MacBook Guides
Updated April 2025 • Page 4
Our MacBook buyer's guide helps answer the questions you need to know before buying.
The fourth generation MacBook Pro 13-inch was officially announced in October 2016. The late 2016 model introduced some big changes, removing legacy ports and MagSafe 2 charging connector on previous models, in favor of two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports and a headphone jack. The completely redesigned MacBook Pro 13-inch also has a thinner and lighter body than previous models, improved display that’s brighter and supports a wider color gamut (with smaller bezels), 46% larger Force Touch trackpad, redesigned second-generation butterfly keyboard, drastically improved speakers with greater dynamic range, and more. A higher-end model with OLED Touch Bar was also introduced, and comes equipped with four USB-C ports. Internal hardware specs include Intel Skylake dual-core Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, Intel Iris Graphics 540/550, up to 16GB RAM, and 256GB/512GB SSD. This was also the year that Apple discontinued the entry-level 13-inch second generation MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with an optical drive, FireWire port, Ethernet, and hard disk drive.
The 2015 MacBook Air release was another early-year release, in March 2015. Apple kept the MacBook Air available with the 11-inch and 13-inch display options, and similar to previous years releases -- the specs were largely the same between the different sizes. The 13-inch model had a 13.3-inch display at 1440 x 900, a 54-watt hour battery, and a weight of 2.96 pounds. The 13-inch model also had an SDXC memory card slot that wasn’t found on the smaller 11-inch model. Otherwise, the 13-inch 2015 MacBook Air was powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports, one Thunderbolt 2 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and stereo speakers. The 2015 MacBook Air was released with macOS 10.10 Yosemite.
The 2015 MacBook Air arrived early in the year, in March 2015. As with previous model years, Apple kept the MacBook Air available with the 11-inch and 13-inch display options, and the specs were largely the same between the different sizes. The 13-inch model had a 13.3-inch display at 1440 x 900, a 54-watt hour battery, and a weight of 2.96 pounds. The 13-inch model also had an SDXC memory card slot that wasn’t found on the smaller 11-inch model. Otherwise, the 13-inch 2015 MacBook Air was powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports, one Thunderbolt 2 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and stereo speakers. The 2015 MacBook Air was released with macOS 10.10 Yosemite.
In March 2015, the MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina) received a significant refresh with updated internal specs and major hardware feature: an all-new Force Touch trackpad. The new trackpad added a force sensor that accurately measures finger pressure, registering taps using haptic feedback to simulate a click. Other updated specs included fifth generation Intel Broadwell CPUs, Iris 6100 graphics, faster flash storage (twice as fast as previous model), faster RAM, and up to 10 hours of battery life. The early 2015 MacBook Pro 13-inch could also be configured with a dual-core 3.1GHz Core i7 and up to 16GB RAM. This also marked the end of the third generation MacBook Pro design, with a drastically overhauled model (featuring only USB-C ports) introduced the following year.
The third-generation Apple MacBook Pro received its final update in May 2015, prior to being replaced in 2016 by the fourth-generation MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. This last iteration of the third-generation model brought a few noteworthy improvements including an all-new Force Touch trackpad that not only registers clicks and multi-touch finger placement, but also measures touch pressure. This new trackpad also uses haptic feedback to simulate clicks for better long-term durability. Additionally, graphics performance was improved on the high-end model, with its all-new AMD Radeon R9 M370X discrete GPU, replacing the previous model’s Nvidia GeForce GT 750M.
Apple first released the MacBook Retina in April 2015. This model went by several names. Officially, the model was called the MacBook, but it was also often referred to as the New MacBook, the Retina MacBook, or the 12-inch MacBook. The MacBook featured a 12-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2304 x 1440 and was powered by an Intel Core M processor with 8GB of RAM. The base storage was 256GB, however, the notebook could be configured with 512GB. Other specs of the MacBook Retina included a 480p iSight webcam, Intel HD Graphics 5300, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, a Butterfly style keyboard, and a weight of 2.03-pounds. This model launched with macOS 10.10 Yosemite and included only two ports -- a 3.5mm headphone jack and a single USB-C.
Apple updated the third-generation MacBook Pro in July 2014 with a minor refresh primarily consisting of faster processors and additional RAM for the base model. The processor on the entry-level configuration received a speed boost from 2.0GHz to 2.3GHz, as well as a doubling of system memory from 8GB to 16GB RAM. The high-end configuration now starts with a faster 2.5GHz processor (up from 2.3GHz), but retains the same 16GB RAM it had the year before. Both models come standard with Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics. However, the high-end configuration also offers Nvidia GeForce GT 750M discrete graphics for added performance in GPU-accelerated tasks.
Apple announced a somewhat minor refresh to the MacBook Pro 13-inch in July 2014 with updated newly updated prices and processors. The entry-level model now comes with a 2.6GHz Intel Core i5 chip and 8GB of RAM (previous 2.4GHz Core i5 with 4GB RAM), with options to upgrade to a 2.8GHz Core i5, or 3.0GHz Core i7 and 16GB RAM. Storage options include 128/256/512GB or 1TB SSD at the time of purchase. Of course, you still get previous hardware features like a backlit keyboard, multi-touch glass trackpad, improved MagSafe 2 power adapter, HDMI, and 720p FaceTime HD webcam.
The 2014 model year for the MacBook Air was released in April and was designated as an early-2014 release. The MacBook Air remained available in an 11-inch and 13-inch model, with the specs being largely the same across both sizes. The smaller model was 11.6-inches at 1366 x 768 and it was powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports, one Thunderbolt port, and MagSafe. This model year was released with macOS 10.9 Mavericks. The 11-inch model MacBook Air had a 38-watt hour battery and a weight of 2.38 pounds.
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