MBP 16" versus the competition (specs)

[danwells]

The MacBook Pro has always fit in the category of thin and light laptop workstations otherwise occupied by the likes of the Dell Precision 55x0, the Lenovo P1 (now Gen. 2) and the HP ZBook Studio. It is substantially smaller and lighter (by as much as a couple of pounds) than the big 15" workstations like the Precision 75x0, the P5x and the Zbook 15. It is certainly not a dedicated gaming laptop - Apple has made different compromises, prioritizing battery life and reasonable temperature over GPU performance (if you think a MBP gets hot, try any gaming laptop that's less than an inch thick). There is a new competitor (sort of)in this same class - the Razer Blade Studio.

Here's how the specs compare:
CPU - best in class (tie). Some competitors offer the same 9880HK, others top out with the 9880H - Razer gets a dishonorable mention with ONLY a 6-core i7-9750 available.

RAM - near-tie (all have a maximum capacity of 64GB, although Razer won't sell that configuration). Apple loses a bit for non-upgradeable.

Storage - best in class. Lenovo offers a 4 TB (all high-speed) option using dual 2 TB M.2 SSDs at an Apple-like price, but no 8 TB and no single-volume 4 TB. HP also offers the dual drive option, but at extortionate pricing. Dell and Razer offer no route above 2 TB (single M.2 slot).

GPU - Mostly 2nd in class. Razer crams a Quadro T5000 into the Blade Studio, and that is a clearly superior GPU by any standard. The other three all use a Quadro T2000, which benchmarks comparably to the Radeon Pro 5500M, but generally a little slower. - the "mostly" exception is CUDA-only GPU accelerated apps. The tradeoff is that Razer designed the machine around the Quadro (actually, it's a close relative of their Blade Advanced gaming laptop, which is designed around a very similar RTX 2080, but same effect) - the 6 core CPU, single SSD slot and (especially) the short battery life and poor thermals are direct consequences of a big GPU in a small space.

Battery life - best in class. Dell and HP use similarly large batteries and get close (at least as options), Lenovo uses a smaller battery (and suffers a bit from it), Razer has a small battery AND the monster GPU.

Display: One option, and it's intermediate between the standard and upgraded displays on the competition. All competitors offer at least one 4K display option (although it may require certain choices of other components), and most offer extended gamut, color-accurate displays - HP offers a panel with a more extended gamut than most (and 10 bit color?). All competitors have a base display that is only 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, usually narrow-gamut, inaccurate and dim. Apple's display is 3K, scoring well on accuracy, gamut and brightness.

OS - best in class. Runs MacOS, Windows or Linux - all others drop MacOS.

Other: Best in class audio (speakers, mics), poor webcam, good keyboard (behind Lenovo and perhaps one Razer model with other compromises). While it can be configured to or above the maximum configurations of competitors, the MacBook Pro can't be upgraded after purchase (all others can). No competitor's equivalent laptop is likely to accept upcoming parts that would permit a configuration the MBP can't reach.

 

[leman]

Great post!

Few notes from my side:

- For many users, the alternatives are the consumer-class laptops such as Dell XPS, X1 Extreme etc. These perform very similarly to their workstation counterparts, but are cheaper and of course cut corners here and there
- None of the others come even close to Apple's battery runtime. Battery sizes might be similar, but the energy efficiency is not the same
- I don't think that other thin-and-light workstations have options for 8GB VRAM
- The T2000 uses GDDR5 with a 128bit bus, so Navi in the MBP has 50% more bandwidth, on top of higher compute performance. I'd be curios to see benchmarks for professional workflows comparing the two

 

[gadgetfreaky]

agree with all except - their displays like the Razer have higher refresh rates at 120hz and evne 240Hz.

 

[leman]

agree with all except - their displays like the Razer have higher refresh rates at 120hz and evne 240Hz.

Not if you want high resolution or image quality...

 

[semistandard]

About 6 cores thing...
Is the thermal design good enough to be able to handle 8 cores in MBP? I mean, 8 cores MBP was faster than 6 cores MBP, was only slightly faster than other 6 cores machines on average (at least on cinebench). (Getting 1300-1400 on CB15 or ~3100 on CB 20 on 8 cores is only slightly faster than 6 cores Thinkpad x1 extreme with 6 cores, or Razer with 6 cores).
GPU thing is also debatable... More data is needed.

MacOS vs Windows is a matter of taste...

 

[Thysanoptera]

I happen to own 2018 MBP and Razer Blade Base and just would like to clarify some misconceptions, especially this one:

the 6 core CPU, single SSD slot and (especially) the short battery life and poor thermals are direct consequences of a big GPU in a small space

1. Razer has absolutely fantastic cooling system capable of dissipating rated TDP of CPU and GPU running together. 125W not a problem with some room to spare. As far as it gets from "poor thermals".
2. CPU - that 6 core on Razer can run at full turbo forever and the actual performance difference is not that big. In a single CB 20 run the new 16 inch 8 core MBP is 16% faster than my 6 core Razer (3100 vs 3600). I couldn't find any long term tests that would saturate the chassis with heat, but surely the difference will be even lower because Razer holds that score for eternity. Oh, and the temps while running stay close to 75C, as opposed to 95+ on MBP. I wish Razer would offer 8 core in this chassis.
3. RAM and storage - I have 64GB RAM and 9.8 TB of SSD in my Blade. Granted, 7.8TB of it is in the form of 2.5 inch SATA SSD and only the second 2TB EVO 970 Plus can match MBP speed. Not that I notice a difference between the two during normal use.
4. Cost - total for my machine was $3455. 64GB RAM, 9.8TB SSDs, RTX2060.

Now, to get Razer to perform like that you have to tweak the system a little bit, mod the Bios, fairly simple procedure, but out of the box is sluggish, Razer sets power limits way too conservative. Battery life is very poor (at least in my Base with small battery).

TLDR: You can say a lot of bad things about Razer and I would most likely agree with majority of them, but "poor thermals" is not one of them.

 

[maflynn]

Here's my $.02
Why the dishonorable mention for the Razer? I think a 6-core i7-9750 is going to be more CPU for the majority of consumers.

1. Ram, I can't see how this is a near tie, when with many other makers you can get the ram that you want. That is get the minimum and replace it with what you want.
2. Storage - you also have a best in the class which is odd, given that many others offer upgradable SSD. I have two blazingly fast SSDs in my Thinkpad simply because I can. The MBPs is hardwired in, and while fast if it fails you need to replace the whole logic board. Also if the logic board fails but not the SSD, there's no way to get the data off. That doesn't sound best in the class to me.
3. Gpu - I'm not really up on GPU, but my personal preference is Nvidia, so Apple loses some marks for using the AMD, but from what I know its a capable GPU. I do think given the competition, its near the bottom of the pile though.
4. Battery, - Apple is great at this and yeah providing great battery life is awesome5.
5. Display, on one hand, the P3, bright screen is near the top, but on the other hand, not being touch, or 4k or 144/240Hz, means its falling behind the competition
6. OS - Best in the class. This is quite subjective, for instance, the MBP cannot run Linux on the internal drive because of the T2, and the latest version has its issues and complaints. No OS is perfect but I will say that windows and Linux offer the most options and configurations so it works the way you want it too. macOS has an integrated ecosystem, but you basically have to work the way it dictates.
7. Other: Trackpad is definitely the best in the class, but by a long shot the thinkpad keyboard is best, even the Razer keyboard squeaks past the current one. The scissors keyboard is definitely an improvement but there are so many better keyboards out there.