Apple MacBook Pro 2019 16-inch review: best MacBook in years thanks to better keyboard, insane power, great battery life and more

Apple finally dumps the butterfly keyboard, automatically making the new MacBook Pro a winner, while adding a host of significant improvements

It’s still expensive compared with other laptops and requires Apple-specific accessories for some basic tasks, but for creatives there’s nothing better

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Published: 5:00am, 27 Nov 2019Updated: 6:07am, 27 Nov 2019

As one of the world’s most valuable and influential tech companies, Apple faces a lot of scrutiny when it comes to its products – perhaps more than any other consumer tech producer.

Often, any negativity is mostly overblown hype, like when people realised they could bend the iPhone 6’s chassis if they sat on it for prolonged periods. As if gadgets should be able to survive such abuse?

The universal backlash, however, over Apple’s ultra-flat “butterfly” keyboards that have been used in every MacBook since late 2015, is completely justified. The keyboards are not only uncomfortable to type on, with minimal tactile feedback, they seem to malfunction at a higher rate too.

Apple has finally conceded defeat and for its new 16-inch MacBook Pro it has reverted back to the scissor-switch-style keyboard which was used in MacBooks before 2015 and is used by virtually all other laptops. This automatically makes this the best MacBook in years.

The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro next to an older 13-inch MacBook Pro. Notice the bezels are slimmer. Photo: Ben Sin

Hardware and design

From the outside, this 16-inch MacBook Pro looks virtually identical to 2018’s 15-inch MacBook Pro, with the same smooth and symmetrical finish all around, the iconic Apple logo, and that sturdy hinge. Opened, however, MacBook regulars will notice the screen fills the available space more, with the bezels having been shaved down by 25 per cent on the sides a little bit at the top.