Apple Unveils New 13-Inch and 15-Inch MacBook Pros With Retina 'Touch Bar'

[DVD9]

Apple just priced themselves out of the stratosphere. I used to think sub $2K was a lot to pay for a laptop. Now if I were to spec a base 15in MBP with 512GB ssd, it costs $2800 before taxes. Holy Hell that is expensive!!! Not to mention you're making some compromises with the i/o ports!!

Nonsense!

No one on the campuses of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford etc will be seen with anything less.

Sucks not living in the Green Zones eh? Hard to believe the USA was once a land of plenty before it descended into just another third world country occupied by the Pentagon.

 

[AppliedMicro]

First of all, the first update in year and they get rid of the truly entry-level laptop, what's up with that? The macbook air got so many, my friend included, to switch over to apple, because the price of the air was just enough for the average joe to be able to get aboard the osx-train (instead of the windows train), but now (here in Europe) the "cheapest" macbook is the underpowered 12" macbook starting at 1499 euros and the new mbp for 1749 euros.

Not true.
They are still offering the 13" Air.

Second, I don't really understand the touchbar-technology; lenovo already abandoned the idea years ago, because their business customers just didn't like it. It didn't work and it was really a pain to use. But, of course, it remains to be seen whether the bar is useful or not...

I'd say the idea very much depends on software support.
Apple will surely have an edge over Lenovo in this regard, and they have already convinced MS to add support to Office itself. We'll see how it pans out.

 

[supermacman1938]

Wait how do I plug my iPhone 7 in to charge and sync? I now have a pair of lightning headphones I can't use on my new laptop. And a new phone I can't charge or sync on my new laptop.

What the eff is going on at Apple. Good lord.

 

[ilovenewjersey]

You do realize, of course, that that "non-virtual power button" is a simple, momentary switch that is read by the Power Controller (SMC) chip, right? It isn't like you have a big-ol' rocker switch on the Power Supply. It is STILL all software-driven, whether the "power switch" is "real" or "virtual".

I've never run into a situation where holding the silver power button on my late-2011 MBP for five seconds has not succeeded in forcing a power-down. But I have on my phone run into situations where the capacitive touchscreen becomes unresponsive and none of the virtual buttons registered when pressed.

I think it's likely that Apple has considered this, but I'm wondering what their solution is.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I like the touch bar idea. It seems like a good compromise between having something dynamic and visual to manipulate with touch, and not getting fingerprints all over your nice screen. I am looking forward to seeing how people end up using it with their favorite shortcuts in xcode or excel and the like.

That said, demoing it with emojis is really tone-deaf on Apple's part. It shows they really don't listen to feedback showing people associate emojis with tackiness and amateurism. They're fun and colorful for sure, but that is not the right first message to send. They should have led with how it will look in final cut pro x, then how it will look in xcode. Those are the users Apple needs to impress. Then show word, excel, mail, safari, etc. to show us worker-bees how this will help our day-to-day work.

For example, having a shortcut to trace-dependents or trace-precedents in excel would be awesome for me. It's not sexy, but who cares? By leading with emojis, they lost the respect of the audience.

 

[flat five]

Let Apple buy Tesla ... then put Elon Musk as CEO of Apple .... let the innovation begin !

elon musk is more of a steve jobs type.. they're going to run companies they create.
like, apple will never have another steve jobs because anyone with a likeness to him will be doing their own thing.

cook does a great job.. j.ive does an awesome job.. not really sure what people are expecting from replacing these people at apple.. there isn't really anyone better to replace them with. srry.

 

[DVD9]

My thoughts exactly. I'm at 6 years with my MBP and I thought this would be the time to upgrade. Not at these prices. At least in 2011, I could get a machine that I could upgrade the RAM and HD easily, so I didn't need to get the top of the line computer.

Now with everything sealed and not replacable, I can't get a bigger HD later, or upgrade the ram. To get a 15" with a 1TB HD and 4GB of VRAM, you're at $3,200.

I am so disappointed today.

What part of New Jersey are you from? Definitely not Princeton. Those kids chuckle as they add the $3200 to their credit card.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Wifi/bluetooth have been allowed on planes for a long time now.

Have never flown on one of these planes in Europe though.

 

[Felix01]

Starts at $1,799 for the Touch Bar enabled with only 256GB of storage? Are you ***** kidding me?

The non-BTO version is about the same as the old one, isn't it?

 

[Pez555]

Biggest re-invention? Absolute BS.

UK prices are a joke.

I was in the market for a macbook but after seeing the current prices, no way.

 

[Crzyrio]

Tell me how you use your open MBP so you can see/use the Touch Bar AND use that nifty 5k monitor? MBP off to the side? Monitor off to the side? OR clamshell and pass on the Touch Bar?

Your asking how I will use the monitor and the touchbar? I won't lol

The touchbar is there for when I use my laptop and I'm really hoping that we see a keyboard with similar functionality as well.

 

[Barrierfreeman]

And of course, your needs/habits are everyone's needs/habits.

I for one think it's pretty damned cool...

Power-emoji user, huh?

 

[gnasher729]

Have they upped the price by £50 and reduced the hard dive size to 128gb?!

The previous MacBook prices were calculated with an exchange rate of about £1 = $1.50. Right now £1 = 1.22, and you need to consider 20% VAT (no sales tax included in US prices) plus extra cost for your more expensive consumer rights in the UK. You are lucky that the numbers on the UK store are not the same or higher than on the US store. A 20% increase in the UK was to be expected.

 

[DVD9]

Have they had a one on one with designers. The touch bar, definitely won't replace my wacom tablet. Besides, using the touch bar takes you away from the screen, where the magic happens. Should have provided a laptop with touch screen.
To be honest, the prices seem ridiculous.

Compared to what they charge for an iPhone Plus the MacBook Pro looks cheap.

 

[MistrSynistr]

So does Tim & Co. realize that the professionals/designers/photographers built Apple by utilizing their products and spreading the word, and when you take all this away from us, we shift to the competition, and considering Android pairs with Windows better, eventually everyone you forgot about has switched not only operating systems but also phones, and have told people to switch OS and phones, and on and on and on. I mean, lol, what? Don't you want people designing for iOS on your products and not the comp?

 

[AppliedMicro]

If I learned anything over the years, it's to skip first iteration of newly overhauled/designed macbook pro. I will wait for next iteration of this model.

And I'd bet (a lot) those prices will come down by the next iteration.

...when the 13" non-Touch Bar will eventually replace the 13" Air they're still selling. And Pro users will finally get their 32GB machine.

Reap the profits from early adopters - and then gradually decrease prices to broaden the target audience. Not unlike they did with the iPad Pro.

So see you in 2018

 

[kbk75]

So I was all set to CTO a 15" MBP with the works until I saw that the 2TB SSD upgrade alone costs $1200 and that the total goes up to $4300 for the fastest processor and GPU combo with the 2TB SSD, and this is without factoring taxes into the mix and a few extras like USB-C to USB-A adapters! It's a good lookin' machine but it sure as hell ain't that good lookin'!

I got myself a 4TB Samsung 850 EVO for around $1200 a couple of months ago for my PC, for Apple to ask that much for an upgrade from 512GB to 2TB is absolutely bloody criminal. Oh well I guess my 2012 rMBP will soldier on!

 

[Markoth]

For the times you use that SD card reader/writer, Amazon has several USB-C SD card Reader/Writers for $10-$20.

I happen to have a 2013 nrMBP with an SD slot, and I have only used it one time in 3 years (mostly to make sure it worked).

Good for you. I use it constantly.

 

[Applelad]

lol at all the people saying they don't need more than 16GB RAM. This isn't a Macbook Hobbyist. It's supposed to be "Pro", as in for PROfessionals. 16GB RAM is a joke. Chrome and 1 Windows VM, and whoops now we're swapping RAM out to disk. And if you want *2* VMs, or maybe to edit some video, well too bad cause the kids in the Macrumors forum said they're doing just fine with 4GB.

Funny, I'm using Chrome and have 1 VM running (admittedly only running Windows 7 but with a few apps running within it, and got Word open and only using about 3.5 Gig of my 16 Gig of memory.

 

[flat five]

True, but I would think that Apple would want to make 100% sure that their users could use their iPhone with their Mac immediately out of the box.

why do you need wires to use an iPhone with a mac?

 

[James Bondo]

I'm very disappointed. I have an early 2012 macbook pro retina with an aftermarket 1TB drive.
I use the function keys quite often, and I use the USB-A ports quite often...
I'd much rather have a current pro retina with 32GB RAM and m.2 upgradable storage, USB-A ports and function keys than this.

 

[DVD9]

Wall Street not impressed. Stock taking another hit.

Goldman Sachs Guy clicked the Algorithm of Disapproval. Prices set too low.

Everyone the Goldman Sachs Guy knows can afford to buy a dozen at these prices without making a dent in their Visa Black Card limit.

 

[swordfish5736]

Have never flown on one of these planes in Europe though.

Looks like you dont even have to use airplane mode in europe anymore. In the US alot of planes have wifi available and Bluetooth accessories are allowed.

https://www.easa.europa.eu/newsroom...evices-remain-and-connected-throughout-flight

 

[jonblatho]

Whilst it's true it has more functionality, for the price they're asking it should function as a sub space communicator and let me talk to the mythical planet of Magrathea.

I'm just saying it's a bit fishy that two people specifically slammed the Touch Bar as an "emoji bar."

In other words, I'm saying something smells fishy.

 

[AllergyDoc]

Lots of kvetching about the price.

But, I could get the same specs as my late-2013 MBP in the top of the line 13" machine for about $100 more (2.9GHz) than I paid 3 years ago. For a far better machine. Not bad.