Got yourself the 2018 MacBook Pro? We have now got a list of the best apps for the laptop that will allow you to maximize your productivity and get the most out of the device.
Apple’s sudden unveiling of the 2018 MacBook Pro lineup last week took everyone by surprise since rumors pointed to the lineup getting a refresh in September. Nonetheless, the important thing here is that the 2018 MacBook Pro marks a huge performance improvement over its predecessors.
Apple has truly catered to its ‘pro’ audience with the 2018 MacBook Pro refresh. The 13-inch MacBook Pro now comes with a quad-core chip which makes it almost 2x times faster than its previous iteration, while the 15-inch variant comes with a 6-core chip which provides up to 70 percent performance boost.
A pro user is definitely going to appreciate all the horsepower offered by the 2018 MacBook Pro. A pro laptop also needs an equally good set of apps though. After all, without decent apps, your new MacBook Pro is not going to be of much use.
So, if the MacBook Pro is your first pro laptop and you are looking for equally good apps to complement it, check out our list below. And even if you are a longtime Mac user, you should still check out the list of apps below as you might just find something useful.
Best 2018 MacBook Pro Apps
BetterSnapTool
Window management in macOS High Sierra leaves a lot to be desired. Apple has not made much improvement in this regard in macOS Mojave as well. If like me, you are someone who works with a lot of applications and windows, the poor window management capabilities of macOS is going to be an issue.
To solve all your window management issues though, there’s BetterSnapTool. Install and enable the app and your Mac will then have the same window management capabilities as Windows 10. This means you can drag an app to the top bar to expand it to the very maximum or to a corner to run it in a small window mode.
If you are switching to a Mac after years of using Windows PCs, BetterSnapTool is going to be an absolute must-have app for you. At $2.99, BetterSnapTool is a no-brainer in my opinion.
Download: BetterSnapTool
iStat Menus
If you want to keep a tab on the system usage and resources of your MacBook Pro, give iStat Menus a try. The app makes the menu bar on your Mac more useful by displaying useful system stats. This includes the CPU, GPU and network usage, storage drive and RAM use, network activity, and more.
This is a great tool for advanced users who will frequently put their new MacBook Pro under a lot of stress and run a lot of applications at the same time. Using iStats Menu, you can check and kill rogue apps in the background which occupy precious resources and unnecessarily drain more battery.
Given reports of the Core i9 variant of the 2018 MacBook Pro suffering from serious thermal throttling issues, iStat Menus is going to come in extremely handy in your day-to-day use.
Download: iStat Menus
Airmail
The stock Mail client in macOS is pretty good, but if you have multiple email accounts and receive hundreds of emails every single day, you will soon find Apple’s mail app to be pretty limited.
This is where Airmail comes in. It is easily the best mail app for Mac out there. The easy to use UI makes it a breeze to handle multiple email accounts, and there’s also plenty of customization options on offer so that you can set the app up just the way you want it. The app even won the Apple Design Award in 2017 which shows just how good it is.
Some notable features of Airmail include integration with popular services like Todoist, Slack, Things 3, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, and more. Other features include universal search, Unified VIPs, ability to Snooze emails, iCloud account sync, Handoff support, Quick Look preview, and more. If you end up liking Airmail on your Mac, make sure to try out its iOS version as well.
Airmail is free to download and use but the full version of the app will cost you $9.99.
Download: Airmail
Station
If you rely on a number of web apps for your day to day tasks, it can get pretty irritating to have multiple apps open. Apart from taking precious space on your screen, they do little to help your productivity in any meaningful way.
Station aims to solve this problem by being the only app for all your web apps. It works with a slew of services like Google Drive, Slack, Todoist, Dropbox, Evernote, WhatsApp, and more. In fact, the app boasts of integration with over 400+ apps and services.
To use Station, you need to first login with your Google account. The app will then automatically import the Google apps and services you use like Gmail, Calendar, and Drive, and provide you with the option of adding other apps as well. The best part about Station is that you get a unified notification view along with the ability to completely disable them or enable Do Not Disturb when you solely want to focus on your work.
Station might not seem like a useful app at first but once you start using it, there’s no going back.
The best part about Station is that despite the immense amount of functionality it offers, it is completely free to download and use.
Download: Station
Bartender
The menu bar on your Mac might get cluttered with irrelevant app icons within a few weeks of use. Plus, you don’t always need the Eject button or the Bluetooth status icon to show up on the menu bar.
This is where Bartender comes in. It allows you to hide irrelevant icons from your menu bar permanently or behind its own icon. If you select the latter, one click on the Bartender icon and all the hidden icons will once again show up on the menu bar. Another click and they are all hidden!
You can even set up hotkeys in Bartender to search for menu bar items in just a few keystrokes. If you want a minimalistic menu bar on your new MacBook Pro, definitely get Bartender.
Download: Bartender
There are plenty of other apps that you should definitely check out on your 2018 MacBook Pro. Make sure to go through our list of the best Mac apps for some great suggestions. And if you have some app recommendations of your own, drop a comment and let us know.
