Tag Archives: MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro (14 pulgadas, 2021) Primeras impresiones: todo lo viejo es nuevo otra vez

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Esta es la actualización de MacBook Pro que mucha gente ha estado esperando. No solo tenemos un diseño renovado con varias características nuevas (y antiguas) fáciles de usar, sino que también podemos ver el siguiente paso en el viaje interno de silicona de Apple con los SoC M1 Pro y M1 Max. Apple parece haber escuchado a los usuarios que no estaban contentos con sus últimas generaciones de MacBook Pro y ha modificado el diseño y la hoja de especificaciones para reintroducir el estándar de carga MagSafe, una ranura para tarjetas SD y una salida de video HDMI. Atrás quedó la controvertida barra táctil que robó espacio de la fila de teclas Fn y nunca estuvo a la altura de su promesa. Sin embargo, hay una nueva peculiaridad para tomar su lugar: una pantalla con muescas.

Entonces, ¿deberían los profesionales creativos y los que realizan muchas tareas a la vez apresurarse a comprar esta computadora portátil? ¿Resuelve todos sus problemas y cómo es exactamente vivir con la muesca? He podido pasar un día con la nueva MacBook Pro de 14 pulgadas y, aunque es demasiado pronto para una revisión completa, estas son mis primeras ideas.

Hay un sensor de huellas dactilares para Touch ID en la esquina superior derecha del teclado

En primer lugar, los nuevos modelos de MacBook Pro son extremadamente caros, lo que no sorprende. El modelo de 14 pulgadas comienza en Rs. 1,94,900 y esto te da el procesador M1 Pro con ocho núcleos de CPU y 14 núcleos de GPU activos. Esta es también la única variante que tiene un SSD estándar de 512 GB y viene con un cargador MagSafe de 67 W.

Hay una opción con el mismo procesador M1 Pro, pero con 10 núcleos de CPU y 16 núcleos de GPU, con un precio de Rs. 2,39,900. Este tiene un SSD de 1TB y un cargador MagSafe de 96W más potente. Puede ingresar a las opciones de configuración personalizadas para pasar al procesador M1 Max, y puede obtener hasta 64 GB de RAM más hasta 8 TB de almacenamiento. Su nueva MacBook Pro de 14 pulgadas podría costar tanto como Rs. 5,79,900 con todas las campanas y silbidos.

Como de costumbre, todo está soldado, por lo que si no elige actualizaciones en el momento de la compra, no hay vuelta atrás y no hay alternativas de terceros de bajo costo. Los niveles de precios incrementales de Apple han pasado de ser absurdos a escandalosos, pero los compradores no tienen opciones.

Si el costo no es una limitación y aún está interesado, esto es lo nuevo. Obtiene tres puertos Thunderbolt 4 (que admiten carga, salida de video DisplayPort y transferencias de datos USB4 de 40 Gbps), una ranura para tarjeta SDXC, una salida HDMI y luego el nuevo puerto de carga MagSafe 3. Apple envía cargadores MagSafe con todos los nuevos MacBook Pro y, a diferencia de antes, los cables se pueden desconectar del bloque de alimentación mediante un conector USB tipo C. Esto te da bastante flexibilidad. MagSafe 3 no es físicamente compatible con MagSafe de la generación anterior, ni en el lado del cargador ni en el lado del dispositivo. Sin embargo, hace exactamente el mismo sonido ‘thunk’ satisfactorio cuando el enchufe encaja en su lugar, y hay un LED de estado como antes.

El nuevo MacBook Pro ve el regreso triunfal de MagSafe, además de un puerto HDMI y una ranura para tarjetas SDXC

El MacBook Pro de 14 pulgadas es menos de 1 cm más ancho y más profundo que el modelo actual de 13 pulgadas. Todas las variantes están disponibles en plata y gris espacial. Con un peso de 1,6 kg, este no es un ultraportátil para los estándares actuales, pero aún así es muy fácil vivir con él y transportarlo. La calidad de construcción es excepcional: la bisagra se siente suave pero sólida; la tapa no se flexiona en absoluto cuando se aplica fuerza y ​​todo se siente en equilibrio. Lo único negativo es que la ranura provista para ayudarlo a levantar la tapa tiene esquinas afiladas.

Hablaremos sobre el teclado y el panel táctil en detalle en nuestra revisión completa; no ha cambiado mucho aquí. La gran noticia es la pantalla. Apple ha pasado a la retroiluminación mini-LED y la resolución de 3024×1964 es excepcionalmente nítida. Los botes de Apple de “Rango Dinámico Extremo”, y la luz de fondo pueden alcanzar 1000nits para un brillo máximo sostenido y 1600nits para un brillo máximo. La frecuencia de actualización ahora es adaptable y sube a 120 Hz, además hay DCI-P3.

Y luego, por supuesto, está la muesca. No lo notará de inmediato gracias a un fondo de pantalla predeterminado ingeniosamente diseñado y al hecho de que la barra de estado de macOS es más gruesa y bastante oscura. El cursor del trackpad se mueve detrás de él a menos que estés tratando de arrastrar algo. En la mayoría de los casos, la barra de menú del Finder o cualquier aplicación que haya abierto se ajustará a la izquierda, mientras que los iconos de estado del sistema operativo se encuentran a la derecha. A veces no todo encajapero todavía no me he encontrado con una situación así.

La controvertida muesca está enmascarada hasta cierto punto por la pantalla más alta y la barra de estado más gruesa

El video 16: 9 está en formato de pantalla ancha, por lo que la muesca no se interpondrá en el camino. Cuando se ejecutan las aplicaciones a pantalla completa, permanecen debajo de la muesca, con el espacio que las flanquea simplemente oscurecido. Parece que realmente no puedes usar una gran parte de la pantalla, pero debes recordar que estos son píxeles adicionales en un rectángulo más alto; la muesca no empuja hacia abajo en lo que solía ser un espacio utilizable. Con todo, la muesca realmente no obstruye el contenido, pero aún distrae. Una vez que pueda usar la nueva MacBook Pro por más tiempo, volveré a opinar sobre esto en la revisión completa.

Es decepcionante que Apple no haya logrado implementar Face ID utilizando este espacio recuperado, pero hay un sensor de huellas dactilares en el teclado. En cuanto al rendimiento con el software de creación de contenido pesado, la duración de la batería y la experiencia de uso general, tenemos una revisión detallada próximamente. Si se pregunta si es hora de actualizar y si debería gastar tanto en una nueva MacBook Pro, esté atento a Gadgets 360.

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MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) Review: The Mac That Fans Have Been Waiting For

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Apple is no stranger to wiping the slate clean; ditching its own standards and designs even at the height of their popularity because it thinks something better is around the corner. From the original iMac which had no floppy drive and the iPhone 7 ditching the headphone jack, to the 2012 MacBooks with only USB Type-C, Apple’s quest for minimalism has often upset its customers. However, there have been rare occasions when the behemoth has had to accept that it went wrong – the buttonless third-gen iPod shuffle was replaced with its own predecessor, the shallow “butterfly” MacBook keyboard has been consigned to history, and more recently Safari’s drastic beta redesign has been shelved. The company will even soon begin allowing users to repair some of their own hardware problems at home.

Even so, the new 2021 MacBook Pro comes as a surprisingly comprehensive reversal; almost an apology to users of the past few generations. Nearly everything major that changed with the 2016 redesign and annoyed people has been reversed – but there are still a few caveats and one big new compromise that has already caused fresh controversy. Apple has listened to its users but is also still doing many things its own way. Can you live with this new balance, or has Apple just found a different way to alienate actual professionals? Read on to find everything you’ll need to decide that for yourself.

In profile, the new MacBook Pro looks rather like the pre-2016 models

 

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) price in India and specifications

Don’t expect the new MacBook Pro to come cheap. The previous-gen 13-inch model with an M1 processor is still available for those who want more than a MacBook Air but have budget constraints. The new 14-inch 2021 MacBook Pro price in India starts at Rs. 1,94,900, with an M1 Pro CPU that has eight active CPU cores and 14 GPU cores. For this price you get only a 512GB NVMe SSD, and this variant is the only one that ships with a slower 67W charger.

What you’ll probably want is the M1 Pro configuration with 10 CPU cores and 16 GPU cores active, which is priced at Rs. 2,39,900 in India. This option also has a 1TB SSD and you get the faster 96W charger. There’s a custom configurable option with 10 CPU cores but only 14 GPU cores for Rs. 5,000 less, which seems like an unnecessary variation.

Beyond this, there are options with the M1 Max processor – the same 10 CPU cores, but either 24 or 32 GPU cores, priced Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 40,000 over and above the top-specced M1 Pro. Going from 16GB of RAM to 32GB or 64GB (only possible with the M1 Max) will cost another Rs. 20,000 or Rs. 40,000 respectively. Going from 1TB to 2TB, 4TB or 8TB of SSD capacity will cost Rs. 40,000, Rs. 1,00,000, or Rs. 2,20,000 respectively. Your new 14-inch MacBook Pro could cost as much as Rs. 5,79,900 with all the bells and whistles (not including an extended warranty).

Interestingly the 16-inch model ranges in price from Rs. 2,39,900 to Rs. 5,89,90 so if you’re splashing out on upgrades, there’s very little reason not to go for the bigger screen and better thermal performance that the larger model affords.

Other than these variables, both the 14-inch and 16-inch models have brand new 120Hz mini-LED displays, Touch ID fingerprint sensors, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5. Battery capacity is 70Wh and 100Wh for the 14-inch and 16-inch models, and Apple promises up to 11 hours and 14 hours of casual use respectively.

There’s now a 1080p webcam with computational enhancement through the M1 series SoCs. Audio also gets a big upgrade with a new six-speaker system and spatial audio. You don’t get S/PDIF output through the 3.5mm jack anymore but the new MacBook Pros are said to support high-impedance headphones. There are three built-in mics with beamforming.

The power button has an integrated Touch ID fingerprint sensor

 

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) design and features

The biggest news is that there’s now a 14-inch MacBook Pro – it isn’t physically much larger than the previous 13-inch model, thanks to a taller screen with narrower borders. It’s available in Silver and Space Grey – no festive colours for Pro models, it seems. The brushed metal texture of previous models remains, and the Apple logo on the lid is mirrored but not illuminated. In profile, the new MacBook Pro actually looks a bit retro, with raised feet, flat sides, and almost no curve to the edges of the lid.

The lid can be raised easily and the hinge feels very firm, but one ergonomic issue is the sharp corners of the little lip provided for your thumb. Build quality overall is very good, and there’s no flex at all to the lid.

What many people will appreciate is the return of various ports, most notably MagSafe for charging. This is a new, thinner connector that Apple calls MagSafe 3, and neither chargers nor MacBooks themselves are physically compatible with older models. You can still use Type-C ports to charge the new MacBook Pro, but MagSafe will be quicker (depending on the wattage of your power adapter).

The “thunk” sound as the connector snaps into place is familiar and satisfying – as convenient as universal Type-C charging is, having MagSafe in addition is the best of both worlds. It also fulfils its original purpose of disengaging quickly when the cord is yanked, preventing your expensive laptop from crashing to the floor. Interestingly, Apple’s new MagSafe chargers don’t have tethered cables; instead there’s a USB Type-C connector on the charger, making it more versatile than before. The cable is also now braided, but not colour-coordinated like with the 2021 iMacs. I got a 96W charger with my review unit (not 67W, as listed on the spec sheet for this variant) and it was quite bulky and heavy.

MagSafe, a fan-favourite Apple feature, returns to the new MacBook Pro lineup

 

You’ll now also find three Thunderbolt 4 ports (one fewer than before) that support charging, DisplayPort video, and USB4; an HDMI 2.0 video output; an SDXC card slot; and a 3.5mm audio jack. It’s almost surprising that Apple retained the 3.5mm jack, having ditched it even on iPads now. Although it’s great to have more ports for flexibility, HDMI 2.1 and SD Express would have been better choices for future-proofing. You’ll also still need dongles or a hub for Ethernet and USB Type-A.

Apple has transplanted its new external Magic Keyboard onto the MacBook Pro, so you get exactly the same layout. This makes sense for consistency. The entire keybed is now black, which makes for a striking look. The touch bar across the top is entirely gone now – sorry, Jonny Ive. Apple never did manage to make this catch on, especially since it was limited only to MacBook Pros and could never have been implemented on Apple’s battery-powered desktop keyboards. It wasn’t a bad idea, but having it in place of physical Fn keys rather than above them was a mistake, and now power users can have their familiar tactile controls back.

The butterfly keyboard disaster is behind us now, and the new 2021 MacBook Pro is quite pleasant to type on. The key action is a bit crisp, but comfortable. The Fn row shortcuts have been rearranged – there’s no backlight level adjustment shortcut anymore which is annoying, and it’s too easy to unintentionally pull up the new emoji picker by tapping the Fn key. The arrow keys are a bit cramped as well. Overall though, typing is comfortable and even pleasant.

Apple has also shipped solid-state trackpads for several years now – there’s no physical clicking mechanism but pushing down generates a force-feedback haptic vibration that feels remarkably lifelike. You can even vary pressure to “force click”, which shows contextual information or triggers actions, such as being able to rename a file in the Finder. It works well, but feels fatiguing after a while since it’s the pad of your finger that absorbs the pressure, not any mechanism. Tap-to-click is disabled by default and so is hold-to-drag (which is now in the accessibility settings) for some reason. MacOS recognises lots of multi-finger gestures which work fluidly and soon become second nature.

Apple’s default wallpaper masks the notch cleverly

 

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) display and notch

The most controversial feature of the new 2021 MacBook Pro is its display notch. Many laptop manufacturers have tried relocating or dispensing with webcams altogether to make screen borders as narrow as possible, and none of these solutions has really worked. Apple is the first to try a notch that cuts into the top of the panel itself, and maybe this is the best compromise. The question is, though, do we really need the borders around our laptop screens to be this slim?

Nearly every smartphone manufacturer copied Apple’s iPhone X notch when it first came out, and now there isn’t a single one left shipping phones like this – they’ve all moved on to camera holes or much smaller incursions, while even the latest iPhones with their relatively chunky Face ID camera and IR projector array now look a bit dated. It’s surprising that Apple has chosen to bring this look to its laptops even though they don’t support Face ID (iPad Pros with Face ID have so far escaped, but thick borders are necessary on a handheld device).

Even Apple seems to understand that notches are distracting and unattractive – the default macOS wallpaper is strategically dark at the top to help mask the notch. The company has also thought about how to mitigate this. Here’s how it works: First of all, the screen is taller than before. The resolution is now 3024×1964 (or 3456×2234 on the 16-inch model) which is exactly 74 pixels taller than a true 16:10 aspect ratio. That means the screen has actually been extended upwards to fill the space around the webcam; the notch doesn’t encroach on any space there was before.

Apple has moved the macOS menu bar into this space, now splitting it into left and right sections. The screen effectively continues “behind” the notch, and your trackpad cursor will pass through it rather than acting as though there’s an edge, even if you’re dragging something. The screen is large enough that most programs will show their menus on the left, leaving the system status icons on the right. Some heavy programs with very dense menus might spill over, and if you’re a power user with a lot of apps that have their own icons or readouts, you might find that there just isn’t enough lateral room for everything. This is where Apple has not quite gotten everything right – I noticed some odd cursor behaviour in Premiere Pro, jumping from one side of the notch to the other. Videos online show how users have encountered odd bugs with items rendered invisibly behind the notch or failing to wrap around it sensibly. Hopefully these issues will be addressed in future macOS updates.

If the menu bar could be set to opaque black, you might not even notice the notch is there in normal operation – third-party apps can do this but a native option would be useful (reducing transparency in the Accessibility settings doesn’t quite achieve the desired effect, even in Dark mode). On the plus side, app windows can now fill the remaining 16:10 screen area (if you also hide the macOS dock). In full-screen mode, this is exactly how they fit – the areas to the sides of the notch remain black, leaving a rectangle. If you move the cursor up into that space, menu items appear there, and don’t overlap your app window as before.

The notch is fully visible when you use a light wallpaper (top) as opposed to Apple’s default selection (bottom)

 

Most video these days is widescreen and will play letterboxed anyway when fullscreen, so you don’t have the notch covering anything. Vertical and even 4:3 video plays within the 16:10 space, so you’re effectively letterboxed on three sides, with no visible notch.

For most use cases, this implementation is actually very workable. While it often feels as though space has been wasted, you just have to think of the two “wings” above the bounds of the 16:10 space as bonus areas. Apple could have done a better job of pointing this out, to avoid the perception that this is wasted space. Once I got used to this and understood what was going on, I felt less annoyed. However, the notch is still a constant visual distraction. You can always see the edges when working. Wallpaper with a dark top can help, but an opacity control would have been much better.

It’s also annoying that Apple couldn’t fit its Face ID hardware in, which…

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