T3 - UK (2021-03)

MARCH 2021 T3 75

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1)

while also boasting the longest
battery life ever in a MacBook – with
Apple promising an incredible 17
hours of web browsing, and 20 hours
of video playback.

Don’t judge a ’Book
While what’s inside the new MacBook
Pro is new and exciting, on the
outside, it’s disappointingly similar.
It looks and feels pretty much exactly
the same as previous models.
With Windows 10 laptops
becoming ever more stylish, it seems
a shame that Apple hasn’t taken this
opportunity to radically overhaul the
MacBook Pro 13-inch’s look.
So, there are still thick bezels
around the screen, which are
beginning to feel decidedly dated
when compared to laptops like the
Dell XPS 13, and that divisive Touch
Bar is once again present above the
keyboard, giving you shortcuts and
context-sensitive tools depending on
what you’re doing. Meanwhile, the
keyboard is the new Magic keyboard
and feels comfortable to use, with
responsive key travel.
The screen has – you’ve guessed it

• also remained the same, with a

Retina resolution of 2560 x 1600, and

P3 colour gamut support, which is

essential for many digital creatives.

It’s bright and vibrant, but again,

we’re seeing an increasing number of

competing Windows laptops with

much higher resolutions.

Our biggest complaint about

previous MacBook Pros is also present

here, with just two USB-C

Thunderbolt 3/USB4 ports. If you

want to plug in peripherals such as

hard drives with USB-A connectors,

or a microSD card, you’re going to

need to buy a dongle.

Many were concerned that Apple’s

move away from Intel would result in

a drop in performance, but we can

happily say that is not the case at all.

In fact, the new MacBook Pro

blows past our expectations. We’re

seriously impressed. During our time

with it, we ran apps that have been

built for the new chip, along with

legacy Intel apps that run via Rosetta

2, a tool from Apple that allows older

Mac apps to run with barely any

noticeable impact to performance.

It’s an impressive bit of technical

wizardry, and it means that if you

own an older Mac, moving to the M1

MacBook should mean you can still

run your favourite apps.

Video editors in particular will

love the new MacBook Pro – we used

Final Cut Pro to edit 8K video footage,

and the MacBook Pro 13-inch didn’t

skip a beat. We could chop, edit and

preview footage in real time, and

playback was very smooth. Editing

raw 8K footage is incredibly

demanding, but it’s clear that the

GPU in the M1 is up to the job.

Considering this is Apple’s first

attempt at a computing chip (it’s

been designing the chips in its

iPhones and iPads for years now),

this is seriously impressive stuff, and

we can’t wait to see what the

company comes up with next.

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VERDICT

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