And if you were thinking of buying the older 2015 model that’s still on sale – that’s the £1,899/$1,999 15-inch model with a 2.2GHz Broadwell processor, bear in mind that it’s quite a bit heavier. The MacBook Pro isn’t the lightest laptop Apple makes (that’ll be the MacBook) but it is a lot lighter than it was back in 2015. If it’s the 15-inch screen that’s attracting you perhaps a 13-inch MacBook Pro, or other Mac laptop paired with a bigger display would do the job just as well. If all you do with your Mac is surf the web and open emails then probably a MacBook or MacBook Air will suffice (although the MacBook Air hasn’t had a significant update in a while).

The MacBook Pro is for a demanding user who needs a decent amount of power. This RAM tops out in the range at 16GB, but works at a higher frequency than last year’s 1,866MHz. Our review unit is the high-end 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, which can turbo boost up to 3.9GHz and has 512GB storage with 16GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory. They offer higher boosted clock speeds than their predecessors, and means Apple has caught up with the HP ProBook 400 range, Dell XPS 13 Touch, Acer Aspire E, and Asus ZenBook 3 that all have Kaby Lake chips.

There are finally Kaby Lake processors, Intel’s seventh generation chips.

In a minor change from 2016, the control and option keys now denote keyboard shortcuts as opposed to the previous markings that helped PC users translate Mac functions. The combination of expansive, responsive trackpad and high quality keyboard in a 15-inch laptop that remains extremely portable is very attractive, but be aware of the changes.

Each key is backlit with its own LED, which is pretty luxurious.

2017 mac pro laptop