I have the privilege of using MacBooks at work. From old 2012 model to a more recent 2015 Pro model. To be honest, I’m quite happy using that old 2015 MacBook Pro even though the processor has become outdated and there’s not much space left on the hard drive. It’s a dependable workhorse which I can rely on to work every time.
When the new IT Director came in, he asked around which area we could really improve at work. Amongst the things we demanded was new laptops for ourselves. Needless to say, most of our laptops are outdated and quite old compared to other departments. So he agreed with our opinion and 2 months later, I got myself a shiny new space grey 2019 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. It’s virtually my dream machine.
Powering this machine is a Quad-core 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB of RAM. 256GB of flash storage might not be a lot but I can live with that. Doubling the storage would easily add a thousand ringgit more to the price. Even at that moderately high specs, this MacBook unit costs a cool 5,500 ringgit after education discount. I don’t think I can afford to buy such expensive laptops in my lifetime. At least in the near future.
Compared to my old 2015 MacBook Pro, this new version feels slightly lighter and looks slightly thinner. There’s only 3 ports available on this MacBook, 2 Thunderbolt USB-C ports and 1 audio jack, nothing else. Welcome to the dongle life. The 13” retina display is just the right size for me. 15” would be too large and heavy for me to lug around. I love the sturdy aluminium build and the space grey colour is drop dead gorgeous. Like all newer MacBooks, the Apple logo at the back does not light up anymore, replaced with a solid black logo.
Opening the lid, you can immediately notice the bezel around the screen is significantly smaller compared to its predecessors. The butterfly style keyboard is a point of contention amongst its users. Some hate it, others were indifferent. Me, I don’t mind it at all. It’s no big deal. It feels different typing on it but I don’t hate it. The excellent MacBook trackpad is huge on this model. On each side of the keyboard, you can find the stereo speakers blowing out some loud and bassy sound and music. The best in its class.
But the most prominent feature of this MacBook is definitely the Touch Bar. This digital mini screen on top of the keyboard will display contact-sensitive menus related to which application shown on the screen. For example while using a browser, the Touch Bar will display the back, refresh and home icons along with the search box. Using a word processor, it will display some of the more common menus like font type, print icon, bold, italic and underline menus and so-on. What I love most about the Touch Bar is of course the Touch ID button next to it. Say goodbye to entering long-winded passwords in the dialog box. All you need to do is place your finger on the Touch ID key and you’re good. I can’t stress enough how I love that feature.
So how’s the performance? It’s great. The fastest laptop I’ve ever used. Boot time is lightning fast. There’s virtually no lag and running multiple resource-intensive applications poses no problem at all. It’s a great work laptop. My only grouse is the lack of discrete graphic card on this laptop means many new or popular computer games does not run or run well on this laptop. The onboard 1.5GB Intel Iris Graphics just does not cut it. Wish they would put a Nvidia or AMD graphics on this but the ones that does cost a tear-inducing 10,000 ringgit or more. You can get two top of the line Windows gaming laptop at that price. So crappy graphics and macOS Catalina. You’d be hard-pressed to find a glowing review of Catalina in the tech community. It’s sometimes buggy and certain software just don’t run well on their latest OS version.
In summary, the 2019 MacBook Pro is a great laptop for work and light-gaming. It’s compact, fast and a really beautiful machine forged in unibody aluminium. If you’re looking to do some serious gaming though, I suggest you look elsewhere. But since this MacBook is meant for work, I’m happy with it. It’s the best laptop I’ve ever used.
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