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Hands-On With Apple's New 16-Inch MacBook Pro
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There are very few people who are capable of desoldering and soldering in new memory. That also assumes the chips can be bought. They may be Apple only versions. I believe the SSD's are proprietary in order to get the maximum performance. This is a differentiator between Apple and other manufacturers computers.
It's best to just get over the price and buy what you want. If you use it for work then the difference should not be issue.
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Apple has a history of leading the pack instead of holding on to a bunch of legacy ports that are on the way to obsolescence. If I need a port I buy the adapter or an external dock to provide all of those ports people still want.
I’d be tempted by the 64GB upgrade especially if you plan on keeping it for a long time. Better resale value and you get the benefit until then. But you know your workload, and I don’t.
Regardless, most modern cameras can be connected to the computer via a cable. I usually import my photos by plugging it in directly instead of having to take out the card.
Exactly. And high end cameras don’t all use SD cards anyway, so even an SD reader is only going to be helpful to a subset of camera owners.
But camera sales are way down—20 million a year vs. 400 million smartphones. I saw a stat recently that 90% of smartphone owners have never taken a picture on anything but.
Sure pros and enthusiasts will always have real camera gear, but to expect MBP to support their particular card isn’t reasonable. 10-20% of users aren’t going to drive the feature set.
The MacBook Pro is (usually) a not-great purchase for dedicated gaming use. It’s usually quite solid in the year it is released, but after that doesn’t really have the performance headroom to keep up. Light gaming is a different use case.
Both GPUs will happily handle anything released for current generation consoles; both should offer a level of performance vaguely near the PS4 Pro. This means demanding games on medium-or-better settings should run happily at an intermediate resolution like 1920x1200.
The problem is always future-proofing; we’re on the cusp of a new console generation which means gaming hardware requirements are going to spike after next year. This means that regardless of chip, the GPU won’t really be keeping up with new releases from 2021 onwards. Up-speccing to the 5500 won’t help very much with this in mind, but you will get smoother framerates and would see some benefit from the high-VRAM option in the here-and-now. So if you have gaming as a secondary use case, either save the cash or go straight for the 8 GB 5500 option.
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I didn't read all of the posts, but I just came from an Apple store. The keyboard doesn't seem much different to me (typing on my 2016 15" MacBook Pro).
Or, if you're mainly gaming at home, get the base model with a egpu enclosure and a full size graphics card. You can future proof by getting better cards down the road. I'm able to play most games on high or ultra with my egpu.
Pent up demand after 3 years of keyboard uncertainties and potential buyers/upgraders holding off purchases. I can believe it.
This is proof that when Apple *does* actually listen to its customers, it is a good thing for both sides.
While many of the changes to the new MacBook Pro 16" are welcome, there is one thing that puzzles me: why no WiFi 6 (802.11ax) client support. Look, if the iPhone 11 models support WiFi 6, why not the new MacBook Pro?
In which version of the English language does:
== (Equates to):
???
You are obviously so hyper-focused on being argumentative that you’re blind to what is plainly before your eyes.
I deliberately emphasized *I* because I was stating my experience concerning one use case for Apple gear, and neither claiming this to be true for all people, nor stating it as the only or “biggest” thing I do with Apple gear.
I also explicitly recognized the use case for professional photographers as an exception to my experience:
These common methods of qualification work for most people, but apparently not for you. I’ve done my part to respectfully state my opinion and the reasons I hold that opinion. Your inability to interpret standard English grammar is your problem to solve.
Peace.
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I don't know which SLR/Mirrorless system you're using but most digital cameras have extremely slow USB interfaces despite being advertised as USB 3.0. 45 Megapixel RAW images are way too slow to transfer via USB direct to camera.
I just placed an order for 8gb GPU, 32gb ram, 2TB SSD. I've just resigned to using an external memory card reader like the good old days of my late 2006 MacBook Pro.
I have read many posts about the lack of 802.11ax support in the MacBook Pro but even the forthcoming Mac Pro will launch with only 802.11ac according to the specifications on apple.com. It’s unclear if Apple could enable 802.11ax support via a software update and I haven’t seen any hardware specs that say otherwise. Presently the 802.11ax router market is anything but mature and I found the Netgear AX12 and Asus AX88U to be extremely unreliable and riddled with firmware issues— Apple’s decision to stay with 802.11ac appears to be a very conscious decision. This is also why I wish Apple would return to work on their discontinued AirPort Time Capsule line or at least refresh the HomePod to become a mesh ax router which would differentiate it from Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
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Replacing a 2011 13 MBP that was fully maxed out at the time. Oddly, that laptop cost more than the one I’m getting. Looking forward to some much awaited improvements in power. It will be roughly the same weight, but doesn’t matter. I tote a 4.5 brick around twice a month, but looking forward to a slightly slimmer form. Can’t wait for the end of the week.
Why not use an external dock.
I have all the same connections at work and use a thunderbolt dock. One wire connects to my MBP.
Are there still people having issues with Apple notebooks lacking the USB-A port? I know it's been years since this was done, but Apple could have gone back to these with this redesign. I can understand the SD card slot, which few users need; but most everything else still uses the old USB attachments. Are people still needing the USB-C dongle, or has everyone else gone passed this already?
I'm not one who cares much about super slim designs in professional laptops; Apple could have made this computer much more expansive if they added some internal volume to the machine instead of compacting everything. Small form factor seems more geared towards the general user. And I would love a high-end apple laptop, but just can't justify the price for even the lowest-end 16-inch.
I'm not one who cares much about super slim designs in professional laptops; Apple could have made this computer much more expansive if they added some internal volume to the machine instead of compacting everything. Small form factor seems more geared towards the general user. And I would love a high-end apple laptop, but just can't justify the price for even the lowest-end 16-inch.
Four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports is vastly superior to USB-A. USB-C is the present and future, and Thunderbolt 3 is better still. Yes, everyone has some USB-A peripherals. The solution is cheap and simple: purchase two or three compact male USB-C to female USB-A adapters. They are very small, compact, barely jut out from the case, and are inexpensive. Problem forever solved. Finally, if you are worried about astethics, there are companies selling reliable adapters in "space grey" and "silver," so you barely even see the adapter.
Apple made the right decision in going with four much more powerful Thunderbolt 3 ports, any one of which can charge the Macbook Pro, can be used for DisplayPort, 40 Gb/s data transfer speeds, etc. And the fact you have four displayports, you can connect to anything with the right adapter: HDMI, DVI, VGA, minidisplay port. It's the right design decision, and the right call. Everything is moving to USB-C, this really futureproofs the Macbook Pro.
In the pro audio industry USB A to B is crucial and using low quality adapters is hardly ideal. I imagine if Apple returned to the days of D/V Special Editions and introduced an “I/O Special Edition MacBook Pro” with SD Card, 3.5mm optical, and USB A ports it would outsell the standard models.
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I just got back from the Apple Store and the keyboard is nowhere near my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro! It feels odd still.
I suspect we're close to the end of this being an issue, with the advent of cloud gaming.
Which will be really cool, because we'll finally get all the titles are are windows-only.
As an alternative if that doesn't pan out is an eGPU, which will run circles around any of the mobile gaming chips.
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I agree on low quality adapters, but that's more a matter of passing power through properly or signal interference between the lines. But it's a digital signal - it either goes through or it doesn't. And USB-C is 100% backward compatible to A, so using the Apple dongles (which are high quality) makes no functional difference over a pure legacy-A port.
One other difference, though not in the computer itself - the box is noticeably more robust.
Aside from that, it's a definite step up. The keyboard is a massive improvement, the value for dollar is significantly better, graphics are noticeably faster, etc. The screen is great, and the speakers sound quite good.
I have the 2.3/16/1TB/5500 4 GB model; waiting on a 2.3/32/2 TB/8 GB 5500 one to arrive. It is not yet indexed, so the fans spin up and are audible even with the improved cooling design.
If anyone cares, a first run with Cinebench 15 got a CPU score of 1333, not far off a 12 core 3.33 GHz Mac Pro (1572); a first run with Geekbench 4 a CPU score of 28,399, and a Compute score of 98,978.
Overall, I think it's terrific.
Aside from that, it's a definite step up. The keyboard is a massive improvement, the value for dollar is significantly better, graphics are noticeably faster, etc. The screen is great, and the speakers sound quite good.
I have the 2.3/16/1TB/5500 4 GB model; waiting on a 2.3/32/2 TB/8 GB 5500 one to arrive. It is not yet indexed, so the fans spin up and are audible even with the improved cooling design.
If anyone cares, a first run with Cinebench 15 got a CPU score of 1333, not far off a 12 core 3.33 GHz Mac Pro (1572); a first run with Geekbench 4 a CPU score of 28,399, and a Compute score of 98,978.
Overall, I think it's terrific.
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It's less desirable, because you have to manage that dongle. The design compromises of having something which is rarely used makes sense, but not for common connections. A dongle for a desktop isn't so much an issue because it's a stationary machine, but it's simply not desirable to have a much less durable connector that is more likely to fail the more it's used. Ports on computers fail as well, but I've gone through a lot of iPod connectors and power adaptor cables over the years. I would much favor having one USB-A, HDMI, and two thunderbolt 3 ports than all of one kind which all demand dongles.
Does anyone remember when firewire was the ultimate bus in the days of USB 1? They didn't replace USB because you didn't need all that data capacity for mice and printers. USB 3 or Thunderbolt ports and cables seem less robust, and I would simply feel safer using a low-end port which is physically more durable for routine plug-in tasks.
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Unless I misunderstand your post, no adapter is needed. You simply swap your A—>B cable with a C—>B