Apple's new Mac line up: 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina display, iMac, and Mac mini

As soon as it was unveiled on stage in October, I started looking forward to getting the new iMac in for review. See, my main machine is a 13-inch MacBook Air, which I mostly love. But sometimes I want a bigger screen for watching movies, or more processing power when I'm dealing with photos or video, or a half-decent GPU when I feel like playing games. The new iMac promised all that, in a newly slim package that would fit nicely on my desk.

Then there's the Mac mini, which has occupied a spot in my living room for years. Mine's old, and showing its age – it can barely handle high-def video, and even stumbles on some basic tasks. Apple updated that in October too, bestowing upon its tiny desktop a new processor and the new Fusion Drive.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is very real, but after weeks of anticipation how does the high-resolution laptop live up to expectations set by its 15-inch sibling, not to mention all of the ultrabook competition it faces? We're waiting until we get to spend quality time with the new computer to make any final conclusions, but for now we can tell quite a bit just by poring over the specification sheets. Join us, won't you, for a look at where the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro truly stands.

Five millimeters thick at its edge and without an optical drive, Apple's new iMac made quite a splash today. In general, though, it's an interesting time to buy an all-in-one PC. Though Apple's been championing the idea since the very first Mac, it's about to make a lot of sense for Windows users too, as the October 26th launch of Windows 8 makes the touchscreen a priority for desktop computers. As a result, the iMac is in better company than ever before, as PC manufacturers gear up for launch. Here, we're not only going to show you how the iMac stacks up against its storied predecessors in terms of raw specs, but also vis-a-vis a host of upcoming Windows 8 competitors.

iMac vs. iMac

It's not quite as thin as the Air, but Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is still quite svelte — and the display is as gorgeous as you'd expect. The resolution settings for the display are just like the larger MacBook Pro — but the maximum allowed resolution is 1680 x 1050, unlike the 1920 x 1080 setting offered on the 15-inch model. Still, 1680 x 1050 is a tremendous option on a display of this size, though at the "best for Retina" setting the screen offers an effective 1280 x 800. If you've been using a 15-inch MacBook Pro for the screen size, the 13-inch just got a ton more attractive.

We only had a limited amount of time to test performance, but the 13 only hit 50 percent CPU utilization when we played the 1080p Iron Man 3 trailer while simultaneously playing back a multitrack GarageBand file and scrolling around a 21-megapixel RAW file in Aperture. That's impressive — and very encouraging considering the relatively weak Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics. We'll see how it handles a more intense (and normal) workload when we get a review unit, but for now it appears Apple's done a fine job of using the available power here.

At Apple's event today in San Jose, California, the company refreshed most of its lineup of Mac computers, including the iMac, which Phil Schiller called the "flagship of the product line." The eighth model is insanely thin, though it's still unmistakably an iMac. "There's an entire computer in there," Phil Schiller said as he pointed to the iMac's tiny 5mm edge. Apple used a technique called friction stir welding to create the new machine, which it says has much less reflection than previous displays.

Apple has just announced an updated version of its oft-overlooked Mac mini with an Ivy Bridge processor, starting at $599. It's the first Mac mini update since mid-2011, when the optical drive was dropped, and it's a fairly incremental one. The cheapest model will include a 2.5Ghz dual-core i5 processor, with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Above that, there's also a $999 server version, which will incorporate a 2.3GHz quad-core i7 processor and two 1TB drives.

The new minis include the same HD 4000 integrated graphics as the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and there appears to be no option to include dedicated graphics as you could in previous generations. However, it will be possible to use the new hybrid "fusion drive," which combines an HDD with 128GB of flash storage. Both models will be shipping later today, and details have gone up on Apple's site.