The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019) is a laptop available with Intel 9th Gen CPUs, and AMD Radeon Pro dedicated graphics. It has a full aluminum body that feels exceptionally well-built, and it's relatively thin despite having a dedicated GPU, which is great for portability. It has a 16-inch high-resolution screen with full sRGB and DCI P3 coverage, a superb touchpad, and excellent speakers that get very loud. Like its predecessor, the MacBook Pro 15 (2019), it has a Touch Bar that lets you access settings and program-specific functions. There's also a fingerprint sensor to make it easier to log in and make purchases. Our configuration can handle demanding tasks with no performance loss over time, but it gets hot and noisy under load.
We tested the Apple MacBook Pro 16 with an Intel Core i9-9880H and an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of VRAM. The i7-9750H is the base CPU option and powerful enough to handle light to relatively heavy workloads. If you need better multi-threaded performance, we recommend going with the i9-9880H or the i9-9980HK because they have two additional cores. Likewise, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB in our unit has adequate performance, but the GPUs with 8GB of memory will provide a smoother experience with fewer stutters or hangs, especially when working with high-resolution material or VRAM-intensive applications. For those who need as much graphical performance as possible, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M with 8GB HBM2 memory is the top GPU option, providing a significant performance boost over the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB.
Our Verdict
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 laptop is very good for students. It feels exceptionally well-built, and it's easy to carry around as it's fairly thin. The battery lasts all day as long as you don't perform any CPU or GPU-intensive tasks. Its high-resolution screen provides plenty of space for split-screen multitasking and displays sharp images and text. The keyboard is okay, but some people may find it tiring to type on for a long time. It can handle most student workloads, including demanding tasks like 3D graphic design and physics simulations.
- Easy to carry around.
- Exceptional build quality.
- Webcam video looks natural with minimal artifacts.
- Large and responsive touchpad.
- Battery lasts through a typical 8-hour day for light productivity.
- Keyboard has very short travel and may be tiring to type on for some.
- 720p webcam.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch laptop is mediocre for gaming. All CPU options are well-suited for gaming, but the GPUs might struggle to maintain a playable frame rate in demanding AAA titles, which means you'll have to lower the resolution or the graphical settings. Also, the screen is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology. There's no loss in performance over time when under a full load, but it gets very hot, and the fans are loud.
- Core i9 CPU can handle most single and multi-treaded workloads.
- Has dedicated GPU for demanding workloads.
- Fast SSD storage makes system feel snappy.
- 60Hz refresh rate and no VRR.
- Gets hot and loud under load.
- No user-replaceable parts.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch laptop is very good for media consumption. It has excellent speakers that get very loud and a large, high-resolution screen that delivers a sharp image. It handles reflections well and gets more than bright enough to combat glare in well-lit settings. It's a fairly thin device that should fit into most bags, so it's easy to carry around. Battery life is great, enough to get you through a couple of movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, even though it has a good contrast ratio for an IPS panel, blacks still look grayish when viewed in the dark.
- Easy to carry around.
- High-resolution screen.
- Excellent speakers that get very loud.
- Exceptional out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Great battery life for video playback.
- Blacks look grayish in the dark.
- No touch input.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 laptop is good as a workstation. Our unit has an Intel Core i9-9880H that can handle demanding tasks and a dedicated GPU that can make hardware-accelerated applications feel smoother, like photo and video editing programs. It also has a very fast storage drive that you can configure up to 8TB. The laptop gets very hot and loud under load, but there's no performance loss over time. Unfortunately, you'll likely need a dongle or dock to connect to an external monitor because it only has USB-C ports.
- Core i9 CPU can handle most single and multi-treaded workloads.
- Has dedicated GPU for demanding workloads.
- High-resolution screen.
- Fast SSD storage makes system feel snappy.
- Gets hot and loud under load.
- No user-replaceable parts.
- Only USB-C ports.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 laptop is good for business use. It feels well-built and is portable, and its battery lasts easily through a typical 8-hour day, which is great for those who travel a lot for work. However, you'll likely need to carry dongles because it only has USB-C ports. The keyboard is okay but can be tiring to type on over a long period. Serviceability is terrible because everything is soldered on, making it impossible to upgrade after purchase and hard to repair.
- Easy to carry around.
- Exceptional build quality.
- Webcam video looks natural with minimal artifacts.
- Core i9 CPU can handle most single and multi-treaded workloads.
- Large and responsive touchpad.
- Battery lasts through a typical 8-hour day for light productivity.
- Keyboard has very short travel and may be tiring to type on for some.
- No user-replaceable parts.
- Only USB-C ports.
- 720p webcam.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the MacBook Pro 16 (2019) with an Intel Core i9-9880H, an AMD Radeon 5500M dedicated GPU with 4GB GDDR6 VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The CPU, GPU, memory, and storage are configurable; you can see the available options in the table below. Apple's website lets you upgrade from the i7-9750H to the i9-9980HK while still keeping the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M and 512GB storage options, but not the i9-9880H. This means that the i9-9880H option starts with an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of VRAM and 1TB of storage.
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Our display and performance results are only valid for the configuration that we tested. If you come across a different configuration option not listed above, or you have a similar MacBook Pro 16 inch laptop that doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update it. Some tests, like black uniformity and color accuracy, may vary between individual units.
You can see our unit's label here.
Popular Laptop Comparisons
The Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020) and the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019) are both productivity-focused laptops with many similarities. The most notable difference is that the MacBook Pro 16 uses an x86 Intel 9th Gen CPU with AMD Radeon Pro graphics, while the MacBook Air uses Apple's ARM-based M1 SoC, though it can still run x86 programs through Rosetta 2. The MacBook Pro is a better choice for creative professionals because its discrete GPU performs much better for graphically demanding tasks than the M1's integrated graphics. Also, it doesn't suffer any performance loss over time, whereas the MacBook Air throttles because it's a fanless device. As for the CPU performance, the MacBook Air's M1 chip is better in most instances, and it's significantly more power-efficient, resulting in much longer battery life.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M1, 2021) is much better than its predecessor, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019). The 2021 model features Apple's ARM-based M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs, which are significantly more powerful than the Intel 9th Gen Core CPUs on the 2019 model. The M1's integrated graphics perform better than the dedicated GPUs available on the older model. The M1 MacBook Pro's display is much better as it has a Mini LED backlight that provides local dimming and gets a lot brighter in HDR. The M1 MacBook Pro's keyboard feels better to type on, its webcam's video quality is better, and its wider port selection includes a full-size HDMI port and SD card reader. Last but not least, the M1 MacBook has significantly longer battery life, lasting five hours more than the 2019 model for light productivity.
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M1, 2021) is much better than the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019). The MacBook Pro 14 has a much better Mini LED display with ProMotion support, its keyboard feels more comfortable to type on for extended periods, and its webcam captures a more detailed image for video calls. The MacBook Pro 14 also has a wider port selection that includes a full-size HDMI and USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support. The MacBook Pro 14's M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs perform much better than the MacBook Pro 16's Intel CPU and AMD Radeon GPU, and they're more power-efficient, which leads to longer battery life.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023) is a newer version of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019). The newer 2023 is better in almost every way. While the 2023 model has many design changes that improve the overall user experience, like a brighter 120Hz Mini LED display, a wider port selection, and full-size physical function keys, the most notable improvement is Apple's move from Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs to its in-house ARM-based SoC. The M3 chip is significantly faster and more power efficient, so not only do you get more processing power, but you also get much longer battery life and lower fan noise. At this point, there's no reason to get the 2019 MacBook Pro over the Apple silicon MacBook Pros.
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