(upbeat music)
- It's here, the new MacBook Pro.
Unlike the previous generation,
this MacBook Pro shows us the future of computing
without forgetting about today.
So you get the latest chip technology
and nicest screen technology
without missing some crucial ports or a useful keyboard.
But which one should you get?
This 14 inch model is the cheapest one you can buy,
with 8 and 14 cores, 16 gigabytes of RAM,
and 512 gigabytes of storage for $2,000.
It's a lot of money,
but is this base tier powerful enough
to do everything you need it to?
Or should you spend even more?
(upbeat music)
I hate to admit this, but yes,
the new MacBook Pro offers clout.
It's got a whole new design
that people will notice quite simply
because the form is very different.
It calls out directly to the old titanium PowerBook G4,
which was launched 20 years ago.
That was a revolutionary design
because it looked unlike any other laptop that came before.
The base had rounded corners
while the top was more squared off and flat.
This laptop takes that form
and boils it down to its essentials,
Using aluminium instead of titanium.
It's very minimal, almost to the point of being plain,
but when you flip it open and these two sides separate,
it really comes into its own.
I particularly like the flat lid
as it makes the laptop look more assertive
on the desk from the back.
I also think that the color for this generation
is going to be silver.
Space gray is so out.
It's assertive enough to tell everyone around you
that serious work is being done on this computer.
Even if you're writing your next spec screenplay
or a YouTube video script,
'cause that's who I imagine will be buying
a MacBook Pro for clout.
And if you are someone who bought this MacBook Pro
to look good writing,
let me encourage you to get producing,
because this can do so much more.
The headline for this MacBook Pro
is the addition of the M1 Pro
and optional M1 Max processors.
It's the latest installment in Apple's ARM transition,
and the future looks quite promising.
Now, this base model gets a bin version
of the M1 Pro, which features 8 CPU cores,
and 14 GPU cores,
down from the full option of 10 and 16 respectively.
But don't think that you're getting the same eight cores
as a vanilla M1.
There are six high-performance cores
and two efficiency cores in here versus
four and four under a touch bar.
Plus there's an awful lot more besides in this package,
especially for video editors.
The thing I'm most interested in is the media engine,
which provides acceleration for decoding and encoding
of a whole bunch of codecs,
from the commoner gardener H 264,
to the high demand HEVC and even professional ProRes.
In a professional workflow,
transcoding to ProRes is something that can
help speed up editing, but it takes time.
Yet with the media engine, it doesn't have to.
To convert 44 clips to ProRes with compressor
a 2020 Intel core i7 MacBook Pro took
just under 25 minutes.
A full 28 core Mac Pro took just over
eight and a half minutes.
30 seconds more than last year's M1 MacBook Pro by the way.
Yet, this humble base MacBook Pro took
less than three minutes.
And don't think a full 10 16 M1 Pro is faster.
Because they share the same media engine,
it took the exact same amount of time.
But you might be able to get away with
skipping encoding to ProRes all together.
Even with what should be challenging H 264 footage
on a premiere timeline with some color correction,
playback is smooth.
You can totally get away with editing
a relatively straightforward 4k video
on this machine, without having to think twice
about what codec you're using.
And that's really impressive.
Also impressive is how cool the computer remains.
Have this on your lap, which you shouldn't do.
And it gets to a nice, comfortable warmth.
It's not a leg burner like the last Intel MacBook Pro.
As for benchmarks, the 8 14 M1 Pro
is slower than a full 10 16 M1 Pro,
to a degree that tracks with the differing core counts,
but the performance floor is still quite high,
thanks to the other engines that these processors get now.
For example, in video editing,
the massive performance acceleration we're seeing
is thanks to the media engine.
This is effectively an afterburner card, but better.
And all M1 Pros get it.
The Max gets even more.
But there's also the neural engine,
which will accelerate difficult to process tasks
like object tracking.
These are things that would normally bog down a CPU,
but now they're being offloaded to hardware
explicitly designed for the task,
and the CPU can then focus on other things,
like all this stuff you can plug in now.
Worrying about having the right dongle
to get files off an SD card
is not something anyone wants to deal with.
So I'm pleased to report that the built-in reader is back.
As is the HDMI port,
which is perfect for plugging into a projector or TV screen,
should you want to show off the
finished product of your screenplay slash YouTube script.
But the most notable return is that of MagSafe.
Apple pioneered the charger plug that could
survive the clumsiest of owners,
and then perplexingly abandoned it.
But it's here, with the charging indicator light
and everything.
And it's a USBC to MagSafe cable, clad in a fabric,
that's weirdly wonderful.
Unlike these old charging cables that
kind of feel and coil clumsily,
this one just feels so free and easy,
like how it is to plug in.
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So the display, it's also a significant upgrade.
It's an XDR display, and because of the
rounded corners, it's liquid retina.
At 14.2 inches in diagonal,
it's sizably bigger than the outgoing 13 inch models.
You get a noticeable increase in vertical resolution
and the pixel density has increased to 254 PPI,
up from 227.
This should make for a more generous screen
in default display scaling.
This means that you get a more generous layout
when running Mac OS at the screen's resolution
divided by two,
which is now the default scaling.
Older Macbook's default scaling,
isn't actually divisible by the screen resolution.
And when it is everything's too big.
One difference you will notice is
the ProMotion smoothness,
at least in apps that support it.
It's really nice when moving windows around
the Mac OS desktop,
but it doesn't really work everywhere.
And I have encountered uncomfortable stutters
here and there, as it adjusts the refresh rate
for what it's doing.
It can be smooth, but it's just not
all the time right now.
And it makes me realize that there are a few places
where it's worth adjusting expectations a bit
like the notch.
I don't really care that the notch is there.
Even if it takes up a lot of space to fit
the much improved 1080 P camera.
In fact, I'm willing to bet that
future Macbooks will get face ID if
they're making this so big now.
What is annoying, is how poorly
the notch is implemented in Apple software.
As snazzy guy Quinn Nelson noticed,
the menu bar options can inexplicably
get pushed under the notch.
While in other apps they don't,
and developers aren't sure how to implement it.
Now, if this is a problem for you,
you can try to fix it by setting the individual apps
to scale to fit below the built-in camera.
But that just makes the entire screen
proportionally smaller.
Look at these giant bezels the MacBook Pro has now.
Now in regards to full screen mode,
I'm delighted to report that Monterey
now has the option to keep the menu bar
visible permanently in full screen mode.
It's not on by default, but thank you.
Though the problem of apps, buttons getting blocked
or pushed away for the red, yellow, green close buttons
and header bar still persists.
Stop doing this.
But, this is still progress,
and the notch lets you get the best
of both the menu bar and vertical real estate.
Well, except for these six pixels,
the taller menu bar takes up under the notch.
I don't think they should have done that.
It's just a waste of space.
Is that six pixels?
What are we counting?
It might be eight.
Okay, so the notch is a bit of a wash,
kind of like the battery life.
The battery will last you a full day,
but over the course of 24 hours from a full charge to empty,
I got about seven hours of screen on time,
mostly installing apps all day.
Apple claims up to 11 hours of web browsing
and 17 hours of video playback.
In fact, Anthony clocked 22 hours with this,
but begin adding professional tasks
and your battery life will suffer.
That being said, Mac OS does not throttle
the Macbook on battery at all.
All the benchmark tests I did running on the juice,
spit out the same numbers as if it were plugged in.
One thing you won't get with this base model though
is fast charging.
With the 96 watt charger that's $20 extra
or included with upgraded models,
you can charge to 50% in just 30 minutes.
Sounds great, but I did try to charge this
base model from dead with the included 67 watt charger
and after half an hour, it was at 41%.
So not a huge difference.
Unlike the price.
This is $2,000, and any and all upgrades
will increase the cost right quick.
Just upgrading the ram, which you might want to do,
will set you back $400,
Simply upgrading to a one terabyte SSD is 200.
It's 600 if you want two terabytes
and a full 10 16 M1 Pro processor is $300.
See what I mean?
But compared to an 8 8 M1 MacBook Pro
with the same memory and storage,
this one costs $300 more.
And for that you get a more capable chip,
way better screen and less dongle life irritation.
It's certainly worth that cost,
even if it shows how expensive an upgraded 8 8 M1 is.
The story with this Macbook is
that it's very powerful, almost too powerful
for what I use a computer for.
So the question becomes, which one should you get?
If you're not a creative professional,
but maybe thinking about getting into video editing
or anything creative, or you just want to look cool,
just get the base model.
If you're doing anything more intensive though,
like music production, 3D animation,
or 8K multicam video editing,
it's worth venturing beyond from the base model.
Even if it's just a little.
In some respects, it's important to remember
we haven't completed the ARM transition journey,
and the capabilities of these machines
should expand even more as developers take advantage
of all the different parts of the M1 pro SOC.
Right now, some are further behind than others.
I'm predicting that as we explore the more powerful models
on different workflows, we'll have a better idea
of what's ready and just how much better these laptops are.
So stick around for that.
And they are better.
These are much more practical than the Macs they replace.
This inspires optimism for the future
of the professional Mac lineup.
Something we've been missing for a long time.
Thanks for intruding on this Mac Address.
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give us a subscribe.
Now I'm curious how many of you would
go for this base Macbook Pro,
over, say a Macbook Air,
or even last year's M1 MacBook Pro.
It is quite a bit more money,
but think of the clout.
That's gotta be enough, right?