First things first, this is only a quick review. Its not lie and you probably guessed it, I am a bit of a sucker for an Apple product but even when I first saw the new Macbook Pro launch I was’nt very impressed with the route Apple took and decided that I wouldn’t be purchasing one.
2 weeks down the line after it was unvieled my old Macbook Pro 2012 decided it wanted to start playing up and after some diagnostics of my own and eventually giving up as I was stumped, I took it into Apple who confirmed the worst …that it was my logic board and the rest is history and now I have a new Apple Macbook Pro 2016 with Touchbar.
So first things first here are the main specs of the new system so you guys know what I’m reviewing:
- 13 Inch 2560 x 1600 Display
- I5 2.9GHZ Dual Core Processor with a Boost of 3.3GHZ
- 512GB PCIe SSD
- 8GB 2133MHz Ram
- Iris 550 Graphics
- Four Thunderbolt 3/USB C Ports
Lets first talk about the elephant in the room which is the lack of ports which everyone including myself could not understand why Apple took this approach but after using the device for a couple of weeks, I did find an essential accesory that I think everyone will need to get which is the Avotch USB C Hub but it is rather annoying considering the cost of the system that you would need to spend another £60 on a hub in order to connect your everyday perihirals to the system such as external hardrives, sd cards, hdmi cable and even a network adapter if you prefer a wired internet connection. On the other hand tho I can kind of see why Apple have done it as it is a more versatile port and damn its lightning quick if you have compatible USB C external hardrives to go with it but in all honesty I think it may have been a year to early to completly banish all other ports from the Macbook but it will encourage manfacturers to create new devices which are compatible with USB C as these laptops will sell in mass amounts and manufacturers know that.
By far the best feature for me on this laptop is that incredible display. Going from a non retina macbook to this is a massive leap, every single detail is visable and with the wide colour gamut the colours just pop and look so crisp at any angle your viewing the display from and I would go as far as saying its the best overall display I have ever seen on a device of this size so well done Apple on that one.
Lets move on to the important bit…the performance. This system is not slouch with the i5 processor matched with 8GB 2133MHz Ram and with the ridiculosly overpriced optional upgrade 512GB SSD it absolutely smashes through work loads and applications such as photoshop and premiere pro and general everyday stuff and it is a joy to use. Data transfer speeds are as you would expect, I transferred an 40GB file to this when I first purchased and it done it in less that 3 minutes which is some of the fastest speeds I have come across so once again well done Apple on this one to.
Now for the bits I dislike! Its not all rosey, there are a few things which I do dislike about this laptop and to kick things off I will start with the price. It is incredibly overpriced this laptop costs £1949RRP but I did do some hunting around and luckily it fell on black friday weekend so managed to purchase this for £1849 with an additional £73 cashback from John Lewis but by no means do I still think I got myself a good deal. Why would you spend that sort of money on a laptop? I hear you cry … well for me I do just love the operating system and how Mac laptops seem to just work flawlessly with my other Apple products its just a shame that Apple think its okay to only put 256GB in its base system which for me is just not enough storage and for the 512GB upgrade was a £200 upgrade, not cool Apple not cool at all. Next thing is that touchbar, yes it looks cool and futuristic and touch ID works really well but in everyday tasks and uses it just isn’t compatible with enough programes as of yet but im sure this will only be a short term dislike as more applictions an programmes will be able to use the touchbar via updates but I feel like more should of been prepared for this funtion.
Conclusions and the main question “should you buy one?” in a one word answer for an everyday user looking for something to browse the web and do a few word documents which aren’t to bothered if they use Windows 10 or Mac OS … No! Now if your a kind of person who uses applications such as photoshop, premiere pro, final cut etc … the decision is a little difficult yes it is an expensive machine but damn it is fast and generally a pleasure to use and I don’t think you would be disapointed at all with the screen and with the application support coming from adobe and other companies for the touchbar I do think it could boost productivity for your day to day life and work, saying that tho there are other options which can be explored which would also do the same job for less money on the Windows 10 platform but for me as mentioned above I just love the Mac OS experience hence why I purchased this machine.
Thank you for reading my review and for any questions or feedback please use the section below of contact me on twitter @liamstechguide or Facebook
Liams Tech Guide 