The announcement of the new 2018 MacBook Pro lead to many headlines. They were mainly focused on the performance of the new processors, which did not meet the expectations. Apple released a software update one week later, which was supposed to improve the performance. At ~1.5 GB, however, it was a major update and we got the impression that the software just was not ready for the launch. We know this problem from other manufacturers, but we did not experience it on any of the previous MacBooks on this level.



The performance of the new quad-core processor is at least stable by now and also much better compared to last year's models, which were still shipped with dual-core CPUs. We still notice two things: The performance could be better with a more powerful cooling system, but the latter has not been changed and has to take of two additional cores this year. It also looks like the Coffee Lake processor is not as efficient as the Kaby Lake-R chips, where we have already seen better results at similar consumption values. The cooling, which is usually pleasantly quiet, can also become very loud under load. The power adapter is also just sufficient at 61 Watts.

Besides the higher performance, the Coffee Lake CPU also provides more PCIe lanes, so all four Thunderbolt 3 ports are attached with the full bandwidth. The WLAN module is also new and supports Bluetooth 5.0, but the WLAN transfer rates are a bit lower than before and the WLAN connectivity issues with attached USB-C devices are not as bad as before. Apple also reworked the keyboard. Besides the actual reason, the protection against dust and dirt particles, the stroke is now a bit more muffled and quieter. The limited key travel is still a matter of taste.



More performance and longer battery runtime, but otherwise much of the same. The 2018 MacBook Pro 13 is once again a very good Ultrabook, but the design including the cooling solution is slowly reaching the limit.

Otherwise, Apple once again delivers a very good Ultrabook and the manufacturer implements some things the competition cannot offer. Besides the high-quality chassis, the very good 16:10 panel, and the excellent trackpad, we are also talking about smaller things like the automatic brightness control of the keyboard illumination or the TrueTone feature of the display.

Whether the Touch Bar really adds value still depends on the software support and cannot be generalized. It is unfortunate that Apple only updates the more expensive Touch Bar model and not the more affordable Function Key model. The latter will probably be discontinued at some point.

