MacBook Pro gets upgrades
Now equipped with more powerful processors
apple has updated the MacBook Pro with new processors, including an eight-core chip for the first time in a MacBook Pro. The faster chips are eighthand ninth-generation processors from Intel.
According to Apple, equipping a MacBook Pro with an eight-core i9 processor gives it two times faster performance than a quadcore MacBook Pro. When compared with a six-core MacBook Pro, the eight-core device
will get you 40% more performance. The 15in MacBook Pro with a six-core chip starts at £2,349 and comes with a 256GB SSD and Radeon Pro 555X graphics processor. Opting for the 15in MacBook Pro with 512GB SSD, Radeon Pro 560X and eight-core Intel i9 chip will set you back £2,699.
The eight-core processors are limited to the 15in MacBook Pro. The 13in Touch Bar model hasn’t been left out in the cold,
however, as its quad-core chips have been updated too. However, the non-Touch Bar 13in device remains the same.
The chip update came as a surprise. Other than a press release, there was no official fanfare around the upgrade, nor were the changes unveiled at a special event. Apple has done this before, even for relatively major updates, such as when it introduced six-core processors, a True Tone display and improved keyboard to the MacBook Pro in July 2018.
Key changes
Alongside these upgrades, Apple has also updated its Keyboard Service Program to include all of the new 2019 MacBook Pro models, as well as its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air devices from 2018.
The Keyboard Service Program offers to repair the keyboards on eligible models if they experience one of a number of
behaviours: characters unexpectedly repeating, not appearing on-screen or keys feeling “sticky” or inconsistent. If your keyboard suffers these problems, Apple will repair it free of charge.
The ‘butterfly’ keyboards in Apple’s recent MacBook Pro models have been controversial in some quarters due to their allegedly high failure rate. The 2018 MacBook Pro featured an updated key mechanism with a thin membrane over the switch, which was thought to prevent dust from entering and causing problems. According to an iFixit teardown, the membrane in the new MacBook Pro is made of a different material – though the exact purpose of changing the material is unclear at the time of writing.
In addition to that, iFixit noted that the metal dome used in the key mechanism – the important part that registers key presses – appears to be made from a different material. As with the membrane, iFixit was unable to determine exactly what the new design was intended to fix, other than perhaps general reliability.
the 13in touch Bar model hasn’t been left out in the cold, as it’s been updated too