Although the MacBook Air is extremely popular, some users need a little more. More performance, a more powerful battery, more ports, a bigger screen… If you need more, you need a MacBook Pro. If you want a Mac laptop with a larger 13-14-inch screen, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is your only option.
Before you spend all that money (often more than €3,500 / MXN$78,500) on something you want to use for years, it’s okay to ask yourself if now is a good time to buy it.
In the world of computers, something better is always on the way, but if something much better is about to arrive, you might want to wait. Now that WWDC is about to take place, where Apple could unveil MacBooks with M2, you might want to think twice.
This is our buying advice for the 16″ MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro 16″: Price and specifications
Launch: October 2021
The 16-inch MacBook Pro got a big update at the event Unleashed from Apple. It has a new processor (the M1 Pro or the M1 Max), but it is more than speed. It has a new display (Liquid Retina XDR), more ports (three Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SDXC slot), a full row of function keys, and a new design. Replaces 2019 Intel model.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at €2,749 / MXN$66,499, €50 / MXN$3,500 more than the previous model. There are several processor, RAM and storage options that can reach more than €6,839 / MXN$165,499.
16″ MacBook Pro: Why buy it
The MacBook Pro is an amazing machine that has just about everything a pro user could want. It’s fast, capable and powerful, putting Apple’s professional laptop in the lead.
The screen is reason enough to want one, bringing mini-LED and ProMotion to a Mac for the first time, with extreme brightness (1,600 nits max) and excellent color accuracy.
Apple claims that the M1 Pro chip is 70% faster than the M1, and the M1 Max has a GPU that is four times more powerful than the M1. It also has more RAM, more memory bandwidth, and a blazingly fast SSD.
It also has more ports. Apple added three Thunderbolt 4 ports to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, as well as HDMI and an SDXC card slot. There’s an updated 1080p FaceTime camera, though you’ll have to make do with the notch just like on the iPhone. But we think it’s a minimum sacrifice considering all the power.
16″ MacBook Pro: Why Wait
You shouldn’t wait. If you really want a Touch Bar, then you’d have to buy a 13″ MacBook Pro. A MacBook with M2 Pro won’t arrive until late 2022 at the earliest.
Macworld Recommends: BUY
A new MacBook Pro is a big investment, and the 16-inch model will set you back at least €2,800 / MXN$67,000 (often much more). But if you need the power it offers, buy one now. Every new Mac is always the best Apple ever made, but the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a big step up from the previous model and won’t let you down.
Our only recommendation is that you take as much storage and as much memory as you can afford. The 16-inch MacBook Pro starts with 16GB of RAM and goes up to 32GB with the M1 Pro and up to 64GB with the M1 Max.
Upgrades aren’t cheap at all, but they’ll be worth it in a few years when the laptop no longer runs as smoothly as it did when you bought it.
Original article published in Macworld US.
