Apple's 2019 MacBook Pros Are Fastest Ever With 8-Core CPUs, 4th Gen Butterfly Keyboard
It's that time again; time for Apple's yearly update to its MacBook Pro family of notebooks. The company has just rolled out its 2019 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops which come with up to the latest 9th generation mobile Intel Core processors (at least for the latter model).
As the red-headed stepchild of the MacBook Pro family, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is getting faster 8th generation Core processors. In the base system, you'll find a quad-core 2.4GHz Core i5 processor (4.1GHz boost), which is up slightly from last year's model. You can optionally select a quad-core Core i7 processor that boosts up to 4.7GHz ($300 option).
The 15-inch MacBook Pro, however, gets the bigger changes courtesy of even more powerful processor options. The 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro topped out with Core i9 hexa-core processors, and this year's base model uses a hexa-core 9th generation Core i7 processor with 2.6GHz (base/boost) clocks. If you need more juice, there's an octa-core Core i9 processor with 2.3Hz/4.8GHz (base/boost) clocks. And if you just want to show off, you can opt for a top-of-the-line 2.4GHz/5GHz (base/boost) Core i9 processor, which is available as a custom option. This configuration is what Apple labels its "fastest Mac notebook ever".
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and 15-inch MacBook Pro start at $1,799 and $2,399 respectively. While Apple has prided itself on quality that is supposed to justify its lofty price tags, recent MacBook Pros have come under fire for their keyboards, which feature a low-profile butterfly mechanism.
Numerous keyboards have failed under normal usage patterns, and even second- and third-generation designshaven't been enough to alleviate the problems. Has Apple finally killed its keyboard demons with the a new fourth-generation design? The company seems to think so.
According to Jim Dalrymple, Apple says that it has "changed the material in the keyboard's butterfly mechanism" that makes it more robust and should "significantly reduce" the number of issues that customers are facing. As we've previously reported, Apple has also taken measures to ensure that the repair/replacement process for those with defective MacBook Pro keyboards is streamlined to get your computer back to you faster than ever.
All MacBooks that feature the butterfly key mechanism are now eligible for the Keyboard Service Program(which replaces defective keyboards for free), with the eligibility extending to four years from the day of purchase. Apple has also announced that MacBook Pros with the third-generation butterfly key design that are sent in for repair will be replaced with the new generation design.
