On the 2019 MacBook Pro

Today Apple announced an update to the MacBook Pro lineup, 10 months after the last update. Albeit just a spec bump, there’s two major takeaways from this product: an incredible increase in performance, and yet another improvement to the butterfly keyboard.

The Keyboard

Seeing as it’s the most controversial part of the current generation MacBook Pro, which first shipped in 2016, let’s start with the new keyboard. The design has been slightly tweaked again - Apple says that it is using “new materials” in the switch mechanism that should significantly reduce the occurrence of double and missed key presses. This new keyboard is found on both the 15-inch and 13-inch 2019 MacBook Pro models, but Apple remained quiet on whether it would use these new materials on the other MacBooks currently on sale, such as the 2018 MacBook Air. I suspect we will have to wait for the Air to receive a 2019 or 2020 refresh before this happens. Apple are also keeping quiet about what these new materials are other than to say it “substantially reduces” the issue of double or missed key presses. We will have to wait until iFixit tear one of these apart to know for sure. Interestingly, this is not a fourth-generation butterfly keyboard, rather a revision to the third-generation keyboard found on the 2018 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. This is similar to what happened when the 2017 MacBook Pro shipped with an update to the second-generation butterfly keyboard.

2018 MacBook Pro and Air customers that bring in their keyboards for repair will actually have their keyboards replaced with ones that have these new materials, according to Apple. Again, similar to what happened when the second-generation keyboard got an update a couple of years ago.

Speaking of keyboard repairs, Apple also announced an update to its keyboard repair extension program today. All MacBooks equipped with butterfly keyboards - almost every MacBook since the 2015 MacBook - will now be eligible for the program. This means both the 2018 MacBook Pro and Air are now eligible, along with these new 2019 models. Apple is not extending how long that program lasts — it’s still 4 years after the first retail sale of the unit. As we’ve discussed on The Blue Ink Show, the MacBook Air has been far from exempt from the issues that plague the butterfly keyboard and it’s good to see it getting extended repair coverage.

Will this revision be the one that finally fixes the butterfly keyboard? We asked the same question last Summer and today we’ve effectively received confirmation that it didn’t work. Only time will tell, but it looks like the next major design to MacBook Pro is destined for at least 2020, not 2019 as some thought.

Performance

Moving away from keyboards, and onto something the MacBook Pro does very well - power. From Apple’s press release:

Apple updated MacBook Pro with faster 8th- and 9th-generation Intel Core processors, bringing eight cores to MacBook Pro for the first time. MacBook Pro now delivers two times faster performance than a quad-core MacBook Pro and 40 percent more performance than a 6-core MacBook Pro, making it the fastest Mac notebook ever. These new processors, combined with powerful graphics, the brilliant and colorful Retina display, super-fast SSDs, the Apple T2 Security Chip, all-day battery life and macOS, make MacBook Pro the world’s best pro notebook.

These 2019 MacBook Pro models are around twice as fast in performance compared to the outgoing 2018 models. The 15-inch MacBook Pro now features faster 6- and 8-core Intel Core processors, delivering Turbo Boost speeds up to 5.0 GHz, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro features faster quad-core processors with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.7 GHz.

Pricing remains unchanged and the new MacBook Pro is available to order from Apple today. If anything it is good to see Apple consistently updating MacBook Pro on an yearly basis, but I would not be surprised if this is the final revision to the current design, especially if the rumours of a 16-inch MacBook Pro are true.

:))

The Future of Mac Notebooks

Almost 2 years ago, when Apple introduced the 2016 MacBook Pro, the price of the MacBook Pro line significantly increased. In the past, you could buy an entry-level MacBook Pro for £999, then suddenly they retailed for £1749. Apple pushed up the price and are keeping it up high because they want people to see this device as a professional tool. These devices are for the kind of professionals who buy iMac Pro, not for the masses, hence the high price tag. This is in stark contrast from the situation of the past 8 or so years where the 13-inch MacBook Pro has been the go-to, default Apple laptop (and maybe any laptop for that matter). So when consumers see the high price, they get confused, especially if they are upgrading from a previous model that, when purchased, was a much lower price. They (the consumer) begin to think Apple have lost their way, fuelled by the non-tech media spreading a narrative of Apple being ‘doomed’. People are looking at the high end of Mac portables in the wrong way. It’s not 2011 anymore, it’s the Cook-era, and in this era the MacBook Pro is for high-end professionals.
 
So, you’re an average consumer, maybe your needs are pretty simple; you want something more capable than an iPad Pro (what’s a computer? Right?!), but you’re not a high-end professional prepared to spend almost £2,000 on a laptop. It’s time to start looking at the lower end of Mac laptops. This is where things start to go south. The sweet-spot price point for these computers has always been around the £1000 mark. Any lower is great - provided quality is not compromised, any higher is getting a little eye-watering for someone who just wants a laptop running macOS. Luckily, there is a Mac currently sitting at this price point, as it has been for a number of years; MacBook Air. 

MacBook Air starts at £949 and would be a great value computer - if it were about £300 cheaper. The screen is non-Retina, using a display that looks like it’s about 8 years old - because it is. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for shipping this display on a device at any price point, let alone the £1000 bracket. High-end PC manufacturers would be crazy to include such a low-res display with poor colours and viewing angles in 2018. Apple get away with it because they’re Apple, and they shouldn’t. Internally, the MacBook Air is acceptable. Last refreshed in early 2017, the difference over the previous 2015 model is incredibly minor so you’re effectively getting a 3 year old machine for your money. Having said this, the performance will be more than suitable for basic users. But what if you want something a little better, or a little well, newer? 

Well for £1249 you can buy the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2 Thunderbolt 3 Ports). First introduced in 2016 - then refreshed in 2017, this model has no Touch Bar (hence the colloquial name ‘MacBook Escape’ due to the presence of a physical escape key), and only 2 Thunderbolt /USB-C ports as opposed to 4 (hence Apple’s aforementioned official name). When originally introduced, Apple described this machine as an option for potential MacBook Air customers, because internally, the specs are on a par with what a modern MacBook Air should be. So it’s called MacBook Pro, but it’s not a MacBook Pro. It’s at this point I begin to feel sorry for prospective Mac buyers - it’s just confusing. 

It only gets worse. For the same price as MacBook Escape (or more depending on spec), you can have something smaller and less powerful than MacBook Air - the 12-inch MacBook. Lovingly known amongst Apple fans as ‘MacBook Adorable’, this 12-inch notebook is everything MacBook Air should be in 2018. It’s even thinner, even lighter, and above all it’s equipped with a Retina display. The only problem is it costs £300 more than a MacBook Air, and starts at the same price as the MacBook Escape. So you could have something that looks like a MacBook Pro and has MacBook Pro written on the box for the same price as something that’s effectively an overpriced, modern MacBook Air. I’m getting confused just writing this and I deal with these computers on a daily basis. 

There is a new hope however. It’s been rumoured for a while but it looks like Q4 2018 will see the introduction of a MacBook Air ‘successor’. Rumours have been very conflicted, but it seems for certain it will be a 13-inch, Retina Mac portable. What form this Mac will take is pretty much unknown at this point. Will it be a 2018 MacBook Air? Will be a 13-inch MacBook alongside a refreshed 12-inch model? Will it replace the 12-inch altogether? No one seems sure. Personally, I think the current MacBook Air will be discontinued, along with the MacBook Escape. The MacBook Escape was notably absent from Apple’s 2018 MacBook Pro refresh and it’s starting to look like a strategy that didn’t work out. However, it is possible that this new machine is just a refreshed MacBook Escape rebranded as ’13-inch MacBook’ rather than MacBook Pro.

What will happen to the 12-inch MacBook Adorable is another question altogether . Back in 2015 it seemed as if it would be the MacBook Air replacement, but the Intel M-series CPUs still haven’t got cheap enough to manufacture hence the high starting price of MacBook. Apple could take an alternative approach, such as renaming it to MacBook mini and only sell the 512GB option to justify the high price and the fact at £1549 it costs more than the bigger, better laptop *cough* iPad mini 4 *cough*.  It could also remain stagnant for the next 18 months, until Apple decide to use it as a platform for launching the first ARM-based Mac equipped with their own A-series processors. 

In my eyes, the perfect solution is to drop everything besides the 13-inch and 15-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pros, and to sell them alongside this mysterious, new, affordable 13-inch laptop. This wouldn’t be very characteristic of Tim Cook’s Apple so I’m not holding out hope. 

Regardless of Apple’s intended strategy and previous motives, the notebook lineup has ended up in a mess. At the top, MacBook Pro is in good shape, but the consumer line needs fixing, and this new mystery Mac should help to bring balance to the force. 

This post wasn’t designed to criticise the products themselves (except for the non-Retina screen on MacBook Air), rather critique the lineup as a whole and see if I could make any sense of what is coming next for Mac notebooks.

:))

The 2018 MacBook Pro

On Thursday Apple released refreshed MacBook Pro models, seemingly out of nowhere. 13 months after the last release, the 2018 models feature more changes than expected, and overall they are a very solid upgrade:

• New eighth-generation Intel Core processors. The 15-inch model is up to 70% faster than the 2017 model, and the 13-inch is up to twice as fast.

• The 15-inch MacBook Pro can now be ordered with up to a 2.9GHz six-core Core i9 processor. 

•  The 13-inch MacBook Pro (finally) includes quad-core processors, up to 2.7GHz.

• The 15-inch MacBook Pro (again, finally) has the option for up to 32GB of RAM. Phil Schiller had previously said that 32GB of RAM would be too power-hungry for the MacBook Pro, so this has been made possible thanks to a 10% increase in battery capacity. The overall battery life remains the same, however.

• On the 15-inch model, AMD’s Radeon Pro graphics cards now come with 4GB of GDDR5 memory as standard, while 13-inch models now have 128MB of embedded DRAM, compared to 64MB on 2017 models. Besides this, the graphics remain unchanged. 

• Both 2018 models now feature an upgraded Apple T2 chip, versus an Apple T1 chip in the 2017 models. The T2 chip, borrowed from iMac Pro, integrates several previously separate components, including the system management controller, image signal processor, audio controller, and SSD controller.  It also allows “Hey Siri” to come to the Mac for the first time.

• Maximum storage options have been doubled, with up to a massive 4TB SSD on the 15-inch and up to a 2TB SSD on the 13-inch.

• In a surprise move, these new MacBook Pros now feature True Tone displays - and this includes the Touch Bar display - on both models. True Tone, originally introduced on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in 2016, and brought to iPhone 8 and X last year, automatically adjusts the white balance to match the colour temperature of the light around you for a more natural viewing experience.  When connected to a 2018 MacBook Pro, True Tone can also adjust the Apple Thunderbolt Display, the LG UltraFine 5K Display, and the LG UltraFine 4K display. 

• An “improved third-generation butterfly keyboard for quieter typing”. It is unclear whether or not this new keyboard has solved the issues that plagued the previous generation butterfly keyboards, but Apple claims that this was not a consideration when designing this keyboard - Dieter Bohn of The Verge writes: “In fact, company representatives strenuously insisted that the keyboard issues have only affected a tiny, tiny fraction of its user base…” - so time will tell as to whether or not this keyboard will be an improvement.

• 2018 MacBook Pros feature Bluetooth 5.0, compared to 4.2 on the 2017 models. 

Besides the still-incredibly-high price (a maxed out 15-inch costs £6209 from Apple), this MacBook addresses much of the criticism faced by the previous models. It is also encouraging to see both annual and considerable upgrades to the line, further reinforcing Apple’s recommitment to the Mac

There were no updates to the non-Touch Bar models, with the 2017 versions still on sale. Apple also finally axed the 2015 15-inch model, indicating a full commitment to the post-2016 design, and with that, the Touch Bar.

:))

Apple begins Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro

From Apple:

"Apple has determined that a small percentage of the keyboards in certain MacBook and MacBook Pro models may exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:

•  Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly

•  Letters or characters do not appear

•  Key(s) feel "sticky" or do not respond in a consistent manner

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will service eligible MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboards, free of charge. The type of service will be determined after the keyboard is examined and may involve the replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard.

The program covers eligible MacBook and MacBook Pro models for 4 years after the first retail sale of the unit."

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If you have an Early 2015 MacBook or newer, a 2016 MacBook Pro or newer, and you run into a keyboard fault then you may be eligible for this repair extension programme.

All I can say about this; good. It’s sad that Apple has a REP for a product which is currently on sale and has not been revised to address the issue. You could buy a brand new MacBook Pro right now and after a week of use (or less) you could run into this issue.

Out of warranty costs for this repair can cost upward of £500 in the U.K. as in some instances, the whole top case of the MacBook needs replacing.

This current keyboard was developed at the height of Apple’s ‘laziness’ regarding Mac production, and it’s just a flawed design. I strongly believe, however, that the Mac is now in a positive place on Apple’s roadmap, with iMac Pro and Mojave being examples of this. Let’s not forget what 2019 will bring, such as UIKit/AppKit cross functionality and the Mac Pro. Apple is accepting and fixing the Mac mistakes made in the past, and this REP is just another example of this.

Or maybe I’m just too much of an optimist.

:))