It’s thinner, lighter and has a better screen — but it’s still a MacBook Pro.
Despite the reduction in weight (the 14-inch is three pounds, while the 16-inch is four), Apple kept the same set of ports on these new models, and the keyboard and trackpad appear to be the same reliable and comfortable options that have been on the MacBook Pro since its big 2021 redesign. It’s funny how shaving half a pound makes a huge difference, but it absolutely does in this case.
This isn’t the first time that Apple has dramaticaily reduced the weight of the MacBook Pro — the infamous 2016 Touch Bar models were also about the same weight. But they also ran Intel chips and had notorious difficulty staying cool and performant under heavy work loads. I have to wager that won’t be the case here, but it’s definitely something we’ll want to look out for when we do more in-depth testing.
The screen is a star
Using touch on the MacBook Pro works just as you’d expect. You can swipe through images, use two fingers for multi-touch gestures like panning and zooming, draw in apps like Pixelmator or adjust editing sliders in Photos. The UI has not significantly changed — you’d never know at first glance that this MacBook Pro was designed for touch. UI elements like the “stop light” buttons in the top left for window management expand slightly when you touch them, but there’s otherwise no major concessions to this being an OS that supports touch.
The touch performance is pretty good, though I did feel like there were occasional stutters while switching between Spaces or full-screen apps. But I’m also chalking that up to the fact that I’m not at all familiar just yet with swiping and tapping in macOS just yet. The good news is that if you’re familiar with gestures on your trackpad, like using a three-finger swipe to move between full-screen apps, those gestures work here as well. You can also “flick” apps to different sides of the screen to set up how your windows are laid out, something that you can already do on the iPad.
Oh — and the glowing logo on the lid is just as cool now as it was 30-something years ago. I’m glad it’s back.
