Archive for June 10, 2020

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Upgrading to a 16-inch MacBook Pro

All I really wanted was an updated version of my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro that was faster and had a larger display (preferably matte).

It’s definitely faster. Here’s how long it takes to build SpamSieve on my different Macs:

MacProcessorBuild Time
MacBook Pro (Retina, 2012)2.6 GHz 4-Core i7144s
MacBook Air (11-inch, 2015)1.6 GHz 2-Core i5160s
iMac (27-inch, 2017)4.2 GHz 4-Core i768s
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)2.3 GHz 8-Core i964s*

The * is because macOS 10.15.3 included a change that increased the time to 67s.

And the display is larger. It’s not, alas, anywhere close to the old 17-inch models, but it is a definite improvement over the 15.4-inch displays, without making the computer any bigger. The new display also has much better color and brightness. Putting the two Macs side-by-side, the difference is striking. (The other surprising thing is that the color of the case is much darker, even though it was described as “silver.”) Unlike the 2012 display, there doesn’t seem to be any image retention. There is, alas, a similar amount of glare.

USB-C charging is a wash. It’s sometimes nice to be able to charge from either side, and I like being able to travel with a compact power adapter. On the other hand, plugging in the USB-C connector is much less pleasant, and I miss the protection of MagSafe.

Most of the rest of the changes are drawbacks for me:

Previously: