The new 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the ultimate notebook for power users, combining a best-in-class display with blazing performance and long battery life.
Design
Apple didn't change anything about the 15-inch MacBook Pro's design, but we're not complaining. The silver aluminum chassis has the same solid and premium look and feel as before, with a black bezel around the display providing a pop of contrast. On the lid you'll find Apple's trademark backlit logo, and the deck houses a backlit keyboard flanked by two speakers.
Heat and Noise
While running various benchmarks, the MacBook Pro's fan occasionally got loud enough for us to hear it from across the room, but it wasn't too disturbing.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro can run quite warm under stress. After playing "World of Warcraft" for 15 minutes, the bottom of the notebook and the center of the keyboard reached 108 degrees, We consider anything above 95 degrees to be uncomfortable. At least the touchpad stayed a cool 80 degrees.
Fortunately, this laptop remained fairly chilly after streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes. The bottom center area registered 84 degrees, the touchpad 78 and the area between the G and H keys 91 degrees. That same hot spot from our gaming test--the underside near the hinge-reached 94 degrees.