Apple delivers again!

Apple’s next-generation MacBook Pro is about as thin as a MacBook Air, as fast as high-end desktop computers, and features the highest-resolution notebook screen ever made. And, according to industry analysts, the new notebook pushes Apple at least a year ahead of the best competing ultrabooks and high-end PC notebooks.

“It will likely take rivals a year or two to catch up,” Forrester analyst Frank Gillet told Wired. “Anybody can go buy the processors from Intel, but even the track pads from these companies can’t match Apple. Apple has more discipline and control over every aspect of these machines, so it’s tough for the other guys, the Windows guys, to compete.”

Weight, processing power, display, track pad and build quality — Apple is delivering premium products at a premium price. The new MacBook Pro with Retina display starts at $2,199 and can fetch as much as $3,749 with added options. The strategy of most of Apple’s rivals, so far, has been to undercut Apple on price in the shrinking PC market, Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst, told Wired.

“The new MacBook Pro is the evolution of a species,” said Milanesi. “All computers will have to be thinner and lighter because, as consumers, we are taking them different places. But there really is nothing out there like the MacBook Pro Retina yet. Apple raised the bar today.”

Officially known as the MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple’s latest top-of-the-line notebook features a display with a 2880×1800 resolution, or more than 5 million pixels sprawled out across 15.4-inches of glass. By comparison, the regular 15-inch MacBook Pro has a 1440×900 resolution screen, and the 13-inch MacBook sports a 1280×800 display.

On the inside, the MacBook Pro with Retina display, along with its non-retina counterparts, offer desktop-replacement-level power, Milanesi said. This includes the latest Intel Core i7 quad-core processors clocked at up to 2.7GHz, as much as 16GB of RAM, up to 768GB of flash storage, and updated graphics, too, with Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics cards built in.

The MacBook Pro with Retina display ditches the optical drives available in previous Pro generations, allowing Apple to slim the laptop down to 0.71-inches thick and only 4.46 pounds. The thickness of the new MacBook Pro is actually near identical to that of the wedge-shaped MacBook Air at the Air’s thickest point — pretty astounding for such a high-performing machine.

For connectivity, Apple is including two Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and an HDMI port for connecting to displays for HDTVs.

Apple leaves the competition in the dust again!