Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “MacBook Pro 16” (2021) Review: Seven Months “On The Max””.
[ Applause ]: this has been my main machine for the past seven months. It’S not polished, it’s not pretty. It’S got grease on the keycaps. A tattered folding stand on the bottom and a worn leather skin on the top.
It’S traveled tens of thousands of miles with me and it’s produced every one of the videos i’ve uploaded since i bought it, including this one and while i prefer other laptops for play, 2021’s macbook pro is an indispensable tool for my work and at the risk of Spoiling my own conclusion: it’s the best i’ve ever used. Now i wouldn’t have seen myself saying that back in november, i upgraded from an older intel powered macbook pro, which i reviewed in one of the last videos i shot before the world stopped back in march 2020 and the transition from that x86 architecture to apple’s m1 Max silicon running the all-new mac os monterey. Well, it was a bumpy one. I had trouble logging in to apple id with the machine just sitting there for minutes, trying to recognize my password. Many of the final cut plugins i use for video editing, wouldn’t work properly and final cut itself was pretty buggy until the first point release now. I say this not because other platforms don’t have similar problems, but because apple is often misrepresented as somehow being immune to them. You know you’ve heard it a million times it just works. Well, very often, that’s true, but, to paraphrase my friend zach from jerry rig everything. This is a computer and computers break, that’s footage from the onboard webcam, which is much higher quality than most, but you can’t discuss that camera without acknowledging the abomination within which it sits. I know i’m tired of talking about notches too, but every time i open the lid, i’m reminded that someone at apple decided to graft the least attractive component of the iphone onto the macbook, and we didn’t even get face id in exchange. It’S awful and it’s ugly and the best i can say about it – is that the system usually does an okay job of hiding it.
The other hardware hurdle is the size and weight now apple’s own spec sheet tells me the difference between this and the 2019 model. Is negligible but boy do i have a hard time, believing that the new, sheer sided construction makes this feel like an absolute tank by comparison, but here, unlike with the notch, you do get a benefit in exchange. The thicker sides allow apple to continue the walk back. It started in 2019 when it reverted to the older keyboard switches and in 2021 apple gave us our ports back full-size hdmi an sd card slot. I use several times a week and when i need to top off the battery in a hurry, it feels so good to do that with a connector that safely detaches. When i inevitably trip over the cable.
The result of all this i no longer have to carry the dongle that was a critical component of my everyday carry for years now. It’S argued by some that we shouldn’t be thanking apple for giving us back features. It shouldn’t have taken away in the first place, but i see it differently. You know, i see a company, that’s infamous for its self-assuredness and frankly, it’s swallowing its pride saying to its customers. Hey we heard you, we made a mistake and now we’re correcting it. I think that’s admirable and the company completes that reversal by replacing another unpopular feature in the touch bar with a row of conventional function keys. While i do miss the occasional conveniences i found with the touch bar like using function, keys on the calculator or quickly scrubbing through footage. Well, this tiny touchscreen never quite managed to live up to its potential. So the only thing i’m truly sad to see go is the ability to quickly adjust the keyboard backlight. The result of all these changes is a more conventional computer, yes and well, therefore, a less exciting one to me, it’s not like i needed seven months to gather enough data to make this video folks. To be frank, i was just putting it off because i’m more excited by laptops made to i don’t know, celebrate the space program or turn my phone into a computer or give me more space to spread out with a second screen. It’S just not as fun to review a machine, that’s only a great tool, but that’s exactly what this one is.
Final cut pro edits, video even faster on this machine than my former intel one in that i don’t have to wait as long for it to render and more importantly, i can do those edits without hunting for a place to plug. In several times now, i’ve sat myself down for a transcontinental flight of four to five hours and completed an entire rough cut of a video on a single charge. I did something similar on my tour of mr mobile’s tech bag for 2022, where i parked myself at one of those coffee shop tables that don’t have power outlets. Allow myself to quote myself so on battery power alone, with the screen set bright enough to overcome the spring sun out the window, i was able to get from a raw audio voiceover file and a blank timeline to a completed rough cut of that motorola razer. Revisit that i published last week in a little under five hours on any of the intel based mac or pc notebooks i’ve owned before i wouldn’t have even been able to get halfway to that kind of endurance and later in the trip at all. The other coffee shops that served as my de facto offices on the go, lighter workloads like sling and email and scripting meant that, even if i forgot to charge the macbook overnight, it was no big deal and that’s a laptop luxury. I’Ve seldom seen i’ll say that again, five hours of heavy use on one charge, while editing 4k 60fps video rendering, in the background with the display, brightness maxed out folks, i’ve reviewed many other machines that can’t even give me five hours of web browsing before giving up The ghost and unless demanding workloads, i’ve achieved nine hours on the macbook pro. This endurance is simply outstanding, oh and if i do need to plug in a power back, i can still charge via usbc or, as happens more often share power to devices that needed more. If i need to charge more quickly than that, well, it’s magsafe to the rescue again with a more portable power, brick than most, which gets me from zero to 50 percent in under 30 minutes. If you’re wondering how the battery holds up to that kind of cycling. After seven months mac os reports, my battery health is still at 99 percent. Those upgrades arrive on top of existing excellence. You’Ve heard about before the speakers are once again the best and loudest i’ve heard on a laptop, my review notes from the first time i used it as a spotify speaker at a hotel, say quote: it’s like bringing a jbl sound boom with me.
The fingerprint sensor is fast: the lid opens with one hand instant on, is genuinely instant and, as a version 12.4 mac os monterey is now as fluid as ever. I wish i had something more interesting to say than it’s kind of expensive or it’s an incredible machine, but the former is true because of the latter. I don’t stop and marvel at its beauty like.
I do, for example, my razer 5g. I don’t jump at the chance to show off its unique features like i do with the zenbook pro duo. I just use the thing and i take for granted it’s going to do whatever i ask whenever i need it to and if it ever stops doing that. Well, fixing that problem is just a trip to the apple store away, much better than mailing it out to some far away repair center. For a few weeks again for gaming, i still prefer a proper desktop replacement, pc like the rog i’ll review soon and for light work on the go you’re much better off with something cheaper and lighter. But if you’re a production, professional or a content creator with a need for heavy horsepower when it comes to video editing well as a final cut guy, i know i’d never buy anything else if you’ve barely been listening this whole time, because you can’t stop drooling over The leather don’t worry, i won’t take offense a skin is one of the only ways to make a macbook stand out and i don’t think it gets any better than my sponsor dbrand’s premium leather.
It looks the part feels the part and yeah it smells. The part and every scar tells a story as it ages hit the link below to get yours and get yourself some leather balm, while you’re at it and thanks to dbrand for sponsoring this video. This review was produced following seven months with a 16-inch macbook pro 2021 purchased by mr mobile, and, as always, the manufacturer was given no early preview or editorial input into its creation. I’Ll also add that i don’t even have a pr relationship with apple, so if you think i’m just slinging sweet nothings to preserve some kind of access nope, it’s just that good. Until next time i’ve been michael fisher thanks for watching and stay mobile. My friends .
