Analysis and review of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro (2016) with Touch Bar, Touch ID and its THUNDERBOLT 3.0 USB-C ports. Everything you need to know in Apple’s most complete latest laptop test. Is it worth it? How does the Touch Bar work? We’ll tell you.
After years of light tweaks and small improvements Apple has decided to do a deep renovation to its iconic range of MacBook Pro notebooks. A new generation with a deep facelift that has mainly attracted attention in two aspects: the new Touch Bar and the controversy over the suppression of ports.
Is apple’s next generation of laptops limited to this? Following this analysis of the 2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar and Touch ID, we are in a position to state that it is not possible to deny that both issues are part of the many lights, and some other shadow, of Apple’s new computer.
Design, improving the present
At first glance it may seem that little has changed, since the new 2016 version of MacBook Pro maintains the same general premises in terms of design and building materials with respect to the previous generation. Although if you can see some nuances such as the absence of illuminated apple on the top cover, something that we could already see in our analysis of MacBook 12 and that will surely disappoint more than one, or the availability of a new space gray color that I personally find very nice.
Although the changes are not very striking at first glance, it is in the direct contact that we begin to perceive the first significant differences and we began to realize something that we could only intuit during its longing: the new MacBook Pro 2016 is a small engineering work in itself, a careful miniaturization exercise performed impeccably by the American firm.
Built entirely of aluminum (up to the hinge of the screen is made of this material, something that did not happen with the previous model), its unibody body has a thickness of only 1.49 centimeters and a total weight of 1.37 kilos. These figures may not impress on their own, especially when you consider that some of your competitors like Acer Swift 7, HP Spectre 13, or Dell XPS 13 enhance these guarismos, but they are a giant leap if we focus on the Apple ecosystem.
The size reduction compared to the previous version is more than noticeable, it is even 12% smaller in terms of volume than the equivalent version of the MacBook Air. In short, Apple has achieved what we all wanted: the portability of an Air, and the power of the Pro range on one device.
To do this, you have had to «turn» your reference laptop, optimizing and changing the layout of many of the internal elements to accommodate two small fans capable of efficiently cooling the assembly. For this, Apple has had to enlarge the two ventilation slots in the lower area, a somewhat ugly detail that luckily gets quite hidden.
The result is stylish portable, careful to detail, but it is still sturdy and sturdy. Something we can corroborate after a month of going in my backpack from which he has managed to get out completely unscathed.
The display, the new keyboard, the two speaker outputs, the huge Trackpad or the intriguing Touch Bar performance, are aspects that also affect your design, but deserve a broader reflection in this review of the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar.
A high-profile screen
The screen maintains the same size, 13 inches, and resolution, 2,560×1,600 pixels, as its predecessor, which at first glance might seem like a stagnation in reality is quite the opposite. MacBook Pro’s new retina display is simply outstanding at all levels.
With a level of contrast and brightness 67% higher than the previous generation (up to 500 nits according to the company), and thanks to the use of the P3 color space with which 25% more colors are achieved compared to the traditional sRGB, Apple achieves a bright, real and metaphorically display.
The improvements are evident from the very first moment, especially when it comes to color fidelity, something that will delight graphic designers, video editors and photographers who will finally be able to see in macBook Pro a true portable editing equipment.
However, it is advisable to make a small note in this aspect, the colors are extremely warm compared to what we are all used to on IPS LCD screens, something that may surprise at first and that requires a small time of adaptation.
Finally, this analysis of macBook Pro 2016 with 13-inch display and Touch Bar is the great behavior of the panel outdoors, as well as the improvement in the anti-glare treatment of the screen and the wide viewing angle without loss of the screen.
Touch it squared: Touch Bar and Touch ID
Since the advent of smartphones, and the first touchscreens on tablets, laptops and All In One computers, many have urged Apple to make the leap to this option of system interaction, a request that Cupertino’s have always ignored, at least until now.
The response has finally come in the form of an OLED touch screen of 2170×60 pixels resolution, which replaces the usual row of function buttons and shows the most appropriate shortcuts and controls for the current application.
No one will be alarmed, the function keys are displayed in their entirety by just pressing the fn key, plus all the options associated with them such as the brightness, volume, lighting of the keys or playback that do not disappear, are simply kept in a summary way in the right area and can be deployed in their entirety at any time with a simple press , they can also be customized to our liking, removing those that are of little use to us – in my case the lighting of the keys-, and replacing them with others that may be more useful to us.
At the opposite end we find the escape key, which is always accessible except when we deploy all the function keys and shortcuts.
The central area, the widest, is reserved for the most suitable accesses for the task or application in progress, an area that can be quickly customized with buttons to some system functions such as new window, move to trash, open with etc. – which until now were only accessible from the finder menus or with the right button – simply by dragging , and that will be activated or dimmed depending on whether they are related to the task that we are performing, something that is really practical.
Most system applications have their own custom Touch Bar, although not in all cases it is equally useful. Safari, and miniaturizing tabs or access to favorites, the mail app with shortcuts to add recipients, reply or sort mails, and edit and view photo, because you can move through the thumbnails of each photo and apply filters without leaving the Touch Bar; They are some of the applications that take advantage of the small touch screen the most.
As well as video playback and editing in Final Cut Pro, long the functionality that I have used most during these days, since it is really practical to have the playback controls so handy, as well as a very precise and fast way to move forward or backward in the viewing.
Third-party software such as Microsoft Office, 1Password or Pixelmator are already compatible with the Touch Bar -Photoshop is on the way down- and some apps are already appearing only for the Touch Bar, such as Touch Launcher, an app that allows you to customize the bar with shortcuts to applications, folders or files.
Other functions of the Touch Bar are predictive text – with suggestions for completing text as we write -, emojis, or font and text formatting options – bold, italic, underlined etc.-, very eye-catching but, at least for me, unusable options. Traditional key combinations still seem much more agile to me thanks to the automations acquired over the years.