Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro has arrived with an improved scissor keyboard and a bigger screen in what is pretty much the same body of the 15-inch model. It also starts at the same price of $2,399.
Apple’s much-awaited revamped MacBook Pro replaces the 15-inch variant moving forward. Everything about it is better, including the screen, the internals, and most importantly, the keyboard.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro has a slightly larger screen that sports a 3072 by 1920 resolution and has support for the P3 color gamut and Apple’s True Tone.
The company fitted a bigger, brighter display that can get up to 500 nits, but doesn’t support HDR.
The display panel has a slightly higher density of 226 PPI and Apple managed to keep the overall body size of the 15-inch MacBook, it’s just slightly thicker and slightly heavier (0.7 mm thicker, 0.3 pounds heavier).
The most anticipated improvement, however, is the keyboard. Apple has finally moved back to use the tried-and-tested scissor switch mechanism that many people have come to appreciate in models prior to the 2016-2019 MacBook Pros.
The new “Magic Keyboard” does have a smaller, 1mm travel when compared to the 2015 MacBook Pro,
but Apple believes it has nailed the balance by making the keys slightly smaller to leave more ample space between them.
And they should also prove easier to repair, with no need to replace the entire front part.
There’s still a touchbar at the top of the keyboard, but now there’s a physical Esc key, and the arrow keys are now placed in the standard, inverted T alignment.
As for the internals, Apple offers a choice of 6-core and 8-core Intel CPUs backed up by anywhere between 16 and 64 GB of DDR4 RAM.
The base storage has also been increased to a 512 GB SSD, and can go up to 8TB if you’re willing to pay in excess of $6,000 for the privilege.
Of course, with all that power comes greater responsibility to keep the new MacBook cool,
so Apple has included a new thermal system that is able to push more air through larger heatsinks, and various design touches that should improve overall heat dissipation for sensitive components.
The biggest improvement should be seen in sustained workloads, where the new thermal system is supposed to handle an additional 12 watts when compared to previous models.
The battery capacity has also been increased to 100 Wh (from 83.6Wh), which Apple says should be good for up to 11 hours of web browsing or movie playback.
Speaking of movie playback, the new MacBook features a six-speaker system that Apple is calling “force-cancelling woofers.” Otherwise,
the connectivity options remain unchanged from the standard four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone jack.
For those of you who want to get your hands on the new MacBook Pro, it’s available for pre-order on Apple’s online store.
The maxed out configuration will run you a jaw-dropping $6,099, but comes with an 8-core processor, 8TB of SSD storage and 64 GB of RAM, which is a lot of power indeed