Apple has updated its line of portable Macs, offering slightly faster components while making no changes to the systems’ external designs.
Both the 13-inch and 15-inch models now have new processors, and more RAM, but with little change to other components. Both systems use the same Intel Iris and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M graphics processors that were in the prior MacBook models; however, the 13-inch now has a 2.6GHz i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, instead of the 4GB of the previous model.
The 13-inch systems are now priced at $1299 and $1499 depending on whether you want 128GB or 256GB storage, and a 512GB option with a 2.8GHz processor is available for $1799.
While these options are available, Apple still offers the older non-retina MacBook Pro, which comes with an optical drive and 2.5GHz or 2.9GHz Core i7, and up to 8GB RAM, starting at $1099.
This news follows Apple’s relatively long-standing approach to introducing new hardware, and then giving it a speed boost or two before introducing any significant design changes. While faster, these options will not significantly boost the speed of the systems over those purchased a few months before, so if you have just bought a Mac and are seeing this news, you are still in good hands. However, if you have purchased a system within the past 14 days from an Apple Store, then you can likely return it and get one of these new ones with the only drawback being the time to wait for the new system to arrive.