MacBook Pro 16–inch
Better in every way — this is the MacBook Pro you’ve been waiting for
$2,799 (entry–level model is $2,399) From Apple, apple.com
Features 16–inch Retina display (3072x1920), 2.3GHz 8–core Intel Core i9 processor, 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, Intel UHD Graphics 630, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, 1TB SSD, Touch Bar, Touch ID, 802.11ac Wi–Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 4x USB–C Thunderbolt 3 ports
Yes, it’s finally here! The much– rumored and utterly beguiling new MacBook Pro — armed with a suite of upgrades and improvements that make it one of the most significant Apple portable updates in years.
First, the most obvious change. The 15–inch MacBook Pro is dead. It’s been replaced by a 16–inch version, although its footprint (35.79x24.79cm when closed) is the same as the model it replaces, even if it is a little deeper and heavier — Apple’s narrowed the bezels around the screen to fit a 16–inch True Tone Retina display (3072x1980) in place of the 15.4–inch one.
Just as welcome is the new Magic Keyboard. Apple has finally ditched the butterfly switch keyboard, introduced in the 12–inch MacBook in 2015, and replaced it with a new scissor switch version that promises a better typing experience. More on this later.
It’s also solved another bugbear of the fourth–generation MacBook Pro: heat. Or rather, the throttling that occurred when the ninth–generation Intel Core processors inside them were under heavy load. Again, more on this later. And the final big change is the battery: the 16–inch MacBook Pro now has the largest possible battery allowable by the US Federal Aviation Authority. The new 100Whr version not only has the legs to power that larger display, it also delivers up to an hour more battery life, giving you up to 11 hours of wireless web or movie watching before it shuts down.
Those are the big changes, and they’re significant. Primarily because they show that Apple has listened to its customers and addressed most of the issues that arose when it last redesigned the MacBook Pro in 2016. Then its focus was on making the laptop as thin as possible, adding a butterfly switch keyboard and a Touch Bar (which is just as divisive now as it was then). The result was the aforementioned throttling issues, plus the launch of a butterfly keyboard repair program which was intended to address the reliability problems. Now it’s gone, and it looks like the 13–inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air could be getting scissor switch keyboards in 2020 if the rumors turn out to be true.
MORE HEAT THAN LIGHT
The ninth–gen Core i9 Apple fitted to the 15–inch MacBook Pro looked great on paper, boasting up to eight cores to the Core i7’s six, but it ran slower because the processor throttled back to stop itself from overheating. This wasn’t an issue in most everyday tasks, but for pros who needed that Core i9 grunt it was a disaster — especially in a premium laptop such as the MacBook Pro. And anecdotal evidence suggests the Core i7 throttled too.
Apple partially fixed the issue with a software update in July 2018, but it was the design of the Pro that caused the heat issues in the first place. Its cooling system couldn’t get heat away from the CPU fast enough. Now Apple has addressed that too. The 16–inch MacBook Pro has a redesigned cooling system with larger impellers (fans) that have more blades to push air through up to 28% faster, and a 35% larger heat sink too. The result, says Apple, is that the MacBook Pro can now deliver 12W more sustained maximum power, leading to a lot less throttling.
The rest of the MacBook Pro is largely unchanged. You get the same unibody enclosure, four USB–C (Thunderbolt 3) ports, plus a headphone jack on the right — and the same oversized trackpad as the 15–inch MacBook Pro. Slightly disappointingly, Apple hasn’t future–proofed the 16– inch Pro by equipping it with Wi–Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax), sticking with 802.11ac Wi–Fi instead. It’s also retained the ninth–gen (Coffee Lake) Intel Core CPUs of its predecessor, despite the fact that 10th–gen (Ice Lake and Comet Lake) mobile CPUs are available.
For now, there are two stock models to choose from: a $2,399 model equipped with a ninth–generation six–core Core i7, 16GB of 2666MHz memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and a discrete AMD Radeon 5330M graphics card with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. The step–up $2,799 model (on test here) is equipped with a ninth–gen 8–core 2.3GHz Intel Core i9, 16GB of 2666MHz memory, 1TB of SSD storage and a discrete AMD Radeon Pro 5500M graphics card, also with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. There’s a long list of build–to–order options too: you can fit up to 64GB of memory (for $800), add a powerful AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of graphics memory ($100) and a phenomenal 8TB of SSD storage (a snip at $2,200). You can also plump for a more powerful 2.4GHz Intel Core i9 at $200.
IN USE
The keyboard, then. The one in the 16–inch Pro now looks and feels like a cross between the “island” keyboard of the third–gen MacBook Pro and the shallower butterfly version of the fourth. The keys are individually backlit and use scissor switch mechanisms that afford them up to 1mm of travel. The keys are also spaced further apart, and are now further away from the Touch Bar. Apple’s also made the Touch Bar shorter, separating it from the Touch ID/Power button, while also reintroducing a physical Esc key. Finally, it’s also replaced the horrible, blocky cursor keys of the previous generation with a more traditional inverted–T design.
The result is a revelation. The keyboard feels “right” again, making the 2019 version much more pleasant to type on, with a suitably firm but springy (and less cramp–inducing) action. Shortening the Touch Bar and shifting it further away from the keyboard also makes you a lot less likely to hit it during fast ’n’ furious typing sessions. The return of a real Esc key is also very welcome.
At 3072x1920 pixels, the True Tone Retina display is not in 4K territory (3840x2160), but its narrower bezels make it feel less old–fashioned than the 15.4–inch display. And it feels bigger and more immersive too, even if that extra 1.5cm (measured diagonally) isn’t that much larger. However, the display delivers where it counts — like the previous generation it offers 500 nits brightness and the P3 wide color gamut to deliver bold, bright colors. It’s still the best display in any laptop.
But as George Lucas once said, sound is half the experience, and the 16–inch Pro delivers here too, with a new six–speaker sound system with dual force–cancelling woofers that deliver an extra half–octave of bass, while also minimizing vibration. The result is some of the best stereo sound you’ll have heard from laptop speakers. Sure, they’re never going to replace an AirPlay 2 speaker, but they’re good enough for casual listening.
Then there’s the performance. We put this model through a series of tests, then compared its benchmarks with previous MacBook Pros. The results are surprising. In Geekbench 4, it scored an average of 5209 in single– core performance compared to 5764 for the 15–inch mid–2019 MacBook Pro, although that machine had 32GB of RAM and a 2.4GHz i9 compared to the 16GB of RAM and 2.3GHz of the 16–inch Pro on test.
GAME POWER
In our Handbrake video conversion test, the 16–inch Pro absolutely spanked its 15–inch predecessor, taking seven minutes 31 seconds to transcode a 20–minute MKV video to MP4, whereas the 15–inch took 13 minutes. It was a similar story in our DaVinci Resolve rendering test, where we converted an effects–laden video. Whereas the 15–inch Pro did the job in 18 minutes 32 seconds, the 16–inch Pro took just 11 minutes, 27 seconds. In both tests, it’s clear that the improved thermodynamics of the 16–inch Pro have a big impact on its performance, despite the fact that the 16–inch Pro on test has a slower processor and 16GB
less memory than the 15–inch flagship we tested before.
When it comes to gaming, the 16– inch Pro is no slouch either, chalking up a respectable 29 frames per second (fps) in Rise Of The Tomb Raider at the default settings and 26 fps at the highest preset. In 2019 sequel Shadow
Of The Tomb Raider, it performed better, scoring an average 70 fps using the built–in benchmarking tool, while in our new Unigine Hunter 4.0 benchmark it averaged 96 fps.
Finally, there’s the 16–inch MacBook Pro’s battery life, and we’re pleased to report that it’s just as long–lasting as Apple claims. Despite the fact that it’s now driving a bigger display, boosting the capacity of the battery to 100Whr has made a difference. Expect it to last 11 hours between recharges when watching movies, listening to music and web surfing, but more intensive work or gaming sessions could cut that time in half. It’s a lot longer–lasting than the 15–inch, which could only manage about seven–and–a–half hours.
The 16–inch MacBook Pro is a huge improvement over the 15–inch version that preceded it. Not only does it have a bigger and better display that’s within touching distance of the 17–inch MacBook Pro of yore, but it combines that with a huge increase in really usable power, longer battery life, and a massively improved keyboard. Even the lack of Wi–Fi 6, reliance on ninth– gen Intel Core processors and the paucity of connectivity options don’t stop this from being one of the best MacBook Pros we’ve ever tested. If the horror stories surrounding the previous generation have held you back, there’s no longer a reason to wait. The 16–inch MacBook Pro is the machine the fourth–gen always could have been. We’ll take two, please.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A huge improvement over its predecessors, even if it doesn’t quite reach perfection.