, with free in-person help available for any Apple owner at Genius Bars nationwide.

"Actually using a retail store Genius Bar for service is unlike any other PC tech support experience, and I've had several pain-free visits over the years," CNET's Dan Ackerman says. "For some people, it's worth switching to the Mac platform just for that." Laptop Magazine staffers get excellent results from Apple's web and phone tech support, too.

Value

"Miles ahead." Experts rank the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display just behind the 13-inch MacBook Air in terms of value, features and practicality ,but it's "still miles ahead of most other 13-inch laptops," says CNET. Critics called it too expensive when it first launched, but Apple has since dropped the price several hundred dollars and it's now perfectly in line with the competition.

If you need more power or a better screen than the Air can provide, the 13-inch Pro with Retina Display is your laptop. For even more power and a better screen, consider the 15-inch Pro with Retina Display.