Before smartphones came to dominate our lives, laptops/notebooks were the most personal of electronic devices. In the case of modern laptops, they are highly capable, able to tackle 90 percent of the tasks you can do on a desktop. But because they are portable and can be kept close at all time, they’re a powerful extension of our hands and brains.
At the peak of its design prowess, no one did notebook computers better than Apple. During a 10-year period starting in 2005, Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air were the best in class, so much so that they influenced the design of PC portables. That golden era ended with a redesign of the flagship MacBook Pro in 2016, a notebook where thin-and-light form ran roughshod over function.
But that dark period has ended. A redesigned MacBook Pro was launched last month, and because my 2014 model no longer could support the latest macOS operating system, I bought one of the new, 14-inch laptops. After using it for about a month, I can report that, in terms of portable computers, Apple has found its mojo again.
As I wrote last month when the new MacBook Pros were announced, the new Apple-designed M1 Pro and Max processors are the stars of the show, but the supporting cast – the return of popular ports that were stripped away in the 2016 redesign – steals the spotlight. I am very glad I held off buying a new Mac laptop, because the 2021 model gives me nearly all the conveniences I enjoyed in the 2014 MacBook Pro.
I also noted that these are indeed notebooks for professionals. The previous design, which only had USB-C ports and required people to buy adapters known as dongles to connect other types of accessories, annoyed the core constituency for the MacBook Pro. They are not cheap, though as I’ll explain in a minute, they’re not out of line with past MacBook Pro models.
The new laptops come in two screen sizes, 14- and 16-inch. I opted for the smaller model and purchased the base configuration, which is an M1 Pro chip with an 8-core central processor and 14-graphics processor. It’s also available with a 10-core central and a 16-core graphics processor. For even more power, you can upgrade to the M1 Max chip, with more cores on both types of processors.
The list price for my model was $1,999, with 16 gigabytes of RAM and 512 GB of storage. I bumped it up to a full terabyte of storage, raising the price to $2,100. Adding taxes and Apple Care+ took it to around $2,600.
Yeah, I winced, too. But it could be worse: a maxed-out 16-inch model can run more than $6,000.
Getting the goodies
But looking back at the MacBook Pro I bought in late 2014, I found I paid about $2,300 total, with only 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Increasing the memory and the storage to that of the current model, and it would have a slightly higher price tag. The Macs I’ve owned generally last at least seven years before I replace them (usually because Apple ends new operating system support), and I typically sell them to friends.
As my mother-in-law used to say while picking the meat out of a casserole, I feel like I got all the goodies out of it.
But in terms of capabilities and power, there is no real comparison between the two. Even buying the least-powerful model, with the base-level M1 Pro chip, this is easily the fastest and most satisfying computer I have ever owned. I wait for nothing – from the launching of apps to the saving of files to the instant awakening from sleep – and I do so while using a laptop that is a pleasure in almost all ways.
The new MacBook Pro’s aluminum, unibody frame is thicker than the 2016-2020 lineup, allowing for the addition of valuable ports. There three USB-C ports, an HDMI port for connecting a display, a slot for a memory card, a headphone/mic jack and – best of all, a MagSafe 3 connection. The latter is the latest iteration of Apple’s magnetic charging connector that breaks away if the cord attached to it is kicked or pulled. (You can also charge the MacBook Pro using one of the USB-C ports.)
This return of MagSafe is great news because it can protect a laptop from tragedy, but there’s one flaw in the implementation here. The magnetic connection breaks easily if you pull at it from the top or bottom, but when pulled directly from the side or straight, it is very strong. I can drag my MacBook Pro across a table if I pull the cord straight. Yikes!
The 14-inch screen on the MacBook Pro has what Apple’s marketing crew calls “Liquid Retina XDR.” It uses a technology called mini-LED to light it up its 3,024-by-1,964-pixel display. It has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, marketed as ProMotion, though this rate is often dialed back to save battery life.
The screen has the only major flaw in the 2021 design: A notch sits the top center of the screen, similar to that found on Apple’s iPhones, the result of narrowing the bezels around the display. It houses a full HD camera but it also cuts the Menu Bar in half, and in apps that aren’t notch-aware, Menu Bar icons and menu items can disappear behind it. This will require developers to update their software, but most titles behave properly.
And speaking of battery life: Apple touts up to 17 hours of battery life with video and 11 hours using Wi-Fi. I can vouch for the latter number – I seem to be averaging about 12 hours per charge as I use this day to day. I’ve used other notebooks, both Macs and PCs, that have promised that 12-hour goal, and this is the only laptop I’ve seen actually hit that mark.
Luxe life
The keyboard, which is similar to that found in Apple’s new 24-inch iMac desktop, is superb and certainly a far cry from the much-hated butterfly keyboard found in most of the 2016-design models. It also lacks the derided TouchBar, a strip of screen that replaced physical function keys with controls that could change from app to app. I was one of the few who liked it, and I was sad that it was at least not offered as an option.
I mentioned earlier in this column that the 14-inch 2021 MacBook Pro is a “pleasure in almost all ways.” From the feel of the keyboard to the speed of the processor to the beautiful and smooth-scrolling screen, this is holistically the best portable computer I’ve used, and it was worth what I paid. Apple unabashedly takes a luxe approach to its products, but I hope that future laptops with lower price tags – such as a rumored redesign of the MacBook Air – bring its benefits to mainstream prices.
