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Apple refreshes MacBook Pro line with minor upgrades, no price rise

Apple has updated its Pro laptop line -- all 15-inch models will come with 16GB RAM but with no price increase, and the old 13-inch has even got cheaper.

Aloysius Low Senior Editor
Aloysius Low is a Senior Editor at CNET covering mobile and Asia. Based in Singapore, he loves playing Dota 2 when he can spare the time and is also the owner-minion of two adorable cats.
Aloysius Low
2 min read

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The rumors of Apple's updated MacBook Pro line were true -- after a brief downtime, the Apple Store's back up with new MacBook Pros.

Unlike the previous two years, Apple didn't make any Mac hardware announcements at its WWDC keynote this year, which left users eagerly waiting for news of new Pros. Fans of the aluminum-clad laptops may be a little disappointed, however, as Apple has given the new MacBooks only a minor speed boost.

Both new 15-inch models now come with 16GB RAM as default, which should help with performance, but Apple has kept to the same prices, or even less in some cases, so you get better hardware for the same amount of cash.

The new 13-inch models start at $1,299 in the US, £999 in the UK and AU$1,599 in Australia. The high-end 15-inch version will set you back $2,499, £1,999 or AU$2,999 -- $100 less than it used to .

The new 13-inch notebooks now pack slightly faster Intel Haswell processors (2.6GHz Core i5, and 2.8GHz Core i7), with 8GB of RAM as standard, and have glitzy Retina Displays with a whopping 2,560x1,600 pixels.

One older 13-inch model that's still on sale makes do with 4GB of RAM and a 1,280x800 screen -- but it's had a small price cut to $1,099 in the US, £899 in the UK and $1,349 Down Under.

On the other hand, the three new 15-inch notebooks will be powered by Intel Core i7 processors in 2.2GHz and 2.5GHz varieties. The most powerful model will also have discrete graphics -- Nvidia's GeForce GT 750M card -- while the other laptop uses Intel's Iris Pro integrated graphics. The lesser 15-inch Pro has a new lower starting cost of $1,999, £1,999 and AU$2,499.

Despite other PC makers struggling, Apple's MacBook line has been doing well -- Apple CEO Tim Cook called the US a "very, very" strong market for the Mac in the third quarter.

In fact, Mac sales have risen 18 percent to 4.4 million despite an IDC estimate that the market has been shrinking by 2 percent. Asymco analyst Horace Dediu also said that the Mac is "more profitable than all the other vendors put together."