Hi, I’m Wale from Geek dot NG. For over a month, I’ve been using the 15-inch MacBook Pro 2017 and so far, it’s been good. This is my second MacBook Pro. Before this, I was using the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2011 and Coming from the 2011 model to this 2017 model was a huge. When I unboxed it, it felt very thin and light . As a matter of fact it’s a lot thinner and lighter than the 13-inch 2011 model I was using. Apple introduced this new MacBook Pro design with the 2016 model and well, I have no problem with this design. It’s close to perfect, if not not even perfect. I’ve got the base model. 2.8GHz Intel core i7 processor, a dedicated Radeon Pro 555 GPU with 2GB DDR5 RAM but you should probably go for the model with Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB RAM if you have the extra cash.And there’s an Intel HD Graphics 630 which is integrated by the way with 1.5GB Video RAM and this is what the system uses most of the time. My unit comes with 256GB flash storage, 16GB of DDR3 RAM. And so on… I assume you’re familiar with the rest of the specifications. It’s all over the internet. Now, when you buy a laptop, one of the things you consider most important is the battery. And I did put this through some test. Like the video loop test I did, the system shut down after 11 hours and 36 minutes of uninterrupted video play.The volume was at 50% and the brightness was set to 75%. In another test, Surfing the internet on WiFi using Safari, I was able to stay online for 9 hours 24 minutes. But with Final Cut Pro Running, the system managed just about 5 hours. I would say the battery life is solid. Now coming to the keyboard, it was hard adjusting to the flat design but now, we’re good.The Butterfly mechanism has been upgraded and it’s a lot better than what they did last year. It’s no longer news that you have just 4 USB type-c ports on this machine. with one 3.5mm audio port. But I’m getting used to it. You’re gonna need adapters and dongles to survive. I’m not complaining though, it’s what you get for having a thin laptop. The track pad is huge. It’s Very big. You have all the space in the world to move your fingers around. Its a Force Touch trackpad that gives haptic feedback when you force click. It doesn’t actually move. Now, what force-clicking does is different for all applications. For instance in Safari, you could force-click a word to look it up. One of the features I love most about this MacBook is
Touch ID. With this you can unlock your MacBook, confirm App Store purchases and it works with Apple Pay, though I don’t use it.You can register a maximum of 3 fingerprints. And this brings us to the touch bar. It’s fun to use when you have applications supporting it. Apple’s default apps like Mail, Safari, Notes all have Touch Bar shortcuts. Even 3rd party applicators like Google Chrome and Pixelmator now work with the Touch bar. But mostly, I use the Touch bar for setting brightness, volume, music play, and for selecting smileys. It’s cool, but I hardly use the shortcuts when working with applications. The display is amazing. The maximum brightness is 500 nits and trust me, it might hurt your eyes. It comes with P3 wide color gamut. The speakers produce quality sound way above average. And it’s got some bass. Even with the base model, performance is great. The new KabyLake processor on the MacBook Pro is more than capable. 16GB of RAM is enough but I can only speak for myself. Lots of people want 32GB on the MacBook Pro but Apple claims this is a bad idea. I ran it through Geekbench 4 and the performance look great. Not the best in the world though.As for the graphic performance, it’s okay. But for a laptop that costs over $2,000, a Geforce GTX 1080 graphic card would’ve been perfect. But then, this isn’t a gaming laptop and Apple has never taken gaming seriously on the MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Pro isn’t even Ready for Virtual Reality unless you considering an external GPU. Depending on the kind of professional your are, it could be a great laptop or an underpowered and overpriced one. But personally, this is not a machine I plan to replace anytime soon. And if there’s anything I dislike about it, it’s the fact that I had to spend so much to just get the base model.If you find this review helpful, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Catch you in the next one. .
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