Nice innovations, adding physical escape button and scissor switch. I am pretty sure next macbook will set the new industry standard by introducing built-in cardreader and hdmi port. Maybe even removable battery, but this will be truly a revolution, i doubt that.
I understand the sarcasm and I appreciate it. I hated these aspects of the new macbook pro design which is why thus far I've still stuck with my mid 2012 rMBP:
- Touchbar - Loss of magsafe power connector - Loss of useful ports - Low travel unreliable butterfly keyboard
Apple has now addressed two of these issues (I hated the touch bar because it removed the physical escape key; now that it's back, I just dislike the touch bar but could live with it).
I can live without the ports. Really the only ports I have ever used are USB3 once or twice over 7 years, and sdcard occasionally to get pictures off of my camera. I can find alternatives.
That leaves magsafe. Why can't apply just have a regular magsafe power connector in addition to their USB-C ports? Apple hubris astounds sometimes.
I agree with your gripes except for the magsafe. I like USB as an all-in-one port.
The thing I don't like about this offering is that even with a 100 Wh battery it only gets 11 hours of battery life. I feel like it should be higher than that and leave room for when the battery is only at 80% of capacity.
Different use cases I guess. I've had my macbook pro for 7 years now and I don't think it's ever been away from a charger for more than 10 hours once. So it doesn't really matter to me that its battery might only last 11.
And magsafe -- it's just so convenient. You can pop it in easily and it pops out easily and safely when it gets yanked sometimes. I bet if I searched though I'd find that people have created magsafe cords for after market ... something that has a magsafe connector somewhere down the cord so that when the cord gets pulled it just breaks apart harmlessly instead of yanking the mac.
But still, Apple innovated with the magsafe connector, it still has all of the same benefits it ever had, I don't like that they abandoned this useful tech so that I have to find an equivalent in the after market.
I have a mid-2015 MBP and had to replace the power connector. It was getting very hot in use and then failed. Close inspection found the metal blackened.
I suspect a poor connection caused by just pressing magnet together. I have often had to remove little bits of iron that must come from little dust etc at the bottom of my bike pannier bags; the MagSafe attracts that crud.
With the new brick putting out ~100 Watts and the new battery meaning you're less likely to have to plug it in away from its base location, the new MBPs need a solid connection and are less likely to benefit from the breakaway feature of MagSafe. Not everybody will appreciate it, but to my eye it'll mean less downtime for my usage scenario.
There are lots of 3rd party MagSafe-like connectors now, some of which even permit data transfer. By using USB-C you are no longer tied to a proprietary charging cable.
The iPhone supports WIFI. It may be because they didn't have the proper HW for these machines, or perhaps the driver will be updated later on. They've done that in the past.
I think you're missing a word here, I'm confused by this sentence, "Joining this is also the Radeon Pro 5300M, which is the base SKU for the new MacBook Pro. On paper, this chip offers around 20% performance than the 5500M."
and I think you got carried away with your "Vs". " After shifting to DDR4 and adding a 32GB option on the last-generation notebook, for the new 16-inch model Apple is doubling the VRAM options again, with the new top-end SKU now offering 64GB of VRAM. "
Funny how the airflow diagram shows the air turning red (presumably hot) while inside the cooling fans rather than while passing over the fins of the heatsink itself where it would actually encounter the largest increase.
Seems like a significant improvement compared to the previous model. The base model is good enough for most, and definitely a better value than the base 15.4". Tempting to upgrade from my 13" MBP, but I think I'll hold off for a 10 nm CPU, LPDDR, and WiFi 6...
I'm not kidding. It has identical specs to the Dell Inspiron 5000, a $649 laptop, minus the GPU and slightly higher res screen. And the Dell you can get a touch screen.
I don't get it, this thing easily has a 300% margin.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/laptops/new-15-int... 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 Processor Windows 10 Home 64-bit English Intel® Iris Plus Graphics with shared graphics memory 16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 2666MHz 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive 4lbs $830
https://www.apple.com/us/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/... 2.6GHz 6-core 9th-generation Intel Core i7 processor Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory 512GB SSD storage 16-inch Retina display with True Tone Touch Bar and Touch ID Four Thunderbolt 3 ports 4.3lbs $2400
It's not even in the same league in terms of hardware (aluminum vs plastic, 1080p vs Retina, better sound, better CPU, better GPU, no TB3 ports, crap video card, 100Mbps BT)?
I was pricing one today. Not happy at adding in $120 of adapters to be able to establish the same connections my current MBP has. Partly the price, but also the clunkiness of carrying SD card and HDMI adapters. The configuration options are somewhat scary. It has me wondering if I could just have one Mac and use a dock at my workstation. 8 cores, 64gb ram, 4tb SSD 8GB video card certainly sounds workstation enough.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
29 Comments
Back to Article
Duwelon - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Touchbar. Nope.milkywayer - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I'd love to have one of these but dang the $2700 price when you add up the tax is crazy.mkozakewich - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
The touch bar is really nice.A5 - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
The version where they will finally be able to switch to LPDDR4X will be nice.Tim_Crook - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Nice innovations, adding physical escape button and scissor switch. I am pretty sure next macbook will set the new industry standard by introducing built-in cardreader and hdmi port. Maybe even removable battery, but this will be truly a revolution, i doubt that.bji - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I understand the sarcasm and I appreciate it. I hated these aspects of the new macbook pro design which is why thus far I've still stuck with my mid 2012 rMBP:- Touchbar
- Loss of magsafe power connector
- Loss of useful ports
- Low travel unreliable butterfly keyboard
Apple has now addressed two of these issues (I hated the touch bar because it removed the physical escape key; now that it's back, I just dislike the touch bar but could live with it).
I can live without the ports. Really the only ports I have ever used are USB3 once or twice over 7 years, and sdcard occasionally to get pictures off of my camera. I can find alternatives.
That leaves magsafe. Why can't apply just have a regular magsafe power connector in addition to their USB-C ports? Apple hubris astounds sometimes.
ingwe - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I agree with your gripes except for the magsafe. I like USB as an all-in-one port.The thing I don't like about this offering is that even with a 100 Wh battery it only gets 11 hours of battery life. I feel like it should be higher than that and leave room for when the battery is only at 80% of capacity.
bji - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Different use cases I guess. I've had my macbook pro for 7 years now and I don't think it's ever been away from a charger for more than 10 hours once. So it doesn't really matter to me that its battery might only last 11.And magsafe -- it's just so convenient. You can pop it in easily and it pops out easily and safely when it gets yanked sometimes. I bet if I searched though I'd find that people have created magsafe cords for after market ... something that has a magsafe connector somewhere down the cord so that when the cord gets pulled it just breaks apart harmlessly instead of yanking the mac.
But still, Apple innovated with the magsafe connector, it still has all of the same benefits it ever had, I don't like that they abandoned this useful tech so that I have to find an equivalent in the after market.
Alistair - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
buy that usb 3 "magsafe" adaptermkozakewich - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I'll bet you can get 16 hours of typing. I think they said 11 because they're expecting to use a bit more power.WaltFrench - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I have a mid-2015 MBP and had to replace the power connector. It was getting very hot in use and then failed. Close inspection found the metal blackened.I suspect a poor connection caused by just pressing magnet together. I have often had to remove little bits of iron that must come from little dust etc at the bottom of my bike pannier bags; the MagSafe attracts that crud.
With the new brick putting out ~100 Watts and the new battery meaning you're less likely to have to plug it in away from its base location, the new MBPs need a solid connection and are less likely to benefit from the breakaway feature of MagSafe. Not everybody will appreciate it, but to my eye it'll mean less downtime for my usage scenario.
KPOM - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
There are lots of 3rd party MagSafe-like connectors now, some of which even permit data transfer. By using USB-C you are no longer tied to a proprietary charging cable.olafgarten - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
This should be available soonish https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thundermag-the-...James5mith - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Did Apple skip Wifi6 because it's not ratified yet?solipsism - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
The iPhone supports WIFI. It may be because they didn't have the proper HW for these machines, or perhaps the driver will be updated later on. They've done that in the past.warrenk81 - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I think you're missing a word here, I'm confused by this sentence, "Joining this is also the Radeon Pro 5300M, which is the base SKU for the new MacBook Pro. On paper, this chip offers around 20% performance than the 5500M."and I think you got carried away with your "Vs". " After shifting to DDR4 and adding a 32GB option on the last-generation notebook, for the new 16-inch model Apple is doubling the VRAM options again, with the new top-end SKU now offering 64GB of VRAM. "
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Thanks. I write about video cards so much that apparently my auto-correct has picked up a habit of thinking I mean VRAM when I write DRAM...Assimilator87 - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
LOL! That's the nerdiest thing I've ever heard!laok - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
It's just too bad they charge $400 to upgrade from 16GB RAM to 32GB.Hopefully it will not have heat throttle problem, and the fan is not too loud when it runs at full power.
I do miss the magsafe power connector.
PeachNCream - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Funny how the airflow diagram shows the air turning red (presumably hot) while inside the cooling fans rather than while passing over the fins of the heatsink itself where it would actually encounter the largest increase.drexnx - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
fans must be so powerful they compress the air and heat it up like mini turbo compressors! /snicolaim - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Seems like a significant improvement compared to the previous model. The base model is good enough for most, and definitely a better value than the base 15.4". Tempting to upgrade from my 13" MBP, but I think I'll hold off for a 10 nm CPU, LPDDR, and WiFi 6...johnny-12 - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
“The embiggened laptop”What a perfectly cromulent way to phrase it.
Xex360 - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
What's the point of having 16" if you keep the same stupid keyboard layout, if you work with numbers it's just useless.zsh - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
bigger screenpeevee - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Is battery user-replaceable?Samus - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
$2400 for a $650 laptop.I'm not kidding. It has identical specs to the Dell Inspiron 5000, a $649 laptop, minus the GPU and slightly higher res screen. And the Dell you can get a touch screen.
I don't get it, this thing easily has a 300% margin.
web2dot0 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/laptops/new-15-int...10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 Processor
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Intel® Iris Plus Graphics with shared graphics memory
16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 2666MHz
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
4lbs
$830
https://www.apple.com/us/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/...
2.6GHz 6-core 9th-generation Intel Core i7 processor
Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory
16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
512GB SSD storage
16-inch Retina display with True Tone
Touch Bar and Touch ID
Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
4.3lbs
$2400
It's not even in the same league in terms of hardware (aluminum vs plastic, 1080p vs Retina, better sound, better CPU, better GPU, no TB3 ports, crap video card, 100Mbps BT)?
What are you smoking?
CalaverasGrande - Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - link
I was pricing one today. Not happy at adding in $120 of adapters to be able to establish the same connections my current MBP has. Partly the price, but also the clunkiness of carrying SD card and HDMI adapters.The configuration options are somewhat scary. It has me wondering if I could just have one Mac and use a dock at my workstation.
8 cores, 64gb ram, 4tb SSD 8GB video card certainly sounds workstation enough.