Apple Replaces 15-inch MacBook Pro With 16-inch Model
New model ditches controversial ‘butterfly’ keyboard and touts 80 percent performance increase
Apple has revealed a brand new 16 inch MacBook Pro, which replaces the previous 15 inch model, with prices starting at $2,399.
Besides the redesigned model being slightly bigger, the most notable development has been that Apple has opted to ditch its controversial ‘butterfly’ keyboard.
In May this year Apple took the unusual step of offering free keyboard repairs for those MacBooks that utilised the butterfly mechanism beneath the keyboard.
New model
Essentially all MacBooks with the butterfly mechanism beneath the keys (nearly all modern MacBooks) became fully eligible for Apple’s Keyboard Service Program.
But the new MacBook Pro has dropped the butterfly mechanism and reverted back to good old reliable scissor switches, in order to deliver “the best typing experience ever in a Mac notebook.”
Other new features with the new model includes the latest 8-core processors, up to 64GB of memory, six speaker sound system, and a larger 16 inch retina display, “making it the most powerful MacBook Pro ever.”
It also comes with 8GB of VRAM and a new advanced thermal design.
“Our pro customers tell us they want their next MacBook Pro to have a larger display, blazing-fast performance, the biggest battery possible, the best notebook keyboard ever, awesome speakers and massive amounts of storage, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro delivers all of that and more,” said Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing.
“With its brilliant 16-inch Retina display, 8-core processors, next-gen pro graphics, even better thermal design, new Magic Keyboard, six-speaker sound system, 100Wh battery, up to 8TB of storage and 64GB of fast memory, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is the world’s best pro notebook,” boasted Boger.
The 16 inch Retina display is the largest fitted to a notebook, and offers a resolution of 3072×1920 and a higher pixel density of 226 ppi.
Thermal improvements
Apple also says that the 16-inch MacBook Pro also uses the most advanced thermal architecture ever in a Mac notebook, so it can run at higher power for sustained periods of time.
The fan design features a larger impeller with extended blades along with bigger vents, resulting in a 28 percent increase in airflow, while the heat sink is 35 percent larger.
There is still no SD card reader, but the new MacBook Pro doubles the SSD storage to 512GB and 1TB on standard configurations.
And for the first time, MacBook Pro can be configured with a huge 8TB of storage.
Starting price for the MacBook Pro is $2,399, the same price as the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro, and is available to order from today. A beefier version will cost $2,799.
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