MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021)

Apple rights the wrongs of the previous gen MBP – and how!

- Rob Mead-Green

FEATURES Apple M1 Pro chip (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU), 1TB storage, 32GB of unified memory, 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (3456x2234 pixels), MagSafe 3, 3x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0

This is the MacBook we’ve been hoping and praying for… a super-fast lean machine that banishes the bad memories and questionable design choices of the recent past in favour of new crowd-pleasing features. Such as? Such as proper function keys, a Liquid Retina XDR Display, usable ports and M1 Pro performance. The fact that this machine is only surpassed by the M1 Max is mind boggling. We are blessed.

The 2021 MacBook Pro is certainly a sight to behold. Consciously echoing the look of pre-Touch Bar era Apple laptops, it takes all the things you loved about previous MacBook Pros and dumps the things you didn’t.

That means the welcome (and overdue) return of MagSafe, a trio of Thunderbolt/ USB 4 ports (two on the left-hand side, one on the right), plus a 3.5mm headphone socket, SDXC memory card slot and an HDMI 2.0 port (although HDMI 2.1 would perhaps have been a better choice), plus a scissor-switch matt black keyboard with full-height Function key row (no more Touch Bar – yay!), and a Touch ID-enabled power button for fast, secure logins using your fingerprint. Like previous MacBook Pros, the keyboard deck comes with an over-sized glass Force Touch trackpad and a six-speaker stereo sound system (more on this later).