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It pushes and redefines the category, raising the bar higher than even its brethren can jump. If you can afford the premium and aren't set on a 13-inch model there's no reason to buy any Pro other than this Pro.

Surveying the Ultrabook landscape, there's nothing that approaches the combination of power and portability of the new MacBook Pro ... the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the ultimate notebook for performance fiends on the move.

With a higher-resolution display, thin chassis, and up-to-date components, the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch with Retina Display is the new king of high-end desktop replacement laptops.

Over all, then, how does the new laptop fare on the Ultimate Laptop Wish List? Extremely well. It tops the charts on screen, keyboard, sound, start-up time, looks, battery life and fast/thin/light. It can have copious memory (up to 16 gigabytes) and storage, for a handsome fee.

The Retina MacBook Pro, however, is the future of Apple’s laptop line—and it’s a bright, shining symbol of excellence. The Retina display is something to be marveled at, and the lightweight, smaller design addresses the demand for our devices to be even more portable.

The newly redesigned MacBook Pro with Retina Display combines an amazing screen with just enough of the MacBook Air design to feel like a new animal, and to take its place as the best of the current MacBook breed.

It’s the most refined, advanced PC that Apple has produced to date.

In the end, though the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display is more than just the sum of its screen, the inescapable truth is that any other notebook feels dreary and last-gen in comparison.... the new MacBook Pro’s display feels like what computing really should be.

It's pretty clear that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is one of the finest laptops ever to grace this Earth; it's beautiful to look at in more ways than one. But you do have to pay a premium for what is all around the most premium laptop now on shelves.

Putting the stunning retina display aside, you’ll probably be able to find a Windows machine that can beat it on an individual feature, be it speed, connectivity, convenience or storage. But as a package, nothing offers what this machine does.

Once again, Apple has developed a machine that's both beautifully designed, technologically advanced and expensive enough to be considered only by those who have to have the best of the best. We love it though, and so will you.

Not just nice and light, not just good and thin – Apple's first retina-class Mac is a triumph in portable computing.

Since it seems like a sure bet that Retina displays will eventually find their way to every Apple laptop, it might be smart to wait. But anyone who does buy this machine will get the best laptop Apple's ever made--until the next one.

It's not cheap, and it'll take some time for the software world to catch up, but great battery life, good sound, impeccable build and a screen that'll blow you away means that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display has set a new standard for the rest to follow.

The Macbook Pro 15 with Retina display is an excellent and expensive laptop, there’s no denying that. But it is also very unique and I’m very curious to see what the competition will come up with in the next few months, and at what price.

While we applaud Apple for sticking with classic models for those who can’t afford the next generation (or who prefer legacy features over a cutting edge display), it’s not hard to imagine an all-Retina, all-flash future for the Mac line – and this notebook proves that future is already here...

In our view, the additional cost and the concessions made for the new design are worth it. The only question that remains is: Can you afford it?

Those users who are willing to spend the money will get an exceptional machine, one that points to the future of laptops as much as the MacBook Air did before it.

The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display is undoubtedly Apple's most impressive laptop to date...melding the best of the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro and the iPad 3 has resulted in a beautifully designed technological beast that hoovers up multi-tasking and powers through the most taxing of programs.

Most people who buy it will be doing it for the same reason they would buy a Mercedes-Benz CLS. To experience the height of quality? To fulfill a personal aesthetic hunger? To show off to friends and strangers alike? It makes no difference: The reason is certainly not to get you to work and back.

This latest flagship is an object to be desired, a powerfully robust laptop in a .71-inch aluminum unibody design that is nearly as thin as Apple’s own MacBook Air, though considerably wider. There is nothing skinny about the price, though.