Apple MacBook Pro 15 2018 (2.9 GHz i9, Vega 20) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Besides the regular Radeon Pro chips, Apple also offers its MacBook Pro 15 with the professional AMD Pro Vega graphics adapters. We review the top model with the Intel Core i9 and the Radeon Vega 20 Pro.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-2018-2-9-GHz-i9-Vega-20-Laptop-Review.423029.0.html

[Applediot]

Apple's prices for SSD and RAM upgrades are a downright robbery.  That's where we are headed, soldered everything and paying through the roof for any upgrades. 

[M2018]

I wanna see some SANE human who will buy this di(o)ngleberry, if he can buy 3 (yes, that is THREE!!!) MORE powerful Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme!

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind - This is the song for that guy/girl  :D

[Hero12344]

This review shows exactly that your score metric is flawed. How is it possible that this machine get 91%? Yes, quality is very good, but why someone is buying laptop with i9? Obviously for performance - but MBP with i9 is slower than many competitors with i7. Its so huge cons that this thing shouldnt get above 85%. Though you will obviously review soon MBP 2019 and hurra , 95%, even though  performance is 25% slower that other laptops with same CPU.

[S.Yu]

If P2000 and 1050Ti really need 70W then Apple's graphics seem amazingly efficient.

[Dmitry]

Can't believe such a high mark for the model.
Butterfly keyboard is a step back from Macbook's 2015 design in ergonomic.
I suspect internals aren't changed that much - mean it would have same  issues Apple had over past years - keyboard issues (they have prolonged their keyboard replacement program), short m/b to screen cable and already mentioned CPU performance issue.
Take a look at Luis Rossman's youtube channel for details.

[123]

Excuse me, but how the hell is it possible that a laptop without a usable keyboard gets 91%? It should get 30% penalty at the start. When Apple releases the next gen ultra-thin MBP without screen also (which seems to be inevitable) are you going to cheer and rave?

Do you editors still have any independence left or is it all about the ad money today?

[Tom Tucker]

Author should be reported and tagged as non-serious for future reference.

[not_anton]

Beautiful machine that totally works above its rating!

I use a custom 2016 MBP with Radeon 460 and 1TB storage. Keyboard works perfect for soft typist (very clear pressure point), as long as you don't smash it like a mechanical typewriter. It did fail from breadcrumps - but I get a free repair, no questions asked (4 years keyboard warranty for every mac) with a new battery as a bonus. Stopped eating at a laptop and never had problems again.

Macs are awesome for work - light a portable to take anywhere (sorry but twice thinner than Thinkpad if you include its rubber feet), they actually continue working with CPU at 0.8GHz if you close the lid so you can close a running laptop and go anywhere. Aluminium frame strong as a tank. And with 4 thunderbolt ports I can connect all the monitors in the world, or connect charger from any side that appeared to be extremely useful.

For gaming, Radeon 460 handles World of Warcraft at 144Hz/2K resolution in older areas and 90Hz in modern ones, with ultra textures and reduced shaders. Really happy for a new model getting this large of a GPU boost. But the keyboard does suck for gaming (e.g. "W" key sometimes interrupts if I hold it for a long time). Still great for typing or development, just not for gaming. Like Apple has ever cared about gamers, anyway...

The 5GHz CPU is useful - not everything is benchmark! Try ffmpeg video conversion and you will see. Many algorithms does not scale to multiple cores and you really want to have 5GHz for them; others have very bursty CPU usage and if they use all cores say 20% of the time - they can have full 90W for those 20% of the time.

Regarding SSD, go check consistent write speeds at Anandtech's SSD benchmark. The ones like Intel 600p have 120MB/s consistent speeds that are below HDD! There was not a single consumer SSD that could keep up even 1.5GB/s consistently, and enterprise ones cost over 1$/GB. Apple sells an enterprise disk at an enterprise disk price, no surprise here. That's another reason to solder it down - that people won't install cheap useless SSD and complain about sluggish Mac.

Very good machine for people who actually use it's strong sides. Others will be happy with Lenovo&Co.

[M2018]

@ not_anton
Sorry, but the only "strong side" is the price.

[David Gray]

Some sections may not need to be repeated from previous reviews, but I would still be interested to see:
-Heat development
-noise metrics
-power usage
-battery life

noise is even referenced in the verdict, so important to know exactly what you are talking about. This is what makes notebookcheck better than many rivals! Please don't lose that.

[Razer sharp blade V7]

Whatever AMD fanboi I could be, the only reason for such poor sustained i9-8950HK performance in this case -- no pun! -- is the cooling and design. Form over function. It has nothing to do with "poor evil" Intel because this CPU model is perfectly sustainable in thicker 2014-style chasses (which are, "like, from the Stone Age, lol" :P) and even in thinner modern shells, should a manufacturer ACTUALLY invest resources into rethinking their cooling a bit...

[jun]

keyboard 90% positives?
make that as 30%

[Jimbo]

This "multimedia" computer is $9500 and has no built-in media card reader. It is basically a 2016 model with updated internals. And it's $9500...with an old 87 watt power supply (really? Apple couldn't spend an extra dime, make it 90 watts, or reduce the TDP?), requires dongles for almost everything, it's non-upgradeable, the screen isn't 4K, and the keyboard is meh? And did I mention that this thing costs $9500?

[Say What]

One word: Keyboard.

Apple's butterfly keyboard has been failing, right & left. They've tried to fix it 4 times and they've clearly failed the first 3 times. You'd have to be an idiot to believe that their fourth time is the charm.

Reliability, thy name is not MacBook