Apple Mac Pro review (2013)

The Verge by David Pierce

At long last, the pros get some love

“We’re working on something really great for later next year.”

After years of seemingly neglecting Apple’s most hardcore, highest-paying users, a 2012 email from Tim Cook finally gave people hope. Hope for the first truly rethought version of the Mac Pro since it was introduced in 2006. Hope that even as it had overhauled Final Cut to the dismay of so many of its most dedicated users, Apple still cared.

Now, just in time for Christmas, Apple has released a new Mac Pro with new hardware and a radically redesigned body. With a starting price of $2,999, it’s the beginning of a new era for Apple, a careful bet on what professional users will want and need in the years to come. A lot of those bets have to do with 4K and the future of video, because that’s who this machine is for: people who make videos for a living.

Luckily for us at The Verge, there’s a whole crew of those people right in our office. The Verge Video team has been waiting for a new Mac Pro too, with a long list of hopes and wishes for the new model. Our director / editor John Lagomarsino and Regina Dellea, our post-production coordinator, have both spent many hours with the new PC over the last several days. What follows is a mix of their thoughts and mine, as we hooked up a Mac Pro and decided to find out what the future of professional computing looks like.

Small is the new big
DP: The Pro is unlike anything the PC industry’s ever seen. The Mac Pro used to be a big, boxy, silver rectangle of a machine; now it’s a small, cylindrical device that’s made to sit on your desk, not underneath it. It’s 9.9 inches tall, 6.6 inches in diameter, and weighs about 11 pounds — it’s not something you’ll want to carry around all the time, but it’s leaps and bounds more portable than the Pro has ever been. read more...