One of the downsides of Apple’s previous MacBook butterfly keyboard design was how loud it was. That’s something Apple has tried to rectify with its new quiet scissor switch keyboard on the MacBook Pro.
But how does its volume stack up against both the previous MacBook keyboard, and other laptops on the market? A new report from the Wall Street Journal set out to find an answer.
Remember that butterfly keyboard we hated? All is forgiven, Apple, thanks to that gorgeous new MacBook Pro we’re swooning over.
Or almost all. Our reviewer likes the laptop’s Magic Keyboard and loves the Touch Bar (shocker!). But there’s one thing that could be better. You’ll need to read Charlie Sorrel’s 16-inch MacBook Pro review to find out the one feature he’s not a fan of.
Get his loving critique, plus plenty of other MacBook Pro news, in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab it from the App Store and enjoy it on your iPad. You’ll also find the week’s best Apple news, reviews and how-tos in your free mag (and below).
There’s a great Steve Jobs story that somehow seems relevant in a 2019 MacBook Pro review. You probably know it, but I’ll tell it anyway. After the iPad launch, Jobs supposedly walked into a meeting with the Mac team, carrying an iPad. He woke up the iPad, which happened instantaneously. Then he woke up a Mac, which took a while to come out of sleep. Then he asked something like, “Why doesn’t this do that?”
Today, he might take the iPad Pro, and the brand new top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, start them both editing a few images, and wait for the fans to spin up on the Mac. While it cranks up to leaf-blower levels, he’d point at the silent iPad, and make some scathing quip.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is an incredible computer that’s let down by the red-hot Intel chips inside. Apple’s cool, fast, super-powerful A-series ARM chips can’t come to the Mac soon enough. Using this Intel machine after using an ARM-powered iPad for several years, the Mac feels like there’s something wrong with it. And yet, barely 24 hours into owning one, I absolutely love it.
This week on The CultCast: Everything you need to know about the new 16-inch MacBook Pro! Plus our first impressions of this hot new machine. And we discuss Disney+, and why it may beat Netflix and Amazon as the best streaming service available.
Our thanks to NETGEAR for supporting this episode. The Orbi WiFi 6 router gives you ultra-fast speeds and wider coverage throughout your home — it’s the biggest revolution in Wi-Fi ever. Check it out today at your local Best Buy and at Netgear.com/bestwifi6.
Just before the holiday shopping season kicks into full swing Apple has decided to make it harder to see reviews of the products it sells online.
The Ratings and Reviews section of Apple’s online store was recently removed from all product pages with no word on why the change was made.
Apple’s long-awaited 16-inch MacBook Pro is on sale now, and it’s (almost) everything we hoped it would be. If you’re lusting after one, Cult of Mac’s buyback program can help make it more affordable.
We pay great prices for used MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro units — and we make the whole process quick and simple. We also cough up real cash, so you can spend it anywhere you like.
Disassembling the new 16-inch MacBook Pro finds plenty to like. There’s a keyboard that’s almost certainly more reliable, a revamped thermal system and a bigger battery.
On the other side of the coin, repair company iFixit did a teardown and gives this laptop a low, low rating for repairability.
The smaller MacBook Pro will reportedly be upgraded next year with a keyboard that users can trust, just as the new 16-inch version recently was.
If true, it means the current 13-inch MacBook Pro will be the last with the infamous Butterfly keyboard.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is a sign of a fundamental shift at Apple: It includes a keyboard that makes this laptop slightly less stylish but more useful. It’s hard to believe this would have happened in the days when chief designer Jony Ive’s habit of putting form ahead of function still reigned supreme over all Apple’s products.
As Ive slowly exits the company, we’re already seeing products less willing to make compromises in functionality in order to get super-sleek looks.
The just-released 16-inch MacBook Pro handles heat better, giving it faster performance than the 15-inch models introduced earlier this year, even though both laptops use exactly the same processor.
Apple unleashed the 16-inch MacBook Pro this week, delivering a powerful beast of a machine that answers many of our prayers. That butterfly keyboard? Gone, replaced with a Magic Keyboard. And those thermal throttling problems? Supposedly fixed forever.
Sure, we found a couple of not-so-happy surprises. But all in all, we feel just a little bit giddy. Find out all the reasons why in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. You can download it free from the iOS App Store. As always, it’s jammed full of Apple news, reviews and how-tos.
This week on The CultCast: Everything you need to know about the new 16-inch MacBook Pro! Plus, our first impressions of this hot new machine. And we discuss Disney+, and why it may beat Netflix and Amazon as the best streaming service today.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
The Escape key is pretty essential to the Mac. You can use it to, well, escape from the current window/view/text field. You can use it to dismiss some dialog boxes. It can even be used to force-quit an unresponsive app. And that’s before we get to the Vim text editor, which is as dependent on the Escape key as Jony Ive is on new kinds of aluminum. So why did Apple remove the physical MacBook Pro Escape key when it introduced the Touch Bar?
Apple made that move, much to the despair of some users, back in 2016. Now, in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Escape key is back. But what if you have a perfectly good previous-gen MacBook Pro? Are you really going to spend close to $3,000 just to get your Escape key back? No, you are not. Instead, you are going to repurpose the Caps Lock key, and turn it into an Escape key.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro launched yesterday, and by all accounts, it’s fantastic. But it arrives at a time when the MacBook (Pro or otherwise) is no longer the default choice for a portable Apple computer. Regular readers will know that several Cult of Mac writers use an iPad Pro as their main machine. Killian, Ed, Ian and I all ditched the Mac awhile ago in favor of iOS.
And I haven’t bought a Mac since 2013. It was a MacBook Air that has since moved on. The only Mac I still own is a 2010 iMac. And yet I have already ordered the new MacBook Pro. Why? What changed?
WaterField Designs, maker of bespoke bags for all your tech needs, was ready to pounce with a new hand-crafted briefcase when Apple unveiled the new 16-inch MacBook Pro today.
The Executive Leather Laptop Briefcase, available in black bison leather or chocolate brown cowhide, pairs a throwback look with contemporary internals.
Apple finally unleashed its long-rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro on the world this morning, and according to some lucky people who got to play with it early, it was well worth the wait.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro pulled out plenty of surprises beyond its bigger display. Early hands-on reviews rave about the scissor keyboard, the new audio system, upgraded thermal management and of course, its beastly processing power.
Here’s what reviewers are saying about the new machine.
Benchmark tests confirm the MacBook Pro released today is as fast as the speedy macOS laptops introduced earlier this year. That’s good news for anyone who’s been nursing along an older MacBook, waiting for this new 16-inch model.
There are some interesting surprises with the 16-inch MacBook Pro that you won’t find in Apple’s press release. So we’ve rounded up the big ones here so you don’t miss anything before buying.
Some of these things are nice surprises. But be warned that others will leave you a little disappointed.
It’s the end of an era. Apple no longer sells a 15-inch MacBook Pro.
The former favorite was today discontinued following the introduction of an all-new 16-inch model. The 13-inch model remains in the lineup, but you probably won’t want it now.
Apple’s newly unveiled 16-inch MacBook Pro ditches the controversial butterfly keyboard and brings back the scissor switch Magic Keyboard.
In a new interview, Apple marketing SVP Phil Schiller talked about redesigning Apple’s notebook keyboard. And whether or not the non-butterfly keyboard will make it to other Apple laptops anytime soon.
The spectacular new 16-inch MacBook Pro we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Apple today made “the world’s best pro notebook” official, with a larger Retina display and up to 80% faster performance.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro also introduces a brand-new Magic Keyboard that (hopefully) eliminates the problems some MacBook users suffered in recent years. And it’s on sale today!
Apple’s all-new 16-inch MacBook Pro will come packing improved speakers and noise-canceling microphones, according to one reliable source.
The machine, which could also pack the sharpest display Apple has ever put into a MacBook Pro, could make its official debut later today.
The current MacBook Pro is the worst thing since unsliced bread — at least if you believe my colleague Charlie “glass is half empty” Sorrel. But while people might be happy to dump on Cupertino’s current laptop selection, Apple brought us some amazing laptops in its 40-plus year history.
Here are the inarguable top five Apple laptops of all time.
Don’t give up hope for the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Multiple sources indicate that the launch Apple’s biggest laptop in years could be imminent.
Even if it wasn’t announced in October, as so many people expected.
Since I wrote about Apple’s ongoing MacBook disaster last week, and then offered a bunch of alternatives to the current MacBook lineup, several readers got in touch to ask which — if any — older MacBooks we’d recommend. I haven’t bought a MacBook in years, so I did a little research, and asked around the Cult of Mac crew.
So, let’s find out which is the best (old) MacBook you can buy today.
