Google responds to Prime Day with discounts on Pixels, Google Homes and more

These are some great deals.

Amazon’s Prime Day sales are getting all of the attention, and rightfully so considering their wide-reaching appeal, but if you’re a fan of Google hardware you’re out of luck there. In response, Google is running its own deep discounts on all of its products at the same time as Prime Day. At both Best Buy and the Google Store, you’ll find all of Google’s latest products on sale to very enticing prices.

Here’s all of the discounts available:

• Google Home Mini for $34 (regularly $49)
  • Available in all 3 colors
• Google Home for $99 (regularly $129)
• 2 Google Homes for $158 (regularly $258)
  • Be sure to use Best Buy’s offer page to get the full discount
• 2 Google Home Max speakers for $648 (regularly $798)
  • Available in both black and white, and you can mix-and-match colors
  • Be sure to use Best Buy’s offer page to get the full discount
• Free Google Home Mini with Philips Hue starter kit (regularly $49)
• Free Google Home Mini with Nest Thermostat purchase (regularly $49)
• Nest Hello Doorbell for $199 + free Google Home Mini (regularly $229 + $49)
• Chromecast for $25 (regularly $35)
• Chromecast Ultra for $49 (regularly $69)
• Google Wifi router for $99 (regularly $129)
• Google Wifi router 3-pack for $258 (regularly $279)
• Verizon Google Pixel 2 for $499 (regularly $649)
  • Offer only available when financing over 24 months with Verizon
• Verizon Google Pixel 2 XL for $549 (regularly $849)
  • Offer only available when financing over 24 months with Verizon
• Unlocked Google Pixel 2 XL for $749 (regularly $849)
• Google Pixelbook for $749 (regularly $999)
  • $250 savings also applied to higher-spec models
• Daydream View VR headset for $49 (regularly $99)

Some deals are better than others, but it’s a Google hardware lover’s dream no matter what. Google is practically giving away Home devices at this point, and those are great deals on Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XLs — particularly if you’re a Verizon customer. Google hasn’t said how long these deals will last, so you’ll want to jump on them before they’re gone and back to full retail price.

Best Amazon Prime Day Deals

Humans of New York: Stories

$13.02


$25.00


Save $12

This Lightning deal will give you something to think about.

eBags Professional Slim Laptop Backpack

$67.99


$115.00


Save $47

This is an amazing price, and as a result, the item’s selling out quickly. Hurry up if you’re interested.

Victorinox Swiss Army Pocket Knife

$12.27


$20.00


Save $8

This is a Lightning deal and will sell out quickly.

Intel Core i7 8700K desktop computer processor

$299.99


$350.00


Save $50

While it has been this price at other retailers, this is one of the best deals we’ve seen on Amazon.

• Top Deals
• Amazon Devices
• TVs
• Smart Home
• Unlocked Smartphones
• Kitchen
• Audio & Headphones
• Gaming
• Home Improvement / DIY
• Everyday Essentials
• Kids & Toys
• Entertainment
• Fashion

Check out more Amazon Prime Day deals!

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL review: The new standard
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

Apple Overhauls Leadership Page With Memoji Avatars for Execs Ahead of World Emoji Day

In celebration of World Emoji Day, which takes place tomorrow, Apple today updated its Apple Leadership site to introduce Memoji avatars for all of the key executives listed on the page.

Tim Cook, Angela Ahrendts, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, Luca Maestri, Phil Schiller, and the rest of the leadership team are now represented by Memojis.

Memojis are an iPhone X feature coming in iOS 12. Similar to Animoji, Memoji are humanoid avatars that can be customized and personalized to look just like you with an array of options.

You can choose skin color, hair color, hair style, eye color, eyebrows, nose, features like freckles and facial hair, accessories, and headwear when creating a Memoji.

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Right now, Memoji, like Animoji, are limited to iPhone X, but future devices that include the Face ID camera system will also work with Animoji and Memoji, such as rumored iPad Pro models expected this fall.

To celebrate World Emoji Day, Apple also highlighted the emojis we can expect to see in Unicode 11, which Apple plans to adopt later this year in either iOS 12 or an update to iOS 12.

Upcoming emoji characters include cold face, party face, pleading face, peacock, kangaroo, parrot, and more, along with options for red hair, gray hair, and no hair.

Related Roundup: iOS 12Tags: Tim Cook, Animoji, Memoji
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Moto Z3 Play review: The value is still in the Moto Mods

Motorola’s Moto Z Play series has always brought a great balance of modern features and specifications to an affordable price point. The brand new Moto Z3 Play is no exception, and brings some of the most significant changes to the Play line yet. Is it a worthy upgrade to last year’s model? Find out in our Moto Z3 Play review.

Design

The Moto Z3 Play’s design shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone. It retains the same overall shape and footprint as the previous Moto Z devices, which is necessary to maintain compatibility with the Moto Mods.

The Moto Z3 Play works with all 14 current Moto Mods, and all Moto Z3 Plays will come bundled with a free Moto Mod.

The Z3 Play’s main design differences come down to its new, mostly glass body and sleeker profile. As with most smartphones nowadays, the Z3 Play has a glass front and back, with a metal frame wrapping around the sides. The construction is sturdy and feels great, but it doesn’t stand out much.

The Z3 Play is also thinner than last year’s model, which comes at the expense of the headphone jack. This may not be a surprising move in 2018, but the headphone jack was a big part of the appeal the Z Play series, considering the Z flagships didn’t have it. Motorola included a 3.5mm-to-USB type-C adapter in the box, but it’s still an unfortunate loss.

Side-mounted fingerprint sensors aren’t very common but they definitely should be.

Another major change to the Z3 Play is the relocation of the fingerprint sensor. On previous models, this was on the bottom chin, but it sits on the right side of the Z3 Play, similar to where Sony used to put them. The power button sits on the left side, mirroring the fingerprint sensor. Side mounted fingerprint sensors aren’t very common, but they definitely should be.

This one’s comfortable and easy to reach with your thumb. I haven’t noticed any issues with accuracy or speed.

Display

The Z3 Play now has a more modern display. It’s got an 18:9 aspect ratio and much smaller bezels on all sides than its predecessors. The 6.01-inch screen uses Super AMOLED technology with FHD+ resolution. The AMOLED display is vibrant and colorful, with excellent viewing angles and brightness. Contrast is also excellent, with the deep dark blacks typical of an AMOLED display. The FHD+ resolution may seem a little low, but I had no complaints. It’s plenty sharp for comfortably browsing the web and enjoying media.

Performance

The Moto Z3 Play is powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on the U.S. variant. Globally, there is an additional variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. I’ve been testing the U.S. version and have run into no issues with performance.

The Z3 Play was quick to launch applications, quick to multitask with, and handled any game I threw at it with smooth frame rates. Swiping through the UI and browsing the web is also very fast and responsive. It may not have the most impressive spec sheet, but it was powerful enough to perform well with all of my daily demands.

Battery life performance, unfortunately, isn’t quite as good. While the Snapdragon 636 is a very efficient processor, the 3,000mAh battery could only get me through a light or moderate day. Screen-on time consistently reached the four-hour mark, but never more. It’s pretty average by 2018 standards.

Most consumers will find it sufficient, but this phone just can’t last through a full day with heavy amounts of gaming and video watching.

Camera

The Z3 Play is the first Moto Play phone to feature dual rear cameras. The main sensor is 12MP with an f/1.7 aperture, and it’s the only sensor designed for capturing photos. The secondary 5MP sensor is meant purely for capturing depth information for portrait mode or background blurring effects. The front-facing camera now has an 8MP sensor and a portrait mode, but it isn’t quite as advanced or feature-rich due to the lack of a second sensor.

The camera app now has built-in Google Lens support, making it very easy to do your virtual searches directly from the camera. Another new feature to the camera is cinemagraphs, which let you capture a picture with motion, where you can select which parts of the photo move and which parts stay still. It’s a ton of fun to use and really creative. The images save as a standard GIF which makes it very easy to share with your friends and family on social media or text messages.

In daylight or well-lit conditions, the camera produces acceptable results but colors lack vibrancy and details don’t appear sharp.

Picture quality from the Z3 Play’s camera is average at best. I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed by the results. In daylight or well-lit conditions, the camera performed acceptably, but colors lacked vibrancy and details weren’t sharp. The drop-off in quality is very significant in low light. Noise is very visible, colors are washed out, and highlights are severely overexposed. The camera also struggles to focus in dark conditions, which makes it difficult to get the shot you want sometimes.

Software

One of my favorite things about Moto devices has always been the software. Motorola keeps the experience on the Moto Z3 Play very close to stock Android. It’s one of the few experiences on the market similar to Google’s Pixel phones. Android 8.1 comes out of the box and Motorola says it will support two OS upgrades during the Z3 Play’s life cycle. Motorola’s usual suite of software features, such as Moto Display, the flashlight double chop, and twist of the wrist for launching the camera, all remain intact.

The newest software addition is the ability to navigate the UI using swipe gestures via the on-screen bar at the bottom of the display. This replaces the gesture controls that were previously achieved by swiping on the front facing home button. The gestures are similar to Android P’s swipe gestures and work in place of the standard on-screen navigation keys if you want them. They’re simple and very easy to figure out. Swiping left goes back, swiping right opens recent apps, tapping takes you home and holding down the virtual bar launches Google Assistant. After a few days of use, I much preferred using the gestures over the standard onscreen buttons.

Specifications

Pricing & Final Thoughts

The Moto Z3 Play is priced at $499 unlocked in the U.S., which is fair for what you get, but not the greatest value. As a comparison, the OnePlus 6 costs only $30 more and gives you high-end specifications, a better camera, and a headphone jack. When judging the phone on its own merits the Z3 Play is a great midrange offering, but unless you highly value Moto Mods and Motorola’s software suite it’s probably not worth the money.

Next: OnePlus 6 review: The new Nexus

OnePlus in the process of renaming Dash Charge system to Warp Charge

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

It seems that OnePlus may be changing the name of its Dash Charge charging system to “Warp Charge” — if a trademark application to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is granted.

OnePlus has been avoiding using the term “Dash Charge” in its promotional material and software ever since it was denied a trademark in the EU in March due to similarities with Bragi’s Dash Pro headset and Amazon’s Dash service. While OnePlus would still have been able to use the Dash Charge name in the U.S., it would have had to have changed the name specifically for regions within the EU — not exactly the easiest way of doing business.

Clearly not happy with the situation, OnePlus has been looking for a replacement for the “Dash Charge” name — and it seems it may have found it with “Warp Charge.” The trademark was submitted to the EUIPO on July 13, but don’t expect an answer particularly quickly. The trademark application for Dash Charge was begun when the OnePlus 3 was released in 2016, and the agency only got around to denying the application in March of this year.

Of course, it’s not a given that the trademark will be accepted yet, so it would be unwise for OnePlus to start the lengthy and expensive process of re-merchandising until the application is complete — but unless some major players within a similar industry pop up with another valid claim to the name, then it’s likely that the trademark will be accepted. We doubt a miniatures shop in Halifax has enough of a claim to block OnePlus here.

The charging method formerly known as Dash Charge has a strong history. It’s based on the VOOC charging tech of OnePlus’ owner, OPPO, and it increases ampage, rather than voltage, to deliver more power to a device. It’s considered one of the fastest methods of fast charging out there, and it’s something that OnePlus is proud enough of to have launched a marketing campaign around for the launch of the OnePlus 3T.

Having the trademark application rejected clearly hasn’t hurt OnePlus too much though — the release of the OnePlus 6 was completed without it, and we’ve highlighted that particular phone as one of our current favorites.

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Spider silk could be used to create artificial skin to help heal wounds

Unless your name is Peter Parker, you may not be aware of quite how versatile spider silk is as a material. In fact, aside from spinning webs, spider silk can also be used for a plethora of applications — from improving the quality of microphones in hearing aids to forming incredibly strong-yet-lightweight shields to forming microcapsules for delivering anti-cancer vaccines.

Now researchers from Sweden and India have come up with yet another novel use for spider silk’s unusual mix of strength and elasticity: Creating artificial skin and wound dressings for helping heal wounds.

“We have developed two types of silk-based constructs: Nanofibrous matrices which serve as bioactive wound dressings, and microporous sponges cultured with human skin cells to serve as artificial skin,” Biman Mandal, an associate professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, told Digital Trends. “Both types of constructs are made up of silkworm silk fibroin biomaterial acting as bulk platform, and are top-coated with recombinant spider silk fusion proteins. The recombinant spider silk protein contains bioactive peptides like cell-binding motifs, antimicrobial peptides, and growth factor domain.”

The hope is that the dressings could be used to treat chronic wounds like diabetic foot ulcers, which otherwise can be a challenge to heal. The cellular skin grafts, meanwhile, could be used as full thickness bilayer skin for grafting purposes in the case of critical third-degree burns. Due to its similarity to skin, the material may also find use as a skin substitute to screen certain drug molecules for the cosmeceutical industry.

“Next, we have plans to validate our results in animal models, particularly diabetic wound model and third-degree burn model,” Mandal continued. “We are keen to understand how these grafts help in accelerated healing in animal models. If successful, we would be able to translate our research into useful products for wound-healing applications in the future.”

Mandal noted that approach the team used is scalable thanks to the cheap bulk availability of silkwork silk from sericulture farms, and the recombinant spider proteins from a Swedish company called Spiber Technologies.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Spider silk microcapsules could deliver vaccines to help battle cancer
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• No more needles? Diabetics could one day treat themselves with a cup of coffee

Here are the best laptop deals for Amazon Prime Day 2018

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

Many people shop for laptops on Amazon, but you have to be careful. Looking at only the product titles, it’s easy to look past important information hidden in the fine print or left out altogether. When it comes to big Amazon Prime Day deals, that’s even more of an issue.

Fortunately, there are some really fantastic deals this year on name-brand laptops that are worth considering. If you’re looking for a new laptop, this is one of the best times of the year to pick one up.

Acer Chromebook 15

The Acer Chromebook 15 has always been one of our very favorite Chromebooks. It’s not a 2-in-1 or a more compact laptop, but it has a premium-feeling design at a discounted price. If you’re looking for something with a larger display, this 15-inch laptop is perfect for getting work done. For Prime Day, this one’s been discounted 21 percent, which puts this configuration (4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage) at $315.

Read our full review of the Acer Chromebook 15.

Buy it now:

Amazon

Asus Chromebook Flip C101PA

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The Acer Chromebook Flip was one of the first 2-in-1 Chromebooks, implementing touch capabilities early on. Now with support for Android apps via the Google Play Store, a device like the Chromebook Flip would make a great option for kids — that is, as long as you can overlook the ugly hinge and massive screen bezels. Fortunately, this is a beefed-up configuration, featuring an Intel Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. This deal is 20 percent off, bringing the starting price down to $400.

Read our full review for the Acer Chromebook Flip C101PA.

Buy it now:

Amazon

Google Pixelbook

The Pixelbook raised the bar for Chromebooks, introducing a new suite of premium-level laptops meant to directly compete with the best of Windows or Mac options.

The problem was always that it was hard to justify the price, which normally starts at $1,000. Any discount at all makes the Pixelbook that much more attractive of a purchase. How about $750? Even with only a 128GB SSD, that makes the Pixelbook a fantastic deal.

Read our full review of the Google Pixelbook.

Buy it now:

Amazon

ASUS FX503VD Gaming Laptop

This Asus gaming laptop is a really solid budget-level machine with a 7th-gen quad-core processor, and an Nvidia GTX 1050 for graphics — all on sale for $730. With options like the Dell G3 Gaming Laptop on the market with updated internals though, you’ll need to weigh prices carefully before pulling the trigger on this one. While this Asus laptop comes with an SSD (unlike the entry-level Dell G3), the prices are close enough for you to really tread carefully.

If you are set on this Asus gaming laptop, our recommendation would be to choose a configuration with a faster SSD for storage.

Buy it now:

Amazon

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Amazon Prime Day 2018: Here’s everything you need to know

This 34-inch, curved, ultrawide 144Hz gaming monitor is only $385 on Prime Day

If you’re looking for a killer gaming monitor, we have just the Amazon Prime Day deal for you. This curved, 34-inch ultrawide monitor from LG is 45 percent off, coming in at just $385. It sells for $600 on LG’s website, and was on sale for $500 on Amazon before this Prime Day sale went live.

The fact that it’s 34 inches, curved, and ultrawide might be enough to interest you — and it should be. Curved, ultrawide monitors are more than a gimmick — the extra screen real estate and immersive feel of the curve are great for both productivity and media. Normally, these oversized monitors can cost as much as an entire new computer, driving the price up past what the average person is willing to spend.

But the spotlight feature of this awesome monitor really is the 144Hz refresh rate. If you’ve got a high-powered gaming PC or laptop, you’ll never experience the true potential of it with a 60Hz display. With a 144Hz display, it’ll ensure you pretty much never experience the ugly artifact known as “screen tearing.” Additionally, the LG 34UC79G also supports AMD’s FreeSync technology. Your gameplay should be as smooth as butter.

You’ll need to spend a bit more if you want a higher-resolution display (this one is 2,560 x 1,800) or G-Sync support, but for $385, this is one heck of a gaming monitor.

Buy Now

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FCC proposal could help Google Fiber roll out to more cities

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a proposal that would eliminate bureaucratic red tape and speed up the delivery of gigabit internet from providers like Google Fiber. Called the one-touch make-ready (OTMR) system, the proposal could accelerate the deployment of broadband services and 5G by requiring new service providers do the work of moving existing lines on utility poles if they want to add their own lines.

The change would make it easier for new providers to enter a market. Under the current system, if a new provider wants to move existing wires or make changes to a utility pole, it must consult with the incumbent providers, who would make the changes themselves. By shifting the work burden to the new service provider, the FCC’s OTMR proposal aims to speed up the process by eliminating the coordination needed to perform the work on simple changes to utility poles.

“OTMR speeds and reduces the cost of broadband deployment by allowing the party with the strongest incentive — the new attacher — to prepare the pole quickly to perform all of the work itself, rather than spreading the work across multiple parties,” the FCC wrote. “By some estimates, OTMR alone could result in approximately 8.3 million incremental premises passed with fiber and about $12.6 billion in incremental fiber capital expenditures.”

OTMR will also reduce disruptions to communities. “Unlike sequential make-ready work, which results in a series of trips to the affected poles by each of the attachers and repeated disruptions to vehicular traffic, OTMR’s single trip to each affected pole will reduce the number of such disruptions,” the proposal stated.

If approved, the FCC’s new proposal would apply to simple transfers on utility poles regulated by the agency. In the past, AT&T had lobbied that OTMR should only apply for simple installations. Simple installations are defined as jobs that don’t require cable splices and where there is little chance of service disruption for original providers, like AT&T. Google at the time argued that OTMR should also apply to complex installations, but existing attachers can also opt to do the work of moving their own facilities if they choose. Verizon’s recommendation was similar to Google’s — the carrier wanted a longer notice period for complex OTMR transfers so that it could choose to move its facilities if it wishes. The moving or replacement of an existing utility pole, the agency argued, should be treated as a complex transfer, as it’s more likely to cause a service outage or facilities damage.

The proposal, however, does not apply to “work above the communications space, including the electric space” because the work is dangerous for workers and impacts of electric outages are severe. This limitation affects some 5G wireless deployment. “We recognize that by not providing an OTMR option above the communications space for the time being, we are not permitting OTMR as an option for small cell pole-top attachments necessary for 5G deployment,” the agency noted.

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• Need the FCC to handle a problem? A formal complaint will cost you $225
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This high-end Android smartphone only costs $250 for Amazon Prime Day

The Essential Phone, from the creator of Android, is getting an insanely good discount thanks to Amazon’s Prime Day.

The phone initially cost $700 when it was announced late last year, but the price quickly dropped to $500. Now, you only have to shell out $250 to own one — but the deal ends when Prime Day ends on Tuesday, July 17.

#PrimeDay Alert: Amazon is offering Essential Phone at the unbeatable price of $250! Help spread the good word by RT'ing this and you'll be entered to win 1 of 2 sold-out Ocean Depths Essential Phones. Rules: https://t.co/2Y7nmREQcB pic.twitter.com/dCN65clRjN

— Essential (@essential) July 16, 2018

The Essential Phone is powered by last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage. Those are flagship specifications from last year that rival a Galaxy S8, but that is plenty powerful for most people. There is a 3,040mAh battery, which should last about a full day, and the back of the phone has a modular system that lets you add mods like a 360-degree camera. The Essential Phone works with all major U.S. networks including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

The phone is made of ceramic and titanium, and we thought it was one of the best-looking phones of 2017. In our Essential Phone review, we liked every aspect of the phone except for its camera. The dual-lens system was simply not good enough for the $700 price tag. Essential has since published updates to the phone that have improved the camera, and for $250, it’s entirely a steal.

Because the software is pure stock Android 8.1 Oreo, you also will be able to get the next version of Android P quickly, along with timely security updates. The display was among the first to ever include a notch — before the iPhone X — and it’s crisp with a 2,560 × 1,312-pixel resolution.

The only concern we have is with a recent report claiming Essential may be looking to sell itself, or that work on the Essential Phone 2 has been canceled, with a new strategy focusing on smart home products. Regardless, while the future of Essential is unclear, the Prime Day price for this phone is one of the best deals we have seen yet. If you want a new phone, you should snag it from Amazon now.

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Here’s everything new with the 2018 MacBook Pro

The wait for Apple to update its MacBook Pro is over. Despite sharing the same aesthetics as its late-2017 predecessor, the 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro is one of the most powerful laptops Apple has ever created. In rolling out the 2018 MacBook Pro update, Apple has discontinued older MacBook Pro models that did not ship with USB-C ports, and the company has kept the non-Touch Bar edition from last year unchanged as a budget-conscious option. In other words, if you want all the benefits of Apple’s 2018 vision, you’ll have to spring for the Touch Bar model this year.

On the surface, both the late 2017 and the 2018 models share the same slim and sleek unibody aluminum design. The latest model is loaded with even more powerful internals, a display that will entice creative professionals, and an updated keyboard design. Here’s all what has changed in 2018:

Design

Much of the design of the MacBook Pro remains unchanged from last year. Apple did make some refinements between generations that users may appreciate, including updating its keyboard. While the 2018 MacBook Pro continues to use Apple’s Butterfly key switches to fit the keyboard into a slim laptop enclosure, this year’s MacBook Pro ships with an updated third-generation keyboard design. Apple claims that the keys are quieter than before, but there have been no indication that they fix the sticky key issue.

Both generations of 13-inch MacBook Pro ships with a spacious Force Touch trackpad, and the higher-end configurations also come with a Touch Bar, which comes with Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor. New to the 2018 model is Apple’s T2 co-processor, which delivers added security. It includes its own secure enclave and combines many of the system management controllers into one chip design. The T2 chip also brings on the fly encryption to your files as Apple is pushing for more privacy and security with its products.

One of the biggest changes introduced with the T2 chipset is that you’ll be able to call up Siri with just your voice on the 2018 MacBook Pro. Now, Siri can be summoned without any key presses.

Performance

The 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar gets a powerful under-the-hood upgrade, thanks to Intel’s 8th-generation processor. The 2018 MacBook Pro starts with a 2.3GHz Intel quad-core 8th-generation Core i5 processor, but it can be upgraded to a 2.7Ghz quad-core 8th-generation Core i7 processor at the top configuration. Whereas last year’s model tops out with a dual-core processor, Apple claims that this year’s quad-core processor can deliver up to twice the performance on some applications. You also now have the option for up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Graphics performance is also upgraded on this year’s model, though you still won’t find a discrete graphics option on the 13-inch body. Instead of last year’s Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 core, you’ll find Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 655 this time around. With the updated integrated GPU, you’ll also have twice the video memory — 128MB of embedded DRAM — for better performance.

If you need even more powerful graphics capabilities, you’ll also have the option of connecting to an eGPU at your desk over the MacBook Pro’s Thunderbolt 3 port to bring desktop-class graphics performance.

Display

Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

Although the basic Retina Display remains unchanged between last year’s model and the 2018 update — both displays comes with a bright 500-nit panel with a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel resolution — Apple has added its True Tone technology to this year’s laptop.

The screen tech initially debuted on the iPad Pro, and it allows the display to adjust the color and brightness automatically depending on the ambient lighting. Apple claims True Tone will deliver a more natural viewing experience, but until we try it out ourselves, we won’t know quite how the experience holds up.

Portability

Apple equipped the 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar with a larger battery this year, moving from a 49.2 watt-hour to a 58 watt-hour  battery. This means that this year’s Touch Bar model comes with a larger battery than the non-Touch Bar variant, which ships with the 54.5 watt-hour battery pack.

Yet, despite the larger battery capacity and a switch to Intel’s newest processor, Apple’s quoted battery life remains unchanged on the 2018 MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar. Apple claims that the laptop will be able to deliver up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing or 10 hours of iTunes video playback. We’ll have to test and see if there are any real-world battery life gain with the new processor, but from Apple’s marketing materials, it appears that the 2018 MacBook Pro was optimized around performance.

Both the 2017 and the 2018 model clocks in at just over three pounds in weight.

Ports

The port selection remains the same between last year’s MacBook Pro and this year’s model given that the overall design of the laptop is the same. Both variants support four Thunderbolt 3 connections over the USB-C ports. Although Apple justified its controversial decision to switch to USB-C as a move to embrace the future, unless you go all-in on the standard by updating all your cables, flash drives, and peripherals, there’s a good chance that you’ll be living with a bunch of dongles and adapters.

As an example, if you use an iPhone, you’ll either need an adapter to use the Lightning to USB cable that ships in the box, or you’ll have to splurge to get Apple’s Lightning to USB-C cable if you don’t want to carry around adapters.

Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends
Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

The USB-C port is getting more useful, however, and Apple announced a Black Magic eGPU box that allows you to connect an external graphics card if the integrated Intel graphics isn’t good enough for you. This will make the MacBook Pro even more powerful when it’s docked to an eGPU at your desk.

Availability and pricing

Since Apple just refreshed the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar for 2018, you’ll be able to find some discounts on the late-2017 model if you don’t need all the performance improvements. The 2018 model slots in at the same $1,800 starting price as the outgoing 2017 models when they launched last year. However, fully configured with Apple’s build-to-order options, the price can quickly jump to $3,700.

With the latest refresh to the MacBook Pro lineup, Apple has created arguably some of the most powerful Mac laptops to date. Quad-core performance on Intel’s latest chipsets brings the MacBook Pro to parity with its Windows 10-powered counterpart, and the latest MacBook Pro will continue to be an appealing option for creative pros who rely on MacOS for their workflow.

With up to double the performance of last year’s model while retaining the same battery life, this year’s 13-inch MacBook Pro delivers a lot of power. Though you won’t notice any changes to the laptop’s design this year, you’ll find refinements that may be worth considering, including an improved keyboard experience and the ability to wake up Siri with your voice.

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