Ars Technica takes a look at Apple's 15-inch 2013 Retina MacBook Pro

Well, as mainstream as high-end Macs can be, anyway. When the first Retina MacBook Pro was released back in 2012, it came with great hardware and a beautiful screen, but only Apple’s applications had been upgraded to really take advantage of it. It was also very expensive—it started at $2,199—and the non-Retina versions were refreshed with the same CPUs and GPUs and sold for a much lower price. It was an attractive notebook, but it was an early adopter’s trinket that came with as many caveats as virtues.

Fast forward 16 months. Third-party developers have had time to update their applications. The cost has come down to a still-high-but-not-for-a-MacBook-Pro starting price of $1,999. And, of course, the 15-inch non-Retina Pro has been dropped from the lineup, survived by its awkward, un-refreshed, smaller counterpart. If you’re looking for a 15-inch MacBook Pro, the Retina version is now a more appealing option, but it’s also your only option. Let’s take a look at how it stacks up.

  Retina, round two: Apple's 15-inch 2013 Retina MacBook Pro reviewed