True story: At last year’s CES, I had to locate an Apple Store in the Venetian because my external SD reader failed (I won’t say which TechCrunch staff member laughed at me in that predicament, but they know who they are). I would say, more than anything, the thing I miss moving from the MacBook Pro to the Air is the ports. In fact, it shouldn’t go unremarked upon that the arrival of the new 14-inch signaled the merciful end to that particular technology, as the last Touch Bar Mac - the 13-inch Pro - was replaced by the new 14-inch model. That means finally updating the camera, building a better keyboard (the class action settlement probably tipped the scales as well) and ditching the well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual Touch Bar altogether. That certainly applies here.Īlong with building new chips, Apple has spent the last few years listening to consumers in a way it hadn’t for decades. There’s no such thing as a future-proofed laptop, so the best you can hope for is one that will give you good mileage. It’s true that Apple is currently on a one-year upgrade cycle for it first-party M-series chips, but it’s genuinely tough to imagine and advanced as pronounced as the one it made from Intel to in-house silicon happening any time soon. It’s certainly a system that’s likely to last you a while. We’re talking about a real investment here for you - or better yet, your company. That’s a pretty hefty increase from the base level 14- and 16-inch models, which run $1,600 and $2,500 to start.Īpple lowered the barrier of entry for the lowest end model, but - as ever - upgrades start to add up quickly. If you want to bump the memory and storage up to 128GB and 8TB, respectively, it comes to $7,200. That also means 48GB of memory and 1TB of storage by default. Again, the one I am typing this on falls into the latter camp. The Max comes in both 14-core CPU/30-core GPU and 16-core CPU/40-core GPU flavors. The company, understandably, likes to put its best foot forward with this stuff (so yes, it’s also the Space Black model). The 14-inch MacBook Pro can be configured with any of the three new chips, while the 16-inch is limited to just the Pro and Max.Īpple sent us the 16-inch with the M3 Max. Apple also recently shot down rumors surrounding a 27-inch iMac. Presumably an M3 Ultra is also on the way in the not-too-distant future, but will almost certainly be confined to desktops like the Mac Studio, and Mac Pro, owing to the limitations of system architectures. What announcing the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max at once affords the company, however, is options - though less so for the M3-only iMac.īetween the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, you’ve got all three configurations covered. The supply chain ultimately thought different(ly). That latter bit marked a big departure for the company, following rumors that Apple had planned the initial M3 launch for WWDC. The new MacBook Pro, which goes on sale this week, was announced at last week’s Scary Fast event, alongside a new iMac and - of course - several members of the M3 line. I would recommend against taking your work (and large laptop) home with you every night, but you do you. When it’s time to take your work home (assuming you don’t live in France), you can pop it in your bag and take it with you. The chip also affords the laptop the ability to power up to four external displays, making it a fine workstation option for many. That is to say that the M3 Max is plenty powerful for even most professional uses. I’ve begun thinking of the 16-inch MacBook Pro as something more along the lines of a portable desktop. It’s thin, it’s light, it has more than enough processing power for 95% of the things 95% of people need, and it won’t wrestle you for the arm rest. This is due partially to an ongoing back injury, but frankly, for as good as the Pro’s battery life is ( very good, for the record), the Air is a much better travel companion. I’m hopping on another cross-country flight tomorrow, and I’m planning to leave the 16-inch Pro at home. After opening the box, I immediately ported all the contents over from the 15-inch Air I’ve been using daily for several months now, but still, the 16-inch MacBook Pro feels like a different species.Įach has their place. It’s a big, heavy, powerful system, with a bright display, massive battery life and impressive power under the hood. This thing is a beast - in pretty much every sense.
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