Just Arrived: Apple MacBook Pro 16 with Core i9 & Radeon Pro 5500M

[Redaktion]

The new Apple MacBook Pro 16 has finally arrived in our editorial office. With a slightly bigger chassis, new (old) keyboard and improved speakers, it wants to be the best multimedia laptop on the market. We review the SKU for $2699 with a Core i9 CPU, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M GPU, and 16 GB RAM.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Just-Arrived-Apple-MacBook-Pro-16-with-Core-i9-Radeon-Pro-5500M.443889.0.html

[Rorty]

Could you show squeeze test? Squeeze is important to me - not afraid

[not_anton]

Please show it's peak and sustained CPU power!
When I got the just released Macbook Pro 2016 it's CPU would peak at 60W while thermals allow, but later updates locked it to max 45W at all times. I bet in the new machine Apple added extra-beefy power delivery and allow it to boost to as high power as the CPU can eat.

[ufranco]

Please run  SPECviewperf benchmarks if possible , you never seem to run this benchmark on any high end Macbook , why??

[SSRC]

Could you guys please update your game benchmarks? Would like to see Shenmue III and SoulCalibur VI tested. Specifically how the Radeon Pro 5500M 4 GB (and the 5300M too if you're getting the i7 later on) fares vs the gtx 1650 max q.

Would like to see an in-depth comparison of this laptop vs the X1 Extreme Gen 2 (or P1 Gen 2 if you still have that laptop). Is the extra cost really worth it?

Also, is getting a MBP 16 mainly for bootcamping into win10 wise? Or are you better off just sticking to a win10 laptop. Heard BootCamp drivers are pretty bad. How is the battery life under win10 bootcamp? How about when gaming too and how does it compare with native macos experiance?

Lastly, it'd be nice if you could start including tests of emulators (e.g. Cemu) considering they seem more optimized than most modern games these days while still being fairly resource intensive.

[sigsegv]

Can you perform some fan noise test? Thank you!

[lucker#1]

I am thinking of getting an MBP 16" although i would primarily run Windows on it. My use case for OSX would be pretty much limited to Final Cut Pro X, while i would game on Windows.

Can you please test DPC Latency (LatencyMon) and test, if the display can be run at more than 60Hz? Maybe it'll do 85 or even higher - that would be a huge relief for CS GO. Custom Resolution Utility could help in that regard.

Sustained PWR on CPU, GPU + Clock Speeds are another area of interest obviously.

Thanks a lot for your excellent reviews!

[Anon]

I am thinking of getting an MBP 16" although i would primarily run Windows on it. My use case for OSX would be pretty much limited to Final Cut Pro X, while i would game on Windows.

Can you please test DPC Latency (LatencyMon) and test, if the display can be run at more than 60Hz? Maybe it'll do 85 or even higher - that would be a huge relief for CS GO. Custom Resolution Utility could help in that regard.

Sustained PWR on CPU, GPU + Clock Speeds are another area of interest obviously.

Thanks a lot for your excellent reviews!

Don't unless you're ready to put up with a lot of pain. Bootcamp's drivers are an absolute pain if you plan to use it as a primary OS. For gaming and the occasional use it should be fine.

[not_anton]

@SSRC  Don't buy Macbook for Windows, there are great Windows laptops now. People did this 10 years ago when all other brands sucked. Now they caught up.

[SSRC]

@not_anton Really? I feel like it's the complete opposite. 10 years ago the difference between mac and pc was not that huge. 10 years ago you could get non-16:9 aspect ratio displays. 10 years ago the difference in speakers was not that big. 10 years ago the the was no retina. 10 years ago apple's ssd's were not that fast. 10 years ago the difference in battery life was not that big. 10 years ago apple's microphones were not that good. But maybe my memory is failing me since I never had a mac?

I don't think anybody wants to use windows, most apps/programs are cross platform these days anyway. You are kinda forced to tho still for gaming. But for me apple's gpu performance has finally caught up. I only play dx8.1 era games mostly (which you'd be surprised running 4k@200fps does require gtx 1050 like performance)

Razer Blades are not an option for me. There is no way I'd pay that much for such poor QC and reliability. They're also heavier and have worse battery life.

The only thing I wish this laptop had was more key travel and more ports. But it's hard to complain when 95% of windows laptops are just as bad in this regard aswell.

I'd say the competition is 'catching up' but they've had 7 years to catch up to Retina. They've had 3 years to catch up for quality speakers. I don't think most windows OEMs care? So maybe it's best to vote with your wallet. After all, it took how years of iphone sales to finally kill adobe flash?

[Archuk]

Do you have the popping sound from the speakers? Many complain about it. If you do - please mention it in the review... Because mostbof reviewers do not mention it, and people get an impression thatbthis machine is flawless.

[Klaus Hinum]

Thanks guys for the feedback, obviously we cant test everything, but will at least keep your requests in mind. Regarding popping sounds, I had a popping sound once in the 3 days I tested it, but that could be driver related (was at the end of a game or so). We had the 15-inch where the bootcamp drivers killed a speaker, so we are quite aware of problems there.
Windows on Macs, well you have definately worse battery run times (no GPU switching, and not that optimized) and of course the Mac keyboard layout. But other than that, I dont think its that bad as some of you mentioned, no problems here gaming (although driver updates are always questionable). Interestingly, the Radeon Pro now got "Pro" drivers from AMD in Windows.
Noise tests already partly done, no issues so far. As usual, apple turns on the fans at the last possible moment, therefore CPU temp spikes to 99°C. But noise is fine :)

[Archuk]

The thing is that many users with 16 inch model complain about popping sounds either when skipping youtube videos, using final cut pro, logic etc... Seems that most of users are are affected, and seems like it is probably a driver issue. There is a long thread on macrumors forum (about 16 inch model)... If you don't mind, please take a look, and if your unit is also affected, please at least say something in your review.

[event_horizon]

I notice a lot of people complain about boot camp drivers not being very optimal when running Windows, but I wonder if Apple themselves use Windows for their CAD and some design software. Most of the full featured CAD design software that I know of is Windows only and I would guess that Apple themselves use it. It would be fascinating to know what software they use when designing all the different aspects of their hardware. If they have to use Windows software and only use Apple hardware they must either be using boot camp or virtualizing it.

I have an interesting take running Windows via boot camp vs just buying a windows laptop from another manufacturer. I have a 2016 MacBook Pro 15" (Radeon pro 455) as well as a decked out Dell Precision 5530 (64gb ram, 1tb 970 Pro, Quadro P2000, i7 8850h). The Dell of course is much higher specced since the Mac only has 16gb of ram and a comparatively anemic GPU. I use the Dell for photogrammetry so the 64gb of ram is useful there. I use Autodesk Civil3D everyday as part my job and I have a unique situation where I'm not tied to using a corporate managed machine. Both laptops handle most of my drawings just fine (some drawings are fairly large with several complex surfaces) with the Dell having the obvious performance advantage if a drawing is a little slow on the Mac. Both machines have about equal usability for me in Civil 3D.

The Mac is substantially quieter than the Dell. Doing the exact same amount of panning, zooming and orbiting on the Precision 5530 results in the fans hitting their max rpm within a fairly short amount of time (couple of minutes) while the Mac stays completely silent. The fans on the Precision 5530 also ramp up in steps (0 to 2200 to 2900 to 3600 to 4500 to 5300 as an example [note I don't know the exact fan speeds, this was just an example]) which makes the whole fan ramp up and down even more bothersome, at least to me. Apple has a very nice fan curve built into the firmware so it's never a jarring experience. The MacBook Pro will keep it's fans at their idle speeds (inaudible unless you put your ear directly next to the exhaust vents [less than an inch]) while doing the exact same workload in Civil3D (panning, zooming, orbiting, etc.) as the Precision 5530. The experience using the Mac is so much more pleasant that I actually choose to use it over the more powerful Dell when working on my projects in Civil3D. Both machines are plugged into two external monitors (one 4k and one 1080p) when I'm working so they are subjected to the same graphical display load). They are of course both running Windows 10 in this situation since Civil3D is windows only software.

I would love to see reviewers talk about fan noise when laptops are plugged into docks and external monitors. The Precision 5530 seems to be affected by this since it tends to ramp the fans up more frequently and more aggressively when it's plugged in to a thunderbolt dock for exmaple. I also notice that people are very concerned with thermals (i.e. cpu hitting 100 is bad), but I would rather the CPU run at a higher temperature and the fans stay quieter as long as component longevity isn't affected. Of course being able to improve thermal performance through clever engineering/design, better heatsink performance, larger volume of air pushed through fin stacks, etc. is always welcome.

Looking forward to the 16" MacBook review because it seems like it would be a great replacement for my late 2016 15". It seems like the performance of the new one would outclass my Precision 5530 while working in Civil3D. It's nice to see we get Radeon Pro drivers under boot camp (haven't we always gotten "workstation" drivers?). Attached is a screenshot of the Radeon settings for my machine.

[Box Jay]

The new scissor keyboard is based on users' feedback? Ok here is my feedback the "old" keyboard works amazing. If I have to revert back to scissor mechanism with large keys it would be like I am moving to some old windows machine. I am using MacBook 12 hours a day and yes I am typing a lot (not as a book writer tho), I don't see any problems with the new butterfly mechanism. I don't know if the problem people experiencing is getting used to it, or their fingers hurt?
If it's the latter one, ok, but if it is just getting used to it, c'mon people, should we revert everything back because some are not able to adjust to something?
Bigger travel, this makes no sense, if you ask me i don't want any travel. If we got used to type on an iPad or iPhone, they what is the difference? I know some people who type faster on iPhone keyboard than most of us on the Mac keyboard.