Better get some dongles | 2016 Macbook Pro review
Greg Weaver, Staff Writer
Sarah Dorweiler, Unsplash.com
On October 27, 2016, Apple introduced a long-awaited update to the MacBook Pro. The last time the Macbook had a full update was in mid-2008 making this year the perfect year to refresh the stale line-up of Apple’s flagship laptops.
With the base 13-inch model coming in at $1,499, it makes some wonder what you really are getting for the extra $300. They did throw in a new space gray color.
First the looks. Apple stuck with the long-running chaise design with a couple of tweaks. One of them is the new OLED touch bar. Unfortunaly the touch bar is a $400 option and is not offered on the base 13-inch model.
Apple decided to revamp its track pad in favor of a larger one. This track pad has a couple tricks up its sleeve. With the larger design you can use the pad as a drawling or graphics pad.
Available in 13 and 15-inch sizes, the new MacBook Pro is thinner, smaller and lighter than previous-generation models, thanks to a new thermal design hoping to keep your MacBook cooler.
Inside, the MacBook Pro is equipped with faster Skylake processors, a faster solid state drive upgraded to 2TB of storage, faster RAM and AMD Radeon Pro graphics cards in 15-inch MacBook Pro models. Apple ditched memory upgradability, locking the new MacBook to a max of 18-GB.
Finally: the ports. After Apple’s controversial move to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone, they took the same route with the new MacBook. All older generation ports have been removed and replaced with the new Thunderbolt 3 connection. They even decided to get rid of the loved-by-many MagSafe charger port.
Want to plug an external hard drive? How about an SD card? Or how about HDMI out to a second monitor? This is only possible now with the dreaded use of dongles, which is a piece of hardware that connects to a computer to make it more functional. Better start collecting ones you thought you’d never use.
