The new 2016 MacBook Pro line left many creative professionals disappointed. Sure, they are thinner, lighter and brighter than their predecessors, and they have faster processors, faster graphics, faster charging, faster storage (plus that Touch Bar) — but they also had some things taken away.
The new MacBook Pros only have four ports, all Thunderbolt 3, meaning dongles are required to connect with most existing cords. Their displays aren’t touchscreen, like the Surface Studio or even Apple’s iPad Pro, and they only have 16GB memory, max. If you were one of the many photographers, graphic designers, musicians or businessmen who were hoping for more, below are several non-Mac alternatives worth your consideration.
Microsoft Surface Book Intel Core i7
The Surface Book is more than a traditional 2-in-1. You can use it in three ways: like a laptop, tablet or in “draw mode” (the keyboard flips 360 degrees and rests against its display). The Surface Book is also extremely powerful, running Windows 10 Pro on the Intel’s latest Core i7 professor, and has a beautiful display, with a pro-grade Nvidia GeForce dGPU. Plus it has the memory and storage capacity to handle a heavy workload. And instead of that Touch Bar, try a full-screen PixelSense touch-screen display.
Display: 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen display (3,000 x 2,000) resolution
Resolution: 3,000 x 2,000 resolution
Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce dGPU
Ports: 2 USB 3.0, full-size SD card reader, 2 Surface Connect
Memory: 16GB RAM
Storage (SSD): 512GB
