Depending on who you listen to, Apple have either designed a machine that is finally worthy of the Pro moniker or missed the chance to make Macbook great again, with yesterday’s release of a new model.
Both parties make good points, but if you need more info: here’s the full breakdown. The keyboard, touch bar, speed, price, and (lack of an) SD card slot are just the beginning. Dive in.
New(ish) Keyboard
Apple hasn’t fundamentally redesigned the controversial flat keyboards, which has some tech journalists worried this new Macbook could still be prone to having sticky keys—a problem which affects a small percentage of devices. When you’re a company as big as Apple, though, such a problem is a big deal, because a small percentage of your customer base is still a lot of irate people.
That said, this third-gen “butterfly-switch” keyboard has certainly been improved. The keys feel different—more like the keys on the popular, pre-2016 MacBook Pro redesign. The keyboard’s also quieter, which should come in handy if you are prone to pounding out emails at all hours of the night.
Hands Free Siri
Apple has now introduced the T2 chip, which handles fingerprint scanning and Touch Bar duties, from the iMac Pro into the MacBook Pro, enabling users to interact Siri without having to press a button.
Processing Speed
Both the 13-inch and 15in MacBook Pros with Touch Bar will now come with the latest eighth-generation Intel Core i5, i7 and i9 processors, bringing them up to speed (literally) with competition from Windows PC manufacturers such as Huawei and Dell.
The 13in laptop gains quad-core versions of the i5 and i7 processors, which Apple says will be up to twice as fast as the old ones, and the larger 15inch laptop has gained 6-core i7 and i9 processors, which are supposed to be 70% faster. Oh and who could forget: the memory space available in the larger laptop has also been doubled to 32GB, for good measure.
Colour Control
The new Macbooks have been endowed with the True Tone colour control system from Apple’s iPads, which uses light sensors to adjust the colour temperature of the display to (automatically) best match the light in your environment.
Basics
The four Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, battery life and screen resolution are reportedly unchanged. Also, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t come in a version with the regular function row (hence the hefty price), which could suggest this feature is on its way out for good.
Price
The ‘entry level’ configuration, with an Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD costs $1,800 USD. The highest configuration model stacks up to a hefty $3,700 USD.
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