Originally Posted by
nmenaker
With the new low end rMBP 15" inch, yes the integrated graphics processor is nearly the same as the recent 13" MBA, but with the 16GB of RAM on the rMBP you'll have more headroom with the 15" rMBP for the memory the the intel iris pro graphics will use up at peak demand.
...and two more cores, and much faster cores than the MBA. (The MBP 13" gets the latter, but not the former.)
Can be configured up to 16GB RAM and with an i7 processor as well.
...although there's relatively little cost justification for the jump from the dual-core i5 to the dual-core i7; the lowest end quad core in the MBP 15" is still much faster for most workloads than the dual-core i7 and the speedbump from the middle-of-the-lineup i5 to the i7 dualcore in the MBP 13" is marginal.
That said, I'd certainly agree that the MBP 13" is pretty much the sweet spot in the Apple lineup (and has been, for general use, for years -- hardly just the current retina version, although it's a very nice machine.)