13-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro slated for launch in Q4 2012: Analyst

The Retina Display MacBook Pro was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this year. The Internet has been rife with rumours surrounding a 13-inch MacBook Pro with similar Retina Display capabilities since. CNET now reports that it spoke with NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, who states that the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display will have a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

According to the report by CNET, “A 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display is on track for production, according to an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim has been telling CNET for a while now that a 13.3-inch Retina version of the MacBook Pro (MBP) is slated for production in the fourth quarter. And today Shim reiterated that he sees no change in those production plans. Shim confirmed today that the MBP 13.3-incher will have a 2,560-by-1,600 pixel density display. That compares with the 2880-by-1800 15.4-inch Retina MacBook Pro announced in June.”

Its resolution is almost the same as that of the rumoured high end Nexus tablet

Shim states that the smaller Retina MacBook will be launched after the iPad mini. Apple is expected to release a smaller iPad to take on the likes of the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire. The announcement of this new tablet from the Cupertino-based brand is believed to take place sometime this month.

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Only the 15-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro variant is currently available in the market. The months preceding the latest report were filled with countless rumours surrounding the launch of the new variant. A report in August speculated that the 13-inch variant could be launched  by October this year. However, this has not happened yet. At the time, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had shared with Apple Insider that he expected Apple to “ramp up production of a 13-inch next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina display in September. That would allow the product to hit stores in early October, in time for the holiday shopping season”.

As stated in our previous reports, like the next-generation Retina Display MacBook Pro, the 13-inch variety is expected to lack an optical disc drive and rely solely on solid-state flash memory storage.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display model will be slightly thinner than the 15-inch model, at 18 millimetres. As for the other specifications expected to feature on the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, the brand will use Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics and an Intel Ivy Bridge processor with a clock speed greater than 2GHz.
 
If you can’t wait for the 13-inch model, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros are available in India at a starting price of Rs 1,52,900.

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the notebook:

• 15.4-inch LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2880 x 1800 resolution at 220ppi
• 2.3GHz  or 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 6MB shared L3 cache
• 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
• 256GB or 512GB Flash Storage
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
• 720p FaceTime HD camera
• MagSafe 2 power port
• Two Thunderbolt ports (up to 10Gbps)
• Two USB 3 ports (up to 5Gbps)
• HDMI port
• Headphone port
• SDXC card slot
• Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (sold separately)
• Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
• 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
• Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
• Stereo speakers
• Dual microphones
• Headphone port