The new Retina Display-equipped MacBook Pro (which we've currently got our hands on – take a look at our impressions) is getting the computing world all hot under the collar, and rightly so – but that $ 2,499-plus price tag is enough to give any non-one percenter pause. So let’s look at the alternatives: the rivals available for a similar wedge of cash.
Alienware M17x
We specced up this 17-inch beast from Dell’s Alienware gaming laptop range in order to get it to a similar price to the new MacBook Pro – and it’s pretty impressive. The screen is 17.3-inch (but the 1920 x 1080 resolution means it isn’t as sharp, obviously), the Intel Core i7 processor and NVidia graphics card are both beefier than the Pro’s offerings, and there’s an optical drive able to read Blu-ray discs.
On the downside, the battery life (around an hour) and level of overall portability don’t come close to the MacBook Pro’s, and while there’s more storage it’s a traditional SATA hard drive rather than speedier solid state. Dell offers an SSD option, but even the cheapest option sends the price way above that of the MacBook Pro.
Specs:
17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 screen
Intel Core i7-3720QM 2.6GHz processor (turbo boost to 3.6GHz)
8GB RAM
NVidia GeForce GTX 660M 2GB graphics
500GB HDD, plus 64GB HDD boot drive
Blu-ray combo drive
9-cell Li-Ion battery
Windows 7 Home Premium
5.3kg
406 x 54 x 321mm
Samsung Series 9 900X3B
At the other end of the laptop spectrum from the Alienware sits this waif-like ultrabook from Samsung. It’s at the pricier end of the ultrabook scale – and yet it can’t really compete with the Pro unless you’re talking about portability. Spec-wise the Apple trounces it on all fronts, with double the storage and RAM and far more muscle when it comes to processing and video.
Specs:
13.3-inch 1600 x 900 screen
Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz processor (turbo boost to 2.3GHz)
4GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 3000
128GB SSD
No optical drive
6-cell battery
Windows 7 Home Premium
1.4kg
328 x 16.3 x 227mm
Asus ET2700INTS
If you’re going to be ensconced in an office or study, an all-in-one like the ET2700INTS is well worth considering: what you lose in mobility (pretty much everything), you gain in storage space and screen acreage – plus with a Blu-ray drive, TV tuner and external subwoofer thrown in, this doubles as an excellent home entertainment hub. That said, the MacBook Pro beats it in a lot of key areas, being significantly more powerful on the performance front.
Specs:
27-inch 1920 x 1080 screen
Intel Core i5-2400S 2.5GHz processor (turbo boost to 3.3GHz)
6GB RAM
NVidia GT 540M 1GB graphics
2TB HDD
Blu-ray combo drive
Windows 7 Home Premium
13.4kg
660 x 233 x 508mm
Sony VAIO F Series
This Sony laptop stands out from the pack by virtue of its 3D capabilities, which apply to both gaming and Blu-ray movie playback. Elsewhere the F Series delivers a solid showing that comes close to the MacBook Pro in many ways (in fact the graphics card appears to be the same, and the processor is more powerful). Portability, however, is not its strong suit.
Specs:
16-inch 1920 x 1200 screen
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz processor (turbo boost to 2.9GHz)
8GB RAM
NVidia GT 540M 1GB graphics
640GB HDD
Blu-ray combo drive
Battery life “up to 3 hours”
Windows 7 Home Premium
3.2kg
398 x 34 x 271mm
MacBook Air
If you max out the 13-inch MacBook Air you get something not too far from the cheapest Retina Display-equipped Pro. The specs are slightly better on the Air (there’s double the SSD storage), and it’s a fair bit thinner and lighter, but you lose a couple of inches on the screen – and a whole heap of pixels. The Air’s graphics processor is on-board too, rather than a dedicated card – and for video editors and gamers, that could be a big deal-breaker.
Specs:
13.3-inch 1440 x 900 screen
Intel Core i7 2GHz processor (turbo boost to 3.2GHz)
8GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000
512GB SSD
No optical drive
Battery life “up to 7 hours”
OS X Lion (with free upgrade to Mountain Lion)
1.35kg
325 x 17 x 227mm
