The MacBook Pro is one of those love it or leave it devices. Millions of users love what Apple does with its laptops, and others prefer offerings from Microsoft or Dell. Either way, you feel about it; the fact remains that Apple has a new MacBook Pro sporting its latest processors.
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A few points of interest that struck me right off the bat. We’ve had a few gripes with Apple’s MacBook Pros in the past that seem to have been addressed with this model. It seems the TouchBar is now gone, fantastic! Apple has also finally added a 1080p webcam instead of 720p, better late than never. And the SD Card slot is back along with an HDMI port, excellent!
Apple offers these new MacBook Pros in 14″ and 16″ variations, and the display comes with a notch. The bezels are thinner, and it looks like Apple opted to notch the top bezel for the camera rather than make the bezel thicker. We’re not sure how we feel about this move.
Here’s what Apple’s press release had to say about the new MacBook Pro:
2021 MacBook Pro
M1 Pro and M1 Max revolutionize the MacBook Pro experience and mark a huge step forward in the transition to Apple silicon on Mac. MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max applies a system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture to pro systems for the first time, featuring fast unified memory and increased memory bandwidth for unparalleled performance with best-in-class performance per watt and industry-leading power efficiency.
M1 Pro takes the groundbreaking architecture of M1 to a whole new level. Featuring a powerful up-to-10-core CPU with eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, along with an up-to-16-core GPU, M1 Pro delivers up to 70 percent faster CPU performance than M1, and up to 2x faster GPU performance.
M1 Pro also delivers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth — nearly 3x the bandwidth of M1 — and supports up to 32GB of fast unified memory. Designed to dramatically speed up pro video workflows, M1 Pro adds a ProRes accelerator in the media engine, delivering unbelievably fast and power-efficient video processing.
M1 Max — the world’s most powerful chip for a pro notebook — builds on M1 Pro, taking its amazing capabilities even further. M1 Max features the same powerful 10-core CPU as M1 Pro, and doubles the GPU with up to a massive 32 cores for up to 4x faster GPU performance than M1.
It also has up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and up to 64GB of fast unified memory. With even the latest PC laptops topping out at 16GB of video memory, having this huge amount of memory available is game-changing for pro workloads, allowing pros to do things that were previously unimaginable on a notebook.
Apple
3D artists on the new MacBook Pro can now easily work with extreme geometry and textures in scenes that pro PC laptops can’t even run. M1 Max also offers an enhanced media engine that features two ProRes accelerators for even higher multi-stream performance.
As a result, pros can edit up to 30 streams of 4K ProRes video or up to seven streams of 8K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro — more streams than on a 28-core Mac Pro with Afterburner. And for the first time on any Mac, video editors can grade color in HDR on 8K ProRes 4444 video on battery when they’re miles away from the edit bay.
Featuring a beautiful, brand new design, the 14- and 16-inch models of MacBook Pro were designed with a focus on performance and utility. Its all-new aluminum enclosure optimizes internal space for more performance and features.
The enclosure is precisely machined around an advanced thermal system that can move 50 percent more air than the previous generation, even at lower fan speeds. The thermal design enables MacBook Pro to deliver phenomenal sustained performance while staying cool and quiet. And because of the efficiency of Apple silicon, the fans never even have to turn on for most tasks users perform every day.
The new MacBook Pro also comes with a Magic Keyboard that is set in a double-anodized black well, which elegantly highlights the backlit glyphs on the keys, and features a full-height function row. Physical function keys — including a wider escape key — replace the Touch Bar, bringing back the familiar, tactile feel of mechanical keys that pro users love. The new keyboard is complemented by the industry-best Force Touch trackpad that is perfect for pro applications.
Apple
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