Finally, I have been waiting for this day. Eagerly for months or maybe for more than a year. Yes, I am a loyal Apple fan and if you are on this page you must be as well. I woke up at 6:00 PM, Don’t judge me; Story of every freelancer’s life! Checked my emails and there we go, an email from Apple telling me how good is the new MacBook Pro 2018. Boom!
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It is not just an upgraded processor this time. We are going to enjoy stronger Intel Coffee Lake processors, memory up to 32GB instead of 16GB, more storage, and an improved GPU and keyboard with true tone display. Yes, the same keyboard which is facing huge lawsuits has some changes as well, I’m not surprised, are you? The same keyboard which I replaced from Apple. Thanks to Apple and perks of living in Australia. We got 2 extra years of consumer law in addition to first-year Apple warranty and Apple cannot say no to us.
The new MacBook Pro 2018 got revealed on July 12 and you cannot get your hands on it before 16 July. You can upgrade your laptop’s processor to Coffee Lake i9 this time on 15-inch but there are some limitations in the 13-inch model and we will explain it later in this article.
Apple promised us that this new MacBook Pro 2018 would deliver us a better performance up to 70% on 15-inch and up to 2x on the 13-inch model. How much would it cost you? Well, hold your horses we are almost there.
New MacBook Pro 2018 Pricing
The new MacBook Pro 2018 comes with the same starting price tag of $1,299 (£1,249, AU$1,899). But you will get the same Intel 7th gen Kaby Lake processors on the non-touch bar. For now, the 8th gen is only available in touch bar models so you will need to wait a bit more if you want to see Intel 8th gen processors in non-touch bar models.
The minimum you will need to spend on a 13-inch new MacBook Pro 2018 would be $1,799 (£1,749, AU$2,699). I was going to sell my old one and order a new one but then I thought maybe wait for 2 weeks. So I’m going to review it properly once I get my hands on it.
13-inch new MacBook Pro 2018 pricing: You will get the basic touch bar model with the starting price of $1,799 (£1,749, AU$2,699). A quad-core Intel 8th gen i5 processor together with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. You will get an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 on the GPU. You can upgrade the specs to Intel Core i7 with a 16GB RAM and 2TB of SSD for $3,699 (£3,599, AU$5,599). Now, this is expensive! Unfortunately, you cannot update the graphics card on the 13-inch model just like before.
15-inch new MacBook Pro 2018 pricing: A 15-inch screen would cost you $2,399 (£2,349, AU$3,499) and you will get a 6-core Intel 8th gen i7 processor, a 16GB RAM, 256GB of SSD with a Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. You can upgrade this model with an Intel Core i9 processor, 32GB RAM and 4TB of SSD. And this would cost you at $6,699 (£6,209, AU$10,339). The good thing is Apple has upgraded all the GPUs to 4GB. The 2017 15-inch base model used to come with 2GB of video memory.
I personally don’t like the 15-inch model. It’s not portable comparatively and the graphics card is not that good for gaming either. Yes, I know MacBooks are not for gaming but I’m talking about some casual gaming on the go like Fortnite or Dota 2. I actually purchased the last year 2017 15-inch model but then ended up replacing it with a 13-inch model thanks to Apple 14-days return policy.
We have just discussed the pricing of ‘base models’ and ‘top specs model’. There are plenty of options in between ranging from US$1,799 to US$6,699.
MacBook Pro 2018 release date
Apple does not want you to wait this time. Like before, we don’t have to wait almost a month for the new MacBook Pro 2018. The new MacBook Pro 2018 will be available worldwide immediately after its announcement.
The shipment will start from July 16 so a time frame of 4-5 days is not actually that bad.
Want to purchase the new MacBook Pro 2018 right away?
Unfortunately, at the moment, you can only get the new MacBook Pro 2018 from Apple Online Store. You can try other retailers and they can deliver it after 20 July.
According to Apple, the earliest ship date for the new MacBook Pro 2018 would be from this Monday. As told before, you can get your hands on the new MacBook Pro 2018 from the retailers after 20 July.
We will be updating our review on the new MacBook Pro 2018 further in this article so stay tuned.
New MacBook Pro 2018 specs
The new MacBook Pro 2018 comes with some good specs. I’ll discuss some of them later on but here are the key specs on the new MacBook Pro 2018.
New MacBook Pro 2018 13-inch:
- Intel Quad-core i5/i7 processors up to 2.7GHz and Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz with double the eDRAM
- Intel Iris Plus integrated graphics 655 with 128MB of eDRAM
- Up to 2TB SSD storage
- New: Retina display with True Tone technology
- New: Apple T2 chip
- Improved Touch Bar and Touch ID
New MacBook Pro 2018 15-inch:
- Intel Six-core i7/Core i9 processors up to 2.9GHz and Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz
- Up to 32GB of DDR4 memory
- Radeon Pro 555X/560X discrete graphics with 4GB of video memory
- Up to 4TB of SSD storage
- New: Retina display with True Tone technology
- New: Apple T2 chip
- Improved Touch Bar and Touch ID
Should you buy the new MacBook Pro 2018 15 inch i9?
We have been seen people criticizing 7th generation processors on MacBook Pros. Well, Apple has heard them this time. The new MacBook Pro 2018 is equipped with latest Intel Core 8th generation processors. I know they are behind the timeline compared to competitors but its Apple. They launch one MacBook Pro in a year. Maybe cut them some slack?
We have seen Intel Core i9 performance in the latest gaming laptops and boy were they not amazing? Now we will review the 6-core Intel i9 chip on the 15 inches new MacBook Pro 2018. You can get a turbo boost up to 4.8GHz. We haven’t seen a MacBook Pro this powerful before.
You won’t get much out of an Intel i9 processor in the new MacBook Pro 2018.
Why? The new MacBook Pro 2018 equipped with Intel i9 processor throttles a lot. The built is not for an i9 processor. It is very slim so expect a lot of heat or unless you live in Alaska or Antartica, well that was a joke. But seriously, we have reviewed it and it’s not worth the money or hassle. The CPU on the i9 will be under a lot of pressure and you will find massive thermal throttling after a couple of minutes.
Video editors and other artists should review it first before they are going to purchase it. Now we know Apple gives you a 14-day bracket to return the product but what if you have purchased it from someone else? Our advice is if you still want to purchase this new MacBook Pro 2018 with i9 processors then better purchase it from an Apple outlet rather than from someone else. At least you will have 14 days to check it out.
As discussed before, the gamers should not keep their hopes up because of the Radeon Pro 555X / 560X 4GB memory. This graphics card on the new MacBook Pro 2018 is made for professional video editors and artists and its not that powerful compared to the old 2017 MacBooks.
Keep in mind that the new MacBook Pro 2018 is not cheap with Intel Core i9 processors so make sure you only purchase it if you really need it.
Memory and storage
Improved keyboard & graphics card on the new MacBook Pro 2018
As I have discussed before, Apple is facing huge lawsuits because of its new butterfly keyboard which was first introduced in the MacBook 2015. It was loud and uncomfortable. I had to replace my old keyboard with a new one from Apple Store Australia and believe me it’s still not that comfortable. You are safe in countries like USA and Australia as you can claim it but what if you are in India? Or East Europe? You will have to replace it from your local computer repair shop and it would cost you a lot, probably around 350 US because you need to change the keyboard and battery. You cannot separate them. We are not sure whether Apple has redesigned the inner part or not but Apple has claimed that it has reduced typing-noise now. We will update you with the stuck keys problem on our full review.
You will get the same last generation Retina display featuring 2,560 x 1,600 and 2,880 x 1,800 for the 13-inch and 15-inch models respectively. Some of the editors are of the view that it needed a 4K design. I’m not sure whether we want this change or not. We have reviewed various laptops with a 4K display. The 4K display eats up your battery quickly and a bit heavy on the weight as well. So there is your definition of portability. You’d want a 4K display with less battery life and more weight or you’d go for portability?
The graphics card on the new MacBook Pro 2018 has bumped up. It certainly is better than the old Radeon chips and we will discuss it further in the full review by running some high-end apps on this card so stay tuned for our full review on the new MacBook Pro 2018.
