Apple’s New Macbook Pro, is it a good buy or a goodbye!

Apple’s latest laptop, the new 13in MacBook Pro, is a much-anticipated re-design of the company’s notebook range and represents a brave new USB-C-only future. But is it worth sacrificing ports and spending the best part of £2,000 to use?

We will talk about the new MacBook Pro with USB C and a new design that contains a Touch Bar on most models. Apple started marketing the 2016 MacBook Pro late last year and now sells the updated 2017 MacBook Pro with a Kaby Lake processor and better separate graphics on the 2017 MacBook Pro 15-inch. There’s also a better entry-level price on the 13-inch MacBook Pro that starts at $1,299 now. The new MacBook Pro is more compact than the old one, it’s much thinner and lighter now. Like nearly every tech product every year. It’s also smaller in almost every meaningful way. Even the screen is diluent, and they have removed the light-up Apple logo on the lid.

The Trackpad

has increased space significantly, taking up a generous amount of the laptop’s wrist rest, it will be tough not to touch it with the heels of your hands when you type, but luckily Apple’s touch rejection works as promoted and also 3D touch works like a charm.

 

Touch Bar

The major visible change is just overhead the keyboard. The impressive Touch Bar, which replaces the standard function key row with an OLED, touch-sensitive screen. It has dynamic buttons and sliders to control various actions of your daily computer workflow.

People like me who use the function and control keys on daily basis will find the Touch Bar reduces the speed of work a bit. Those who touch type will have more difficulties as it’s slower to look down at the keyboard and hit a button instead of just hitting the keyboard.

Yet, it looks cool but not for a daily working or a hardcore user.

Touch ID

Heading to the right corner of the keyboard where the power button is now replaced with the Touch Bar is a Touch ID fingerprint scanner. When it works it works similar to iPhone 6S, though no better than 7. The problem is that it’s a bit unpredictable, again typing a password is faster in this case.

Fingerprint scanners on a smartphone were such a huge jump onward for usability, I supposed the same would be for laptops, but it wasn’t. We certainly don’t lock and unlock our laptops as much as phones.

The keyboard

Keyboards are all depending on your typing style, I found there was enough response for precise and fast touch typing, but it makes the startling extent of noise. Unlike a mechanical keyboard, but it’s almost the same, particularly when I tried typing fast.

If you are a good mechanical keyboard user and you give the keys some well when you type then you might hate the keyboard. So my suggestion before buying would be to go down the store and try typing for at least five minutes.

 

Specifications

• Screen: 13.3in LCD 2560×1600 (227 ppi)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 or i7 (6th generation)
• RAM: 8 or 16GB
• Storage: 256GB, 512GB or 1TB
• Operating system: macOS Sierra
• Camera: 720p FaceTime HD camera
• Connectivity: Intel Iris 550, Wi-Fiac, Bluetooth 4.2, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, headphone
• Dimensions: 212.4 x 304.1 x 14.9mm
• Weight: 1.37Kg

General computing power

The 13in MacBook Pro comes in two variants dual-core versions of Intel’s sixth-generation Core i5 or i7 processors. Not the latest ones but are completely capable. The cheapest device has 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM and a 2.9GHz Core i5 processor.

For the general buyer, the 13in MacBook Pro is almost capable of getting the job done, but “Pro” in the name doesn’t justify fully. Trying to edit small documentary-length 4K video is a little bit of load on it, mostly when you do not use Apple’s video editing suite, but then a 13in buyer wouldn’t try doing such stuff so.

Where are the USB ports??

Apple has decided that USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are the future, so except the headphones/mic socket, all you it has is four USB-C ports. No card reader, no old-style USB, no Ethernet or mini Display Port. Even for power, it has USB-C, so you can use any of the four ports to charge the MacBook Pro.

It might be the future but not now, you have to carry USB-C to normal USB converter cables with you just to connect your daily life peripherals such as printers or USB mouse.

Ironically many Android smartphones come with USB-C to USB-C cables, so they can be plugged straight into the MacBook Pro without any problem, but iPhone itself needs USB-C to thunder cable to be bought separately.

How about the battery?

Apple claims to have 10 hours of battery life in their new MacBook devices, but as per our testing, it’s not even close to that. With the light usage of emailing with 75% brightness up and Facebook and tweeting, it worked for 6 hours.

If it was the 15in MacBook Pro then you’d never use it when away from power, and that battery life wasn’t that imperative. But a 13in laptop is made for compactness. Thankfully charging it from dead while under full working conditions only took one hour 40 minutes, and less if I wasn’t actively using it.

Buy it for:

USB-C, elegant look, excessive screen, exciting Touch Bar, Touch ID, huge trackpad, thin and comparatively light,

Drawbacks:

No USB-A ports, short battery life, no Ethernet, no upgrading after purchase, no native display ports and very expensive

 

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