It had been rumored many months ago, and in the end everything has finished to be confirmed. The Cupertino company has decided to give free rein to its desires for the renewal (pragmatic, that if) of the range of laptops focused on the professional environment that it has. With all this, Apple has presented new MacBook Pro with slight design changes and abrupt functional changes, if perhaps not in terms of raw hardware, if in terms of innovation in terms of methods of interacting with the operating system. We show you everything you need to know about the new MacBook Pro and its new Touch Bar, a small AMOLED bar that accompanies the keyboard and includes Touch ID.
We are going to review the most relevant features within the Pro range, both for the 13-inch and 15-inch models, delving into the new technologies incorporated into Apple laptops.
Design changes that we can appreciate
The new MacBook continues to maintain the same essence as always, however, as it will happen with the MacBook Retina, Apple has decided to remove the illuminated apple feature that had been accompanying this laptop since 2012, replaced by a polished aluminum apple in exactly the same place as before. We believe that this circumstance is due to the reduction of the thickness of the same, since we do not believe that it is cheaper to make a logo in translucent plastic than in metal (we remember that the rear block is fed by the LCD backlight).
In terms of size and weight, the two models are a 17% slimmer than its predecessor, in the case of MacBook 13 inches we meet 1,37 Kg and 14,9 mm thick, on the other hand, the model of 15 inches Weighs 1,83 Kg and is slightly thicker than the 13-inch, although almost imperceptibly, it reaches the 15,5 millimetres.
Touch Bar with Touch ID included, function keys in version 2.0
This was the key to the presentation, the way Apple wanted to open the mouths of Keynote viewers, an AMOLED top bar that is responsible for supplying the characteristics of the function keys, with a clear incentive at the level of customization, since the Touch Bar will be able to adopt infinite functions, all that developers can show on a screen. In the presentation we have been able to see how to raise and lower the brightness will be a matter of sliding your finger, or how we can navigate within the video editing simply by sliding your finger on this multi-touch screen that Apple has included in the keyboard of its MacBook Pro .
On the right side of it we find a device that definitely reaches the only Apple product where it was not present, the Touch ID. The Cupertino company has seen fit to include the fingerprint reader that became fashionable, but now on their laptops. In this way, the integration of macOS Sierra with Apple Pay will allow us to make payments through our computer just by placing our finger on the Touch Bar. It remains to be seen if the developer companies will put the batteries and it will also allow us to access websites with password via Touch ID. On the other hand, one of the most curious functions of Touch ID on the Mac is that only with the fingerprint, the system will automatically change user.
The Trackpad grows and so does the keyboard
The "butterfly" technology in the MacBook keyboards gained many followers in a very short time, and one of the questions that we Mac users had, was why the Trackpad had adopted Force Touch capabilities in 2015, however, did not want to adapt to the new keyboard. Apple has seen fit to include a renewed version of the keyboard with "butterfly" technology in its MacBook Pro, for which the Cupertino company has only good words.
On the other hand, the Trackpad has grown, exactly the twice as big. However, there has been no news regarding the system of use, will continue to maintain Force Touch capabilities which make it without a doubt the best Trackpad on the market, something that Apple cannot say about its wireless mice, which are quite poorly used.
The screen is renewed, as in the iPhone 7
Apple has always boasted of panels, despite being LCD, the current MacBook Pro Retina already offered a 2K resolution that was delighting users. This screen has been improved if possible, increasing up to 60% the brightness it could offer, and expanding the contrast of the same, offering black with spectacular realism, something that has always been the thorn in the panels that Apple uses. These new models will save battery life thanks to the new screens.
But not everything stops there the wide color gamut It also reaches the panels of the MacBook Pro, offering colors that are as faithful as possible and that will delight the experts in design, photography and video who work with the apple laptop.
Wired connectivity will be the weak point
Apple has decided to sacrifice in a single stroke the Thunderbolt ports, the SD card holder and the HDMI. A clever move when it comes to collecting accessories, however, it has kept the 3,5mm Jack, something quite curious, if we consider that has eliminated HDMI, a digital audio and video standard that is present in all hi-fi products on the market. All this will be supplied by 2 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 in the case of the MacBook Pro 13 ″ without Touch Bar, and by 4 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 in the case of the rest of the models.
Price and availability of the new MacBooks
We remember that in addition to these catalog models, Apple allows us to customize our devices in terms of hardware to exhaustion, so prices will vary depending on what we add, up to almost € 6.000. The MacBook Pro 13 ″ model without Touch Bar is now available to buy, the rest of the models They have a delivery time of between three weeks and one month from today.
- MacBook Pro 13 ″ - with Touch Bar
- MacBook Pro at 2 Ghz and 256 GB of storage: $1.699
- MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID at 2,9 Ghz and 256 GB: $1.999
- MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID at 2,9 Ghz and 512 GB: $2.199
- MacBook Pro 15 ″
- MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID at 2,6 Ghz and 256 GB: $2.699
- MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID at 2,7 Ghz and 512 GB: $3.199