Apple has announced new 13.3″ and 15.4″ MacBook Pros which include 8th- and 9th-generation Intel Cor processors. The top-tier 15.4″ version is equipped with eight cores. This is the first time a MacBook Pro has been available with eight cores.
The eight-core processors are only available on the 15.4″ models, but it can also be bought with six-core processors and Turbo Boost speeds of up to 5.0 GHz. The smaller 13.3″ Touch Bar models feature quad-core processors and Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.7 GHz.
As far as performance goes, Apple claims that you will be able to edit up to 11 simultaneous streams of 4K video in Final Cut Pro X.
Apple also claims that the new eight-core version delivers up to twice the performance of a quad-core MacBook Pro and up to 40% more performance than a six-core MacBook Pro.
The new MacBook Pro’s come with a retina display with 500 nits of brightness that cover the P3 wide color gamut. They also have NVMe PCIe M.2 SSDs, Thunderbolt 3, the T2 security chip, claimed long battery life, and macOS.
MacBook Pro includes a solid-state drive with sequential read speeds up to 3.2GB/s. The 15‑inch model is available with up to a 4TB SSD, and the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is available with up to a 2TB SSD.
Quieter Keyboard?
The MacBook Pro keyboard features a butterfly mechanism that Apple claims provides four times more key stability than a traditional scissor mechanism. The 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar feature a keyboard that is said to be quieter than previous versions.
Blackmagic eGPU and eGPU Pro – Desktop-class graphics without the desktop
Blackmagic Design has created two external GPUs (eGPUs) that work with the MacBook Pro. This allows you to have desktop-class graphics performance without giving up the portability of a notebook. They let you charge your Mac using Thunderbolt 3, and have built-in I/O connections to drive both a Thunderbolt 3 display and VR accessories simultaneously.
Price & Availability
The 13″ MacBook Pro starts at $2,399 USD and the 15″ version at $2,799 USD.
If you want the absolute top of the line 15″ MacBook Pro with all the bells and whistles it is going to set you back a whopping $6,549 USD!
Is it a case of just more of the same?
Yes, these laptops are getting closer to some desktop models when it comes to performance, but there’s nothing revolutionary about these new MacBook Pro models.
Apart from performance bumps they use the same GPUs and integrated graphics options, and have the same design.
Apple seems to be content to just role out incremental updates to their products these days with little to no innovation.
What do you think about these new MacBook Pro’s? Would you buy one? What do you think are better options? Let us know in the comments section below. How do you feel about Apple’s updates? Please share your thoughts below.
