More rumours of a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display emerge

Apple took the world by surprise when they announced the Retina Display MacBook Pro at the Worldwide Developers Conference. We recently got a chance to get our hands on the 15-inch model and were quite impressed. The Retina Display MacBook Pro is currently available only in the 15-inch form factor, but towards the second half of last month rumours started doing the rounds about Apple preparing a 13-inch model that is expected to be launched by October of this year. Adding fuel to the fire, a recent report by CNET adds a bit more proof that Apple may indeed launch a 13-inch MacBook with a Retina Display.

13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display may be thinner than the 15-inch model

The website has spoken with an analyst regarding the 13-inch variant of the Retina Display MacBook Pro and the report notes, “Displays that could be used on a 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina are slated to begin production this quarter, but "business plans" for Apple are not definite yet. Retina-class 13.3-inch displays with a pixel density of 2,560-by-1,600 are slated for production this quarter (Q3), said Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch. But when this would result in a Retina-endowed 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro is unclear at the moment, according to Shim. Production of the 13.3-inch Retina-class display is about a quarter behind the Retina screen used in the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro. The PPI (pixels per inch) on the 13-inch display is 227, denser than the 220 PPI of the current 15.4-inch Retina.”

In an earlier report, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI shared with AppleInsider that he expects 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. The track record of the analyst has been good thus far with Kuo predicting that Apple would discontinue its 17-inch MacBook Pro line up. Prior to the launch of the Retina Display MacBook Pro, Kuo also said that Apple would launch a 15-inch version of the same alongside an upgrade to the existing MacBook Pro notebooks. He went on to state that Apple has the "highest hopes" for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Kuo said Apple was likely unable to unveil the new product at WWDC this week because of a low yield rate and greater assembly difficulty. 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. Kuo expects the screen to have a resolution of 2,560 by 1,600 pixels, and he said the 13-inch model will be slightly thinner than the 15-inch model, at 18 millimeters.

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.