Objective New MacBook Pro 2017 Review

Those people who monitor all news and fresh Apple products, probably, already heard about new MacBook Pro 2017. The new device by mega-popular brand offers lots of interesting improvements so let’s see what it is all about.

But, first things first. Some of you might have already heard those unsatisfied shouts at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. They were caused by new upgrades Apple was planning to make replacing all MacBook Pro versions that were released just last fall.

And now we got a situation when new MacBook Pro looks absolutely the same, but its inner stuff and overall performance changed a lot. New versions became faster, but it is still not enough to calm down the previous versions users.

Changes

So, the main change in new MacBook Pro is at its heart. And the heart of MacBook Pro 2017 is that cool Intel’s Kaby Lake processor. It replaced the Skylake processors that the previous versions of MacBook were provided with. In this review, we used a Kaby Lake 2.9GHz quad-core Core i7.

Another great change Apple came up with is a general graphics technology. For example, Intel HD Graphics 530 was replaced by Intel HD Graphics 630 and discrete high-performance graphics chip was changed to newer 4GB Radeon Pro 560 instead of 4GB Radeon Pro 460.

Same

But as it is usual for Apple, other things about their new product is generally the same as in the previous ones. You still get that iconic aluminum design with two colors available – Silver and Space Grey. The display is 15.4-inch with a 2880-by-1800 native resolution. There are various amounts of Thunderbolt 3 ports included. Force Touch pad is also included.

The most disappointing thing is that MacBook Pro supports only 16GB of RAM. The memory type is LPDDR3 with 2133 MHz speed. To use more RAM such as 32GB Apple needs to come up with a more powerful battery.

There is a 512GB solid-state drive on the MacBook Pro we used. Apple made a statement about the speed of their new SSD as it is 50 percent faster than the previous version. There were the SSD’s hardware controller improvements that led to such results.

Touch Bar

Last fall the new Touch Bar was presented. But it remained completely unchanged in this version. All of the Apple fans already know how it works or can find lots of info about the subject online. But we should say that it is not as important as it seems. People still usually prefer working with their screen instead of looking down on keys. But maybe it is just a new feature for us we still need time to love and start using on a daily basis.

Of course, there are people who have already become fans of Touch Bar, especially while looking videos. Also, this Touch ID is very useful to unlock your laptop. So, we think it is just a question of time when people start digging into it.

Speed

There was only one way to identify the speed of our new 2.9GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro. So we pushed our MacBook through few benchmarks tests. And we must say the results were pretty impressive. The boost of the speed is great comparing to its predecessor. We can’t say if it was really 50 percent faster as Apple states, but it was faster for sure.

Graphics Test

In this case, the change and differences between new and previous versions are extremely clear. We used Cinebench OpenGL test to get accurate indexes. And our MacBook Pro showed 87.1 frames per second. It is a 14 percent more than the previous version.

Most of the reviews told last year that new MacBook Pro is fast enough to deal with most video editing tasks. And if you still have any doubts, new MacBook Pro 2017 will meet your requirements for sure.

Kaby Lake and macOS High Sierra

Kaby Lake features technology is something that will improve entire video performance. There is a special support for Intel to deal with 10-bit 4K HEVC and 4K VP9 video. Besides performing 4K video, this feature will also help to save your battery life.

But you should note that the proper driver version for software is a must. This is the only way to take advantage of this technology. Apple seems to include those drivers into next version of Mac’s operating system. And future macOS High Sierra will have one great feature of supporting 4K HEVC code. During the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple officials hinted that the boost for 4K HEVC would be featured in new Macs.

And this is what lots of Apple and Mac fans are really waiting for. The development of macOS High Sierra continues, and there is lots of interesting stuff ahead for sure. And we are really into testing that HEVC when it is out.

Conclusion

As lots of people nowadays think about upgrading their laptops, we considered getting few main points about new 2.9GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro. For all those Apple and Mac fans over there, this machine is something they should have for sure. If you like all Apple products and use Apple apps such as Photos, iMovie, iTunes and Pages, the 2.9GHz MacBook Pro is also recommended. Of course, you can save your money and get cheaper configuration, but if you want the best, the 2.9GHz MacBook Pro version is exactly what you need.

And, if you are a professional user with a laptop as your main device, the 16GB memory limitation is something that will disappoint you for sure. But at the same time that 10-bit 4K HVEC support in macOS High Sierra and possible boost by Kaby Lake’s built-in HVEC support will make you change your mind in more positive direction.