17 Jan
Blog

Apple Mac Mini M1 Review: Mini Footprint, Max Performance

Apple Mac Mini M1 Rating2 04

"The Mac Mini M1 resets expectations of how fast a small, affordable desktop can be."

  • Bubble CPU performance

  • Incredibly fast SSDs

  • Excellent value

  • Compact, robust design

  • MacOS Big Sur is great

  • Below average gaming performance

The Mac Mini has often been viewed as the ugly duckling in Apple's Mac family. Without the sleek sophistication of the iMac or the portable beauty of the MacBook, it is often overlooked, categorized as a "niche", and viewed as a developer and data center only.

But now that it comes with Apple's M1 chip, the last thing you want to do is ignore it. Although it looks like the previous generation Mac Mini from the outside, from the inside it is nothing short of a revolution.

The Mac Mini is far from a serious competitor for your money – assuming you want a desktop computer and you already have all of the peripherals you need. It's still a niche, but it hits hard against the walls of this descriptor and is ready to break out.

design

The Mac Mini is by far the most compact desktop Mac from Apple. With a width of 7.7 inches and a height of 1.4 inches from top to bottom, this device can easily fit on your desk or slide under a monitor. The footprint is the same as the previous Intel Mini-based Mac Mini.

It's also one of Apple's most minimalist devices. Almost the entire surface of the device is covered in matte aluminum with just a large Apple logo on it to break up the evenness. There is no other branding or labeling, just a tiny white light on the front that comes on when the device is turned on. It's a Jony Ive fever dream, perhaps the ultimate expression of Apple's obsessive design mores.

As we are used to from Apple hardware, the build quality is excellent. The whole device is heavy and solid with no bends or bends to be found. It feels like a device that could take a few hits and still smile – not that you want that to happen.

However, there are some differences between the M1 and Intel models. Most obvious is the paintwork: the M1 model is available in silver and the Intel version in darker gray. The Intel Mac Mini is also a bit heavier, weighing 2.9 pounds compared to the M1 Mac Mini's 2.6 pounds.

A more significant difference is on the back. Apple long ago removed USB-A ports on its MacBooks, but its desktop Macs – including the Mac Mini – have caught on. While the Intel Mac Mini has four USB-A ports, the M1 version only has two (both with 5 Gbit / s). This is more of a limitation on the M1 than a plan by Apple to phase out the Mac Mini's USB-A ports, and I wouldn't be surprised if four ports were available again when more powerful Apple silicon chips come out. However, it's worth noting if you still rely on USB-A for your daily chores. An adapter or dongle may be required.

The M1 Mac Mini has an Ethernet jack, two Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 ports with 40 Gbit / s, an HDMI 2.0 slot and a 3.5 mm headphone jack as well as a power switch and a slot for the power cord. This is all identical to the Intel Mac Mini.

What you don't get is a keyboard, mouse, trackpad, or other peripheral device. You'll need to provide all of these devices yourself, and a monitor to connect the Mac Mini to. If you already have these, the $ 699 starting price is all the more attractive. If you don't then you need to take them into account when purchasing.

performance

This is the first time the Mac Mini has come with an Apple-owned M1 processor. The basic version of the previous model was equipped with an Intel Core i3-8100H with four cores and 3.0 GHz and ran pretty well. Even on paper, the Apple M1 seems like a significant step up: Not only does it have twice the number of CPU cores than the old entry-level Intel Mini-based Mac Mini, but it also includes an eight-core and one GPU 16-core neural engine on the same system on a chip (SoC).

In addition, Apple uses a so-called "Unified Memory Architecture" (UMA), with which the CPU and GPU can draw from a single memory pool, which reduces the overhead for both. All of this jargon means that in theory everything should run a lot faster – something third-party developers have already told us.

We've already seen how well Apple's M1 chip performs in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. So we already have an idea of ​​what to expect: this is an incredibly powerful processor. The question, however, is whether the extra space in the Mac Mini compared to these portable laptops can keep the chip cooler and provide it with additional headroom. Does the Mac Mini outperform these devices too?

The answer is yes, and in some cases unequivocally. In GeekBench 5, the Mac Mini scored a single-core score of 1744 and a multi-core score of 7659 ahead of the 1707 and 7337 on the M1 MacBook Pro. These numbers may not mean much to you. Let me put that way: The Mac Mini's single-core score is the highest we've seen in GeekBench 5. The multi-core score is the eighth highest we have measured. This thing flies.

It's the same elsewhere. The SSDs are lightning fast with an average of 2,144.1 Mbit / s write speed and 2,775.1 Mbit / s read speed. In Cinebench R23, the Mac Mini was only beaten by the Falcon NW Talon, which packaged a Ryzen 9 5950X, a machine that will cost you at least $ 4,000. The Mac Mini we tested costs $ 699. This is just a yardstick of course, and this Falcon NW machine is far more capable of doing heavy duty tasks like gaming or video editing. Still, it is amazing value for money.

The starting price of $ 699 for the Mac Mini is an almost absurd feat.

Synthetic benchmarks can only tell you so much, however. How does the Mac Mini work in real life situations? In HandBrake 1.4 (an app optimized for the M1), the Mac Mini encoded a two-minute 4K video in two minutes and 36 seconds – the same length as the M1 MacBook Pro. In Adobe Premiere Pro, the Mini outperformed both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in the PugetBench benchmark. The Intel version of the Adobe app is used, which was translated with the Apple wizard for working on the M1.

If the Apple Silicon version of Adobe's video app comes out sometime this year, the performance will get even better. If this is your type of workload, the Mac Mini is going to make a world of difference, especially if you're currently using older Intel-based hardware.

The difference in performance between the MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini isn't that big. It's only 8% faster in Premiere. This should be considered when trying to decide between the two.

The Mac Mini is a workhorse and is great for CPU-intensive workloads. He's ahead of machines that cost twice (or more) as much. Oh, and it did it all without the fans turning. Not even. I had to put my head against the machine to hear something, and even then it was almost silent. Apple wasn't kidding when it said the M1 performed better in a more efficient way than anything Intel had to offer.

In fact, the $ 699 starting price of the Mac Mini feels almost absurd given the performance of the M1 chip. Sure, you don't get a screen, mouse, or keyboard and if you have to buy these the price goes up. However, if you already have a lot of peripherals on your desk, the Mac Mini is the cheapest way to get M1 performance.

Gaming performance

Despite all of this, the Mac Mini is not a slot machine. The M1 may have an integrated 8-core GPU, but it is still smoked by a computer with a discrete graphics card. That's not to say the gaming performance was terrible – it was respectable for a machine this size and price tag – but if you're looking for high frame rates, especially at higher resolutions, you have to look further.

The performance varied depending on the game. In games like Civilization VI that didn't put too much stress on the GPU, performance was acceptable with the right settings. At 1080p and medium quality, the Mac Mini averaged 48 frames per second (fps). At 1440p ultra, however, this value sank to 26 fps.

Gaming is an obvious weakness.

The tactical stealth game Desperados III ran smoothly on high settings, but the more demanding Deus Ex: Mankind Divided only managed 27 fps on 1080p medium. at 1440p ultra it barely cracked 12 fps.

So gaming is an obvious weakness, but I don't think there are many hardcore gamers out there who will buy a Mac Mini as their main device. If all you want to do is make a few easy games you should be fine, but don't expect too much more in this area.

App support

When Apple announced the M1 chip, it was clear that it had learned from the mistakes of its competitors as well as from its own past actions. When Microsoft introduced its own specially designed ARM chip in the Surface Pro X, it was in an app compatibility nightmare that it is still trying to break away from. Apple probably looked at it once and knew it had to be better.

The good news is that Apple has largely achieved this. If you buy a Mac Mini today, your favorite Mac apps will likely work fine, whether or not they are optimized for the M1. Many developers have already released M1-specific versions of their apps (e.g. Microsoft Office), but those who don't benefit from something Apple developed is called Rosetta 2.

This goes back to the last time Apple switched processor platforms and is translating Intel apps to work on the ARM-based M1. It's preinstalled on the Mac Mini and you won't even see it boot up – your Intel apps will just load with no issues. It's an exceptionally smooth process.

With apps optimized for the M1, the performance is likely to be much better than anything translated with Rosetta 2. For example, when I ran our HandBrake benchmark on version 1.0.7 of the app (which was developed for Intel systems), it encoded our 4K test video in 4 minutes and 44 seconds.

With an M1-optimized version of the app, this was possible in almost half the time. If you stick to Apple's own apps for most of your work, the performance is probably even better. Not everyone likes Apple's similar impact on their ecosystem, but hardware and software performance is one area where it really works.

There may be some apps that just don't work for some reason. When I first got the Mac Mini, Google Backup and Sync, which allows me to move work documents between my different devices, refused to load. It didn't end up being too bothersome – I switched to Dropbox, and a few weeks later, Google updated its app to fix the problem – but it's worth keeping in mind that you might have some app compatibility issues.

For the most part, however, I didn't have any problems with it. Google Backup and Sync was the only app I tried that didn't work right away.

Our opinion

The M1 Mac Mini is one of the most affordable desktop PCs money can buy right now. The performance is mind-boggling for a computer this small and affordable, and while it's not a gaming rig, it's nearly perfect for everything else.

Are there alternatives?

Some other companies offer miniature desktop PCs. There is the Intel NUC 10 with processor options from Intel i3 to i7. If you're looking for games, other companies like HP and Asus also have small PCs that might suit your needs.

Note, however, that all alternatives will run Windows. If you've got your heart on a tiny desktop computer running macOS, the Mac Mini is your only option.

How long it will take?

We're at the beginning of the Apple Silicon roadmap, so support for this Mac Mini will last for many years to come. Given the good performance compared to other items in the mount (and compared to devices way above the mount), it will be a long time before you notice that it is slowing down.

Apple doesn't update the Mac Mini as often as its MacBooks, but only one Apple Silicon Mac Mini model is currently available. So, Apple may bring out another option this year. That doesn't mean you will be disappointed if you buy this M1 Mac Mini, just that an even better model may be in the works.

Should you buy it?

Yes absolutely. The price-performance ratio is breathtaking. If you are looking for a desktop rather than a laptop in the market, the Mac Mini should be at the top of your list.

Editor's recommendations




01 Apr
Blog

Apple MacBook Air (2020) Review: Mac 101 In Session

MacBook Air 2020

"The MacBook Air is a great choice for Mac fans on a budget."

  • New keyboard is an improvement

  • More affordable

  • Better graphics

  • Outstanding workmanship

  • Performance is still lacking

  • Bezels are out of date

The MacBook Air is important. This is the entry point to the Mac lineup. It's the college laptop, the freelancer companion, and a favorite of any Mac fan on a budget.

Many people get a first impression of the Mac here. That means it has to balance both performance and price. I tested two versions of the new MacBook Air to see how each of them does the balancing act.

The Core i3 model costs $ 999 and the Core i5 costs $ 1,199. Everyone wears the new "Magic Keyboard" as a heading function. Is the latest MacBook Air the perfect introduction to the Mac or, like many newer entry-level Macs, a bad first impression?

keyboard

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The Magic keyboard is a highlight of the MacBook Air. It is responsive, clicks and offers a full millimeter of travel. It's a joy to tap on it, and a real relapse to the popular MacBooks that were sold before the 2016 redesign of the MacBook Pro that introduced the Butterfly Switch keyboards.

You can't say that about the last two years of the MacBook Air. Apple blew up the hapless keyboard mechanism from the MacBook Pro for the 2018 redesign. It did not work. Flat key travel made typing particularly daunting for long periods. It was loud and worst of all unreliable.

Fortunately, those days are gone and the MacBook Air now has one of the best keyboards on a laptop. It even holds a standard feature set full of old-fashioned buttons instead of jumping to the touch bar, a feature I don't miss. The touch bar has never added much meaningful functionality. I use reliable and convenient escape and mute buttons every day.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

At the top right of the function line is a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which also acts as a power switch. It's really time for Apple to move over to face recognition on Mac, a feature Apple introduced on iOS devices. Still, Touch ID works very well. It's the fastest and most intuitive fingerprint sensor you'll find on a laptop.

Let's not forget the trackpad while the keyboard steals the limelight. It's big, its pursuit is second to none, and its Force Touch click is practically silent. This is not a surprise. Mac laptops have long had great touchpads. However, it should be remembered that Apple continues to lead the field.

performance

The MacBook Air has never been a powerful laptop and never claimed it. This is the option for users whose requirements consist of word processing, email and online apps. Think of it as a Chromebook, except for Mac apps.

In 2020, however, the air received a respectable boost. This is the first Air with quad-core processors, which is an important upgrade. More cores and threads usually mean more muscle for heavy use and multitasking. Quad-core chips have become the standard for most laptops, including small laptops like the Surface Pro 7, the Dell XPS 13, and the MacBook Pro 13-inch.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The jump to the quad core does not make the Air a workhorse. It is still behind the competition.

I tested both the Core i3 ($ 999) and Core i5 ($ 1,099) models, both with 8 GB of RAM. These will likely be the most popular options due to their attractive pricing. The processors used by Apple are part of Intel's 10th generation Ice Lake family, but they're not the same chips you'll see with most MacBook Air competitors. These are variations of chips in the Y series, which Intel produced in collaboration with Apple exclusively for its laptops.

The cheapest $ 999 Air has the Core i3-1000NG4, a 9-watt chip with only two cores and four threads. On average, this means a 15% increase in benchmark performance over the Core i5 MacBook Air two years ago. This is not essential and you are unlikely to notice this increase in daily performance. Nevertheless, it does the daily chores well. Apps open quickly, and if a few dozen Chrome tabs are open, it won't slow down.

Doubling the cores does not mean double the performance.

What about the quad core i5-1030NG7? Doubling the cores certainly doesn't mean double the performance. Since it is still a 9-watt chip, there is an upper limit on the possibilities. Compared to the Core i3 model, the Core i5 model is 27% better in multi-core benchmarks thanks to these two additional cores, but only 8% faster in single-core benchmarks. This is likely due to the fact that these two processors have a low base clock rate of only 1.1 GHz in common.

Here, too, the performance feels appropriate. The problem is not everyday use, but the comparison of the MacBook Air with other laptops that are sold at the same price. The HP Specter x360 for $ 1,100 also has a 10th generation Ice Lake Core i5 processor, but offers 30% faster multi-core performance over the Core i5. The difference is the performance. A 9-watt processor will never hit clock speeds that can compete with a chip that can consume up to 25 or 35 watts in short bursts.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Of course, the MacBook Air benefits the most in Apple applications. If you stick to restricted solutions like iMovie and GarageBand, you can create light content on the side. Just don't be crazy about Air's upgrades. You can buy a Core i7 model that can hold up to 32 GB of RAM, which greatly increases the price. Still, it will lag behind the competition. The MacBook Air is not a device you want to run Logic or Adobe Premiere on. So don't try to make it a workstation.

Apple prides itself on quiet products, but the MacBook Air can be noisy. You can't access a zoom call without fans getting active on both the Core i3 and Core i5 models. These laptops have a larger CPU heatsink than previous models, but I still wish they would give and take thermals more efficiently.

Graphics and games

Switching the MacBook Air to 10th generation Ice Lake processors brings another important improvement. Graphic. Macs have never been slot machines, but with Apple's increasing focus on supporting Apple Arcade, a decent graphics option is important.

All versions of the Air contain Iris Plus graphics, although the Core i5 and Core i7 models each have 25% more execution units. This leads to acceptable entry-level games as long as you are ready to pull the graphics settings down.

Fortnite is not playable on the Core i3, but it is manageable on the Core i5. With a resolution of 1,440 x 900 and medium settings, the Core i5 MacBook Air managed about 40 frames per second. That may not sound impressive, but it is a big leap over what the previous MacBook Air can do.

Just don't expect to play challenging games like Battlefield V or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Windows laptops are still much better suited for gaming, and no modern Mac questions this longstanding fact.

Design and display

Nothing has changed on the casing of the MacBook Air. It is still a single piece of aluminum carved into a light wedge shape. It is rock hard, perfectly processed and still very attractive in its simplicity. The golden color is a highlight, but you can't go wrong with Space Gray either.

It's still the thinnest and lightest Mac you can buy at 0.6 inches and 2.8 pounds thick. This is pretty small, although some Windows competitors are smaller these days. The XPS 13, Surface Laptop 3 13 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon are all leaner and lighter.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Part of the problem is Apple's stubborn refusal to downsize its bezels. The company has taken extreme measures to reduce the size of its phones for years, and has even used a notch to house its camera. Fortunately, four years have gone out of style here. That's not a good look for a design-first company like Apple. This feels even more inexcusable after Apple trimmed the bezel of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

However, the screen between these chubby bezels is good. Apple has only ever offered one display option for its laptops, and this continues to be an advantage with these cheaper options. Even at $ 999, you get a sharp, 2,560 x 1,600 screen with great contrast. It is simply the best laptop screen at this price. You pay over $ 1,500 to get a higher resolution screen from Dell or HP.

With the port selection, Air offers just enough to get you through.

The MacBook Pro screen is of course still blowing the air when it comes to color rendering. The Air achieves 100% of sRGB and 79% of AdobeRGB, which makes it colorful for everyday use, but somewhat inadequate for photographers and video editors. It also offers a maximum brightness of only 389. This is bright enough in most circumstances, although the XPS 13 and MacBook Pro are brighter.

When it comes to port selection, Air offers just enough to get through – and nothing more. Both USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 3, which means they're fast and can process multiple 4K monitors with ease. I wish they had put at least one on each side for simplicity.

Well. Limited ports are a fight Apple has already won. As long as there is more than one, I'm happy enough.

Battery life

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The MacBook Air was once the king of battery life. These times are long gone. The lower screen resolution of the Specter x360 and XPS 13 makes it a battery life champion that can easily survive a long day at work.

The MacBook Air isn't bad, but it can't quite keep up. In all of our tests, it's a few hours behind these devices, including easy internet use (nine and a half hours), video playback (10 hours), and heavier applications (three hours). With my usual selection of Chrome tabs, web apps, Slack and Spotify, the MacBook Air lasted an average of six hours.

These tests were carried out on the Core i3 model. I don't expect the Core i5 model to change these results significantly, but I'll update this test later with my final tests.

Our opinion

The new MacBook Air is a respectable choice for budget-conscious Mac fans. The price reduction, the improved keyboard and the additional memory (now from 256 GB) are all improvements in the quality of life. However, the performance remains below average regardless of the selected configuration.

Are there alternatives?

Apple has been slowly lowering the price of the MacBook Air in recent years, and that positions it much better than the competition. The dual-core configuration for $ 999 is in direct competition with the Dell XPS 13, which also uses a dual-core core i3 processor. Many premium laptops do not offer lower performance configurations.

Laptops like the ZenBook 13 UX333 or the HP Specter x360 offer you better battery life and performance for less money, even though you forego the screen resolution and high-end build quality.

If you're set up on a Mac, the MacBook Pro 13-inch is also an option. The screen and processor are a big step up and still the better choice for photographers. Unfortunately, the keyboard is the older version with a butterfly mechanism, and updating memory or RAM is expensive.

How long it will take?

Apple laptops have a reputation for quality, and Apple supports products more often than other manufacturers when problems arise. This makes the MacBook Air a good choice if you want to keep it for five years or more.

Though performance is already behind the curve, it should remain reasonable if your daily use consists of internet surfing, basic productivity, and online streaming.

Should you buy it

Yes. This is a solid option for Mac buyers who want an affordable daily driver.

Editor's recommendations




26 Feb
Blog

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch Review: The Best Mac in Years

MacBook Pro 16 inch (2019)

"Apple's MacBook Pro 16 is a much-needed return to the glory days of the MacBook."

  • The best keyboard on a Mac

  • Excellent performance for content creation

  • The 16 inch screen is beautiful

  • Incredible speakers

  • Touch bar is still not useful

  • Size can be unwieldy

This review was updated on January 24, 2020, with new competitors and rumors about an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Complain. Emergency Repair Program. An infinite flood of online criticism. That's the last three years of the MacBook Pro, in short.

The PR nightmare had just started when I requested a Mac as a work laptop. The MacBook Pro was my standard choice at home and, despite its small size and long battery life, took care of music production and games. My 2015 MacBook Pro never let me down.

However, my experience with the MacBook Pro 2016 was very different. On my desk next to the stack of excellent Windows laptops, I found the keyboard frustrating. The design looked dated. Even his performance felt limited.

Mac fans, including myself, want Apple to bring the MacBook Pro back to its former glory. The MacBook Pro 16 offers the first glimmer of hope in years. Is this the laptop I've been waiting for?

The Mac Apology Tour

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is not revolutionary. It wasn't presented at a glittering press event. It is not a leap forward in design and certainly not innovative. It is a patch.

At its core, the design of the MacBook Pro is retained. The unibody aluminum case is still a strength, and Apple didn't dare to touch it this time. The same applies to the Thunderbolt 3 port selection and the massive Force Touch trackpad.

However, once you've got the space gray behind you, small changes show the desire to please fans.

Even the thin frames around the new 16-inch screen show that Apple is hearing criticism. The chunky boundaries of other MacBooks have been looking dated for years. However, shrinking the bezels would have meant a smaller footprint, a smaller touchpad, and less space in the case for components.

Instead, Apple added an additional 0.6-inch display, which results in a resolution of 3,072 x 1,920. The massive screen provides a more complete view of your work, ideal for multitasking or working in a complex application like Adobe Premiere. It's not quite the 17-inch laptops it used to be, but it's close.

This is the best Mac keyboard ever released.

While the new display looks great, the keyboard is the most drastic change. Apple tried to corner itself in an attempt to modernize the keyboard. The company calls the new inputs a “magic keyboard” that matches the still popular iMac accessories. Its full millimeter of travel feels like an ocean compared to the previous design. The physical escape key and the inverted T arrow keys return.

This is the best Mac keyboard ever released. It's a step further than the 2015 model, with its larger keycaps and faster mechanism, and it's head and tail above the MacBook Pro 15's butterfly switch keyboard.

The touch bar remains and still feels useless. I accidentally mute my music and wonder why it's not more useful. On the other hand, it usually stayed out of my way. I will endure the touch bar as long as the keyboard sniffs.

When every millimeter counts

The new MacBook Pro offers more than a fixed keyboard. In fact, an additional thickness of 0.03 inches in the case has allowed Apple to add Significant quality improvements such as larger battery cells and a newly designed thermal system.

The larger battery is an important upgrade. Larger laptops with high-resolution screens often have battery life issues, as does the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The larger battery cells of the MacBook Pro 16 Increase total watts of juice from 83.6 to 100, the largest battery you can clog in a FAA approved laptop.

However, larger batteries do not always mean more time away from a socket. In the case of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, powering the extra pixels seems to steal the extra juice that the MacBook Pro 16 contains. The new model couldn't drive me through a whole working day.

Under my standard workload, which includes dozens of tabs, streaming music in Spotify and Slack, the 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted about five and a half hours. In other words, this 16% larger battery doesn't produce a 16% longer battery life.

If you sit under bright office lights all day, be careful. I kept the screen brightness constant above 75%, which explains why the overall performance dropped. It's not as long as I want, but it matches Windows options like the Dell XPS 15 with 4K display.

A video editor's best friend

Inflating the case doesn't mean better battery life, but it does contribute to performance. The ultra-thin design of the 15-inch MacBook Pro performed reasonably well in 2016. However, the first Core i9 processors were announced in 2018 and suddenly introduced new functions for laptops. Content creation. Video editing. Creative work. It has always been possible, but now it is much easier.

Apple threw them into the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The result was severe throttling. It was so bad that the Core i7 in a MacBook Pro 15 could often keep up with the Core i9. unless you have operated the Core i9 in a freezer.

The updated 2019 MacBook Pro 15 with a newer Core i9 that added two more cores to the mix improved the situation. Laptops like the Dell XPS 15 still handled the chip better.

With the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple returned to the drawing board to redesign the thermals for this new class of high-end processors. Thinner fan blades, larger heat sinks, additional ventilation slots. It's a complete makeover.

The difference is amazing. Although the 16-inch MacBook Pro uses the same processor with the same 32 GB of RAM, it leaves its predecessor in the dust in every benchmark and real-life test I've done.

I rendered a two-minute 4K clip in just 4 minutes and 41 seconds in Premiere Pro in ProRes 422. The same clip on the 15-inch MacBook Pro? It took twice as long. The MacBook Pro 16 is now as fast as the Dell XPS 15 as it should always be. I shudder when I think about how quickly this clip could be rendered in Mac-optimized software like Final Cut Pro.

The fantastic performance offers more than just increased airflow.

These fantastic results offer more than just increased airflow. The latest software optimizations from Adobe play a major role, as does the new onboard graphics.

As with all newer MacBook Pros, the 16-inch model uses a custom card from AMD. However, the Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M are not an average update compared to last year's graphics. These are based on AMD's next generation Zen 2 7nm graphics architecture and help make the MacBook Pro 16 a powerful video editing device.

Who is it for again?

The sparkle of a new MacBook Pro can seduce you in a number of ways, even if it's not meant for you. IIf you don't have to run intensive applications in your everyday life, you can hardly use an 8-core (or even 6-core) laptop.

For example, the new graphics indicate better gaming performance. The MacBook Pro 16 does not meet these expectations.

The MacBook Pro 16 is fast, but not a gaming laptop.

Games like Fortnite and Rocket League are smoother than before and run consistently at frame rates of around 60 FPS in medium settings. You always have to pay attention to the graphics settings, especially due to the unusual resolutions that the 16-inch Pro can display natively.

Civilization VI had this problem because it refused to run in full screen mode and only achieved 53 FPS at medium settings. The Dell XPS 15 with its Nvidia GTX 1650 is always a better choice for gaming. It offers a more conventional resolution and enough power to improve the settings a bit. It can reach 50 FPS in Epic settings in Fortnite and 82 FPS in Civilization VI in Medium.

You can also consider it for simple everyday tasks, but again it is more powerful than you need. Unlike Dell or Microsoft, Apple doesn't offer a larger MacBook Pro without a six- or eight-core processor, discrete graphics and 16 GB of RAM.

The sheer size of the 16-inch MacBook Pro is also cause for concern. With a footprint of 14.09 x 9.68 inches, it's not a laptop you want to take on a plane, and it will take up most of the table at your local cafe.

However, there is a case for someone who wants to spend a high-end media experience on their laptop. Apple has tuned the speakers well and claims an additional half octave of bass. These are by far the best speakers you can find on a laptop, and you can feel it in the rumble of an explosion in The Mandalorian or in the kick drum in a song.

This display is also beautiful, although this is to be expected. It is bright, the colors are accurate and the contrast is high. The best displays from Dell and HP can keep up with the MacBook Pro 16, but this huge screen offers an impressive movie experience. However, the 16:10 aspect ratio means that you will always see mailboxes.

Our opinion

For the first time in years, I can breathe a sigh of relief and recommend a MacBook Pro. It does what Apple needed it to do and resolves all the complaints I've had against the MacBook Pro. That lifts it back to the top row of premium laptops.

Are there alternatives?

If you're not using your laptop for content creation or other tough tasks, you probably don't need a laptop that is that big or powerful. Choosing a 13-inch laptop like the Dell XPS 13, HP Specter x360 or Surface Laptop 3 will save you hundreds of dollars. If you have to choose a Mac, the 13-inch MacBook Pro should get an update in the first half of 2020.

However, the best real alternative to the 16-inch MacBook Pro is the Dell XPS 15. When configured with similar specifications, the XPS 15 is over a thousand dollars cheaper than the 16-inch MacBook Pro. That's a lot of savings with performance, an OLED 4K screen, and better port selection.

Another option for content creators is the Asus ZenBook Duo Pro. In addition to the unique second screen of this laptop, the Duo Pro has an OLED 4K screen and fantastic Core i9 performance. It is still one of the most powerful implementations of this chip for video editors and content creators.

How long it will take?

Reliability has become a problem for Apple. The new keyboard is unlikely to have many of the same problems as before, and the laptop is no longer part of the emergency repair program. Given how well these laptops are built and fully loaded, they should last for at least five years.

The MacBook Pro offers 90 days of technical support and a standard one-year warranty. Of course, you can extend coverage with AppleCare + and in-store repair to up to three years.

Should you buy it

Yes. If you've been waiting for a powerful MacBook you can rely on, this is the one.

Editor's recommendations