First Hands-On Impressions of the New Mac Pro [Video]

Early reviews and hands-on impressions of the new Mac Pro have begun to surface online. Here's a summary of the first ones.

CNET:
The new Mac Pro is a professional workhorse dressed up in a very appealing high-design package. It's a stretch to say this is a computer for casual consumers, but the starting price isn't more than you'd pay for a similarly configured Windows PC and the radically different design is cool enough to appeal to any design enthusiast who wants nothing but the best-looking, best-performing products.


The depth of its abilities as a video editing and professional-grade creation tool are both too vast to fully explore in an initial day or two, and also somewhat outside our normal consumer-focussed scope, therefore, this page will be updated with new impressions and performance results in the coming days.




Engadget:
Aesthetically, the anondized aluminum is more reflective than any of Apple's other products, which also means it's more fingerprint-prone. (Not necessarily an issue if you plan on having it tucked away, though you'll definitely notice it if you engage in some of that aforementioned schlepping.) It also looks less black than it does on Apple's site -- more like the "Space Gray" that it actually is. As it happens, that case is easy to unlock and slip off, on the rare occasion that you want to replace the RAM, storage or one of the GPUs.


The Verge:
It's astonishingly reflective — I can see the screen clearly, and anyone who walks by is immediately recognizable — and it picks up fingerprints really easily. But it's beautiful, understated, and looks great on a desk next to the 4K Sharp monitor we've paired it with. It's particularly good-looking with its case off, exposing the Mac Pro's machinery, but the case is required to dissipate heat. You can't even use the Mac Pro with it off.



MacWorld:
The top of the Mac Pro serves double duty as a vent for the (surprisingly quiet) fan system and as a handle for carrying the computer. At just 11 pounds, it’s easy to tote when needed. On the back of the Mac Pro are all of its many ports and connections, conveniently backlit whenever the computer senses motion nearby. You'll find six Thunderbolt 2 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two independent Gigabit-ethernet ports, an HDMI-video port, and audio jacks.



FCP
An amazing day for FCPX fans with the 10.1 update, but let us not forget there is new hardware out too. The release of the update happened less than 24 hours after the announcement of the facility to order the new Mac Pros. We have been very lucky to receive a model, so here is the unboxing that happened in the office this afternoon.