

Sarah Tew/CNETīattery life here was very modestly better than in the 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, going from 10:05 to 10:43 in our streaming video playback test. Macs are also getting access to external GPU hardware and VR headsets sometime soon.īattery life gets a little better in this year's model. Tomb Raider hit 54.1 frames per second at high detail settings and 1,680 by 1,050-pixel resolution while looking great on the Retina display. This isn't a gaming laptop, nor has the state of Mac gaming really improved much recently, but you can definitely play some games on here. There was a modest boost over the similarly high-end 2016 version we tested last year, which had a similar CPU from one generation earlier. This high-end MacBook Pro laptop blew through our standard benchmarks, even when compared with something like a high-end Windows gaming laptop. It should come as no surprise that a hugely expensive laptop with a 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-7820HQ processor would be very fast.


Dell and other PC makers sometimes throw in free USB-C plugs for hooking up video and data connections Apple does not. You'll either have to adjust your workflow, or pick up some of the converters and adapters offered by Apple and others. However, if you're very invested in plugging in USB memory keys, directly connecting to a display via HDMI or DisplayPort, having a direct Ethernet connection or just plugging in a wired mouse, it's a different story. Want USB-C ports? No problem! James Martin/CNET The full review of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, originally posted July 2, 2017, and updated May 11, 2018, follows. So, unless you're in a hurry to upgrade, you may want to hold off buying this model until we find out what its future is. We hope to see revamps to the MacBook line in October 2018 as part of Apple's annual hardware follow-up to its WWDC software announcements. While it's not the speediest in its class, it's still solid on multicore processor tests and its battery life is still one of the best of the 15-inch laptops we've subsequently tested. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro's performance has stood the test of time. Plus there are quite a few comparable clamshell models at the same or better prices, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga and the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1. Plus, the competitive landscape has really changed over the past couple of years, as tons of innovation by manufacturers for Windows models have since become mainstream: The MacBook Pro is up against more flexible models with detachable keyboards and 360-degree displays that flip around for both clamshell and tablet operation, all of which have touchscreens and stylus support.
