Early this morning, Apple confirmed what it accidentally leaked – that we are going to get a brand new MacBook Pro, and that it will dump all the function keys with a touch-sensitive OLED strip. However, that’s not all: Apple says that this iteration will be faster, lighter and thinner than its predecessor.
The OLED strip – called the Touch Bar – adapts to whatever app you use. For example, the bar will show your tabs and favourites if you’re currently browsing the web via Safari, or display emojis in Messages. The bar will also incorporate Touch ID, letting you perform similar actions to your iPhone – such as scanning your fingerprint to make payments on Apple Pay and unlocking your device.
The new MacBook Pro’s display – according to Apple – is the brightest (at 500 nits) and more colourful than the previous generation, supporting a much more wider colour gamut. It also comes with a much larger Force Touchpad; improved speakers; and Thunderbolt 3, allowing users to use a 5K display and power their MacBook Pro with on cable.
With its new unibody construction, Apple says that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops is 17 percent thinner (measuring at 14.9mm), and 23 percent lighter (1.37kg) than its predecessor. The new 15-inch models are 14 percent thinner (15.5mm) and 20 percent lighter (1.83kg).
But what about the price?
The base 13-inch model – with 256GB of storage, 8GB of memory, and a 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor – will cost $2199.00. However, the base model does not include the Touch Bar. If you do want the Touch Bar, you will need to pay more and upgrade to the 2.9GHz dual-core Core i5 processor models, which cost $2699 for 256GB and $2999 for 512GB.
The 15-inch models come in two configurations: a 2.6GHz Core i7 model with 256GB of storage and a Radeon Pro 450 graphics card; and a 2.7GHz Core i7 model with 512GB of storage and a Radeon Pro 455 graphics card. Both come with 16GB of RAM and the Touch Bar. The 256GB model costs $3599, while the 512GB model costs $4249.
And yes, the pricing does suck for some people (or so I have been told). If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, you could buy the previous generation for $199 (13-inch) or $2999 (15-inch), or the MacBook Air.