Apple reveals the new MacBook Pro
At yesterday's press event, Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro line. If the company wouldn't have accidentally leaked images, we might have been surprised by the fact that the row of function keys is now gone as it has been replaced by an OLED strip called the Touch Bar. The panel includes a Touch ID sensor and its buttons change depending on the application that you're running. Unfortunately, I don't see a viable alternative for the Escape button and that could be problematic.
Both the 13 and the 15-inch versions of MacBook Pro are lighter and smaller than the previous models, sporting an all-aluminum build, and can be purchased in either Space Gray or Silver. The good news is that they still feature an audio jack, but the bad news is that USB-A ports are completely gone, being replaced by Thunderbolt ports. As far as additional design changes go, the HDMI port is gone, the SD card slot is also absent and the Force Trackpad is twice as big as before.
Under the hood, the 13-nch versions feature 8GB of RAM, between 256 and 512 GB of SSD storage, Intel Iris Graphics 540 or Intel Iris Graphics 550 and dual-core Core i5 processors. Depending on your choice, the prices range between $1500 to $2000. The two 15-inch models sport 16 GB of RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 450 Graphics or AMD Radeon Pro 455 Graphics, quad-core Core i7 CPUs, either a SSD with 256 GB or one with 512 GB and cost between $2400 and $2800.
I may be slightly biased, but I was much more impressed by Microsoft's Surface Studio announcement from yesterday.
