New MacBook Pro 16 Review From A Windows User

[TipToe]

My journey to this point and this time ...

INTRODUCTION

What makes forums so interesting is the fact that we all have different trigger points on what we deem acceptable and not acceptable regarding the aesthetics, performance and functionality of our equipment.

in addition to this, we value certain criteria more than others and therefore one may view the performance more important than the aesthetics and so the comparison between one feature or another will be weighed differently based on our history and preferences.

I remember my first desktop computer was a Packard Bell Pentium 133 Mhz process with 1 GB HDD and the 28.8K modem that made a distinct noise that some of us will remember every time you wanted to log into a very primitive internet back then. Also the upgrade from windows 3.1 to windows 95 was so exciting and could not believe the advancements.

This was followed by a Toshiba Laptop that had a Pentium 233 Mhz laptop that cost just over £2K over 20 years ago and it was so nice to have the portability but then I quickly moved onto desktop computers and started building my own systems and for others.

It is fair to say that for the past 25 years my history had primarily been in the Windows OS environment with the occasional peppering of Mac OS. In 2009, I purchased a Mac 17 inch Laptop which last a few years but then decided to move to iMac but continued to struggle with the Mac OS and had windows on bootcamp which then resulted in me purchasing a surface pro 3.

For the past 6 years my daily work horse has been a Surface Pro 3, with an i7, 2 core, 256 GB HDD, 8GB ram and this was placed in a docking station for 98% of its life and has never missed a beat! The computer is in perfect condition with a battery cycle count of only 253.

As I have got older my ability to keep up with technology, terminology and other such factors has almost diminished to zero and find the task more challenging with the onset of every new year. When I had to replace the surface pro 3 for something else as I simply did not understand as much as I once did and found the process a challenge

I value aesthetics more than performance but if you have the option to have both then great 🤠 but also value the after sales support as very high on my list!

So in order of importance you could sum it as follows.

Aesthetics (Look, size and weight) as I have to look at it every day!

Build Quality

After Sales Support

Easy of use

Performance

Capability

Other...

THE SEARCH BEGINS



When the search started again the MacBook Pro was not on list due to the problems reported on forums with the keyboards and other issues but more importantly when I visited the Apple store in Bluewater and tried the butterfly keyboard it simply did not work for me.

I considered the following

Computer Considered	Reason for not picking
iMac 5K	The design has not changed in so many years and had an iMac before.
Dell Precision 7540	Too bulky but was first choice and general customer support / quality
Dell Latitude 7400	lacking power and the build quality is going downwards (have company laptop)
Razer Blade 15 Advanced	looks nice but the horror stories about customer support.
Aero 15	Looks good but once again the support concerned me.
Various Others	Did not meet the important value criteria as detailed above.

THE DECISION TIME



After spending too many months reviewing every known forum and website the time came to make a decision and one that I did not want to make for the fear of making the wrong decision 😢.

I felt that whatever the decision would be it may end up regretting it but then had to go back to the core values on what I valued more and less and stick with it.

I belong to the EPP so got a 6% discount and used the 12 months interest free via Barclays and this was also a concern as I have never used apple store online and the finance via Barclays, although I am a long term Barclays customer.

For me the MacBook Pro 16 was the laptop I was looking for and if Apple had not released this product then I would still be reviewing forums today and have my trusted friend the Surface Pro 3.

The specification ordered was as follows.

Hardware

• 2.4GHz 8-core 9th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
• 2TB SSD storage

Is this overkill for me? yes it certainly is! but then I keep my laptops for 6+ Years and who know how my workflow will change during this time.

Picture of actual laptop received with apple mouse ordered as well.

In addition to this I ordered the following items

Hardware

• 2.4GHz 8-core 9th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
• 2TB SSD storage

Nonda USB Type C to USB 3.0 Adapter, Thunderbolt 3 to USB Adapter Aluminum with Indicator LED for MacBook Pro



Plugable USB C to M.2 NVMe Tool-free Enclosure USB C and Thunderbolt 3 Compatible up to USB 3.1 Gen 2 Speeds (10Gbps)



SETTING THE NEW LAPTOP UP

To be honest this concerned me as a staunch windows user and in fairness to Microsoft, windows 10 has become a great operating system!

My knowledge of Mac OS was virtually nothing and do not know how to do basic things without looking on the internet .. lol 😂

The good news is about 60 minutes after the delivery was made the laptop was up a running with no problems, and Sharon my wife commented on her return from the shops that she was surprised to see it completed with me totally relaxed. This is a testament to apple I suppose or maybe it was pure luck? Either way it was stress free and that is all that matter.

What was slight frustrating was the Magic Mouse only comes with USB A to lightening port and to set the mouse up it states that you must plug the cable in to the Mac and then it will become wireless. Well that would be difficult because I only have USB C connection and the Amazon delivery for the two items above had not yet arrived.

I am not sure why they can't include an adaptor as their laptops have not had USB A for sometime?

MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR

ATTRIBUTE	FEEDBACK	SCORE
KEYBOARD	I have typed this post on the keyboard and it is fantastic, I love it and can't really fault it. it would be hard to get a 10/10 from me.	9/10
TOUCHBAR	Never having this capability then for me it is great and have used it. Not sure what would make be give it a higher score.	7/10
SCREEN	The screen is great size, brightness and colour are all very good. However, the ghosting is noticeable as mention on this forum but does not bug me too much. Sort that out and it would get a 10/10.	8/10
TRACK PAD	What an absolute gem and far better than anything I have tried on windows.	10/10
SPEAKERS	One word, Stunning!	10/10
SIDECAR	I have a iPad Pro 12.9 inch 2nd Generation and love this functionality as I was concerned not going for a touch screen but then did not know about sidecar before ordering.	10/10
CAMERA (BUILT IN)	The camera is really poor in my opinion and for a device that costs £3.5K then I have a higher expectation! in my opinion my 6 year old surface pro 3 has better front camera.	5/10
PROCESSOR	Coming from 6 year old i7 1.3 Ghz to this i9 8 core is awesome and have noticed a huge improvement in music editing and encoding.	10/10
HDD SPEED	its fast.	10/10
GRAPHICS CARD	My baseline was surface pro 3 so anything would be better and my expectations are not higher as I am not a gamer.	10/10
SETUP AND INSTALLATION	Stress free and really appreciated it as a windows user.	10/10
APPLE ORDERING PROCESS	So simply and all my concerns have vanished.	10/10
BARCLAYS FINANCE	So simple and if you have not used it then you must try is that fits your circumstances.	10/10
OVERALL	Highly Recommended	9/10

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

1. The edges of the MacBook Pro underneath do feel sharp but are ok.
2. The integration with my Apple Watch is awesome as it will unlock the device.
3. Installing Office 365 and using my company email address so start with was ok and we can do it under company rules but then when I decided to purchase office 365 it took ages to search the internet to see how to remove the licence and change it to my account. Microsoft do offer a tool to remove the current licence but when you don't know it takes such a Long time. Hope this information saves someone time.

Battery information

Charge Remaining (mAh): 8672

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8732

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 2

My review will never be an in-depth technical review as I am not that type of person anymore and those days of 20 years ago have gone but sharing with you my experience in general terms may act as a tipping point if you are on the fence.

This laptop has met and exceeded my expectations and look forward to learning from you all and this forum over the coming months as I make the transition from Windows OS to Mac OS.

Regards to all

Shaun (TipToe)

 

[am2am]

Thanks for sharing.
Your story reminds me my first mac experience years ago. I knew nothing of macOS before - the initial set-up went super smoothly similar to yours. I had to learn a bit how to work with Mac effectively - many windows apps were not available on OSX.
After initial learning I was so much in love with "mac way" that have never really looked back to other operating systems.
To be clear Windows made great progress - I'm using it at work and cannot complain - steady and reliable, relatively intuitive. I simply prefer macs - because of OSX and aesthetics/trackpad/apple ecosystem.
Enjoy your new toy (typing it on MBP16 with identical configuration).

 

[Dominus Mortem]

It's kind of kismet that I should run into your review of the MBP 16" after my adventure today.

I have been on the prowl for a second laptop to accompany my 16" MBP. Mainly I want one with no touchbar for pure writing. I'll do everything else on the 16", but when I have to write I need to do so uninterrupted and fast. The Touch Bar is constantly getting in my way. I don't have spider fingers yet I'm always brushing it and it pops something up I don't want, which takes me out of my zone.

Anyway, I went to the Apple store and played around. But before I did that I hit a large Best Buy, one that seemed to have every laptop imaginable for sale and on display. They easily had sixty of them out. I went to every single one and tested the keyboard and trackpad, as those have to be perfect. Not a single one of them came close to Apple. No Dell, HP, Lenovo, Surface book, etc., could touch Apple's trackpad and most of those keyboards were worse than the apple butterfly variety. They all use the hinged variety trackpad too, with varying degrees of crappy response. And some were absolutely tiny. I also saw some that still had the two little click pads at the bottom of the trackpad—and I mean c'mon, that's tech from a decade or two ago—who wants that in 2020?

I found a few keyboards that would have worked, but none as good as the 16" MBP. In the end I think I've decided on making my second laptop either a 2019 MB Air, or an older 2015 13" MBP. The latter having the better keyboard, except that the 2019 Air butterfly keyboard really isn't half bad. I could deal with it.

I would have seriously considered a Microsoft type laptop, but they feel like dinosaurs compared to what Apple is doing. I used to be a MS computer type of guy right up until 2009 when I switched over because it was around that time that I felt Apple had passed the crowd and took the lead, and from what I see, they're still way out in front.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

It's kind of kismet that I should run into your review of the MBP 16" after my adventure today.

I have been on the prowl for a second laptop to accompany my 16" MBP. Mainly I want one with no touchbar for pure writing. I'll do everything else on the 16", but when I have to write I need to do so uninterrupted and fast. The Touch Bar is constantly getting in my way. I don't have spider fingers yet I'm always brushing it and it pops something up I don't want, which takes me out of my zone.

Anyway, I went to the Apple store and played around. But before I did that I hit a large Best Buy, one that seemed to have every laptop imaginable for sale and on display. They easily had sixty of them out. I went to every single one and tested the keyboard and trackpad, as those have to be perfect. Not a single one of them came close to Apple. No Dell, HP, Lenovo, Surface book, etc., could touch Apple's trackpad and most of those keyboards were worse than the apple butterfly variety. They all use the hinged variety trackpad too, with varying degrees of crappy response. And some were absolutely tiny. I also saw some that still had the two little click pads at the bottom of the trackpad—and I mean c'mon, that's tech from a decade or two ago—who wants that in 2020?

I found a few keyboards that would have worked, but none as good as the 16" MBP. In the end I think I've decided on making my second laptop either a 2019 MB Air, or an older 2015 13" MBP. The latter having the better keyboard, except that the 2019 Air butterfly keyboard really isn't half bad. I could deal with it.

I would have seriously considered a Microsoft type laptop, but they feel like dinosaurs compared to what Apple is doing. I used to be a MS computer type of guy right up until 2009 when I switched over because it was around that time that I felt Apple had passed the crowd and took the lead, and from what I see, they're still way out in front.

If for writing only why not an iPad?