The 16-inch MacBook Pro has several larger shoes, the 17-inch MacBook Pro that Apple discontinued in 2012. The laptop was rumored for a long time, many people were waiting for it to become real. Okay, the laptop finally arrived here and we put it in our labs to see if it was worth the wait.

Performance

The MacBook Pro review unit we got is powered by a 9^M Generation Intel Core i9-9880H processor. This eight-core CPU has a rated TDP of 45W, a base clock of 2.3GHz and a boost clock of 4.8GHz. In addition to the processor, there is 1TB storage with 4GB GDDR6 memory and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M discrete graphics with 16GB DDR4 RAM. The configuration is currently priced at Rs 2,39,990 and is available at Apple’s authorized retailers both online and offline.

Not many benchmarks are available for MacOS, but there are some very promising stories that test system performance. In GeekBench 5, the MacBook Pro scores 1032 for single-core and 6355 for multi-core performance. In Cinebench 20, MacBook Pro scores 3155 points for CPU and in Cinebench 15, 1279cb for CPU and 114.2fps for OpenCL. Scores by itself don’t mean much, but where the 16-inch MacBook Pro really flexes its hardware is in terms of creative work pressure. We benchmarked the machine using FCP X, Adobe’s suite of apps for photo editing, video editing and even some VFX work.

Sidecar allows the use of an iPad as a secondary screen

Photo editing

We loaded hundreds of RAW files from a Nikon D850 into the internal drive of the MacBook Pro to determine how the machine would handle loads during processing in the lightroom. 45-megapixel RAW files are large enough to crawl most systems, not only in the development module, but also when exporting to disk. We export batches of 50 files, 100 files and 500 files. On the first run of 50 files, the MacBook Pro manages to complete the process in 1 minute 16 seconds, whereas 100 RAW files take 2 minutes and 41 seconds. The machine accomplished the daunting task of exporting 500 high-resolution RAW files to full quality JPG in 12 minutes and 48 seconds. For ease of comparison, the Dell XPS 15 and 32GB DDR4 RAM powered by Core i9-9980HK processor completed the same export cycle in 1 minute 7 seconds, 2 minutes 4 seconds and 19 minutes and 46 seconds for Sporting 50,100 and 500 files. Interestingly, the XPS 15 is quick to export 50 and 100 RAW files, but lags behind in exporting 500 files. On the MacBook Pro, we noticed that during all export sessions in Adobe Lightroom, the clock speed of the MacBook Pro did not slow down from the speed of advertising. The single-core boost clock recorded by Intel Power Gadget was between 4.4GHz – 4.8GHz while the other 7 cores averaged 2.3GHz, sometimes reaching 3.0GHz. The key to this practice is that the MacBook Pro i9-9880 did not throttle despite being in full, durable load for a long time.

Exporting a number of 45 megapixel RAW files

Video editing

Apple’s products are extremely popular in the video community, so it’s normal to test the new MacBook Pro 16-inch in that environment. On the 16-inch MacBook Pro, users get not only Intel’s QuickSync technology, but also the video encode-decode capability of the dedicated T2 chip. We used both FCP X and Adobe Premiere for this test. We loaded up a project between both video editors. The project had a 5 minute timeline featuring footage shots in 4K. We made sure to apply the same transition and LUT files to the project so that the two versions could be identical. FCP X takes just over 5 minutes to export 5-minute 41-second 4K video to a 4K, H.264 file, and 3 minutes 26 seconds to render the same project in 1080p. Premier Pro takes 14 minutes to export the same project to 4K, H.264 and 8 minutes 14 seconds to do the same thing in 1080p. Funny. All the files needed for the fastest read / write performance were stored on the MacBook Pro’s internal 1TB drive.

We noticed that the difference in export time was attributed to the CPU clock speed. When exporting video, FCP X hits the processor with a durable but low load so as not to push it into its TJ-Max, so that it can hold its boost clock longer. Premier, on the other hand, slammed all eight cores with all its demands, causing the CPU to throttle within a minute. In fact, during the render process from Premier, we noticed that all Core CPU clocks are as low as 1.8GHz! The render engine was consistent behavior regardless of the metal, OpenGL (obsolete) or software. And yes, switching to Adobe Media Encoder didn’t improve the render time either.

Where things look better for Premier Pro but the same file when encoded in the H.265 container. When exporting the same file to 4K and 1080p, but using the H.265 codec, the export time coincides with FCP X, so this can be a problem with the way Premier is handling the h.264 codec. Although render behavior may cause concern in Premier, the error is not with the program and not with the hardware. The MacBook Pro’s hardware is strong enough to be able to scrub the 4K timeline without lowering the preview quality or creating a proxy. This is quite an impressive achievement, especially if you are a Premier Pro user.

It’s clear that the best way to get the most out of the MacBook Pro’s hardware is to use Apple’s own suite editing tools. However, Adobe or even DaVinci users should not lose heart. Adobe’s slow render performance for H.264 encoding can be easily fixed with a software update, since it’s just a matter of how Premier loads its activities into the CPU. We’ve seen Adobe Lightroom do the same thing, by loading the CPU intelligently.

Display

The Apple MacBook Pro has a 16-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Compared to the 15-inch model, you’ll end up with “more screens” horizontally and vertically, more vertically. Personally, I’m a big fan of the 16:10 aspect ratio because it allows more tools to be visible in my editing software at the same time. The resolution of the display is 3072X1920, with a refresh rate of 60Hz and 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. The display clocked a maximum of 485 lux brightness on our Lux meter. The display maintains a continuum of brightness at the four corners, while our Lux meter records the same brightness at the four corners and in the center.

Outside of the box, the display is calibrated to display the sRGB color gamut accurately, making it quite easy to switch to DCI-P3. Apple allows users to change the display color profile from the Display Settings option, but, if you’re someone who works with more than one color space, Apple has an elegant solution.

While much of the world’s content still exists in sRGB color space, there is a great deal of relief for content creators working with 10-bit color (HDR) video. When working on an HDR project in FCP, you can switch between sRGB and P3 color spaces in the FCP preview window with a shortcut. Although the shortcut only works in FCP, the implementation behind it is impressive. You can work in P3 color space without changing the color space of the whole system. On a Windows-based machine, you need to change the color space of the entire system before your editing software can display the colors correctly, causing the colors to appear incorrectly everywhere else. Allows Apple’s MacOS display features to be defined on a per-application basis, making it extremely convenient to work with mixed color spaces.

16-inch display with 3072×1920 resolution sRGB color instead of color-perfect

Needless to say, the display of the 16-inch MacBook Pro is not only versatile, it also offers enough color gamut, brightness and real estate to be comfortable enough for most manufacturers. The only thing that could make the display better is a matte coating, although the glossy display does a good job of suppressing the reflection.

Keyboard, trackpad and touchbar

One of the biggest criticisms of Apple’s laptops in the last few years has been the insignificant travel on their keyboards. With the new MacBook Pro, Apple wants to address that concern. The new keys not only have more travel (1mm) but also new scissor switches. This is the same switch that is used on the magic keyboard. The new keyboard is certainly more comfortable to type, but the keys are still too soft and not responsive enough. Even if you’re coming from an old MacBook, they definitely seem to get used to something. The arrow marks have also changed their position, returning to a reversed layout that users wanted.

The touchbar has also been redesigned, with the escape key and power button separated. Having a dedicated escape key is certainly nice because it comes in handy when you’re forced to close an application, but the touchbar won’t give you a choice.

Finally, there is the glorious trackpad. Apple’s Laptop Hands Down has the best trackpad in the business, and with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro it just gets better. All movements and gestures are flawlessly recognized, and every click provides strong feedback. It also helps make the trackpad bigger in the new MacBook Pro, making things like video and photo editing possible.

Words

The speakers in the new MacBook Pro are definitely another impressive thing about this new laptop. They are not only loud, they are very clear, even their loudest. Each speaker grill hides a pair of twitter and a subwoofer for a total of 6 speakers. Subwoofers employ force cancellation, a method by which the vibrations generated by each subwoofer are reversed by the others. This leads to a slightly deeper ditch, all without any noticeable rotation. Although the experience may not be audiophile-grade, the speakers offer very impressive stereo separation (for properly mastered content), which tends to be most obvious when watching movies. Regardless of the type of movie, the speakers will deliver good, clear and loud sound.

The MacBook Pro has a Twitter set on each side and a subwoofer for great, immersive sound.

Battery life

Apple Computer’s battery life has always had a good track record, and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro continues that tradition. Packing a 100Whr battery, Apple’s flagship laptop uses 7 hours and 41 minutes normal, in the office. This includes browsing the web and writing lots of stories, including just a 30-minute example from Photoshop. The brightness of the display was set to 60 percent and there was no accessory connection to any of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports. For a high-performance laptop, this is a number that fascinates like no one else and is fortunate not to find any flaws in it.

Conclusion

The 16-inch MacBook Pro is not a common refresh. It looks like a sack that encloses with a drawstring. It addresses most of the concerns raised by the creative community; Performance, a bigger and better display, improved keyboard and better speakers. The new MacBook Pro may benefit from an additional Thunderbolt port (or two). Lack of an SD card lot is problematic, and Apple’s insistence on not bringing back this little slot is frank, confusing.

All told and done, the new 16-inch MacBook Pro tick in almost all the right boxes in the case of powerful editing machines. Thin things like the 16-inch MacBook Pro have nothing on the Windows side that offers the same hardware specs. We have the Dell XPS 15, but the 4K OLED panel is a great choice for creative professionals and the IPS LCD panel variant of the laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and only 8GB of RAM. Then there’s the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, which comes with overkill hardware (Intel Core i9-9980HK, 32GB RAM and Nvidia RTX 2060), but again, with the OLED display problem, the IPS LCD variant is only available on the Core i7. Taste