Thank you for a thorough review (as always)!
BUT:
"Battery runtimes are certainly a highlight of the MacBook Pro Retina 13. (...) The Retina is only beaten by the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air and far ahead of the next notebooks in line"
You have also reviewed the obvious competitors (Thinkpad X240 & T440s, thanks for those reviews, too!) and this statement is only true for the battery options you tested. When you test notebooks with replaceable batteries, you often use one of the smaller battery options for your runtime tests. The Macbooks' runtimes are quite impressive but if the "next notebooks in line" get a fair chance (the largest battery option), they are much less unique than your reviews make it appear...
You tested the Thinkpads (X240 & T440s) with the smallest battery option (48Wh vs 72Wh in the MBP):
MB Pro Retina 13" (72Wh, not replaceable)
Idle: 25h 35min
WiFi Surfing: 9h 29min
Thinkpad T440s (24+24Wh, one battery replaceable)
Idle: 11h 08min
WiFi Surfing: 5h 57min
Thinkpad x240 (24+24Wh, one battery replaceable)
Idle: 13h 41min
WiFi Surfing: 7h 56min
If we extrapolate those numbers to the Thinkpads' largest battery option (96Wh), things look rather different:
Thinkpad T440s (24+72Wh, one battery replaceable)
Idle: 22h 16min
WiFi Surfing: 11h 54min
Thinkpad x240 (24+72Wh, one battery replaceable)
Idle: 27h 22min
WiFi Surfing: 15h 52min
These numbers are only approximations but it's quite clear that the Thinkpads would handily beat the MBP in a fair comparison. They'd also beat the MacBook Air 13" and the X240 could even beat the Macbook Air 11". And the Thinkpads' batteries are replaceable on the fly!
The MacBooks are among the best notebooks out there but they don't deserve the hype.
If you could re-test the X240 and T440s with better specs (1080p IPS-screens, 24+72Wh batteries), that would be great!