Apple MacBook Pro 13 2018 (Touch Bar, i5) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Apple updates the MacBook Pro 13 with a new quad-core processor and a True Tone display for 2018, but only the more expensive model with the Touch Bar. We have a closer look at the performance of the new MacBook Pro in the following review. What can you expect for the price of 1,999 Euros (i5)?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-2018-Touch-Bar-i5-Laptop-Review.316648.0.html

[Brabas]

"This is obviously not just Apple's problem, but Intel is to blame as well. "
Intel didn't sell you the CPU paired with a cooling solution that can't handle it, did they?

[Reckless]

Signed up just to comment here. I've been looking for this sort of analysis since the reviews started coming out.

Glad to see at least one publication seems to realise that it's strange that the 28W parts are scoring equivalent or lower to the 15W ones.

Any chance of an alaysis to see if swapping out the stock paste for something better would help if it's purely a thermal problem?

[Andreas Osthoff]

Hi,

@Brabas: Well, Intel sells CPUs and advertises frequencies that they cannot really reach in their TDP-class. They just go higher with the number of cores of the frequencies, but there are not enough improvements to compensate the higher power demands.

@Reckless: We will check that, but it looks like the old cooling solution is just not powerful enough for the new processors. The situation seems to be similar for the new MBP 15.

[Nitesh]

Urgh, not the 13" too. Sounds like Apple needs a redesign of the thermal system in both sizes, what they have barely straddles acceptable in the 13" and i7, and is unacceptable for the i9 in the 15.

[Nels]

Was the demo on an 8GB or 16GB?

[hussar]

You are wrong at the difference between i5 and i7: the difference is not only the freq. i5 has 6MB L3 Cache. i7 has 8MB.

[Cassiel]

Will you guys be testing the i7-8559U MBP 13 as well? I understand from your projections that it'll be an even hotter potato, but I would really like to see some numbers. If Intel claims the 8559U can turbo to 4.5GHz, any chance the chip is well binned such that it's more efficient?

[eloi]

I bought this pc and returned, it gets to hot  and when reaches 95 - 100, cpu is slow as f***. With CHEST preinstalled game in macos, with just this game open, no more apps, reaches 95ºC.

[Natan]

How about manually adjusting the fan speeds ?

I've seen videos of people which say this fixes alot of the thermal problems. It does get louder but Apple wanted silence laptops..

Maybe Apple will update the fan speed anyway cuz of the thermpal problems.

[Jarda]

Hi, excellent review.
Apple just released fix 10.13.6 that should address excessive throttling for some scenarios. Can you check if this update makes any difference to the benchmarks?

[Robert]

Will you update the article now that the throttling issues have been fixed? I have seen that you have uploaded some new graphs, but the text does not mention it. There are people reading relying on these reviews and unaware that bad performance you describe was a power management bug...

[The Headboy]

What happened to this review? It seems to have gone from Live to Dead. 22 days with no update is a joke

[Robert]

Was Truetone disabled before measuring the calibration/values of the display?

When editing photos, Truetone needs to be switched off. Otherwise, the images won't be accurate on another screen.

Thanks!

[Adrian]

Game performance on macbook pro 13 .= 97% seriusly?