MacBook Pro 2021: The best laptop! Will it be your preference?

Apple’s new MacBook Pro laptops are gathering critical acclaim for the raw performance of the hardware; the jury is still out on the software’s quality control. Reading the reviews , many will be tempted towards Tim Cook’s supercar of a laptop. These are objectively “the best” laptops from Apple if all you want is the biggest number. But what if you don’t want the biggest and best number, and you would rather the best laptop for your needs.

Let’s face it, if there’s one thing you can expect from Apple with a new high-end product, it’s that the pricing is going to be high. That’s true with these new MacBook Pros. While Apple has worked hard to bring an entry-level model $1 under the psychological barrier of $2000, that model has been pared back; there’s no fast charging mains adaptor, the M1 Pro is pared back from a 10-core CPU to an 8-core, and from a 16-core GPU to a 14-core, presumably through chip binning.

An equivalent starter 14-inch MacBook Pro to the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in at $2300. That 16-inch Pro is $2500. while the differential of the display size at $200 feels fair, the Apple’s trimming of the package to get to the $2000 is severe.

Since 2016, Apple has been selling its flagship line of laptops, the MacBook Pro, with severely limited native connectivity which had been reduced to USB-C Thunderbolt ports and, ironically, a 3.5mm headphone jack. Practicability has certainly played second fiddle at Apple for many years, but according to a column by Bloomberg writer Alex Webb, this has changed since Jony Ive left the company in 2019, which is when Apple decided to prioritize function over form. Webb says that the redesigned remote of the Apple TV for example is more intuitive than the previous generation.

The new design of the recently launched 2021 MacBook Pro 14 (preorder from US$1,999 on Amazon) and MacBook Pro 16 with a full SD card slot, a MagSafe connector and an HDMI 2.0 port may also be indicative of Apple’s decision to make its products usable instead of just beautiful to look at. In comparison to the sexy round curves of previous iPhones generations that were designed under Ive, even the angular design of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 makes the latest Apple smartphones less susceptible to cracking when the device is dropped.