MacBook Pro 2018: Apple’s Radical MacBook Redesign Seems To Be Finally Reaching Its Maturity
Apple’s current-generation MacBook Pros entered the notebook industry in a polarizing manner. While the devices were stunning and sleek, their limited RAM, even more limited ports, and their shallow keyboards practically split the Mac community in half. This year, however, it appears that Apple might have finally matured the MacBook Pro lineup in such a way that the devices are now a very compelling purchase.
While the dependence of Apple’s MacBook Pro series to dongles could be justified by Apple’s full support for USB-C technology, and the devices’ butterfly keyboards could be justified by the thinness of the laptops, there was very little the Cupertino-based giant could do to justify the underpowered nature of its Pro series laptops in 2016.
When the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was unveiled in 2016, for example, the device was only equipped with a rather dated 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 Skylake processor. This processor was paired with a 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM and Radeon Pro 450 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, and Intel Graphics 530. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, another flagship laptop, only shipped with a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Skylake processor, 256GB SSD, and a measly 8GB of RAM. Things got a little better in 2017, when Apple rolled out improvements to the MacBook Pro’s internals, but the machine’s shortcomings were still prevalent.
This year, however, Apple’s MacBook Pro series is set to see a substantial improvement over its predecessors. According to a MacRumors report, the top-tier 2018 MacBook Pro’s 15-inch variant has been found on Geekbench to feature a notable 44.3 percent increase over the multi-core performance of last year’s top unit, thanks to its 2.9GHz six-core Intel Core i9 processor, with Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz.
Oh hey look there’s a new 6-core 15” MacBook Pro. Also bumped to 4TB of storage and up to 32GB of RAM. Definitely getting my hands on it soon…https://t.co/hqTQ6BB3pV pic.twitter.com/Bj31IqqAYh
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) July 12, 2018
This is true for the 13-inch MacBook Pro models as well, as Geekbench scores showed a massive 81-86 percent increase in multi-core performance over its 2017 counterpart, thanks to its 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz.
As noted in a 9to5Mac report, the 2018 MacBook Pro series also introduces support for up to 32GB of RAM — something that is considered a prerequisite to upcoming laptops in today’s flagship notebook market. iFixit, a website dedicated to teardowns and analysis of tech devices, have also found an improved butterfly keyboard for the 2018 MacBook Pro series, making an upgrade to the latest iterations of the devices an even more justified purchase.
The 2018 MacBook Pro series is expected to be available later this year.
