Month: July 2022

The best and most powerful iMac ever assembled is an olive branch for creative professionals, but total and utter overkill for the consumer market. Reviewing it on balance proved tough.

Let’s face it. Just like when the iPhone 5 dropped, you lust after the iMac Pro because it is Space Grey. That phone was a substantial but reasonable upgrade – the same cannot be said for the iMac Pro.

This is a phenomenally powerful machine, one that far outstrips the needs of all but a select few users. It is the first Apple ‘Pro’ product that really will only be purchased by professionals with the need for its high-end internals.

Available with an already-insane eight cores up to an almost incomprehensible 18, this is the Mac upgrade the professional world has been clamouring for – except we probably all though it’d be in the form of a new Mac Pro, expected this year.

Instead, a brand new Apple product line is born in the iMac Pro. But do you have five grand spare?

The iMac costs from £4,899 in the UK. This price gets you the base model with a configurable 32GB RAM, 1TB storage and the 8-core Intel Xeon W processor. In the US, prices start at $4,999.

Apple allows you to configure at point of purchase, and the fully specced-out iMac Pro will set you back a touch over £13,000. Yes, we put the comma in the right place.

As you have already balked at, this is a lot. We don’t normally review such expensive computers but, you know, it’s Apple and this is an important product in its history.

The model we had for review was the £9,188 version, with 3GHz 10-core Xeon processor, 2TB storage, 128GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB memory plus the Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2 in that alluring Space Grey.

As we will explore, this is overkill for all but the top tier of Apple’s intended user base.

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If you’re on the market for a new laptop at the moment, there are probably two main contenders in your mind: Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Apple’s MacBook Pro. Both have been recently released and include high-end specs – so which is more deserving of your hard-earned cash?

Here, we compare the design, features and spec of both the Surface Pro and MacBook Pro to help you decide which is best for you.

Interested in how the Surface Pro compares to the previous generation? Take a look at our Surface Pro 4 vs Surface Pro comparison review.

UK pricing and availability
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of which is best, let’s first look at the pricing and availability of the Surface Pro and MacBook Pro. It’s slightly difficult to compare directly as each have multiple configurations, so instead we’ve decided to lay out each below.

The Surface Pro is a slick piece of technology that features the same hybrid design that has made the Surface line so popular in the past. For those unaware, the Surface Pro sports a design that allows it to be used like a tablet, or attached to a keyboard (sold separately) that transforms it into a portable – and powerful – laptop.

However, there is a drawback to being a tablet AND a laptop, and that’s screen size. After all, the 12.9in iPad Pro is one of the biggest tablets on the market and is regarded as too big for a number of tasks.

This means that unlike the MacBook Pro, the Surface Pro is only available in a single (relatively small) screen size: 12.3in, putting it more in line with Apple’s standard 12in MacBook. While some will be happy with the 12.3in display, most users tend to opt for something larger, around 13-15in.

Beyond the display, the Surface Pro is a sleek and attractive 2-in-1 that’ll look great in any environment. Why? The Surface Pro is a rather impressive 8.5mm thick and weighs only 768g, making it both thinner and lighter than the 14.9mm, 1.37kg 13in MacBook Pro. While the MacBook Pro is still regarded as a thin and lightweight laptop, it’s a real achievement for Microsoft.

Speaking of the MacBook Pro, how does it compare in the design department? Despite being the thicker and heavier of the two devices, Apple’s 2017 MacBook Pro has a trick up its sleeve: the Touch Bar.

First introduced in late-2016, the Touch Bar is a touch-enabled OLED strip that sits across the top of the MacBook Pro keyboard, replacing the traditional function keys with app-based contextual controls. So, if you’re watching a movie using QuickTime, you’ll be presented with media controls while if you’re using Photoshop, you’ll get access to relevant shortcut keys.

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The 2018 13in MacBook Pro is a capable laptop with beautiful design that makes the same compromises Windows laptops are making this year. Here’s our full review

Long had the MacBook Pro been the no-brainer laptop choice of the professional twenty-first century digital worker. Creatives, journalists and music producers alike would buy one, run it into the ground and then buy a new one.

But then Apple slimmed the Pro down, took away USB-A, took away the SD card slot, and even reinvented the function row as the Touch Bar. People still bought the new MacBook Pro, but a few others raised an eyebrow or two as the price went up and the ports disappeared.

Yet the 2018 13in MacBook Pro is still a great computer. It has exceptional build, a vibrant display, an improved keyboard and solid battery life. But its price and hamstrung ports might put off those who still need peripherals in their workflow and aren’t all in on cloud computing. Or dongles.

MacBook Pro 13in (2018): Price and availability
Apple sells a 13in and a 15in MacBook Pro. Our colleagues at Macworld UK reviewed the 15in 2018 model.

Here, we reviewed the 13in with Touch Bar, but you can also opt for a 13in without the Touch Bar. The latter is still the 2017 model, so if you want Coffee Lake 2018 Intel chips, you have to go for the more expensive Touch Bar models that start at £1,749/$1,799.

The model we received for review from Apple costs £3,599/$3,699 and has an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM and 2TB storage. If you need the eye-wateringly expensive 6-core Core i9 processor or 4TB SSD option, Apple forces you to get the pricier 15in computer – and the same applies for 32GB RAM.

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The MacBook Air finally gets the keyboard and pricing it deserves, reclaiming its crown as the best MacBook for most people in 2020. But performance and battery life could be better

The MacBook Air finally gets the keyboard and pricing it deserves, reclaiming its crown as the best MacBook for most people in 2020. But performance and battery life could be better

A few years ago, it was easy to say to people that if they wanted a MacBook, they should probably just buy the cheapest MacBook Air. While that laptop was not necessarily cheap by everyone’s standards, it gave the core Mac experience at a price that didn’t require the kind of heavy investment needed for a MacBook Pro.

Unless you were video editing or working with a lot of professional apps, you really didn’t need a MacBook Pro. But that changed when Apple let the MacBook Air languish for over three years, lazily updating the internals now and then as the company pushed its new, thinner MacBook 12in. It’s very telling that the 12in MacBook is now discontinued.

The aged design, display and specs of that old Air meant we said people should go for the more expensive but underpowered 12in, or plump up the extra cash for a Pro they probably didn’t need to get a nicer screen and solid performance.

Thank goodness then that this 2020 MacBook Air finally means we can say this is the best MacBook for most people. Despite not having a redesign or upgrade to the Retina screen since 2018, the new Magic Keyboard on this latest model means the Air is the best it has been for years, despite its flaws.

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It might look the same, but the new MacBook Pro has a 10th-gen surprise under the hood. Question is, is it worth the price?

With a slew of MacBook updates in early 2020, it was only a matter of time before Apple gave the 13in MacBook Pro some TLC – and it did exactly that in May 2020, with the reveal of the new 13in range complete with 10th-gen Intel chipsets, upgraded integrated graphics and, crucially, the Magic Keyboard to replace the universally-disliked butterfly mechanism on older models.

That all sounds like great news, then, but it’s only the two higher-tier models of 13in MacBook Pro that have been updated internally – both the two cheaper options stick with the older 8th-gen Intel chipset and slower RAM, although they do still receive the design tweaks and improved keyboard. Why Apple chose to do this, we can only guess.

Still, the 10th-gen Intel-enabled MacBook Pro looks to be a big step forward for Apple’s Pro line – but how does it perform in real life? I’ve spent some time with the latest 13in MacBook Pro, and here’s what I think.

Design and build: Same MacBook Pro, new keyboard
As has been the case with the MacBook range for quite some time, the 2020 upgrade isn’t a design overhaul – but that’s not to say there’s nothing different about this year’s model.

Let’s start with the similarities: it comes in the same Silver and Space Grey colour options, and at 304 x 212 x 156mm, it’s roughly the same size as its predecessor. It does admittedly weigh a little more this time around, at 1.4kg compared to the 1.37kg of last year’s model, but that’s not enough of a weight gain to make a difference in everyday use – most people won’t even notice.

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