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The Force Touch trackpad does feel slightly different from existing MacBook trackpads, but the difference is one you’ll easily adjust to, or not even notice if you’re new to Macs. This input device resembles Apple’s previous trackpad, and the one found on all of its other current MacBook offerings, but its outward appearance and tactile feel hide the fact that it’s actually a trackpad with virtually no motion whatsoever – there’s no actual mechanical click when you press the trackpad down, but it will still feel 100 percent like a physical click is taking place thanks to Apple’s new ‘taptic’ haptic physical force feedback technology. The 13-inch MacBook Pro’s most apparent new feature, for most users, will be the Force Touch trackpad. And from the perspective of someone who uses a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, the 13’s size and weight savings feel positively luxurious. Plus, the performance and spec benefits more than justify a bit of additional heft when compared to the Air. And while the MacBook Air might be smaller still, the difference is not going to have a practical effect for most users. Still, the unibody aluminum shell hasn’t lost any of its appeal from an aesthetic perspective, and the 13-inch version especially still doesn’t add much in the way of pack weight or occupied bag space. Whereas the Retina MacBook Pro used to stand in stark contrast to the beefy MacBook and non-Retina MBP, it’s now the heftiest of Apple’s notebooks. That said, the design is beginning to feel a bit less exciting given the advances in the rest of the industry, and especially framed against the dramatic portability of the new MacBook design that Apple unveiled alongside the announcement of the new Retina MacBook update.
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It still, in other words, feels remarkably portable for the power it’s packing, especially considering that Retina display and the all-day battery. The slender shell measures only 0.71 inches thick, and weights under three and a half pounds. The new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro keeps the same design that Apple has been offering since 2012, but while the case’s novelty may have worn off, the quality of its construction has not.
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