The 15-inch MacBook Pro (starts at $2,399; $2,799 as tested) is the closest you can get to toting the power of an Apple desktop like the iMac( at Amazon) around the office or in your carry-on luggage. The 2016 redesign is slimmer and lighter, with the formidable computing power, superb build quality, and long battery life that you expect from the MacBook Pro. It's also equipped with Apple's new Touch Bar with Touch ID, which gives you adaptable function keys that help you more easily interact with apps. You will have to get used to a shallower keyboard, a lack of USB 3.0 ports, which will most likely require dongles, and the MacBook Pro( at Amazon) isn't cheap (though most high-end machines of this caliber have similar price tags). But overall, this is the high-end desktop-replacement laptop we'd recommend for power users in the graphic arts or anyone who wants the ultimate in a fast and future-minded large-screen laptop.
Design and Features
Like the 13-inch version with the Touch Bar, the 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with an aluminum body clad in Space Gray (like our review unit) or Silver. Measuring 0.61 by 13.75 by 9.48 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.99 pounds, it's smaller all the way around and lighter (by half a pound) than the 2015 model. When I placed it into a backpack made for 15-inch laptops, the eBags Professional Slim Laptop Backpack($75.00 at Amazon), there was enough room in the main compartment for a Microsoft Surface Pro 4($698.99 at Amazon) or an Apple iPad Pro($313.99 at Best Buy). It's certainly smaller and lighter than competitors like the Asus ZenBook Pro UX501VW-DS71T, the HP Spectre x360 15t (15-ap012dx), and the Dell XPS 15 Touch (9550).
The redesigned keyboard features keys with very shallow travel, but they feel better than those on the Apple MacBook( at Amazon). The trackpad, on the other hand, is wonderful. It's about twice the size of the one on the previous 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display($399.00 at Amazon), so you can swipe all five fingers on one hand for multitouch gestures. The speakers are on either side of the keyboard, and are loud and strong enough to fill a room.
The 2,880-by-1,800 15.6-inch IPS Retina display remains largely unchanged from last year, but there are a couple of improvements. The new panel has a 500-nit brightness rating, so you'll be able to view the screen in a sunlit room. It also supports the improved DCI-P3 color gamut used on the iPhone 7($288.00 at Visible) and the iPad Pro, displaying more shades of red, orange, and green than older screens. You can tell the difference between, say, the orange of a basketball and the orange of a pumpkin.
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The Dell XPS 15 Touch($2,199.55 at Dell) increases that range to 100 percent Adobe RGB (which includes DCI-P3 as a setting), but we have no doubt that photographers and videographers will appreciate the brightness and accuracy of the MacBook Pro screen. It is a bit glossy, however. Before 2015, MacBook Pros had a matte-finish option, but it's no longer available. Thankfully, the increased screen brightness is able to overpower most reflections, but you still may notice some while viewing particularly dark images. Competitors like the Asus ZenBook Pro($1,699.00 at Amazon) and the Dell XPS 15 have 4K-resolution (3,840-by-2,160) displays and more desktop screen space, but downscaled 4K video still looks excellent on the MacBook Pro, especially when you turn up the brightness all the way.
The MacBook Pro is equipped with four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. There are two on each side (and you can charge the laptop from any of them), along with the standard headphone jack on the right. Using smaller ports helped Apple shrink the laptop, but we'd prefer at least one USB 3.0 (Type-A) port for older accessories. You'll need a $9 USB-C–to–USB adapter if you want to connect a USB hard drive, a $19 USB-C–to–Lightning cable for your iPhone, and a $29 Thunderbolt 3–to–Thunderbolt 2 adapter to connect a Thunderbolt display. Other 15-inch laptops, like the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Pro and the Dell XPS 15 Touch, have room for full-size HDMI ports and USB 3.0 ports. In any case, USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 is clearly the future of physical connectors on PCs, and switching over completely will help you get ahead of the curve.
Another innovative feature is the Touch Bar with Touch ID, which replaces the physical function keys with a touch screen. For example, instead of having to remember that the F7 key brings up the Layers panel in Adobe Photoshop, a button marked Layers appears on the Touch Bar while you're manipulating a masked image. It's constantly reacting to what you do, as well, so hitting Command+S in most programs will cause it to display the familiar Save, Don't Save, and Cancel buttons. If you want the regular function keys, just hold down the Fn key at the bottom of the keyboard to make them appear. The Touch Bar is cool, and while there aren't a lot of programs that use it yet, you may get to the point that you won't have to consult the manual for the more seldom-used commands in any programs optimized for the Touch Bar. A physical Power button to the right of the Touch Bar integrates a Touch ID sensor. As on the current iPhones, Touch ID can be used to unlock the laptop from Sleep mode (after entering the password the first time you power up), or as a security safeguard when buying items online. For more about the Touch Bar and Touch ID, check out our review of the new 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro( at Amazon), as its Touch Bar has the same physical characteristics and functionality.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,399, but the second-level $2,799 configuration comes set up for power users, with the same 16GB of RAM, a faster processor, a faster graphics chip, and twice the amount of storage (512GB) on the solid-state drive (SSD). You can upgrade the SSD at time of purchase up to 2TB, which will increase the final price by an eye-watering $1,200. Unfortunately, the RAM isn't upgradable as it is on the Dell XPS 15 Touch, which can hold up to 32GB. Like all Macs, this MacBook Pro comes with several apps that connect with the Apple TV($148.38 at Amazon), the Apple Watch($180.52 at Amazon), the iPhone 7, and the iPad. It's worth noting that macOS Sierra supports Boot Camp, so you can easily load and run your own copy of Windows 10($139.00 at Microsoft Store). The one-year warranty includes 90 days of technical support by phone, though you can purchase AppleCare+ ($249) for three years of extended coverage. You can also receive free Genius Bar support at an Apple Store after the warranty ends, but you will likely have to pay for repairs.
Performance
Thanks to its Intel Core i7-6820HQ CPU, 2GB AMD Radeon Pro 455 discrete graphics processor, and the PCIe-based SSD, the MacBook Pro was the fastest non-gaming laptop we've seen on the HandBrake test, with a time of 1 minute, 1 second. The 2015 Apple MacBook Pro, the Dell XPS 15 Touch, and the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Pro were within 10 seconds behind our test unit on the HandBrake test. Other competitors like the HP Spectre x360 15t and the Lenovo ThinkPad P40 Yoga ( at Amazon) were much slower, taking longer than 2 minutes on the same test. Likewise, the MacBook Pro topped the category on the CineBench test (698 points), and it was only 4 seconds behind the Dell XPS 15 Touch on our Adobe Photoshop test (3:24). The MacBook Pro is ready to take on any graphics project you throw at it.
Gaming and 3D scores were good, though the MacBook Pro was not as speedy as the Dell XPS 15 Touch in these areas. The MacBook Pro returned playable scores at 1,366-by-768 resolution and Medium graphics quality settings on the Heaven (43 frames per second, or fps) and Valley (57fps) tests. The XPS 15 Touch was smoother, and more than 20fps faster on both tests at the same settings. Both computers produced stuttering results on both tests at native resolution on the Ultra quality preset, with the Dell particularly struggling because it had to work harder to drive its 4K screen. These systems aren't suitable for hard-core gaming, but will let you decompress after a long workday.
The Apple MacBook Pro is definitely a good choice if you need to stay productive on battery power lasting 11 hours, 19 minutes, on our rundown test. That's 12 minutes less than last year's MacBook Pro, and 34 minutes less than the Asus ZenBook Pro. But it's almost double the battery life of the Dell XPS 15 Touch (5:56), which is hindered by its higher-resolution screen. With the Dell, you'll probably have to tote the AC adapter, but you can confidently leave the charger in your office all day with the MacBook Pro.
Conclusion
It feels like we've been waiting a long time for Apple to update its high-end laptop line, and the company breaks new ground with this 15-inch MacBook Pro. It has many of the features that power users want and need, like a powerful Core i7 processor, a fast SSD, and a brilliant Retina display. If you have a 2015 MacBook Pro, you can probably hold off on upgrading for a couple of years, in order to wait for the accessory market to mature, but USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 is the future of physical connectors. If you're still using a MacBook Pro from 2013 or earlier, you should seriously consider the new model, especially if you can add a docking station to your purchase. And of course, if you're upgrading from a 12-inch MacBook or any of the MacBook Air line, you'll welcome the added power and the brighter screen. If you want the same functionality (mainly the Touch Bar and DCI-P3-rated display) in a smaller, less expensive package, the 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro is a possible substitute. But you'll have to give up any option for discrete 3D graphics, and endure a commensurate drop in overall performance.
While the $2,130 Dell XPS 15 Touch has better legacy connectivity with USB 3.0 and HDMI, and a higher-resolution 4K screen with a slightly wider color gamut, that won't do you any good when you run out of juice 5 hours earlier in a long workday. The fact that you have to buy new adapters for external displays or drives may give you pause, but the industry is catching up, and finally, Thunderbolt no longer means "Mac-only." You'll be ahead of the game with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, which replaces the Dell XPS 15 Touch as our latest Editors' Choice for high-end desktop-replacement laptops.
The top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pro is now slimmer and more capable, and comes equipped with Apple's new Touch Bar. It's a laptop with the speed, storage, and size that traveling power users crave. Just get ready to buy some dongles.
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