MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display review: Lighter, brighter, but the touchscreen doesn’t add much
As you can tell from their name (which really should be something along the lines of the MacBook Pro Ultra), the PROLED XDR screen is the real selling point of these computers. And, at the very least, the display is impressive enough for Apple to create an entirely new marketing buzzword. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch revamped MacBook Pros have OLED screens that are slightly larger than the standard models (14.2-inches and 16.3-inches), which, together with thinner bezels, makes them feel a bit more immersive. They can reach up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR and 1,000 nits of sustained full-screen brightness, making them the brightest OLED screens we’ve ever seen in laptops. They also sport an insanely high 10,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio.
Being OLED displays, where every pixel is turned on and off individually, they can reach pure deep blacks right alongside very bright elements. As someone who spent hundreds of hours staring at Apple’s previous Mini LED-equipped MacBook Pros, which were already incredibly bright, I found it a bit hard to see the difference between the two screen technologies during normal usage. But when I was watching a movie with a dark background, which occasionally erupted into a bright scene, the PROLED XDR MacBook Pros looked more realistic. Watching the final scenes of F1: The Movie, where fireworks erupt against-black night sky for several minutes, felt absolutely revelatory on these screens.
The MacBook Pros with PROLED XDR also sport a Dynamic Island at the top of their screens, which houses their webcams and serves as a new home base for Spotlight and Live Activities. In practice, it works just like the Dynamic Island on iPhones — the displays morph around the black oval to reshape it for various tasks. It’s slightly less noticeable than the notch on the standard MacBook Pros, but it ultimately doesn’t make a huge visual difference.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
For all of the attention Apple paid to its new OLED screens and thinner design, it’s surprising that the company has taken a very basic approach to bringing touchscreen support to macOS. The PROLED XDR touchscreens work as you’d expect: You can swipe on the screen to scroll through articles or manipulate 3D objects or other media. Touch interactions just register as mouse clicks, so you can use it for everything in macOS, and Apple also has plenty of creative application partners like Adobe and BlackMagic who plan to fully support the touchscreen. There’s no Apple Pencil support, though, so if you actually want to draw you’ll still need an iPad.
Both PROLED XDR MacBook Pros look almost the same as the standard models, but there are plenty of hidden refinements that have led to a significant weight reduction. The 3-pound 14-inch model feels closer to a MacBook Air than a MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro now feels more like the standard 14-inch model, which weighs between 3.4 and 3.6 pounds. Apple was able to shave off the fractional pounds by moving to the lighter OLED displays, as well as reworking the MacBook Pro’s cooling design and internal components. I don’t have a huge problem with the weight of the standard MacBook Pros, but given that PC competitors are aggressively making their machines lighter, it’s nice to see Apple following along.
Beyond the screen and a new case design, the PROLED XDR MacBook Pros also feature a slightly redesigned audio system with six speakers. Apple already had the best speakers I’ve ever heard in a laptop, and now they’re just better with enhanced low end for boomy bass. I was able to crank up the 14-inch model while playing music in my backyard, and there was no distortion or loss of clarity. It simply sounded great as I tried to fill my neighborhood with the sounds of Jungle’s Tiny Desk concert.
Under the hood, Apple’s new MacBook Pros are running the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips as the previous models, so there shouldn’t be any performance differences. Nothing has changed with the keyboard or trackpad either, but given that they’re among the best we have already, I’m not complaining. Thankfully, Apple didn’t make the same sacrifices as it did with the slim TouchBar MacBook Pros a decade ago. These PROLED XDR models all have the same ports as the standard MacBook Pros, including three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, a MagSafe power adapter and a full-size SD card slot.
Source: www.engadget.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.