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16bitplus

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 22, 2018
47
52
I was curious what everyone thinks about the new 16".

  • What spec did you order?
  • What are you upgrading from?
  • What kind of work do you do on it?
  • How is it performing for you so far?
 
I was curious what everyone thinks about the new 16".

  • What spec did you order?
  • What are you upgrading from?
  • What kind of work do you do on it?
  • How is it performing for you so far?
-Base config in Silver
-I have a few computers at the moment. Surface Laptop 3 (intel version - 15")
-Home use with minor photo and video editing
-Perfect! Not a single complaint thus far (other than Catalina but that effect all Macbook's)
 
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Directly compared to the base 2018 15.4" model:

- I can type way faster on the butterfly keyboard. I am shocked to say that I might like it more than the new one.
- Speakers are fantastic. I was stunned.
- Sadly, my 16" has excessive coil whine / noise coming from the SSD whatever. We've discussed it before. It sucks.
- Weight and size increase are a little cumbersome, because now it's not fitting in two of my bags anymore
- Otherwise, the speed is almost identical in Geekbench and I don't notice any improvements at all.

I really wanted to get rid off the 15.4" before the resale-value completely plummets, but I might keep it and deal with the fact that the keyboard might need a replacement at some point in the next 3 1/2 years. So all in all I'm not that happy about my 16" and I will almost certainly not buy it again after returning the current unit.
 
2.4 8GB GPU 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
Upgrading from a 2015 iMac (Will get a speperate external monitor)
For 4K projects in FCP. Haven't tested yet, but today for sure.
Performance is great. A bit warm in the lap. Side car a bit laggy, but a cool feature. Speakers are amazing.
 
I was curious what everyone thinks about the new 16".

  • What spec did you order?
  • What are you upgrading from?
  • What kind of work do you do on it?
  • How is it performing for you so far?
  • I ordered the base model
  • 2018 MacBook Air
  • Photos/Video Editing and all personal stuff. Work stuff
  • Performance is great
 
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i tried it out in the store, love the new keyboard, if only they update the 13inch, as much as i dislike my 2018 15inch, it doesn't make economic sense for me to ditch it and get the 16inch, at least for couple years.
 
Base model.
13" 2019 MBP
Tech contractor
Good. Larger than expected, keyboard is nice but backlight leaks more than on butterfly. Speakers are awesome. Would have liked a better facetime camera, it is embarrassing when others are on their ipad and super clear and I'm a blurry mess.
 
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i tried it out in the store, love the new keyboard, if only they update the 13inch, as much as i dislike my 2018 15inch, it doesn't make economic sense for me to ditch it and get the 16inch, at least for couple years.
wish I had your sense!

tried it out in the store myself and couldn’t resist pulling the trigger. I got the higher end model w/ edu discount. I have a 13” 2018 MBP also (the quad core i5 version but with only 8GB ram)

This 16 incher is definitely nice and if I were coming in with a real need to upgrade, the base 16 for $2400 would be a no brainer in my mind as the best option. But that said, I don’t feel like this is worth $2700 (or even only 1500 after selling my 13”). Currently debating whether to return the 16” or sell the 13”. Luckily I have until the end of the month.

I do Hobby level landscape and nightscape photography and I’m torn between the bigger display with a bit more power under the hood vs the thin and light portability of my 13”.
 
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wish I had your sense!

tried it out in the store myself and couldn’t resist pulling the trigger. I got the higher end model w/ edu discount. I have a 13” 2018 MBP also (the quad core i5 version but with only 8GB ram)

This 16 incher is definitely nice and if I were coming in with a real need to upgrade, the base 16 for $2400 would be a no brainer in my mind as the best option. But that said, I don’t feel like this is worth $2700 (or even only 1500 after selling my 13”). Currently debating whether to return the 16” or sell the 13”. Luckily I have until the end of the month.

I do Hobby level landscape and nightscape photography and I’m torn between the bigger display with a bit more power under the hood vs the thin and light portability of my 13”.
i value portability since i travel alot, if you don't go back and forth every week you can get away with 16 inch.

i was very tempted, considering selling my 2018 at a loss just to cover parts of the expense, but then realized i have a wedding to attend so for now my wallet stay shut haha.
 
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Yeah totally agree. You can use a 16” on an airplane tray table, but the 13” is really the perfect travel and library/coffee shop form factor.
 
I was curious what everyone thinks about the new 16".

  • What spec did you order?
  • What are you upgrading from?
  • What kind of work do you do on it?
  • How is it performing for you so far?

  • Higher-end standard configuration (i9/16GB/5500M-4GB/1TB)
  • From a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro
  • As a PhD student, I mainly do ordinary organizational work and some small load calculation on this machine when I'm at home. I have a 2018 i7 Mac mini at office for more energy consumed calculation/simulation. I also use my MacBook Pro to control the Mac mini in distance.
  • The 16-inch MBP is definitely bulkier than previous 15-inch ones. However, I could feel the improved thermal design. I got my previous 15-inch MBP repaired many times for the defective butterfly keyboard, so I'm very happy to get this scissor switch keyboard with better durability. But I feel that it's kind of slower to type on this keyboard (versus previous butterfly keys).
 
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I notice that the screen bounces a little bit when you move it around. The screen encasing is so much thinner, it used to not do that.
 
I went into the Apple store today to pick up a birthday gift for my wife. I decided to try out the new keyboard on the 16" MBP a second time; I gave it a try a few days ago, as well. Oddly enough, I don't prefer it to the butterfly keyboard, and I really hate the butterfly keyboard. This could be because I'm simply used to the butterfly design at this point, even though I detest it. Perhaps I would need a week or so to get used to the 16" MBP keyboard, but after the two times that I've tried using it, I believe it's a lateral move and not a step forward. Where I do think it's actually a step forward is how it gives me confidence that I'm typing the keys that I intend to type. I feel that the new keyboard design is better in that regard, though not perfect. By touch, I do notice that it has more key travel than the butterfly design but it doesn't feel satisfying to me, for some strange reason.

When I think about my ideal keyboard, I think I'm longing for the 2015 scissor switch design - taller, smaller sized keys with more spacing in between them. While I don't get to type on the older keyboards very often, when I do I feel at home. They definitely feel pillowy, too pillowy, but I think the formula was a great package, all around. It wasn't Lenovo great but as good as Apple has designed in recent history.

When I listened to Apple's rationale about returning to the magic keyboard because customers "love it", I couldn't help but think, "Really? They do? I don't!". I never, ever did enjoy it. I suppose I'm in the minority, but I'm interested to see if you all agree/disagree.

Part of me is happy that I don't love the new keyboard because I can save some money and use my 2018 model until it dies, but another part of me is wondering what I'll do 4 years from now when I'm looking to upgrade. Will Apple have a refined magic keyboard that I'll love? Will Apple desktopify iPad OS with trackpad support and actually build a fantastic, lapable keyboard? Who knows. Still, I can't imagine that I'm the only one who is feeling a bit lost and uncertain about the future of Apple's keyboards and laptops.
 
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*I9 Base model

*2015 MBP

*Business use, personal photo video editing

*I hated the butterfly keyboard with a passion and love the magic keyboard. Performance thus far has been butter but my 2015 was starting to show its age (and I honestly kind of stopped taking care of it).
 
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Performace should be the same because it's the same chip, same old 9th gen i9 or i7. Intel hasn't released 10th gen H processors yet.

Can you further explain this to me? I tried researching it but the differences between all the chips is confusing. Why do laptops like Surface Pro 3 have Wifi 6. Are they using some other 10th gen chip that does have Wifi 6 that for whatever reason isn't good enough in Apple's opinion for the MBPs? I'm seeing HK and H series. Are competitors using 10th Gen HK chips with Wifi 6 but Apple is waiting for 10th Gen H to release? Is that pretty much where what's happening?
 
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WiFi 6 is unrelated to the processor. It’s a separate chip

The intel chips come on H and HK varieties. The HK variants are really just “unlocked” variants of the intel chips, meaning manufacturers like Apple can tweak the clock speeds to get some better performance. The stock high end 16” for $2399 has the i9 9880H processor clocked at 2.3GHz. The optional processor upgrade is the i9 9880HK clocked at 2.4GHz. It’s essentially the same chip, just clocked at a higher base frequency.

The early 2019 15” and the new 16” come with the same CPUs, so that’s why people are saying the performance is the same. This is Not totally true, since the 16” has a higher thermal capacity and can run those same chips at higher frequencies (which runs hotter) for longer so there is some performance gains.
 
The screen on this thing is not 500 bits as Apple claims, whether that’s a software or hardware issue remains to be seen. Multiple YouTube reviewers and myself have noticed this. In fact, my 16” screen is dimmer than my 2014 13”
 
I9/16gb/1TB

Moving up from a 2.53ghz mid-2010. Yes, a fossil in Mac years.

I create large and complex educational documents and large multimedia Keynote/PowerPoints.

This 16” is ridiculous compared to the 2010 🤣
 
The screen on this thing is not 500 bits as Apple claims, whether that’s a software or hardware issue remains to be seen. Multiple YouTube reviewers and myself have noticed this. In fact, my 16” screen is dimmer than my 2014 13”

I mean, your old computer is rated at 300 nits. The 16" should be 70% brighter at 500 nits, so even if the screen is dimmer than 500 nits, it's hard to believe it's dimmer than 300 nits?

Apple did increase MBA brightness with software after similar complaints.
 
I mean, your old computer is rated at 300 nits. The 16" should be 70% brighter at 500 nits, so even if the screen is dimmer than 500 nits, it's hard to believe it's dimmer than 300 nits?

Apple did increase MBA brightness with software after similar complaints.
Well that’s what puzzles me. I can use my old MBP comfortably at 60% brightness but I need to bring it up to 80% on the 16” to reach the same brightness
 
Well that’s what puzzles me. I can use my old MBP comfortably at 60% brightness but I need to bring it up to 80% on the 16” to reach the same brightness

turn both up to max brightness with auto brightness off and show us a pic to compare? maybe a new thread?
 
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