Apple Released Its First 16 Inch Mac Through the Apple 16" MacBook Pro (2019) That Came With Own 96W Charger

Apple has not revamped its legacy 15 inch Mac's but rather increased the size of the Mac to 16 inch. The newly released Apple 16" MacBook Pro (2019) gets a specs update although still keeps many of the features from the 2018 model. While supporting the newer and more powerful 9th Generation Intel 6-core processor, the 16 inch Mac continues to provide four Thunderbolt 3 enabled USB Type-C connectors on the Touch Bar version. Despite also supporting DisplayPort 1.4 through the Intel Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 chipset, the 16 inch Mac is still not hitting the 8K display benchmark, rather just allowing at most two 6K@60hz displays over its Thunderbolt 3 connector. Yet this is still an upgrade from max two 5K@60hz displays over Thunderbolt 3 on the 15" MacBook Pro (2018).  

The Thunderbolt 3 based USB Type-C connectors on the 16" MacBook Pro (2019) support Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s), DisplayPort 1.4, and USB Power Delivery 2.0. The Mac now runs on the macOS Catalina surpassing the previous 2018 macOS High Sierra. 

Having purchased the 16" MacBook Pro (2019) we can see what's inside its packaging.

Apple proudly showcased the Mac on almost the entire front of the box to highlight their newest 16 inch model.

This 16" MacBook Pro (2019) model comes with Touch Bar, 2.6GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB DDR4 memory, 512GB SSD, AMD Radeon Pro 5300M GPU, Intel UHD 630 graphics and four Thunderbolt 3 based USB Type-C connectors among other specs and features. 

The 16" MacBook Pro (2019) ships with the new Apple 96W USB-C Power Adapter which supports USB Power Delivery charging up to 96W (20.5V@4.7A). The supplied USB Type-C to Type-C cable accessory can be used to connect the Apple charger and Mac through the Thunderbolt 3 port for rapid charging.

However we tested the Mac to get up to only max 86W charging using the 96W adapter (more details in later posts). This is almost similar to the power that the Apple 87W adapter can deliver to the 15" MacBook Pro (2018).

One of the most obvious change about the 16" MacBook Pro (2019) is the new Magic keyboard. This comes as a more traditional keyboard with inverted-T arrow keys and Esc key which might also be easier to type on compared to the flatter keys of the Butterfly keyboard on older Mac's.  

The Mac still has four Thunderbolt 3 enabled USB Type-C ports on both sides with two adjacent connectors on each side. These Thunderbolt 3 ports can also be used to charge the Mac itself. The analog 3.5mm audio port is still kept on the right hand side of the Mac.

The initial setup process is relatively simple to follow through especially for those who are already familiar with any other Mac setup. You will be able to see the Touch Bar light up and ready for use when the Mac setup is almost complete.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the 16" MacBook Pro (2019) supports 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps) fixed PDO and variable power supply of 22.3 to 98.7 watts range (4.75-21 volts @ 4.7 amps) for charging. Note compliance failures were mostly observed for this Mac.

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_POWER_AS_SINK	99000
NUM_SNK_PDOS	2
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Variable
Min Voltage #2	0x5F(4.75V)
Max Voltage #2	0x1A4(21V)
Op Current #2	0x1D6(4.7A)

PD2 Communication Engine Tests - Test Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	TDA.2.1.1.1 BMC PHY TX EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	TDA.2.1.1.2 BMC PHY TX BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	TDA.2.1.2.2 BMC PHY RX INT REJ	FAIL
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	TDA.2.1.2.1 BMC PHY RX BUSIDL	FAIL
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	TDA.2.1.3.1 BMC PHY TERM	FAIL
6	TDA.2.1.3.2	TDA.2.1.3.2 BMC PHY MSG	FAIL
7	TDA.2.2.1	TDA.2.2.1 BMC PROT SEQ GETCAPS	FAIL
8	TDA.2.2.2.1	TDA.2.2.2.1 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAB P PC	FAIL
9	TDA.2.2.2.2	TDA.2.2.2.2 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP NOMARK P PC	FAIL
11	TDA.2.2.2.4	TDA.2.2.2.4 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP NOMRK CP ACC	PASS
16	TDA.2.2.7	TDA.2.2.7 BMC PROT BIST NOT 5V SRC	PASS
18	TDA.2.2.9	TDA.2.2.9 BMC PROT GSC REC	FAIL
22	TDA.2.3.2.1	TDA.2.3.2.1 POW SRC TRANS P PC	FAIL
24	TDA.2.3.3.1	TDA.2.3.3.1 POW SNK TRANS C CP	FAIL

BMC Eye Diagram​