Updates: The 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro; All Round Productivity Laptop With Unrivaled Power.
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Outwardly, the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro is identical to its predecessor, nevertheless, the new laptop offers more processing power, more RAM and more internal storage options. Apple also introduces some interesting features such as True Tone Display and T2 Chip to the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro. As a result of the newly introduced T2 Chip, the innovative laptop now comes with a few enhanced AI-driven features such as hands free "Hey Siri".
On its design, the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro's unibody still has the same excellent built quality and the same colour option of either silver or space grey. Although, the new MacBook Pro comes with the latest and improved third generation butterfly keyboard which runs more quietly than that of its predecessor, the large "Force Touch" track pad still remain the same.
For its operating system, the new MacBook Pro is preloaded with the macOS High Sierra, which is easily upgradable to the latest macOS Mojave.
$2,399 is the starting price of the base model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro and it's equipped with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, an SSD of 256GB and AMD Radeon Pro 555X Graphics Card with 4GB of video memory. While the price of the one with the higher configuration is $4,699, and it's equipped with the 8th Gen Intel Core i9-8950HK processor, along with the 32GB of RAM, 2TB (Terabyte) SSD storage and an AMD Radeon 560X Graphics Card the has 4GB of VRAM. The 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with the highest price of $6, 699 also features same Core i9 CPU and 32GB of RAM but with a whooping 4TB SSD storage.
Meanwhile, barely 2 weeks after the new MacBook Pro went on sale, there were report of heat and CPU throttling issue with the new laptops. And Apple response that the problem has to do with a glitch in the software of the newly introduced T2 chip, and the company quickly offered solution by releasing a software updates for the new laptops, which seems to address the issue.
Below are some the new and upgraded features that brought about impressive performance in the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Note: If you want a good laptop with thinnest bezels, touchscreen and 4k display that covers 100% Adobe RGB spectrum, you might want to check out 2018 Dell XPS 15.
True Tone Display: The 15:4 -inch (2880x1600) retina display of the Macbook Pro, as usual, is clear, bright and vivid.
Although, some experts said that the last year Macbook Pro brightness peaked around 450 nits, in this latest model and as usual, apple still boasts of 500 nits of the display's brightness, yet, there are report that the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro has a maximum brightness of about 360 nits. Furthermore, this year's display also supports DCI 13 Wide Colour Gamut and it also covers almost 120% of the sRGB Colour spectrum.
Meanwhile, unlike those of the previous models, the 15.4.-inch screen of the 2018 MacBook Pro features True Tone Display. True Tone Display, first introduced in the iPad Pro (in the year 2016) and later found in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, makes use of light sensors to measure the ambient light of your surroundings and automatically adjust the white-point (white-balance) and brightness of the MacBook display to be in-tune with the ambient light of your surroundings. In other words, True Tone Display implements light sensors to automatically adjust the colour-balance of the MacBook Pro display in response to the Ambient light of your room or surroundings.
Introduction of Apple T2 Chip: The T2 Chip; first introduced in the iMac Pro, is also now integrated into the new 15-inch MacBook Pro for the security enhancements of the new laptop. Apart from the security purposes, the T2 chip now makes it possible for some AI-enable features such as Hands free "Hey Siri” to be added into the new 2018...MacBook. In other words, besides manually activating the familiar Virtual Assistance through the Siri icon or its button on the Touch bar, "Hey Siri" can also now be activated through your voice i.e. without touching any key or icon. Therefore, while you are really busy with certain task on your new 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can easily tell Hey Siri to play your favorite music track in the background.
Improved Keyboard: Different reactions have trail the Butterfly mechanism keyboard since its adoption in the year 2016 MacBook Pro, while some said they preferred the old Scissors mechanism keyboard (which can only be found on the outgoing 2015 MacBook Pro) because it runs more quietly than the new one, others said the feedbacks of the new keyboard are not good enough. For some, it's the issue of accumulation of specs of dust or debris, under the keys, which affect the functionalities of the keyboard, though Apple offers solution to this through its keyboard service program.
Although the company still uses the Butterfly Mechanism keyboard for its 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro, the new laptop features the latest version of the keyboard which the Apple called the 3rd Generation Butterfly mechanism keyboard, and the company says the keyboard is better than the earlier ones. In response to that, some PC experts agree with the company that the typing experience with the latest keyboard reminds them of that of the scissors mechanism keyboard, and these PC enthusiasts also discovered that the company used silicon membrane under the keys to prevent them from accumulating debris, and it's also the same silicon membrane that enables the new keyboard to run more quietly.
Improved Processing Power: According to the Apple, the 2018 MacBook Pro is 70% faster than its predecessor, this statements is due to the implementation of the latest 8th-Gen. Coffee Lake processors in the new MacBook Pro.
While its predecessor came with the Intel Kaby Lake 7th-Generation processors, the highest of which is the Quad-Core Core-i7, the latest MacBook Pro features faster Intel Coffee Lake 8th-Generation processors. And this year 15-inch MacBook Pro base model starts with Core-i7, but instead of usual Quad-Core, the latest Core-i7 has 6-Cores with 2.2GHz clock speed that, with Turbo Boost, can run up to 4.1GHz. Meanwhile, the high-end model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro features Core-i9 processor that has 6-core and 2.9GHz clock speed that can run up to 4.8GHz with Turbo Boost.
The expansion of RAM to 32GB: The maximum amount of RAM that previous models of the 15-inch MacBook Pro have always supported is 16GB. Though 16GB is enough for most of the laptops' users, but some still needs higher RAM for the optimum running of certain applications or programs on their laptops. Therefore, instead of using LPDDR3 RAM, that restricted the MacBokM Pro RAM to the 16GB, the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro make use of DDR4 SDRAM, which makes it possible for the laptop to have option of 32GB of RAM.
Option of 4TB storage drive: In addition to the existing ones, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro now have another storage option of 4TB to choose from, in other words, the laptop storage can now be configured up to 4TB.
Apart from the new storage upgrade, every other aspects of the laptop's hard drives remain the same, just like in previous model i.e. the storage type is still NVMe PCIe SSD and the users are still presented with the options of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and the newly introduced 4TB.
Upgraded Graphics; AMD Radeon Pro 555X and 506X: The base model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with the improved AMD Radeon Pro 555X and it has 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM. This indicates that this year base models are equipped with more Graphic power and Video RAM than the last year's base models that came with AMD Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB GDDR5 RAM.
Although, like the last year's high-end ones, the 2018 high-end models of the laptop also have 4GB VRAM Graphics Card. However, unlike their predecessors that came with AMD Radeon Pro 506, this year high-end models features better and more powerful AMD Radeon Pro 506X.
The 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 83.6Wh non-removable battery, which Apple claims will last for up to 10 hours on a normal usage. The new laptop has the same 4x USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports and 3.5mm
audio jack like the earlier model. Also, like the earlier one, the weight of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro is still 1.83kg (4.02
pound), and it also has the same as thickness of 15.5mm.
Still present in this year model are the Touch bar; which replaced the function keys and the Touch ID; which helps you secure your laptop, and at the same time, let you unlock your MacBook Pro quickly. Others are the Face Time HD (720p) camera, 3 microphones, and stereo speakers with high dynamic range.
Instead of having Bluetooth 4.2 like the earlier model, the 2018 MacBook Pro comes with Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
And with $199, you can protect your MackBook Pro with leather sleeve, which also comes in 3 different colours.
Image Source: CNET.
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On its design, the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro's unibody still has the same excellent built quality and the same colour option of either silver or space grey. Although, the new MacBook Pro comes with the latest and improved third generation butterfly keyboard which runs more quietly than that of its predecessor, the large "Force Touch" track pad still remain the same.
For its operating system, the new MacBook Pro is preloaded with the macOS High Sierra, which is easily upgradable to the latest macOS Mojave.
$2,399 is the starting price of the base model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro and it's equipped with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, an SSD of 256GB and AMD Radeon Pro 555X Graphics Card with 4GB of video memory. While the price of the one with the higher configuration is $4,699, and it's equipped with the 8th Gen Intel Core i9-8950HK processor, along with the 32GB of RAM, 2TB (Terabyte) SSD storage and an AMD Radeon 560X Graphics Card the has 4GB of VRAM. The 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with the highest price of $6, 699 also features same Core i9 CPU and 32GB of RAM but with a whooping 4TB SSD storage.
Meanwhile, barely 2 weeks after the new MacBook Pro went on sale, there were report of heat and CPU throttling issue with the new laptops. And Apple response that the problem has to do with a glitch in the software of the newly introduced T2 chip, and the company quickly offered solution by releasing a software updates for the new laptops, which seems to address the issue.
Below are some the new and upgraded features that brought about impressive performance in the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
True Tone Display: The 15:4 -inch (2880x1600) retina display of the Macbook Pro, as usual, is clear, bright and vivid.
Although, some experts said that the last year Macbook Pro brightness peaked around 450 nits, in this latest model and as usual, apple still boasts of 500 nits of the display's brightness, yet, there are report that the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro has a maximum brightness of about 360 nits. Furthermore, this year's display also supports DCI 13 Wide Colour Gamut and it also covers almost 120% of the sRGB Colour spectrum.
Meanwhile, unlike those of the previous models, the 15.4.-inch screen of the 2018 MacBook Pro features True Tone Display. True Tone Display, first introduced in the iPad Pro (in the year 2016) and later found in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, makes use of light sensors to measure the ambient light of your surroundings and automatically adjust the white-point (white-balance) and brightness of the MacBook display to be in-tune with the ambient light of your surroundings. In other words, True Tone Display implements light sensors to automatically adjust the colour-balance of the MacBook Pro display in response to the Ambient light of your room or surroundings.
Introduction of Apple T2 Chip: The T2 Chip; first introduced in the iMac Pro, is also now integrated into the new 15-inch MacBook Pro for the security enhancements of the new laptop. Apart from the security purposes, the T2 chip now makes it possible for some AI-enable features such as Hands free "Hey Siri” to be added into the new 2018...MacBook. In other words, besides manually activating the familiar Virtual Assistance through the Siri icon or its button on the Touch bar, "Hey Siri" can also now be activated through your voice i.e. without touching any key or icon. Therefore, while you are really busy with certain task on your new 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can easily tell Hey Siri to play your favorite music track in the background.
Although the company still uses the Butterfly Mechanism keyboard for its 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro, the new laptop features the latest version of the keyboard which the Apple called the 3rd Generation Butterfly mechanism keyboard, and the company says the keyboard is better than the earlier ones. In response to that, some PC experts agree with the company that the typing experience with the latest keyboard reminds them of that of the scissors mechanism keyboard, and these PC enthusiasts also discovered that the company used silicon membrane under the keys to prevent them from accumulating debris, and it's also the same silicon membrane that enables the new keyboard to run more quietly.
Improved Processing Power: According to the Apple, the 2018 MacBook Pro is 70% faster than its predecessor, this statements is due to the implementation of the latest 8th-Gen. Coffee Lake processors in the new MacBook Pro.
While its predecessor came with the Intel Kaby Lake 7th-Generation processors, the highest of which is the Quad-Core Core-i7, the latest MacBook Pro features faster Intel Coffee Lake 8th-Generation processors. And this year 15-inch MacBook Pro base model starts with Core-i7, but instead of usual Quad-Core, the latest Core-i7 has 6-Cores with 2.2GHz clock speed that, with Turbo Boost, can run up to 4.1GHz. Meanwhile, the high-end model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro features Core-i9 processor that has 6-core and 2.9GHz clock speed that can run up to 4.8GHz with Turbo Boost.
The expansion of RAM to 32GB: The maximum amount of RAM that previous models of the 15-inch MacBook Pro have always supported is 16GB. Though 16GB is enough for most of the laptops' users, but some still needs higher RAM for the optimum running of certain applications or programs on their laptops. Therefore, instead of using LPDDR3 RAM, that restricted the MacBokM Pro RAM to the 16GB, the new 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro make use of DDR4 SDRAM, which makes it possible for the laptop to have option of 32GB of RAM.
Option of 4TB storage drive: In addition to the existing ones, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro now have another storage option of 4TB to choose from, in other words, the laptop storage can now be configured up to 4TB.
Apart from the new storage upgrade, every other aspects of the laptop's hard drives remain the same, just like in previous model i.e. the storage type is still NVMe PCIe SSD and the users are still presented with the options of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and the newly introduced 4TB.
Upgraded Graphics; AMD Radeon Pro 555X and 506X: The base model of the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with the improved AMD Radeon Pro 555X and it has 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM. This indicates that this year base models are equipped with more Graphic power and Video RAM than the last year's base models that came with AMD Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB GDDR5 RAM.
Although, like the last year's high-end ones, the 2018 high-end models of the laptop also have 4GB VRAM Graphics Card. However, unlike their predecessors that came with AMD Radeon Pro 506, this year high-end models features better and more powerful AMD Radeon Pro 506X.
Still present in this year model are the Touch bar; which replaced the function keys and the Touch ID; which helps you secure your laptop, and at the same time, let you unlock your MacBook Pro quickly. Others are the Face Time HD (720p) camera, 3 microphones, and stereo speakers with high dynamic range.
Instead of having Bluetooth 4.2 like the earlier model, the 2018 MacBook Pro comes with Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
And with $199, you can protect your MackBook Pro with leather sleeve, which also comes in 3 different colours.
Image Source: CNET.
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