New MacBook Pro models, are they finally Pro enough?

Speaker 1: Now we've got new MacBook pros in 14 inch and 16 inch models. New chips inside. The real question is are these new matchbook pros pro enough? Speaker 1: There is a ton that is new about these new MacBook pros, but it took us a long time to get here. We've now is a 14 inch MacBook pro and a 16 inch MacBook pro we've had a 16 inch size for a couple years. Now that came up from the 15 inch size. Now we have [00:00:30] a 14 that is basically replacing the traditional 13 inch MacBook pro. Although you can still get the more entry level 13 inch MacBook pro. And that takes us back to the last year when apple first introduced the M one chips in a bunch of max, they did the 13 inch MacBook air. They did the 13 inch MacBook pro and they did the Mac mini. Now the problem was the chip in these systems was so similar. There were, there were a couple of tiny differences, uh, the pro and had ag cores versus the seven for the base air. Speaker 1: But other than that, they were [00:01:00] the same, whether you were buy a Mac mini for $700, a MacBook air for 9 99 or a MacBook pro for 1299. And there was not a ton of performance difference between them. It was kind of hard to justify getting that 13 inch MacBook pro when the 9 99 air was great. And frankly had the fingerprint reader that they took outta the touch bar. And it also gave your regular function keys. Instead of again, that touch bar, which has been in MacBook pros for many years now. Well, that's one thing you're not gonna see in the new [00:01:30] 14 H and 16 inch MacBook pros without a lot of fanfare that has been removed. And frankly, a lot of people have said, if apple loses the touch bar, nobody's gonna mind. And I think that's probably true. There were a couple of good things about it. Speaker 1: I always liked adjusting my volume and brightness, just using a sliding scale to do that rather than pressing the brightness up and down and the volume up and down buttons. And of course the fingerprint reader was fantastic, but apple is now broken that out and on things like the MacBook air and the new [00:02:00] 24 inch iMac keyboards, you just get in your reader, you don't have to deal with the rest of the touch bar. So I don't think anyone is going to shed a tear for the end of the touch bar era. But if you really do miss the touch bar, you can still get that 13 inch MacBook pro that has the touch bar. It's a bit of a throwback, frankly feels much less pro than these new models. Also, interestingly, looking at the specs on paper, the 14 inch MacBook pro weighs a full half pound more than the 13 inch. Speaker 1: It's not a lot, but it's not peanuts either. When you [00:02:30] talk about Mac updates, sometimes you're talking about external updates and sometimes you're talking about internal updates some years, the internal updates are so extensive. You basically have a brand new machine on the inside, but no change on the outside. That frankly was the case for many, many years, with a lot of apple products, this case with a new 14 inch pro and 16 inch pro you have internal changes and you have external changes for regular mainstream consumer types like you and I, frankly, those external changes are what you're gonna see first and may be more practical and more important to you. And I think the number one thing [00:03:00] is Apple's adding back some of the ports that we've lost over the years now, MacBooks used to have an H D I port. Although before that, they didn't have an H D I port, and we thought they would never add it. Speaker 1: And I would write stories saying it would be great if apple added this and they did. And then they took it out again. Well, now it's back again. The same thing about the SD card slot. And I've been using SD cards a lot more lately just because the Nintendo switch uses them. And some of the 3d printers I test use them. So, uh, suddenly I'm, I'm up to my elbows in SD cards and microSD cards. So nice to have that reader back [00:03:30] there. And of course you get a mag safe power connection, which again is something that the MacBooks used to have then took away. And now they're adding back. It's almost as if apple is doing kind of the greatest hits, rundown memory lane and cherry picking the things that people like the most about previous max and craming them all into these new systems. Speaker 1: Now, I have said a couple of times that bringing Mac Mac safe has advantages, but also has disadvantages. And some people have said, I'm just being too cranky about it, but I'll tell [00:04:00] you why, because having USBC is a main charging port on your MacBook makes it so universal because you can use the same charger on your MacBook air on your 13 inch MacBook pro I think on your iPad pro on your Nintendo switch on just about any Del X vs 13 or Lenovo yoga laptop, you're likely to run, do anything sort of a gaming laptop. These days basically has that universal USBC power connection. So when somebody is in a coffee shop or an office or anywhere and goes, does anybody have a MacBook cable? [00:04:30] You know, they're talking about a USBC cable and you can use an apple one, you can use another branded, one it's pretty universal and pretty interchangeable with the new MacBook pros. Speaker 1: You can still charge through USBC, but now you've got Mac safe as well. So when somebody says, you know, Hey, can I borrow your cable? Maybe they have a USBC one. Maybe they have a Mac safe one. It's just not gonna be as universal. It's not the end of the world. Uh, but I, I like non-pro proprietary connections versus proprietary ones, all things being equal, nothing. You're gonna notice the [00:05:00] screens take up more of that top panel. So thinner bezels. In fact, now they have the notch cutout for the web cameras before it was just, you know, built into the top of the lid, the notch, of course, uh, we've seen it before on the iPhone. Now it's coming to the MacBook, but it does not add face ID, which you might think if you saw it. However, it's gone up from a seven 20 resolution camera to a, in 80, which frankly is, is the, probably the single most important thing here. Speaker 1: Uh, we spent a lot of our time in web meetings and zoom meetings and all [00:05:30] kinds of video conferences and MacBook webcams generally look terrible. Most laptop webcams look terrible. A few of them have moved up to 10 80 cameras like the surface pro some Mac devices have of 10 80 webcams, like the 24 inch and 27 inch iMac and using them compared to the regular MacBook cameras. It's a huge difference. So the 10 80 camera is going to be one of your favorite features about these new products. And of course, that's coupled with the mini L E D screen, which is the same screen technology that's in that really awesome iPad pro [00:06:00] MacBook screens before this, did that look terrible, but they're gonna look even better now inside. That's where they're really selling the pro part of the MacBook pro you've got new versions of the M one chip. Speaker 1: They didn't call the M two. They didn't call the M one X it's the M one pro and the M one max. Now the max is higher. The pro and the pro is higher than the regular M one for a lot of people. The main difference is gonna be the number of graphics scores available, basically how much it can do in terms of graphics processing, what you would usually have a discreet GPU for something from invi or something [00:06:30] from AMD and previous IMAX and MacBook pros and Mac pros had a variety of AMD discreet graphics. Now it's all bundled in with the M one pro and the M one max, it's hard to compare them apples to apples until we actually get some of these and run some tests on them. Uh, but generally the M one pro has 16 graphics scores. The M one max is 32. Speaker 1: The regular M one has either seven or eight graphics scores, depending on which specific model of laptop you [00:07:00] get. And that is really what has kept a lot of the really pro pro users. People do a lot of high end Photoshop and video editing and 3d model creation and, and game programming. That's kept them away from the original M one MacBook pro from last year, because it just didn't have the graphics horsepower they needed. And some people felt, you know, apple was not taking care of that audience yet. So this is the attempt to take care of that audience and to get people who would easily spend 3000, 4,005,000, $10,000 on a system [00:07:30] to feel like they can buy one of these new MacBook pros, uh, and they can, they can use it professionally. Now, are these gonna make MacBook pros into gaming chains? Probably not. Speaker 1: Apple literally did not mention gaming once. I think in their MacBook pro presentation, they just did. Uh, I'm talking to a couple of game developers and game publishers about whether they feel the new graphics power built into these pros will help them move more into Mac gaming, but it remains, uh, a pretty dead platform for gaming over the past year. Since we first started [00:08:00] using M one max, the MacBook air, the MacBook pro the Mac mini, uh, the initial concern was that there was gonna be, uh, issues with, uh, software compatibility, software, emulation things not working, right. I've found that using an air in a pro almost daily for just about a year now, the switchover was actually very, very transparent, which is really the best thing that you can say to someone in a situation like this. You don't want to really notice the new operating system. Speaker 1: You don't want to really notice the new CPU. You just want it to work. [00:08:30] So I had no problem doing Photoshop, premier, all kinds of stuff on regular M one systems. And I'm sure the same thing is gonna be true. The M one pro and the M one max systems, which I have not seen or used in person yet, there are a handful of programs that, that audience really needs and needs to work. Well, a lot of the Adobe stuff, some of Apple's own stuff like, uh, logic pro and like final cut, uh, some 3d programs, you know, once you get those nailed down, I think the pro audience is gonna come along. Apple of course also pushes the [00:09:00] idea that the M one series is very power efficient. Uh, the M one air and pro had very good battery life. Apple is promising 21 hours on the 16 inch, I think 17 hours on the 14 inch that compares to about 20 hours. Speaker 1: They promised on the 13 inch M one pro from last year, obviously an our every day use. It doesn't run quite that long. I think about 10, 11, 12 hours, usually, depending on what you're doing. Uh, but that's still a lot more than they were even a couple of years ago. And the 16 inch is gonna be able to [00:09:30] run longer, just cuz it's a bigger body and has room for a bigger battery. The new MacBook pro models are available, able to preorder. Now they're gonna start shipping October 26th, the 14 inch starts at 1999. The 16 inch starts at 24 99.