Apple on Tuesday released new MacBook Pros, bringing an 8-core Intel processor to the laptop for the first time. Apple also told me today that its made some changes to the keyboard that it says will substantially reduce an issue that some users have been having with previous generation keyboards.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro comes in 6- and 8-core with Turbo Boost speeds up to 5.0 GHz. The 8-core model is up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation MacBook Pro 6-core and up to twice as fast as the quad-core MacBook Pro.
Starting at $1,799 and $2,399 respectively, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and 15-inch MacBook Pro are available today.
Creative professionals will certainly get a significant boost from using an 8-core MacBook Pro, whether they are working on high-resolution images, compiling code, working on music projects, or rendering 4k video.
Another change in the newest MacBook Pro computers is with the keyboard. While Apple says the vast majority of its customers are happy with the keyboard, they do take customer complaints seriously, and work to fix any issues.
To address the problem, Apple said they changed the material in the keyboard’s butterfly mechanism that should substantially reduce issues that some users have seen.
Apple also told me that any problems with the butterfly keyboard on any of its MacBook Pros would be covered at no cost to the customer. The company has also taken steps to improve the repair process, shortening the time it takes to make repairs to the keyboards.
This is a good day for MacBook Pro customers. We have the fastest MacBook Pro ever released, there is an updated keyboard mechanism that will hopefully put that problem to rest for good, and if you do have a keyboard problem, Apple will fix it at no cost.
The arrow keys still suck.
still cant believe the 13″ cant get 32gb of memory.
That’s an interesting definition of good day:
– So Apple knew for quite some time that the keyboard had tolerance/material issues but kept on selling it;
– This still doesn’t cover the fact that the low travel is bad for some users, and is still vulnerable to stuff getting stuck in there;
– Why didn’t they mention the fix is in the MacBook Air?
On a positive note, the new Apple spec-bumping their laptops faster is nice. I’d just like a new take on a laptop at this point.
Yes. If Jony Ive really believes design is “how it works,” why is he so obsessed with symmetry, which is pure/simplistic “how it looks?”
Hmm… I wonder what this means for WWDC announcements around the MBP. I can’t imagine they’ll be announcing anything substantial about the MBP then given these.
There’s no way Apple can announce another, “better” MBP at WWDC after announcing this today. Buyers of this would be *PISSED* and rightfully so.
I agree, it is not a good day. It pushes the necessary redesign further into the future – perhaps by another year.
Due to the keyboard fiasco, this is Apple’s worst major product release since.. I dunno, the PowerBook 5300 in the mid-90s? The Apple III?
But even without the keyboard failures, this is a bad product. It is expensive. The arrow key layout sucks. The touchbar is meh at best. Going USB C-only would be a dumb decision in 2019, and was doubly dumb in 2016.
Nice to see some speed bumps.
Anyone have a running total on how many times Apple has announced the keyboard issues “fixed”?
Apple wasn’t confident enough in the fix to put it in the press release and instead saved it for a sidebar for friendly media. That does not fill me with confidence. I remember when they stood on stage and announced the gaskets that were going to solve the butterfly keyboard issue. So it will take about a year you can say it’s fixed. Fool me once …
Yeah, this is my take too. Similar to the updates announced right before the March event.
Intel’s lack of LPDDR support for 32GB of RAM is mostly to blame. Apple threw in the towel and uses more power-hungry not-low-power DDR on the 15″. I think they don’t want to do the tradeoff on the 13″ because of power implications.
This is the first time.
Butterfly was first announced in the 2015 MacBook.
The second-gen was introduced in the 2016 MacBook Pro and featured better feedback.
The 2017 MBP got a small refresh but was never advertised by Apple.
The 2018 MBP (and MBA) got a third-gen but it was advertised to be quieter, they went out of their way to say it was not redesigned for reliability (and then just basically lied, suggesting they think the reliability is fine).
So I think this is actually a positive from that regard. I’ve also seen some excellent teardowns suggesting dust is far from the biggest issue.
They never, in fact, announced that there were gaskets, nor that it would solve “issues.” They stressed the redesign was to make the keyboard quieter, and pointedly didn’t suggest anything about fixing it.
I get your point about not being confident, and neither am I. For some reason, I’m still hopeful that the fact that this is the first time they addressed reliability means they tested the heck out of it.
You’re right, I misremembered that. It was the commenters that suggested this was a technical fix and that Apple remained silent because they were still at the “nothing to see here” phase and subject to lawsuits about those keyboards.