we tried them out and talked to the creatives who use them

Last December, Apple was presenting its iMac Pro in a small committee in southeastern Manhattan, in New York, after shimmering on the sidelines of WWDC 2017 in San Jose.

Big Apple always, other season, this time, in a humid summer heat, as the north of the US East Coast has the secret … Same city, but other Mac. It's Wednesday, July 11 and Apple has just introduced its new MacBook Pro 15 and 13 inch, which will be launched on July 12. With a precision of size, only those who have a Touch Bar are really affected by the grace of an update.

This presentation is also and especially the opportunity to meet professionals from different sectors: science, music, arts, video, photo or development that had the opportunity to take in hand the new MacBook Pro for about a week – a period long enough to make first returns, they badure us … Pending our own tests for an opinion more definitive.

Six cores and 32 GB … but not for all

Since their introduction at the end of 2016, the MacBook Pro have not done that happy, with their more compact design that sacrificed certain elements (USB port -A, SD card reader, etc.), or that imposed some limitations of the configuration – much less scalable.

So with a smile we hear a representative of Apple ensure us to immediately : "We listened to our customers and improved our MacBook Pro"

However, the first big novelty is rather the result of a logical evolution, already glimpsed on some Windows PCs. 19659002] Here finally come the eighth generation Intel processors (Coffee Lake) on MacBook Pro. In this case, Core i7 or Core i9 models, six cores for all MacBook Pro 15-inch, clocked at 2.9 GHz and a Turbo Boost rising to 4.8 GHz on the best model.

Note that the 13-inch models are entitled to Core i5 and i7 four cores, against two for the previous generation.

The developers we met in this presentation have all told us the gain in observed performance compared to their usual machine. A fairly logical result, but one of them noticed that compared to the version released last year, the compilation of its applications took half less time on the 13 inches. A rather encouraging appreciation

More RAM, more powerful … but still not for all

Then comes a first rectification. In response to feedback from business users, it is now possible to install up to 32GB of RAM on 15-inch MacBook Pro. Moreover, Apple takes advantage of this change to introduce DDR4 RAM, replacing the DDR3, which continues however to be found on 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Two of the scientists we met, Saul Karo , Assistant Professor of Neurology, and Janet Iwasa, Professor of Biochemistry, emphasized the gain in fluidity in the use of their pro-greedy applications running in a very multitasking environment.

About RAM, the Apple's representative pointed out to us that it was, however, less energy efficient – it was one of the arguments put forward for not increasing the total capacity on the previous generation. The battery size of the MacBook Pro has been increased to maintain the same battery life. It will obviously be necessary to make sure of it.

This new couple at the controls of the MacBook Pro 15 inches should, in any case, offer up to 70% of additional performances, according to Apple.

Let's go briefly to the graphics chips on which Apple has been relatively unsophisticated. The 15 inches now only offer cards with 4 GB of video memory, the high-end model with a Radeon 565 Pro … The 13-inch still does not have a dedicated graphics card but, thanks to the transition to eighth-generation Core, sees its amount of eDRAM doubling (128 MB), enough to give a little more leeway to integrated Intel controller when it comes to generating graphics.

4TB, which you will not fulfill anytime soon

Second good news, still to follow up on user feedback, the 15-inch MacBook Pro can now embed up to 4TB of storage on SSD. A response to professionals, including video, who could complain about the limit quickly reached 2 TB. Note that the 13-inch MacBook Pro sees its maximum storage capacity increase to 2 TB, against a single previously. 19659002] This increase in storage capacity meets a real expectation. This is what we confirmed in any case, Carlos Perez, director of the most-watched clip in the history of the Web – a record certified by Guinness: Despacito .

He explained to us that Until now, when he made filming marathons (about 14 hours in a row) filmed in 4K, he had to juggle with external disks to transport everything. These 4 To allow him to have everything on hand, to review all his rushes and make iterations much faster in relation to artists or customers. A way to save time, and as he said with a certain sense of the formula: "In my profession, time is not money, it's a religion" .

In the same vein, Lucas Gilman, photographer specializing in gigapixel shots (which weigh up to 60 or 80 GB once finalized) noticed that this gain of space gives him, on the one hand, more serenity and, on the other hand, limits the slowdowns inherent to the use of external storage units (access time, connection / disconnection of the various supports).

Note that the MacBook Pro case being strictly identical to those of the models previous, the SD card reader remains to absent subscribers. A disappearance that had creaked teeth during the redesign of the MacBook Pro. In his defense, Apple argues that now the Thunderbolt ecosystem has grown a lot and that it offers better solutions to quickly unload photos … with an accessory, of course.

An improved screen, a touch bar more useful? 19659005] In light of these big changes to the configuration, Apple continues to decline technologies introduced in other devices. The screen is now compatible with True Tone technology, introduced with iPad Pro. It allows to adjust the heat of the display according to the ambient light.

The comfort of work should be reinforced. But Daniel Beltra, a photojournalist and environmental advocate specializing in aerial imagery, remarked that, counter-intuitively perhaps, this adjustment made it possible to rework his photos while waiting to modify them and finalize them on a calibrated professional screen. [19659032] Apple
                                                    – Daniel Beltra, in front of some prints of his aerial photos, uses Macs for 25 years and the new MacBook Pro for a week …
                            

Note that the Touch Bar, Apple's concession or vision of the touch, also benefits from this technology. On the relevance of the Touch Bar, we were told that it was increasingly supported by pro applications. But since the development time of this kind of software is longer, the compatibility comes more slowly … A response moderately convincing to us.

Second novelty already seen on another machine, the Apple chip T2. Appeared on the iMac Pro, it replaces the T1 and adds the functions of secure boot and system integrity check. It also encrypts the stored data on the fly to unload the central processor from this task. The T2 chip also brings the function " Say Siri " to the MacBook Pro. No need to activate it from the Touch Bar (and therefore to keep it there), just call it while continuing to type on the keyboard.

Butterfly light?

Precisely, the keyboard evolves him also. After the problems encountered on some models of the previous generation MacBook Pro, Apple introduced the third generation of "butterfly" keyboard. It corrects the main defect of the previous models: noise

The keyboard of these new MacBook Pro is much quieter. The strike is also softer, less firm than that of previous generations. To the point that the race seems, at first, less short, which is a priori just an impression.

Since we use a daily MacBook Pro 2016, we felt a real difference. Nevertheless, we must admit, for the moment, to have a preference for the harder race of our model. It will take more time with this keyboard to make a final opinion. Besides this question of preference, this third generation is in any case beyond what the competition offers, without the shadow of a discussion.

More power at the same price

The new MacBook Pro are not no revolutionary machines. Nevertheless, they bring a gain of appreciable power, some small novelties and correct the shot in appearance on some notable points. We obviously reserve our final opinion for a test.

These laptops are all controllable today online, respectively from 1999 euros for the MacBook Pro 13 inches with Touch Bar and from 2799 euros for the 15 inches. Prices unchanged compared to the 2017 edition.

The machines should begin to be delivered in France in the course of next week, we were badured, just days after the first US models. [19659043] The case of the MacBook Pro without Touch Bar