The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in-depth Thoughts

We all know what the announcement was about thanks to leaks earlier in the week. Apple has announced a new 13-inch MacBook Pro that is twelve percent thinner. The cheaper MacBook Pro starts at $1499 and will replace the MacBook Air. There is a catch however as the lower priced MacBook Pro will not have a Touch Bar above the keyboard like its more expensive brothers. To get the new Touch Bar on your MacBook, you need to hand over least the $1799. If you don’t see a reason to get rid of the standard function key row this is your only option. They got rid of the Apple 11-inch Air. So Apple considers $1499 budget. The redesigned MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar are going to lead the charge for a while but lets look at what else Apple added to these flagships. Apple kept the headphone jack but got rid of Magsafe in favor of USB C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. If that does not bother you just sit and wonder how are you going to connect your iPhone lighting headphones to your new MacBook. I think the Apple miss the ball on this one. Will people buy it? Yes, it’s an Apple product and we are sheep. That said; Apple should have just made LED screen touch. It feels like an unfinished idea to just have part of the experience be touch. It also creates a hassle to get rid of USB 3 ports but not make the iPhone USB C. That means everyone will have to buy another adapter to plug their phones into the new MacBooks. The lost of Magsafe in the new MacBooks may just be the push needed for people to pay for Apple Care+. 

If you are specs person; here you go:

• 13-inch is 17% thinner, 23% less volume, 3 pounds, nearly 1/2 pound less than previous version
• 15-inch is 15.5 mm, 14% thinner, 20% less volume, 4 pounds, 1/2 pound less
• USB-C ports
• Force Touch trackpad, 2x larger
• All-new keyboard with 2nd-gen butterfly mechanism like 12-inch MacBook (more responsive, improved travel)
• Function keys replaced with dynamic Touch Bar, a Retina OLED display panel above the keyboard
• Touch Bar adaptive to specific applications, color display changes based on context
• Touch ID available on new MacBook Pros, a first
• Supports log-ins, sapphire crystal, second-gen version like iPhone 6s
• Apple T1 Chip supports Touch ID, includes Secure Enclave for Apple Pay
• Siri key added to Touch Bar with default system keys
• Control Strip lets you manage system controls like brightness and volume
• Touch Bar supports emoji, QuickType typing
• Photos use of Touch Bar looks especially promising with scrubber for photos in a collection and finding place in a video
• Touch Bar can be customized (example includes Finder, Control Strip)
• Touch ID on new MacBook Pros support profiles (Phil Schiller’s fingerprint logs him into his account, Craig Federighi’s fingerprint pulls up his account)
• Touch Bar supports most (if not all) Apple apps including Terminal, Xcode
• Developers can program Touch Bar support
• MacBook Pro display is 67% brighter, 67% higher contrast ratio, 25% more colors, display as thin as 12-inch MacBook display
• 15-inch includes Intel Core i7 (6th gen, quad-core, 2133MHz memory), Radeon Pro, up to 4GB VRAM, up to 2.3x faster, Superfast SSD up to 2TB, up to 50% faster, advanced thermal architecture (for fan), all-new speaker design, 2x dynamic range
• 13-inch includes Intel Core i5 or i7, Intel Iris Graphics, Superfast SSD
• Four Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB-C connector), headphone jack, any of four ports is charging port (RIP MagSafe)
• Can support two 5K displays externally
• New version of Final Cut Pro that supports Touch Bar coming, Adobe will also support Touch Bar with Photoshop, and djay Pro from Algoriddim shows support
• Microsoft Office is working on Touch Bar support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Skype for Business
• Affinity Designer and Pixelmator also working on support, Sketch, DeVinci Resolve as well
• Up to 10 hours of battery life in both models
• MacBook Pro 13-inch will also be available in a version without Magic Bar
• $1499 for non Touch Bar version, $1799 for 13-inch Touch Bar model, and $2399 for 15-inch Touch Bar model
• Today for new models without Touch Bar, 2-3 weeks shipping for Touch Bar models
• All models available to order starting today!
• That’s a wrap for MacBook Pro unveiling, stay tuned for more in depth coverage