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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom from TechChap and this is the brand new MacBook Pro 16.
00:29My MacBook was not actually in that box earlier, you probably guessed that,
00:32but I have actually had this for a couple of days now and I've got a few thoughts.
00:36I am going to do a more extensive review and also some more comparisons with the
00:39rest of the Mac lineup soon, but I also want to bring in this guy.
00:44This is my old MacBook Pro 16, the one I've been using as my
00:48daily driver for the past just over a year.
00:50This came out October 2021 and fortunately I have a slightly different color than you want.
00:54This is silver, this is space gray, because from the outside these are physically identical.
00:59The only difference is this gets a new color matching MagSafe cable.
01:03Now I review an awful lot of laptops and for me at least this is, or at least was,
01:08as close to the perfect laptop as I could get.
01:11Of course, unless you want to play games, in which case Mac's not really ideal.
01:15So of course I was extremely excited for the new 2023 M2 versions.
01:19We had the M2 Air launched at WWDC last year.
01:22We expected them to come out sort of at the end of the year, but they didn't.
01:25But here we are with the new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros.
01:29So what's new?
01:30Is it much faster?
01:31And is it actually worth upgrading to and paying the new higher price for?
01:36So headline upgrades.
01:37Both the new 14 and 16 can be specced with either an M2 Pro or an M2 Max chip,
01:42which Apple claim will give you roughly 20% faster CPU,
01:4530% faster GPU and about a 40% boost in neural AI performance.
01:49Not too shabby, although I'll put that to the test in a second.
01:52According to Apple, we also get an extra hour of battery life,
01:54which I would test, except because I've been using this a lot over the last year,
01:58the battery capacity has actually gone down to 91%,
02:01which is not ideal, although I do use it a lot.
02:03So for my full review, I'm gonna have to get myself a new one of these to do a direct test.
02:07So it's faster.
02:08It lasts a little bit longer, probably.
02:10And also we have a bit of an upgrade to the connectivity.
02:13We get Bluetooth 5.3, which isn't a huge deal.
02:15It's a little bit more reliable and more power efficient.
02:18We also get Wi-Fi 6E, which gives you access to the 6GHz spectrum.
02:22With up to two times the throughput, it has much higher bandwidth than Wi-Fi 6,
02:26which we had before, but it does require you to have a Wi-Fi 6E router.
02:31So faster, slightly longer battery life, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HDMI 2.1.
02:36Now, most people are excited about the performance boost and how much
02:39faster everything is, but for me, it's actually this,
02:43the HDMI 2.1 port that I'm most excited about,
02:46because let me show you my setup at the moment.
02:48This is the old MacBook Pro 16 with the M1 Max.
02:52I have it hooked up via HDMI to this ASUS ROG PG48UQ, a very nice gaming monitor, really.
03:00And if I bring up the settings menu, you can see it is limited to 60Hz, 4K 60, which is fine,
03:07but it is not as smooth as the 120 ProMotion that you get on the actual main screen.
03:12So it feels like a bit of a step down.
03:13But now if we switch over to the new MacBook with its more advanced HDMI 2.1 port,
03:18you can see I get the full 138Hz, or even a variable refresh if I want.
03:23So now you can get up to 4K at 240Hz, this isn't even maxing it out,
03:28or probably more likely if you are a creator or professional,
03:32hooking up to an 8K display, that is an 8K TV,
03:35where you can get 8K at 60 as opposed to 8K 30 before, which is, again, a much smoother experience.
03:41It's not exactly a run out and buy one of these kind of upgrade,
03:44but it's definitely a nice quality of life upgrade.
03:46In my little MacBook Pro 2023 wishlist video,
03:49I had kind of hoped Apple might be able to shave a few grams off the weight.
03:52The 16 in particular is a bit of a chunky boy,
03:55although I can forgive it given how capable and powerful this thing is.
03:58But it does kind of make me think, do I still need the 16-inch version?
04:02The performance is basically the same between them,
04:04although you do get about four hours less battery on the 14,
04:07but it's an awful lot more portable.
04:08And with Thunderbolt and the new HDMI,
04:11whenever I'm here in the studio, I'll output to a big screen anyway.
04:14So do I need the 16? And it's a lot more expensive.
04:17Now, this video is very kindly sponsored by these.
04:20The brand new Urban Ears Boo.
04:22What a great name.
04:23And these guys are a little bit different because they're made from 97% recycled plastics,
04:28like bottles, air conditioning units, and other junk.
04:31They're trash, basically.
04:32And the box is made of fully recyclable cardboard.
04:35E-waste is a huge problem,
04:37and I have a lot of time for brands who go the extra mile to help the environment.
04:41So big points there for sustainability,
04:43but we also get 30 hours of playtime.
04:45They sound great.
04:46We get dual mics on each earbud, so call quality is really good as well.
04:50Bluetooth 5.2, touch commands, they're water resistant,
04:53charge via USB-C, and the best bit is these guys cost just ÂŁ69.99,
04:58which makes them a whole lot more affordable than most leading brands.
05:01But it comes in six different flavours,
05:04including raw, charcoal black, even cosmic pink.
05:08Now, if you're wondering, these regular Boo earphones are open fit,
05:11but you also have the option of the Boo tips,
05:13and they have a more in-ear fit as they use silicone tips.
05:16So if you're after a new pair of earphones,
05:18definitely give the Urban Ears Boo or the Boo tips a try.
05:21And I'll leave a link in the description below.
05:23And for just under ÂŁ70, I think they're a bit of a bargain.
05:27Okay, enough waffling.
05:28Let's talk about performance,
05:29because that is the main reason you might want to upgrade.
05:31And I've had the chance to run a few tests,
05:33and my results are pretty close, actually, to what Apple are claiming.
05:37I'm going to run more tests over the coming days and weeks,
05:39but to get started in Geekbench 5, which tests the CPU,
05:42we're looking at a 15% optic in single core and a 20% boost in multi-core,
05:47which actually is bang on what Apple claim.
05:49Then in the Premiere Pro Puget benchmark test,
05:52similarly, we're looking at a 20% boost.
05:54Now, bear in mind, the M2 Max has the same processor as the M2 Pro.
05:59I don't know why I'm pointing to that.
06:00That has the old M1 Pro.
06:02The difference, again, same as last time, is primarily the graphics.
06:05We get way more GPU cores, up to 38.
06:08It also doubles the memory bandwidth,
06:09and the M2 Max allows you to spec up to 96 gigs of their unified memory.
06:14Although in this guy, I have 64, same as this.
06:17So actually, this is a perfect comparison.
06:19M1 Max, 64.
06:20M2 Max, 64.
06:22So in terms of graphics,
06:23and while I do appreciate these aren't really proper gaming machines,
06:26let's boot up Old Faithful's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
06:28The M2 Max is 29% faster than the M1 Max,
06:33which is really within the margin of error of exactly what Apple were claiming,
06:36a 30% uptick in graphics performance,
06:38which is pretty significant.
06:40However, in my couple of real-world tests,
06:43I didn't see quite the same improvement.
06:45In Premiere Pro, exporting a 4K H.264 and also a 4K ProRes edit,
06:50it was 9% and 13% quicker, respectively,
06:53which isn't that impressive.
06:55And firing up Blender and seeing how long it takes
06:57to render 500 frames of this ripple demo,
07:00the M2 Max was only 16% faster.
07:02A couple of thoughts.
07:03Firstly, you could potentially get better performance out of this
07:06if you spec it with the 96 gigs of RAM,
07:08which is very pricey.
07:10This tops out at 64, so this isn't fully maxed out.
07:13Also, the performance really does come down to your workflow.
07:16Are you editing ProRes in Final Cut Pro?
07:18Are you using Apple-optimized software?
07:20And are you really taking advantage of the GPU?
07:23If you're not, then the Max is going to be a little bit wasted.
07:25And in fact, the performance between these two
07:27is not that significant that really it changes my workflow.
07:31And I know some of you will shout at me
07:32for using Premiere Pro on this and not Final Cut
07:35or more likely DaVinci Resolve, actually.
07:36I'm going to have to learn that at some point.
07:38It doesn't enable me to really do anything
07:40that I couldn't do on this.
07:41It's all just a little bit quicker, a little bit smoother.
07:44It's sort of quality of life improvements,
07:46not that revolutionary upgrade we saw going from Intel to M1.
07:50What I did notice though,
07:51although again, I've only had this for a few days,
07:53is it does take longer for the fan to kick in on this
07:56than it does on this.
07:57I was rendering a video side-by-side at the same time
07:59and this started whirring up much earlier than this.
08:02In fact, I barely heard it right up until the end of the export.
08:06Although, that's not necessarily a good thing
08:08because this actually, to the touch,
08:10was cooler than the new model with the M2 Max.
08:13And I don't know really why a little bit of fan noise is a problem.
08:16Obviously, it's nice not hearing the fan,
08:18but I would rather it kick in and I can hear it.
08:20I don't really mind that much if I'm doing something intensive
08:23or, you know, a demanding workload
08:24and I want the best performance possible
08:26and also for it to stay cool.
08:27I'd be happy for the fan to come on at least a little bit.
08:30So while this, in my experience so far,
08:33seems to stay quieter for longer than this,
08:36in my brief testing, and it is brief,
08:38I need to spend a lot more time with this,
08:39it actually got hotter quicker and that is about it.
08:43Same design, same screen, same webcam, keyboard, trackpad, same colors.
08:47I'd kind of hope there'd be a new sort of midnight
08:49or starlight version of this like we saw with the new Air,
08:51but alas, no.
08:52So simply, it's a bit faster,
08:54although it depends if you can really take advantage of that performance
08:56and that isn't already good enough for you.
08:58HDMI 2.1, which is very nice for me and my setup,
09:02although not everyone's going to be taking advantage of that.
09:03If you're using a pro monitor,
09:05generally Thunderbolt's still a better option
09:06because it charges the laptop as well.
09:08Bluetooth 5.3, an extra hour of battery life,
09:11and that's your lot, which is absolutely fine.
09:13I mean, this is already an incredible laptop
09:15and this is just a nice refinement,
09:17but the problem is, in the UK at least,
09:19and some other countries, less so in the US,
09:22the price has jumped significantly.
09:24On the older 2021 models,
09:26the UK prices were around ÂŁ100 less than the US prices,
09:30but now they're ÂŁ100 to ÂŁ150 more.
09:33In fact, this 16-inch MacBook Pro,
09:35just the base model versus the base model of the old MacBook Pro,
09:39is ÂŁ300 more expensive.
09:42Now, I get that's not really Apple's fault,
09:44there's a lot of inflation,
09:45our government messed up the country a little bit,
09:47so the pal's not worth as much,
09:48but that doesn't change the fact that for you and I,
09:51if we're going to go out and buy one,
09:52it's going to make us think twice
09:54about whether this is actually worth it.
09:55So while this is objectively a better laptop,
09:58it's not the best value for money,
10:00and actually what you could do
10:01is go onto Apple's website
10:02and look at refurbished 14 and 16 2021 models.
10:05And right now, a 14-inch M1 Pro is about ÂŁ1,460,
10:09and the 16-inch M1 Pro is ÂŁ850 cheaper
10:13than the new 16-inch M2 Pro.
10:15Alternatively, if you're not married to the idea
10:18of buying a laptop,
10:19I would definitely check out the new Mac Mini with an M2 Pro,
10:21which I think is about ÂŁ1,400,
10:23pair that with a nice monitor,
10:25and you've got a really nice system
10:26for quite a lot less money.
10:28So let me wrap this up,
10:29and I don't want this video to come across as too negative,
10:31because this was almost the perfect laptop,
10:33and this is even more almost the perfect laptop.
10:36I love this thing.
10:36It's going to be my new daily driver.
10:38I appreciate the extra performance
10:40and the HDMI 2.1 port.
10:42I love this thing.
10:43And actually, as it goes,
10:44having them both side by side,
10:45I do think I prefer the Space Grey,
10:47although, as I say, other colours would have been nice.
10:49The problem is, in the UK,
10:50it's just a lot more expensive.
10:51I don't think it's fundamentally different
10:53from the old model,
10:54which you can get refurbished
10:55or perhaps just from another website
10:56for a lot less money.
10:58And I think this will do just as well for 98% of you.
11:02But what do you reckon?
11:02Tempted to upgrade or stick with the old one
11:04or none of the above?
11:05Let me know in the comments below.
11:06And if you enjoyed this video,
11:08I want to see my full comparisons and reviews
11:09coming very soon.
11:10Make sure you hit the like and subscribe button down there,
11:13and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chap.