A2141 aka MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) – Is It Still Relevant?

It’s been a while since Apple has reconstructed its whole MacBook series with silicon chips Macs. Since then the laptop industry has changed completely. Expectations from base Macbooks and other similar-priced Windows machines have gone way higher than before. Even though Apple doesn’t make Intel-based Macs, are they still available in the market?

Now the question is have they become irrelevant? Because when launched these were the powerhouse. Since then a lot of technological advancements have happened. Let’s deep dive into this and find the answer.

A2141 (16-inch, 2019) Technical Specifications

A2141 (16-inch, 2019) Features

The 2019 16 inches macs boast so many feature inside it. Some are outdated but most features are still relevant and provide excellent value. I will mention each feature in detail to make you understand it better.

Display 

The 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch boasts a stunning Retina display. The display has been loved by users for its exceptional quality. It has a 2k display with a resolution of 3072 x 1920 pixels. For this reason, the picture quality it provides is still better than most laptops.

Whether you talk about color accuracy or contrast it doesn’t fail to deliver exceptional performance. The display provides 100% sRGB which makes sure that every color you see looks accurate.

Coming to the contrast and brightness, it shines here as well. The contrast ratio is 1000:1 whereas the peak brightness of 500 nits. So brightness levels aren’t going to be an issue.

Till now we have only talked about the good things. Does this mean it does not have anything bad? Well, the answer is no. There are some points you should consider. The first one is it has a refresh rate of 60hz. For this reason, it does not support a pro-motion display. The other one is the lack of deeper blacks. The reason behind this is it does not come with the OLED display. Apart from these two, there isn’t any significant con.

Overall, the 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch display is still considered one of the best on the market. It offers a 2K resolution, excellent color accuracy, and exceptional brightness. Moreover, the contrast and viewing angles are also on-point.

Performance 

The A2141 still offers great performance even today. Before breaking everything down, let’s check the specs. It comes with two variants for processors first one being i7 and the other one being i9 with 8 cores and 16 threads. To assist the processor with intensive tasks with comes with 4GB or 8GB of GDDR6 memory.

If you want to know about the benchmark score then I have mentioned the scores below. Although the scores aren’t a guarantee of actual performance in the world they can give you a rough idea.

This was all about the technical aspects of the MacBook Pro 16 2019. It’s time to understand how it is fair in real-world performance. Not just this I will also compare it with the latest Mac to give you more understanding. The reason behind this is it does not come with the OLED display. Apart from these two, there isn’t any significant con.

The latest MacBook Pros are significantly more powerful than Intel-based Macs. The 14-inch m1 pro has a single core score of 1785 and 12516 for multicore. In contrast, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with m1 max chips scores 1824 for single-core and 12633 for multi-core.

You can compare these scores with the table above. You will find that the Geekbench 5 score is nearly double in the latest Macs. So comparing them even make any sense? Well, the comparison is to show you that in terms of raw power latest makes are hands down the best in the market.

The scores for the A2141 2019 MacBook may seem a bit low but it is still capable enough of handling most tasks you throw on it. Whether you do work like creating images in Adobe Illustrator or editing 4k clips. It does the job well for the most part.

You will be able to perform all your tasks without any issues. Overall the performance in this machine is great. The only thing that makes its performance seem to be low is the latest Mac is way more powerful.

Build and Design 

As you may already know MacBook are known for their excellent build quality. This statement goes well for this A2141. Even though it is 4-generation older laptop, still the design is excellent.

The front side of the laptop looks stunning. The bezels are thin and feel like an edge-to-edge display. The rear side design is also pretty amazing. The rear panel is clean and simple with just a logo.

The corners are rounded which enhances its look. Even if you compare its design with the latest Macs you will find the design similarly impressive. These are even thinner than the latest Macs. Overall the design is still great, there is nothing in the design that we can complain about.

Battery Life

It is a well-known fact that the Macbooks are efficient and known for great battery life. The story is similar here. Whether you perform heavy tasks in it or use it casually. The battery life is sufficient for most users.

In general usage, it gives a battery life of around 10 hours. Whereas it drops to 7-8 hours on high-end tasks. If you compare the battery life with a modern Mac the battery life is almost there. Due to silicon chips, the efficiency is far better there. Still, 10 hours of battery life is nothing less than excellent.

Sound Quality

The 16-inch MacBook has a combination of 6 speakers. The speakers produce loud and crisp sound. You will feel those clear vocals while listening to music. Additionally, it has the Dolby Atmos feature that gives you the surround sound.

The bass is loud and strong for the most part. The only issue is that it lacks bass customization. Nevertheless, you will notice that the voice gets a little suppressed due to bass. If you are someone who loves balanced sound you have to use the speakers in low to mid volume levels. The rest of the things are fine and will do the work for you.

Native Window Support 

The A2141 supports Windows without using any app. With the help of bootcamp you can enjoy Windows without leaving the MacOS. Since the silicon chips launch, this feature has been discontinued by Apple. Many people used to love this feature. If you are one of those people you have the reason to prefer it.

Price 

The role of the pricing is everything here. The older Mac prices fluctuate a lot. Many a time you will get these mac are around 600-700$. Whereas the latest 16-inch pro model comes around 2399$ which is more than three times. So if you are getting it at these price points, then it’s a great buy and value for money also.

A2141 Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts 

At this moment you know all the essential points about this machine and what the difference is as compared to modern Macs. Before making a purchase decision, you have to consider some factors like how long you want to use them. How much performance do you need? And what is your budget? 

You will also get the MacBook Air M1 for a similar price. But you will have to compromise with a small display, less RAM and storage, and native Windows support. 

If these things are important for you and you are on a tight budget you should opt for this. On the other hand, if you need the latest OS with better performance and want to use it for the long term, this machine is not for you.