New Haswell MacBook Pro Range Offers Free iWork And iLife

Apple has made the MacBook Pro thinner and lighter, with the 13-inch and 15-inch models both measuring up at just 0.71 inches thin, while internal improvements see the addition of the latest Intel Haswell processors, which should boost performance and battery life.

The new machines will run the recently announced OS X Mavericks, and Apple is also making its iLife and iWork suites free to download for new owners, with programs such as Pages, Numbers and Keynote receiving 64-bit updates.

“We’ve made the world’s best pro notebook even better by adding more performance and even longer battery life,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “MacBook Pro with Retina display continues to redefine the pro notebook.”

MacBook Pro

The cheapest 13-inch model costs £1,099 for a 2.4GHz dual-core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 2.9GHz, 128GB of flash storage, 4GB of memory and integrated Intel Iris Pro graphics that promise to offer 90 percent more performance than the previous generation of MacBook Pros. The 2.6GHz version is the most expensive at £1,499, while users can customise their system with faster processors, memory and storage.

The 15-inch range starts at £1,699 for a 2GHz quad-core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.2GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage, with the most expensive model costing £2,199. This is powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core processor with a Turbo Boost of up to 3.5GHz, 16GB memory, 512GB of flash  and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics alongside the standard Intel Iris Pro option. Again, further customisation options are available for power users.

Faster for longer

Also on board both sizes is PCIe-based flash storage, which provides up to 60 percent faster read speeds than the previous generation, and 801.22ac Wi-Fi, which offers three times faster Wi-Fi when connected to a compatible base station. Dual Thunderbolt 2 ports deliver up to 10Gbps of bandwidth to an external device such as a second display.

Apple says the 13-inch model’s battery has two hours of extra life, while the 15-inch model gets an additional hour. Battery life is further enhanced by new features in OS X Mavericks, which is able to compress memory automatically by shrinking inactive data.

Apple has also refreshed its tablet portfolio, announcing the thinner, lighter iPad Air and the new iPad Mini with Retina Display.

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