The rather huge MacBook Pro news hit today.
Apple on Thursday released its long-awaited line of MacBook Pro notebooks. And while there aren’t a ton of external changes, the company seems to be chasing the pros by switching to the eight-generation of Intel Core processors (known as the “Coffee Lake” line), for which which Apple claims a boost of up to 70 percent for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro offer 2x performance.
The new notebooks include Apple’s currently-shipping operating system, macOS High Sierra 10.13. The laptops can be upgraded to the new macOS Mojave 10.14 operating system when it becomes available this fall.
In addition to new processors, Apple is now using DDR4 RAM in the MacBook Pro, which should help performance. The maximum amount of RAM supported jumps up to 32GB in the 15-inch model and 16GB in the 13-inch version, twice the amount of the previous MacBook Pro models.
The new MacBook Pro notebooks feature a larger battery, which Apple representatives said that the power demands of the DDR4 RAM implementation essentially negates any possible gain in battery life over the previous models.
Following up on the T1 processor found in previous models, the new MacBook Pro incorporates a T2 processor that Apple uses for dedicated processes, such as the Touch Bar, Touch ID, Secure Enclave, and dedicated storage encryption. New to the T2’s functionality is support for “Hey Siri,” where, just as on the iPhone, speaking the phrase triggers the Siri digital assistant.
External updates for the notebook include True Tone, which originated on the iPhone, and is now in the MacBook Pro Retina displays and Touch Bar. With True Tone, a device can sense the ambient light of your work environment and adjusts the colors so that images appear consistent.
Finally, the new MacBook Pro features the third generation of its butterfly keyboard. The keyboard is said to feature a lower profile, shorter key travel, and has been improved to be quieter than before. Whether the unit will be more relivable and durable than previous models remains to be seen.
Prices for the 15-inch model starts at $2,399 and the key components are as follows:
6-core Intel Core i7 and Core i9 processors, with speeds up to 2.9GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz)
Base configuration of 16GB of DDR4 RAM (32GB max)
4GB Radeon Pro discrete graphics subsystem
Maximum 4TB SSD storage
Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
New 13-inch MacBook Pro
Prices for the 13-inch models start at $1,799 and the key components are as follows:
Quad-core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, with speeds up to 2.7GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz)
Base configuration of 8GB of DDR4 RAM (16GB max)
Intel Iris Plus 655 integrated graphics 655 with 128MB of eDRAM
Maximum 2TB SSD storage
Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
The new MacBook Pro is now available for purchase at apple.com.
If you get a chance to snag one of the new Coffee Lake-power MacBook Pro notebooks and have any feedback to offer, please let us know about your experience in the comments section.