Since forever, I have dreamed of a notebook that could work as an all in one, super-computing device. One that was slim and light enough, I could lug everywhere, have great battery life, a huge screen, an amazing keyboard, while offering great performance so it can serve as both mobile work station for video editing and battle station for gaming.
In all, I have personally bought and use 19 laptops(13 windows based and 6 MacOS), over the course of 20 odd years, in my pursuit of notebook perfection. Ranging from colossal 18.4” back breakers, to diminutive 11.6” computing wonders. Never quite finding completely satisfaction.
The last few years I partially lived that dream, not withstanding some compromise. Life on a Razer Blade 14” 2015 as my main rig, was pretty good but fell short in some areas, particularly battery life, screen size and raw cpu processing power. I also made a bad decision by wrongly estimating my storage needs, resulting in a precarious balancing act of keeping/deleting files as I was almost always, dangerously close to max capacity.
Early this year I bought a MacBook Pro 16” and what a revelation it has been. Truth be told, my motivation for buying a new notebook was entirely due to external circumstance, rather than careful and deliberate planning. Yet perhaps, there has never been a more opportune time to procure a MacBook Pro.
For years I have considered switching back to the Mac, simply because the whole windows experience has been quite harrowing. Also the simplicity offered by being in Apple’s ecosystem is unrivalled, one that is easily taken for granted till you have the unpleasant experience of wandering outside.
Unfortunately there was always something that kept me back for the high end MacBook Pro, in the former days it was the weight and bulk of the unwieldy behemoth of a machine which was the 17” MacBook Pro, later it was the gimped GPU options that was further exacerbated by that ridiculous butterfly keyboard and the unnecessary thermal throttling foisted upon the MacBook Pro in Apple’s attempt to make it slightly sexier. Last but not least, the eye watering exorbitant price attached to the purchase of said Macbook Pro.
Yet in one masterful stroke, the MacBook Pro 16” repudiate apple’s seemingly suicidal need of form over function and seat them firmly at the forefront of simple ingenuity once again.
Of course, it is the cumulation of many external events that has led to such a product, playing no small part is the release of Intel’s most powerful notebook silicone to date, featuring 16 threads of multitasking. Add into the mix is the all new AMD Navi architecture, bringing with it a substantial upgrade over previous GPU offering. Never has there been a MacBook Pro with such raw CPU/GPU power.
But more importantly I believe, is the countless feedback from the industry, from people like you, like me.
Like a ship righting its course, Apple started making amends with the iPhone XR, offering the latest silicon, with the new form factor, in an enlarged screen size, while packing the best battery life yet in any iPhone. All this, wrapped in an array of fun colours, at an all new affordable price.
If the XR signal a change of era, the MacBook Pro 16” thoroughly establish Apple in a new era, where customer feedback actually means something. So many of the nagging points that hinder the MacBook Pro 15” has been address in a singular update, without any fan fare or hype. This is apple 2.0, more “it just works”, less smoke and mirrors.
With the MacBook Pro 16” the checklist of items bemoaned, has largely been fixed. Better keyboard? Checked. Better thermal performance? Checked.
But why stop there. Throw in an all new 6 speaker sound system, a 3 array studio quality mic, narrow the bezels and add in the largest retina screen ever on a MacBook, insert the biggest battery that is FAA approved. Drop in an Intel i7 6-core or i9 8-core CPU, and AMD Navi 5000s pro series GPU and you have a venerable workhorse of a system. Give the customers insane configuration options like 64GB of Ram and 8TB of SSD space.
Of course less we forget, the stable of Apple goodies such as the best and largest trackpad currently available in the industry, Touch ID, Siri, T2 security chip, the highly intuitive touch bar, MacOS, the various useful apps that come free with MacOS and all the tangible benefits of being in Apple’s ecosystem.
Shrink all this goodness into a 2kg unibody package that is both slim and light, while drawing only 96 watts from the socket. Finally keep the exact price as the out going MacBook Pro 15” model, at the same time, doubling up on the amount of storage space given.
Apple absolutely went big with the MacBook Pro 16”.
I have been using the MacBook Pro 16” for almost 2 months now. The experience is nothing short of magical.
As someone who works with videos, I still find myself shocked at how 4k editing can be played back in real time with so many added effects, using performance mode, on FCPX. The exporting of videos is insanely fast. Back in 2006-2009, it took me like 6 to 8 hours to render an hour of Full HD content on Premiere Pro, using a top of the line desktop that cost more than 5k, featuring an 8 core, Intel extreme chip and the fastest SLI Nvidia cards, powered by a monster 750 watts power supply. On the MacBook Pro 16”, running FCPX, an hour of Full HD clip can be exported in less time than it takes, for me to take a shower.
Gaming on both WoW and D3 has been excellent, I could not ask for more. All settings can be pushed to ultra while enjoying very playable frame rates. Some people have complained about ghosting on this forum but I am by happy chance, unable to notice it. The MacBook Pro 16” also does an excellent job of playing back videos with its expansive retina screen and amazing sound system. For me, it is the closest to a cinematic experience on a laptop yet.
Most importantly, the Macbook Pro 16” is light and slim enough to be carried everywhere. It also has the battery life to last. I have been using mine for about 10 hours on battery, with 35% still showing, surfing the web, watching YouTube and typing on Pages. I do have Turbo boost disable, just to see how long the battery can last, and for better or worst, it can easily outlast me.
To be honest I was pretty happy with the Razer Blade 14” 2015 in spite of the compromise, but the MacBook Pro 16” is icing on the cake. It’s living the all in one dream, that Apple has finally made a reality. Who would have guessed number 20 was the one.
In all, I have personally bought and use 19 laptops(13 windows based and 6 MacOS), over the course of 20 odd years, in my pursuit of notebook perfection. Ranging from colossal 18.4” back breakers, to diminutive 11.6” computing wonders. Never quite finding completely satisfaction.
The last few years I partially lived that dream, not withstanding some compromise. Life on a Razer Blade 14” 2015 as my main rig, was pretty good but fell short in some areas, particularly battery life, screen size and raw cpu processing power. I also made a bad decision by wrongly estimating my storage needs, resulting in a precarious balancing act of keeping/deleting files as I was almost always, dangerously close to max capacity.
Early this year I bought a MacBook Pro 16” and what a revelation it has been. Truth be told, my motivation for buying a new notebook was entirely due to external circumstance, rather than careful and deliberate planning. Yet perhaps, there has never been a more opportune time to procure a MacBook Pro.
For years I have considered switching back to the Mac, simply because the whole windows experience has been quite harrowing. Also the simplicity offered by being in Apple’s ecosystem is unrivalled, one that is easily taken for granted till you have the unpleasant experience of wandering outside.
Unfortunately there was always something that kept me back for the high end MacBook Pro, in the former days it was the weight and bulk of the unwieldy behemoth of a machine which was the 17” MacBook Pro, later it was the gimped GPU options that was further exacerbated by that ridiculous butterfly keyboard and the unnecessary thermal throttling foisted upon the MacBook Pro in Apple’s attempt to make it slightly sexier. Last but not least, the eye watering exorbitant price attached to the purchase of said Macbook Pro.
Yet in one masterful stroke, the MacBook Pro 16” repudiate apple’s seemingly suicidal need of form over function and seat them firmly at the forefront of simple ingenuity once again.
Of course, it is the cumulation of many external events that has led to such a product, playing no small part is the release of Intel’s most powerful notebook silicone to date, featuring 16 threads of multitasking. Add into the mix is the all new AMD Navi architecture, bringing with it a substantial upgrade over previous GPU offering. Never has there been a MacBook Pro with such raw CPU/GPU power.
But more importantly I believe, is the countless feedback from the industry, from people like you, like me.
Like a ship righting its course, Apple started making amends with the iPhone XR, offering the latest silicon, with the new form factor, in an enlarged screen size, while packing the best battery life yet in any iPhone. All this, wrapped in an array of fun colours, at an all new affordable price.
If the XR signal a change of era, the MacBook Pro 16” thoroughly establish Apple in a new era, where customer feedback actually means something. So many of the nagging points that hinder the MacBook Pro 15” has been address in a singular update, without any fan fare or hype. This is apple 2.0, more “it just works”, less smoke and mirrors.
With the MacBook Pro 16” the checklist of items bemoaned, has largely been fixed. Better keyboard? Checked. Better thermal performance? Checked.
But why stop there. Throw in an all new 6 speaker sound system, a 3 array studio quality mic, narrow the bezels and add in the largest retina screen ever on a MacBook, insert the biggest battery that is FAA approved. Drop in an Intel i7 6-core or i9 8-core CPU, and AMD Navi 5000s pro series GPU and you have a venerable workhorse of a system. Give the customers insane configuration options like 64GB of Ram and 8TB of SSD space.
Of course less we forget, the stable of Apple goodies such as the best and largest trackpad currently available in the industry, Touch ID, Siri, T2 security chip, the highly intuitive touch bar, MacOS, the various useful apps that come free with MacOS and all the tangible benefits of being in Apple’s ecosystem.
Shrink all this goodness into a 2kg unibody package that is both slim and light, while drawing only 96 watts from the socket. Finally keep the exact price as the out going MacBook Pro 15” model, at the same time, doubling up on the amount of storage space given.
Apple absolutely went big with the MacBook Pro 16”.
I have been using the MacBook Pro 16” for almost 2 months now. The experience is nothing short of magical.
As someone who works with videos, I still find myself shocked at how 4k editing can be played back in real time with so many added effects, using performance mode, on FCPX. The exporting of videos is insanely fast. Back in 2006-2009, it took me like 6 to 8 hours to render an hour of Full HD content on Premiere Pro, using a top of the line desktop that cost more than 5k, featuring an 8 core, Intel extreme chip and the fastest SLI Nvidia cards, powered by a monster 750 watts power supply. On the MacBook Pro 16”, running FCPX, an hour of Full HD clip can be exported in less time than it takes, for me to take a shower.
Gaming on both WoW and D3 has been excellent, I could not ask for more. All settings can be pushed to ultra while enjoying very playable frame rates. Some people have complained about ghosting on this forum but I am by happy chance, unable to notice it. The MacBook Pro 16” also does an excellent job of playing back videos with its expansive retina screen and amazing sound system. For me, it is the closest to a cinematic experience on a laptop yet.
Most importantly, the Macbook Pro 16” is light and slim enough to be carried everywhere. It also has the battery life to last. I have been using mine for about 10 hours on battery, with 35% still showing, surfing the web, watching YouTube and typing on Pages. I do have Turbo boost disable, just to see how long the battery can last, and for better or worst, it can easily outlast me.
To be honest I was pretty happy with the Razer Blade 14” 2015 in spite of the compromise, but the MacBook Pro 16” is icing on the cake. It’s living the all in one dream, that Apple has finally made a reality. Who would have guessed number 20 was the one.
