Apple MacBook Pro 15 2018 (2.6 GHz, 560X) Laptop Review

We will obviously compare the new MacBook Pro 15 with its predecessor from 2017, but there are also Windows alternatives if macOS is not required. The biggest competitor is obviously the Dell XPS 15 9570. We have already reviewed the entry-level model with the Core i5 and the 1080p screen, but we are currently reviewing the better equipped model with the Core i7-8750H, 4K display and the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q. Razer's Blade 15 is another contender and has some visual similarities with the MacBook. If you prefer high and steady CPU performance, you might also want to check out some gaming laptops like the Gigabyte Aero 15X v8. The Asus ZenBook Pro 15 UX580 with its dual-screen is another contender.

The design of the new MacBook Pro 15 did not change compared to the predecessor un or 2016 model. It seems the manufacturer slightly reworked something, because the battery is a bit bigger and heavier, so some material had to be removed elsewhere. We do not notice a stability difference though. The quality of the MacBook Pro 15, which is available in Silver and Space Gray, is still among the best you can get. It is extremely sturdy and the surfaces still look excellent after longer usage periods. We recommend our review of the predecessor for more details and pictures.

The MacBook Pro 15 still holds up extremely well in our size comparison. There are some differences, and many rivals are a bit wider and not as deep, but the MacBook is still the most compact and slim laptop overall. Dell's XPS 15 9570 is slimmer at the fron of the chassis, but gets thicker at the rear. The Apple laptop is also the lightest machine at little more than 1.8 kg.

The port situation did not change, you still get four Thunderbolt 3 ports (full bandwidth) with USB Type-C connectors as well as a 3.5 mm stereo jack. This means you can pretty much attach anything to the current MacBook Pro and there are more and more USB-C accessories, but you will probably need adapters or dongles for now. There is still no SD-card reader, either, despite the large case.

Similar to the smaller 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018, Apple also equips the 15-inch laptop with an updates WLAN module including support for the modern Bluetooth 5.0 standard. The transfer rates in our standardized test with the router Linksys EA8500, however, are a bit slower compared to last year's model. Still, even these results are ahead of the Windows competition.

Apple managed to reduce the Wi-Fi connectivity issues in 2.4 GHz network when USB-C devices are attaches. We still see occasional package losses, but the connection itself is stable.

Apple equips the 2018 MacBook Pro with its own T2 chip, which combines several functions including storage encryption and secure boot features. The user does not notice anything though. The access to the laptop is still secured by the Touch-ID fingerprint scanner, which is quick and reliable.

Apple only ships its devices with a 12-month warranty, despite the high price. It is possible to extend the warranty to 36 months (Apple Care Protection Plan), which costs 349 Euros. An on-site service, which is available from companies like Dell, HP, or Lenovo, however, is not included. Please see our Guarantees, Return policies and Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

The big trackpad did not change this year. It is still the benchmark among touchpads and is easy to use. Even gestures with multiple fingers are no problem thanks to the large surface area. Basic controls also work well running on Windows (Bootcamp), but the drivers are not as well optimized as for Apple's own operating system. Drag-&-drop commands in particular are more complicated.

You also still get the Touch Bar above the keyboard, which can show different contents based on the application. It shows basic controls like brightness or volume by default, but you can also display the standard function keys (F1-F12). Whether the Touch Bar improves the productivity mainly depends on the software support.

Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that still ships 16:10 display. 2880 x 1800 pixels (220 PPI, also called Retina by Apple) ensure a very sharp picture on the 15.4-inch IPS screen. The TrueTone support is the only new feature and we already know it from the iPhone or iPad, respectively. The white balance automatically adjusts according to the color temperature of the ambient light, which is supposed to create a more natural picture. The manual Night Shift mode, which reduces blue color contents, is still available. The latter can also be adjusted in the settings (automatic activation depending on the time, warmer or cooler picture). The panel in our test unit carries the designation APPA040 and differs from the previous models. Similar to the smaller 2018 MBP 13 this might just be a new revision or it might be necessary for the added TrueTone functionality.

Our test model reaches the advertised luminance of 500 nits at some points, but the last year's panel was a bit brighter. The black value is better in return, which improves the contrast ratio as well. The Dell XPS 15 9570 does not have to hide behind the Apple panel; its 4K screen is a bit darker, but has small advantages in terms of black value and contrast. Asus' ZenBook Pro 15 is equipped with a decent 4K screen, but cannot keep up with the two devices from Apple and Dell. The other two comparison devices use the same 1080p screen and fall behind when it comes to luminance and contrast.

Our test model is equipped with Core i7-8850H, which is the second fastest CPU option. It is a hexa-core processor from the Coffee Lake series, which is still manufactured in a 14nm process. This is one of the issues, because the basic architecture did not change for more than 2 years, but we still get more cores and higher Boost clocks. All the hexa-cores also have a lower base frequencies compared to the old quad-cores to ensure the same 45W TDP classification. Our processor has a base frequency of 2.6 GHz, but can reach up to 4.3 GHz when you only stress one core and up to 4 GHz for all six cores (2 cores: 4.2 GHz, 4 cores: 4.1 GHz). More technical information on the Core i7-8850H is available here.

We use the benchmark Cinebench R15 for the assessment of the CPU performance since it is available for macOS and Windows 10, so we can compare the results with Windows systems. The single-core result of the new MacBook Pro 15 is okay, but the multi-core score of just 953 points is pretty low. The old MacBook Pro 2017 with the Core i7-7700HQ is beaten by almost 30%, but many rivals are faster.

We know this behavior from almost every laptop, but many manufacturers decide to limit the CPU consumption to a certain level of 45 Watts, for example. The situation is a bit more problematic in our Cinebench loop, which is displays by the red curve in the diagram below. The second run already scores less points and it will eventually level off at around 820-830 points. If you compare the average scores, the new model is just 13% ahead of last year's entry-level MBP 15. The comparison with the current XPS 15 9570 is even more problematic (for Apple), because the model with the quad-core i5-8300H is basically on par except for the first run. Dell's XPS 15 9570 with the Core i7-8750H is even faster after 50 runs compared to the best result of the MacBook Pro.

Apple's cooling solution is definitely not powerful enough to cool the processor at the specified 45 Watts, even when the discreet GPU is not running. It might have been better to enforce stricter TDP limits to avoid high temperatures at high clocks. Another problem is Intel's chip itself, because a consumption of almost 90 Watts when all cores run at the maximum is almost impossible to handle by a thin laptop because the TDP is just doubled. The chip manufacturer has to come up with something new soon, because it seems the architecture is at its limit (even though the high clocks are good for the marketing department).

Apple's software update stabilized the performance and we get multi-core results comparable to the current XPS 15. However, we still encountered a performance drop after a while, which was fixed by the second major software update.

Update 07/16/2020: After updating to the latest MacOS version 10.15.5 "Catalina" we repeated our Cinebench R15 loop on the MacBook. The results now oscillate in the range between the factory setting and the software update at the time of testing. The MacBook Pro 15 now stays about 10% below the top scores at that time.

Similar to the smaller sibling we tested the 15-inch model with other TDP settings to improve the performance. We limited the power consumption of the CPU to 45 W both in macOS (Volta) as well as Windows 10. The detailed results for the two 2018 MacBook Pro model are available in our dedicated article.

The diagrams clearly show that the CPU now maintains its clock and is about 20% faster on average. We also tried to improve the consumption in Windows (not possible in macOS), but it was not successful. Once we increase the short-term value, it can only be used for a short time since the temperature is immediately spiking. This results in fluctuations, so even the first Cinebench score is worse compared to the fixed 45 W test. An increase of the long-term value did not work, either, because the fluctuations started at 46 W. The cooling solution is right at the edge with the 45 W setting, at least on our test unit. This value can differ slightly (in both directions) depending on the processor.

One benchmark where the fixed TDP results in a lower score is Geekbench 4. The MacBook Pro 15 scores 22633 points in the CPU Multi test with the default settings, but only 19869 points with the 45 W limit. A look at the CPU utilization during the benchmark shows that the peak load is very short (only up to 1 second). The fans are not even spinning up for this load and the chip temperature only surpasses 80 °C a few times during the three-minute benchmark. The benchmark therefore benefits from the high Turbo clock, but does not test the cooling capabilities of the machine by any means.

Thanks to the hexa-core processor, the dedicated graphics card and the fast PCIe-SSD storage in particular, the current MacBook Pro 15 is subjectively a very powerful and responsive system, which executes inputs without any noteworthy delays. The installation of Windows 10 was no problem, either. A Windows image file on your laptop is all you need, a USB drive is not necessary anymore. Our installation worked well and we did not notice any bugs when we ran apps. AS SSD is the only exception, but this was also the case for previous models of the MBP.

The synthetic benchmark scores are a bit lower than expected. The new model falls behind the two previous generations in the older PCMark 8, for instance, which has to be related to missing driver optimizations by Apple. Our MBP 15 2018 beats the 2017 model in the newer PCMark 10 and is average within the comparison group.

However, the performance is – similar to the CPU – not steady. We performed the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test, which should not be a huge challenge (Time Spy stress test is more demanding), but the MacBook Pro 15 already fails here and there are fluctuations. The final result is 82.6 %, so the test is not passed.

Even the Radeon Pro 560X does not transform the MacBook Pro 15 into a gaming laptop. In contrast to heavy CPU loads, however, the GPU performance (e. g. Witcher 3) can be maintained for longer periods (see diagram).

The MacBook Pro 15 is once again a quiet device, even with the hexa-core processor. The fans are always active, but they are only rotating at 2160/2000 rpm while idling, which is barely audible at 30 dB(A). You can hear this in very quiet environments with a distance of less than a meter, but the murmur is subjectively not unpleasant. The two fans can hit up to 5927/6489 rpm under load at up to 47 dB(A), but this is rare. We only measure 33.9 dB(A) in our Cinebench run, and 39 dB(A) in Fortnite (macOS). We determine 36.8 dB(A) in Windows with FurMark, Prime, and even our 3DMark 06 loop, but the noise drops over time. All in all, the MacBook Pro is still a very quiet laptop.