Gaming on OS X is still anemic at best, with even high-end games such as BioShock: Infinite and Metro: Last Light only available for Macs in crippled forms that lack some high-end resolution and detail settings. When it comes to gaming, it's perhaps less so. The AMD graphics card included in the more expensive MacBook Pro configuration is helpful for high-end photo and video editing. And all of the above are significantly faster than the fifth-generation Core i5 CPU in the 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro. It's also difficult to directly compare the the 20 configurations we tested, as our 2014 15-inch MacBook Pro had only Intel's integrated Iris graphics, while our 2015 configuration has a discrete graphics card from AMD, the Radeon R9 M370X.Ĭompared with premium midsize Windows laptops running Core i7 processors, both the 20 15-inch MacBook Pros were closely matched with the Razer Blade, and a bit faster than a new Dell XPS 15 with Nvidia graphics and a 4K display.

That said, this model does not upgrade its CPU from the previous fourth-generation Intel Core i-series to the current fifth-generation chips (as seen in the 13-inch Pro and Air), so the year-over-year gain is minimal.

This is a premium laptop, and you can rightly expect premium performance scores from it. In 2015, every Apple laptop, save for the two Air models and the lone 'classic' MacBook Pro that is surprisingly still available, has a better-than-1080p display. The Retina screen has a 2,880x1,800-pixel resolution, and is best demonstrated when displaying text or professional high-res photography. Still, it remains a main selling point here, and it looks as clear, bright and sharp as any high-end laptop. The 15-inch Retina Display was forward-looking when first introduced, but now better-than-HD screen resolutions are common in laptops across many sizes and prices.

On the other hand, it's so seamlessly done, you might never notice the difference. On one hand, it's a brilliant bit of engineering that will help future laptops be thinner, with fewer moving parts. That deep click feels to the finger and brain like the trackpad has a stepped physical mechanism, but in fact, the movement you feel is a small tactile haptic tap, which, even when fully explained, still feels like you're depressing the trackpad two levels. The four sensors make it so you can 'click' anywhere on the pad's surface with identical results, and the Force Click effect, which combines the sensors with haptic (or 'taptic') feedback, allows you to have two levels of perceived clicking within an app or task.

Apple macbook pro video card