Apple has officially released their long-awaited 16-inch MacBook Pro. It comes with many exciting new upgrades, and here’s all you need to know about themThis is the biggest update to the MacBook lineup in a long time. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is replacing the 15-inch model, so now you’ve got to choose between a 13 or 16-inch form factor.
Perhaps the two most important changes on this new machine is the bigger screen and redesigned keyboard. The 16-inch screen has slimmer bezels than previous generations. The screen’s resolution is a very crispy 3072×1920. That’s an improvement to the 2880×1800 resolution of the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Like previous MacBook Pro models, the display boasts a P3 color gamut and 500 nits of brightness.
The keyboard has also changed. Apple is going back to the older but more quiet and reliable scissor-switch design keyboard after numerous complaints from customers about stuck or repeating keys with the butterfly design keyboard. All said, the new keys gets 1 mm of travel distance up from 0.5 mm. Apple has gone even furthur, bringing back the physical escape key. That’s a big deal for software coders, who disliked the constantly bugging escape key on the touch bar.
You’ll also be glad to hear that the audio quality on the new 16-inch MacBook Pro has tremendously improved. There’s a six-speaker sound system as well as three “studio-quality” microphones. The sound output is at the same time stronger and clearer than before. Apple is particularly prominent on how good the microphones are though. They claim you can record professional audio without the need for an external microphone.
That’s a big claim to make, but in our testing the microphones have certainly been upgraded. You can have higher quality audio on your video conference calls, and you can even start a podcast on the machine.
The CPU on this machine has stayed the same as the last 15-inch mode. The computer’s base CPU is a 2.6 Ghz 9th Gen 6-core Intel Core i7, however you can spec it up to an 2.3 Ghz 9th Gen 8-core Intel Core i9 or even higher if you really need that extra power.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in its base configuration with 16GB of DDR4 ram, however you can spec it up all the way to a whopping 64GB of DDR4. That’s twice more than what the 15-inch MacBook Pro could offer. Note that this will be a pricy upgrade though, nearing the 4-digit range. As if that’s not crazy enough, Apple has went ahead and added an 8TB SSD storage option. Yes, you read that right, 8 TERABYTES. That’s colossal.
Another huge improvement Apple has made in the 16-inch model, is redesigning the entire thermal system. Apple claims a whopping 35% larger heat sink and 28% increased airflow through the fans. The battery has also gotten larger to now be a 100Wh battery. This complies with the FAA’s regulation in regards to limiting 100Wh and smaller Lithium ion batteries onboard flights. In terms of battery life, Apple claims an hour more than previous MacBook Pro generations, so the new machine is ready for up to 11 hours to web browsing.
The final upgrade on this new machine is the Graphics. The 16-inch baseline MacBook Pro comes with AMD Radeon Pro 5300M graphics, but you can configure it to Radeon Pro 5500M graphics with 8GB of GDDR4. This makes the 16-inch MacBook Pro by far the fastest MacBook Pro ever. The baseline delivers over two times faster performance than the previous 15-inch baseline model. That’s a huge upgrade.
Last but not least, the price has stayed the same. The baseline 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in at $2399. You get a better display, a more reliable keyboard, faster graphics, professional-grade audio, and better battery life all for the same price. That’s what we call a deal. You can order the 16-inch MacBook Pro here.
What do you think about the 16-inch MacBook Pro?