The announcement of the new 2018 MacBook Pro lead to many headlines. They were mainly focused on the performance of the new processors, which did not meet the expectations. Apple released a software update one week later, which was supposed to improve the performance.

excellent chassis and build quality; huge trackpad with great precision; quiet and good cooling; high WLAN transfer speeds; very good display with perfect scaling; very good speakers; improved battery runtimes; 4x Thunderbolt 3 with full bandwidth

cooling solution is at the limit; neither USB-A nor HDMI-out; 2.4 GHz WLAN issues with attached USB-C device; poor webcam; very expensive – especially the upgrades; power adapter is at the limit

The true realization of Apple's ultra-thin, ultra-powerful professional-grade notebook has finally arrived, elevated to greatness by the maturation of USB-C, the fixing of a flawed keyboard, and the polish of an increasingly versatile macOS platform.

MacBook Pro; Mac OS X; Review; macOS; 2018 MacBook Pro

Dual-core processors just aren't enough for real professionals anymore. Graphics work, video editing and photo manipulation require more power than ever. And while Apple caught flack for a lack of power in the 13-inch MacBook Pro last year, the company's update to quad-core chips packs a punch.

Strong CPU performance; Ridiculously fast SSD; True Tone display; Quieter keyboard

Battery life shorter than competition; Still short on ports; Only expensive models refreshed

Apple recently launched a new advertising campaign called Behind The Mac , that focuses on professional Mac users such as photographers, musicians and coders (Apple's current flavour of the month).

Slimline; lightweight design; All-day battery life; Quad-core Coffee Lake Intel Core processor; Attractive Retina display with True Tone technology

Expensive; No discrete GPU; No user upgrades

The price may not have changed since last year, but the 2018 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro does deliver stronger performance and good battery life, which help to justify its premium price tag.

Slimline, lightweight design, All-day battery life, Quad-core Coffee Lake Intel Core processor, Attractive Retina display with True Tone technology

Expensive, No discrete GPU, No user upgrades

Still, these changes are all good stuff. Sure, it’d be great to see Face ID on the MacBook Pro, but that won’t happen until a major overhaul. In the meantime, we get plenty of extra power, an improved display, a quieter keyboard, and a battery that gets the machine through an entire day of normal use – assuming ‘normal’ to you isn’t running games and hugely demanding software non-stop. What you won’t enjoy is the impact on your wallet. The base level price of £1749 isn’t too bad, but that only gets you an i5, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage – and you must be mindful the MacBook Pro is a sealed unit. What you choose at the point of purchase are the specs for the Mac’s entire life – bar the potential to use external GPUs. The set-up Apple loaned Stuff would set you back an eye-watering £3599. The SSD accounts for much of that, the 2TB option adding a whopping £1400. But even 512GB costs an extra 200 quid (1TB is £600), and bumping up the RAM to 16GB costs another £180, for some nudging the MacBook Pro from lust territory to ‘What are the alternatives?’ Of course, if you swear by macOS, there aren’t any, bar something old (MacBook Air) or comparatively underpowered (MacBook). So if you do want a shiny MacBook Pro, it’s just the price you have to pay. Fortunately, for the outlay you do get a pretty great pro-grade notebook.

More powerful innards; Keyboard is quieter; True Tone display is great; Really nippy SSD;

Expensive; Touch Bar lacks support; Non-Touch Bar model not (yet?) updated;

More powerful innards; Keyboard is quieter; True Tone display is great; Really nippy SSD;

Expensive; Touch Bar lacks support; Non-Touch Bar model not (yet?) updated;

This piece of kit is second to none. Best all round for design, performance and reliability although I only had it a couple of weeks now. Only down side is the price

I didn't want to have to move to MacOS but my area of studies made it so that I had to acquire a computer with this OS in order to run MacOS exclusive software. Nevertheless, after learning how this machine works, I must admit that it has a lot of advantages and I feel comfortable to say that this...

We're used to Apple's notebooks being impressive, but the new MacBook Pro is nothing short of a work of art. It may not be quite as thin and light as some of its competition, but it makes up for it by being the most powerful 13in laptop around.

Outstanding speed; Longer battery life; Attractive design

Expensive