One of the 2019 MacBook Pro's standout features is its 15.4-inch LED Retina display, complete with support for in-plane switching (IPS) tech to widen the viewing angles. It also has a very bright 500-nit backlight. The 2,880-by-1,800-pixel native resolution isn't quite 4K, but the colors are as vivid (and the text as sharp) as on any 4K display I've seen recently.

Apple says it has made some invisible changes to the keyboard mechanism on this MacBook Pro to address reliability concerns, which include debris getting stuck under the keys and preventing them from working. Overall, though, it feels almost the same as the boards on other recent MacBooks.

A 4-pound weight and a 0.61-inch thickness are remarkable stats for a powerhouse 15-inch laptop, which, of course, has Apple's iconic logo etched into the lid. It's especially impressive when you consider that Apple has been building progressively more powerful computing components into its flagship laptop.

The quirky Touch Bar is a narrow, touch-sensitive display with contextual controls that change based on what app you're using. Macs lack touch capability on their main screens, so this is your only opportunity to interact with macOS using touch.

With highly accurate cursor movement right out of the box, a massive 7.28-inch surface, and a glass finish, the MacBook Pro's trackpad is one of the most precise and comfortable pads of any laptop.

All four of the MacBook Pro's USB Type-C ports support the 40GBps Thunderbolt 3 interface, so if you have a hub or an external drive that supports these speeds, you've got plenty of places to plug it in.

Other than a 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C is the full extent of the I/O complement, which means you'll need a USB Type-C-to-DisplayPort or Type C-to-HDMI adapter to connect to an external display, or an Ethernet adapter if you want to take advantage of wired networking.