Should You Buy Apple’s New 16-Inch MacBook Pro?
Even if you don’t want to lug around the world’s most bulky laptop (or at least one that is slightly larger than an already bulky 15-inch laptop), the 16-inch MacBook Pro’s single buyback feature should be enough to grab anyone’s interest: Brand new “Magic” keyboard.
Keyboard? Really?
Yes. Apple’s butterfly keyboard was junk and resulted in all sorts of problems and annoying warranty replacements , and the company finally realized it was wrong and returned to a scissor keyboard in its new 16-inch MacBook Pro. announced today without much fanfare.
This step should sound familiar to anyone who’s been clinging to their 2015 MacBook’s stunning keyboard, but that’s not all. Apple is also adding back the physical Escape key instead of the virtual touchpad that you press during a forced quit process for an error-prone app. I’m looking forward to.
Comparing the 16-inch MacBook Pro to its forgotten predecessor
I’m also thrilled that Apple, in an odd move, killed the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro by introducing the 16-inch version without raising the price at all. Apple’s latest MacBook will set you back $ 2,399 as its predecessor (starting price) – and you’ll get an extra inch on your display as a result of the deal (and an increase in resolution from 2880-by-1800 pixels to 3072-by-1920). You also get 256GB more storage by default (starting at 512GB). Good.
So really you do not have much choice if you want a MacBook Pro larger size – unless you go to a third-party company or not will repair that is actually not the worst idea in the world, if you can find a good deal (and ignore this keyboard). Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro uses the same Coffee Lake processors as its previous 15-inch version that Apple just updated in May, as well as nearly the same memory (2666MHz DDR4 vs 2333MHz DDR4, and you you can max it up to 64GB on a 16-inch MacBook Pro, not 32GB.)
The integrated graphics of the two MacBook Pros are the same – Intel UHD Graphics 630 – although the discrete graphics card of the 16-inch MacBook gets an advantage over AMD Radeon Pro 5300M or Radeon Pro 5500M, depending on which version of MacBook Pro you choose. (You can max out your six-core or eight-core MacBook Pro to a Radeom Pro 5500M with 8GB of storage.)
As mentioned, you get double the initial storage on a 16-inch MacBook Pro, and expandable to a total of 8TB – double what you would get on a 15-inch MacBook Pro.
You get one extra hour of battery life with your 16-inch MacBook Pro by upgrading from an 83.6-watt to a 100-watt battery. The 16-inch MacBook Pro weighs approximately 0.3 pounds more than its predecessor, and its overall dimensions are 14.09 x 9.68 x 0.64 inches compared to the 15-inch MacBook Pro 13.75 x 9.48 x 0.61 “.” In other words, your 16-inch MacBook Pro is about one inch wider. To achieve a bigger screen without being horribly large, Apple has slightly reduced the bezels on the sides of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The two systems have the same number of Thunderbolt 3 ports, the same Wi-Fi 802.11ac – I’m guessing this is a 3×3 setup but not confirmed – and the same color options, good old silver and space gray. However, the 16-inch MacBook Pro has improved speaker settings; You now have six separate speakers, rather than a dual-speaker stereo system like on previous MacBook Pros. The 16-inch MacBook Pro also features improved microphones that promise additional noise cancellation.
So … should you buy?
First, we have no idea what offerings you might see in November, and it is possible that you can buy the newly refreshed 15-inch MacBook Pro for a few hundred dollars less. This is a small saving considering the starting price of said laptop, but I’d say it’s worth the wait two weeks. It’s still a great laptop with great specs (and a great keyboard).
Otherwise, you really don’t have much choice. If you want a large MacBook Pro, you’ll have to go for the 16-inch. You can save $ 200 on the base price of each if you buy it from the Apple Education Store , but that’s as good a discount as you get on brand new hardware. Don’t expect Black Friday sales of this big laptop, but be sure to take advantage of Apple’s one-year free trial of Apple TV + , which will at least make its starting price a little less painful.