Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBuy this computer
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2020
If you’re debating a pro machine for a long term investment, this is the laptop to look at. Seriously, the minor improvements over previous models are game changing. TLDR, simply the best computer for the price, especially with all the free apps MacOS gives you that would cost about $400 in total in Windows. (Obviously if you already own office/Adobe software not a factor for you). My favorite thing switching to macOS next to the smoothest gesture interface ever is never having to worry if I need to download some bloated freeware to extract or view a file.
Boot camp, faster Solidworks performance than my custom desktop with dedicated GPU. Buy the +$300 option. Excellent deal, you will notice 8 cores if you do professional work (cad, editing, vfx, etc) and the 1Tb SSD leaves plenty of space for a comfortable Windows partition. Faster graphics is a plus too.
Get yourself some fan control software, there are plenty of free/cheap options out there, and it can easily cool itself at 100% fans unlike some other MacBooks. You don’t even notice they are on if like me you do a lot of work in public areas. (Apple’s stock drivers prioritize noise reduction, which is nice 90% of the time, but toggle max fans is a must have for any thin/light laptop these days, not just MacBooks.
Thermal improvements aside, the speakers will blow you away. Even if you have expensive dedicated drivers, you will still find yourself just using these often. They are just that good. I was hyped from reviews and still a few weeks later I’m just in love every time I play music with high dynamic range (I’m a huge piano lover, and literally no ordinary speakers can render piano well)
Keyboard, excellent. You may need a few days to adjust, but I find I can fly through memorized lines of code after a bit of practice. They feel enjoyable to type on, and are honestly a bit addictive, which is a weird thing to say about a keyboard, but there. The backlight is soft but very visible, without the horrendous bleeding like on my Lenovo laptop.
Battery. Ok, best you’re going to get in a 6+ core machine this capable, and still take it on a plane. The screen is very bright, but with the reflector you can really save on battery if you reduce brightness to ~80%. The 95 watt charger is very fast though, so if you do run out, you don’t have to wait long.
Lastly the screen. I say this to everyone who I consult about screens, but stats are deceptive. This is the best looking screen I’ve seen bar none, certainly on a laptop. Apple really knows how to make a display, and I’d take this screen over a ‘4K’ Dell any day. Honestly don’t pay attention to Apple hate. I get it, people have opinions, but seriously, your machine, you have to use it.
To conclude, while you can find other laptops that do one or two things as good or better than this one, the 2019 MacBook Pro 16” is the most well rounded computer I’ve come across. Everything just works, and boy does it work well. It will last you 6+ years, and you’ll enjoy the whole life of this machine.