Apple says 'Hello Again' with three variants of the new MacBook Pro

Apple on Thursday introduced its latest MacBook Pro, which is touted to be the company's 'thinnest and lightest' Macbook Pro yet. This announcement comes just a month after Apple unveiled the iPhone 7, Apple Watch Series 2 and Earpods and close on the heels of Microsoft's new Surface Studio PC, which was unveiled just a day ago.

Along with an interface that replaces the traditional row of function keys with a retina-quality multi-touch display called the 'Touch Bar', the new MacBook Pro features Apple’s 'brightest and most colourful' retina display yet, Touch ID, a more responsive keyboard, a larger Force Touch trackpad and an audio system with double the dynamic range.

Specifications

The MacBook Pro features a sixth-generation quad-core and dual-core processors, giving it up to 2.3 times the graphics performance over the previous generation, super-fast SSDs and up to four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Touch Bar places controls at the user’s fingertips and adapts when using the system or apps like Mail, Finder, Calendar, Numbers, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro X and others, including third-party apps. About the new processors, Apple noted:

With sixth-generation dual-core Core i5 with eDRAM, dual-core Core i7 with eDRAM and quad-core Core i7 Intel processors deliver pro-level processing performance while conserving energy.

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro features Radeon Pro discrete graphics, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with Intel Iris Graphics that are up to two times faster than before. All models feature SSDs with sequential read speeds over 3GBps and Thunderbolt 3, which consolidates data transfer, charging and twice the video bandwidth in a single port — allowing users to drive a 5K display and power their MacBook Pro with a single cable.

Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, noted that this week marked the 25th anniversary of Apple’s first notebook - The Powerbook. He said and claimed,

With the new Touch Bar, the convenience of Touch ID, the best Mac display ever, powerful performance, improved audio, blazing fast storage and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity in our thinnest and lightest pro notebook yet, the new MacBook Pro is the most advanced notebook ever made.

All-metal unibody construction

The new MacBook Pro features a new enclosure design and all-metal unibody construction that creates a rigid and dense notebook that is thin and light. At 14.9 mm thin, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is estimated to be 17 percent thinner and 23 percent less volume than the previous generation, and nearly half a pound lighter at just three pounds.

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro, at 15.5 mm thin, is 14 percent thinner and 20 percent less volume than before, and weighing just four pounds, is nearly half a pound lighter.

Image credit- Apple

Touch ID comes to the Mac

Integrated into the power button is Apple's Touch ID, a security feature already present on iPhones and iPads. Touch ID enables a quick, accurate reading of your fingerprint and uses sophisticated algorithms to recognise and match it with the Secure Enclave in the new Apple T1 chip.

Once a user enrolls their fingerprint in Touch ID on the MacBook Pro, they can quickly unlock their Mac, switch user accounts and make secure purchases with Apple Pay on the web.

500 nits of brightness

Image credit- Apple

The new Macbook Pro display delivers images that are more vivid, reveal even greater detail and appear more lifelike than ever. As thin as a MacBook display at .88 mm, the Retina display on the new MacBook Pro at 500 nits of brightness, is estimated to be 67 percent brighter than the previous generation, features 67 percent more contrast and is the first Mac notebook display to support a wider color gamut. With power-saving technologies like a larger pixel aperture, a variable refresh rate and more power-efficient LEDs, the display consumes 30 percent less energy than before.

Add-ons

• Larger Force Touch trackpads — 46 percent larger on the 13-inch MacBook Pro and twice as large on the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
• More responsive and comfortable typing on the keyboard with a second-generation butterfly mechanism.
• Louder, more true-to-life sound through speakers with double the dynamic range and improved bass.
• macOS Sierra,desktop operating system, with new features like Siri integration, universal clipboard, Apple Pay on the web and Photos, which helps users rediscover memories and organise their library.

Summary - pricing and availability

Shipping today- The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,499 (in the US), features a 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage.

Shipping in two to three weeks- The 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar and Touch ID starts at $1,799 (in the US), and features a 2.9 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage.

Shipping in two to three weeks- The 15-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,399 (in the US), features the Touch Bar and Touch ID, a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz, 16GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage.

Website- apple.com/macbookpro