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We are not fans of this development, because our reviews of the models showed the more expensive Touch Bar model was not the best choice for every user. We ordered our test sample directly from Apple's Austrian online shop; it is not a special press sample from Apple. We already know the chassis design of the MacBook Pro 13 since and the current model is still available in the colors silver as well as space gray.
There is still not much to criticize in terms of quality, which is also the case for tactile feeling of the metal surfaces. Based on our own experiences we can say that the case still leaves an excellent impression after longer periods of use, while plastic cases are more prone to wear greasy surfaces etc.
We recommend our review of the MacBook Pro 13 for more details on the case. The following pictures are from the model as well. You still notice the age of the case as soon as you start to compare the weight and the dimensions, respectively. The MacBook Pro 13 is hardly a brick at little more than 1. There are more and more devices with slimmer bezels, which enables larger display, and the weight is going down as well. The basic connectivity did not change and you still get 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB Type-C connectors as well as a 3.
The switch to Coffee Lake-U CPUs provides more PCIe lanes though, so all ports are operated with full speed the two ports on the right side were previously limited to 2x speed. There are more and more USB-C devices, but you will probably still need adapters in practice.
We noticed some incidents with lost packages and higher ping times on the model, but the connection was not interrupted. The communication module of the new MacBook Pro was updated as well. The biggest change is the support for Bluetooth 5. Apple customers still do not get a WWAN module; Apple focuses on the combination with smartphones instead. Apple equips the MacBook Pro with its own T2 chip, which combines several functions including storage encryption and secure boot features.
The user does not notice anything though. The access to the laptop is still secured by the Touch-ID fingerprint scanner, which is quick and reliable. Apple only ships its devices with a month warranty, despite the high price. It is possible to extend the warranty to 36 months Apple Care Protection Plan , which costs Euros. An on-site service, which is available from companies like Dell, HP, or Lenovo, however, is not included.
There have been a lot of discussions about the keyboard on the current MacBook Pro lineup. Apple uses keys with a very shallow travel to realize the slim base unit. The manufacturer uses its own Butterfly keys with very precise and loud key strokes, but the typing experience is just not comfortable for every user. The integrated background illumination is a major advantage, and its intensity can be adjusted in 15 steps. It is also automatically adjusted to the environment.
The latter sounds like nothing special, but it is unfortunately not supported by the majority of Windows laptops. Then there is the problem with defective keyboards on the MacBook Pros, and Apple even introduced a special repair program. Even small objects dirt, crumbs, etc. Apple did not mention this issue when they announced the models, but advertised a quieter keyboard.
Our colleagues from iFixit already disassembled a model and found a new silicone membrane underneath the keys. They ensure a quieter typing noise, but also seem to prevent the intrusion of dirt, so it might be an reaction to the problems after all. We can obviously not check whether this solution works in the long term. Subjectively, you will notice a distinct difference between the old keyboard like on the MacBook Pro 15 and the new one. The key stroke is muffled and not as light as before.
The noise difference, however, is only noticeable when you really hammer on the keys. Overall, it is hard to say whether the key stroke is improved, but it will once again take some time before you are used to the new keys. Update: Internal service documents from Apple confirm that the new membrane is supposed to prevent debris from entering the butterfly keys. The big trackpad did not change this year.
It is still the benchmark among touchpads and is easy to use. Even gestures with multiple fingers are no problem thanks to the large surface area. Basic controls also work well running on Windows Bootcamp , but the drivers are not as well optimized as for Apple's own operating system. You also still get the Touch Bar above the keyboard, which can show different contents based on the application.
It shows basic controls like brightness or volume by default, but you can also display the standard function keys F1-F Whether the Touch Bar improves the productivity mainly depends on the software support. The basic specs of the The TrueTone support is the only new feature and we already know it from the iPhone or iPad, respectively. The white balance automatically adjusts according to the color temperature of the ambient light, which is supposed to create a more natural picture.
The manual Night Shift mode, which reduces blue color contents, is still available. The latter can also be adjusted in the settings automatic activation depending on the time, warmer or cooler picture. True Tone is subjectively very pleasant and you get used to it very quickly. We do not know if it is just a panel revision or if a new panel was required for the True Tone functionality.
Our test model of the MacBook Pro manages an average luminance of little more than nits. This means it meets the advertised value, but our two test devices especially the non-Touch Bar MBP 13 were even brighter. However, we also see improvements for the brightness distribution as well as the black value 0. The factory calibration is also a bit worse compared to last year, at least compared to the Touch Bar model.
However, we are criticizing on a very high level here, because all the deviations compared to the P3 reference are already below the important mark of 3. These values are similar to last year's model. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting.
The frequency of Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. Flickering occurs even at high brightness setting and may have an effect on the user during everyday use. If PWM was detected, an average of minimum: 5 - maximum: Hz was measured. The integrated eDRAM cache is another advantage for the processor, but primarily for the integrated graphics adapter. This year we get much more performance in multi-thread scenarios thanks to the new quad-core processors.
Apple's devices are usually pretty good in terms of performance utilization, so we are eager to see the results of the new quad-cores. We will have a closer look at this topic in the section GPU Performance below. They offer four instead of two CPU cores, which improves the multi-core performance dramatically.
Our entry-level spec is equipped with the Core i5 with a base frequency of 2. The price is an interesting detail. There are obviously differences for every manufacturer, but the additional charge of Euros for the Core i7 is extremely high. Apple usually removed the TDP limit for Intel processors, so the temperature was the only limiting factor. This is the case here as well, and we can see consumption values of almost 50 Watts.
The Cinebench R15 Single score is in the expected range, but we were surprised when we saw the Multi score. So how is this possible? We observed the clocks and the power consumption of the processor with the tool Intel Power Gadget macOS.
The processor starts with the full 3. The consumption fluctuates heavily between after that between W , which obviously impacts the clocks. And we are talking about one single run of the Multi test. Even this performance level cannot be maintained due to the high temperatures. Update: Apple released a software update, which improves the CPU performance significantly. The graph below shows the new results yellow line and you can see that the performance is steady during our Cinebench loop.
We are extremely surprised by the supposedly bad efficiency of the Coffee Lake-U processor. We tested the Kaby Lake-R quad-cores extensively over the last couple of months, because they are shipped in almost every subnotebook. It runs at a steady clock of 3. This is obviously not just Apple's problem, but Intel is to blame as well.
This begs the question why the new 28W models are not based on Kaby Lake-R. We have two models on the Pocket-lint team — one has had its keyboard replaced and the other has had several keys re-seated. While the display remains a This essentially means it will adjust the display depending on your ambient lighting conditions. Unlike True Tone on the iPhone X — which we've found to be patchy — we find the MacBook Pro's screen looks great in everything but very bright sunlight.
As we mentioned Apple hasn't upgraded much externally but internally it's a very different story. The performance improvements across the board. The model on review here housed the 2. We ran a Geekbench benchmark just to see how much beefier this new Mac is. Sure, we'd certainly expected a bit of an uplift over the Core iU model, but the performance increase clocked was an incredible 83 percent rise in overall multi-core performance.
In our real-world battery tests, we got around eight practical hours out of our review model using predominantly Photoshop, Chrome and Microsoft Office. The XPS is best of the trio for battery life. But the MacBook is in and around what we'd expect. If you need more power for your work then the larger model may make more sense.
The inch doesn't have discrete graphics options, which we do feel is a shame, but the inch has more space to handle the heat from the Radeon Pro X. Aside from graphics, the inch model is a step-up in power since six-core Intel Core i7 and i9 processors are offered. Whether you need that kind of power is very much dependent on your needs. But all this comes at extra expense — and it can become quite considerable!
Still controversial, the Touch Bar is a configurable OLED screen strip that replaced the space where the F-keys are on a conventional keyboard. The display is totally context-sensitive, so it changes depending on what app you're using. And it's beautifully crisp and clean even in daylight conditions. For some apps, like Microsoft Word, it can provide you with easy shortcut access to key functions. In Apple's Photos app you can also use it to scroll through images, which is very useful.
And in iTunes you can forward through a track, for example. The Touch Bar's main issue is that you might simply not use it. Having a hand on the trackpad and keyboard feels like the norm. Looking down and having to move your hand to the top of the keyboard is not. It's tempting to suggest that it's superfluous and that Apple should just embrace touchscreen controls in MacOS While the Touch Bar is very configurable via System Preferences, for simple functions like changing the system volume we find it less useful than having real, physical keys.
However, one aspect of the Touch bar is ideal: the integrated TouchID fingerprint sensor. It seems a bit odd using TouchID now that it's not used on Apple's top-end iPhones, but it's so useful for unlocking this Mac. However, if you use an Apple Watch you'll know that you can auto-unlock your Mac with it, too. The MacBook Pro is a great performance laptop, but it comes at a price that can get ridiculous with various tick-box upgrades.
Still, it's a workhorse that delivers on its pro-name promise with style. Learn more Home Laptops Laptop reviews Apple laptop reviews. Why you can trust Pocket-lint. Our quick take The MacBook Pro has so much going for it.
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The MacBook Pro inch has an identical design to its predecessor, which is good and bad. On the positive side, the aluminum design still feels. The Apple MacBook Pro 13 is powerful enough for almost any requirements thanks to the implementation of a native quad-core CPU. Only the GPU. Cons ; CPU: GHz Intel Core iU (quad-core, 8 threads, 8MB cache, up to GHz) ; Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics ; RAM: 16GB (2,