But this goes against the grain of SSD manufacturers that always quote available space after over-provisioning. If we had to guess, the missing space is used for some undocumented over-provisioning of the SSD volume, in order to assist with NAND flash longevity. Even allowing for the hidden EFI (200 MB) and Recovery HD (650MB) partitions, there’s still around 5GB left unaccounted for. Note however that the MacBook Pro is still based on the advanced host controller interface (AHCI), where the new 12-inch MacBook is using a new NVM Express specification for its PCIe-attached flash drive.Ĭapacity for the middle model is advertised as 256GB – and that is real gigabytes, rather than the gibibyte system still indicated in Microsoft Windows – although mysteriously only 250GB is available to the computer. That contrasts with the previous generation that used two lanes and is now a world away from most of the Windows PC industry which is using comparatively snail-like Serial ATA (SATA). In the case of this middle MacBook Pro, the internal flash drive in our sample was a Samsung-made SSD using four lanes of PCI Express. If you don’t have such requirements, or you’re watching your weight or pennies, the 13-inch may be all you need.Ĭhanges made to this year’s version of the 13-inch are focused on three areas – processor update to Broadwell with its newly shrunk 14 nm silicon, new all-electric Force Touch trackpad, and upgraded four-lane PCIe storage technology. If you work in professional creative media, scientific research or just enjoy a spot of computer gaming, you can put those powerful graphics engines to good use in the 15-inch MacBook. And even without Nvidia’s help, as we recently discovered the integrated Iris Pro graphics of theĮntry 15-inch MacBook Pro model is a significant step up from every other integrated graphics solution we’ve seen, markedly better than the non-Pro labelled Intel Iris graphics of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. This is the smaller of two available screen sizes, appreciably lighter and more compact than its 15-inch brethren, taking a Core i5 dual-core processor from Intel’s latest Broadwell chip series.Īgainst the best 15-inch it loses most ground in its graphics processor, here an integrated solution that resides within the main CPU, instead of a discrete Nvidia GPU with its own dedicated video memory that’s available to the best 15-inch MacBook Pro model. Let’s recap what goes into the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Hard drive macbook pro 2015