Buy Apple MacBook Pro

It has the brightest, most colorful Apple MacBook Pro display ever.   And it’s ready for yours.

The new MacBook Pro was launched in 13- and 15-inch screen sizes, and featured sixth-gen Intel Skylake processors, a slim new design and a cool customisable Touch Bar above the keyboard. It also cost a bit of a fortune.

Our MacBook Pro 2016 review evaluates the machine’s looks, design, features and value for money.

Broadly speaking there are three models of the new MacBook Pro: a comparatively budget-focused 13-inch model without the new Touch Bar, and a 13-inch and 15-inch model with it. This review looks at all three models together, but we will make it clear when comments apply only to certain models.

Buy Apple MacBook Pro 

The MacBook Pro with Retina display is the ideal notebook for enthusiasts and professionals looking for fast performance in an
incredibly compact and light design.

• Retina display: 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology
• 2880×1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch with support for millions of colours
• 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache
• 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory, 256GB PCIe-based flash storage
• 802.11ac Wi‑Fi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible
• Force Touch trackpad for precise cursor control

The MacBook Pros are thinner and lighter than the previous generation: the 13- and 15-inch models are 14.9mm and 15.5mm thick (or ‘thin’, as Apple irritatingly styles it in marketing materials) and 1.37kg and 1.83kg respectively. (Last year’s MBPs weighed 1.58kg and 2.04kg, and were both 18mm thick, so Apple has achieved reductions of 17 and 14 percent respectively in thickness, and 13 and 10 percent in terms of weight.)

Dimensions

• 30.41cm x 21.24cm x 1.49cm; 1.37kg (13-inch models)
• 34.93cm x 24.07cm x 1.55cm; 1.83kg (15-inch models)

Externally the design is similar to last year’s, albeit on a slimmer scale, but there are numerous physical changes under the lid. The most obvious, and the flagship feature that occupied much of the unveiling event, is a touchscreen bar above the keyboard that Apple calls the Touch Bar, which we discuss in the next section.

One more thing before we move on: as expected, Apple has removed the traditional USB ports on the MacBook Pro, and the MagSafe charging port, and replaced them all with USB-C/Thunderbolt ports: four of them on the Touch Bar models and two on the 13-inch model without a Touch Bar. And you get a 3.5mm headphone jack too: phew!