Watch: A closer look at Apple's late-2016 MacBook Pro lineup

AppleInsider

Apple on Thursday unveiled a trio of MacBook Pro models, each featuring a thin-and-light design and powerful technology the company hopes will spark the interest of everyone from road warriors to professionals. From the Touch Bar to Touch ID to the gigantic Force Touch trackpad, AppleInsider presents a rundown of the line's best features.

Soli

Excellent succinct video.

rob53

I haven't heard anyone talk about TouchID and the Secure Enclave chip interacting with FileVault. I understand FileVault can be easy to break into but will its (hopeful) use of the Secure Enclave provide an unbreakable key for FileVault like it does for the iPhone?

2Cool

The graphics options are very weak for a high end laptop. I have a 2015 MBP and I will be looking at alternative plateforms with better GPU options, i.e., I'm done paying top dollar for secretary no class graphics processing 

rob53

2Cool said:

The graphics options are very weak for a high end laptop. I have a 2015 MBP and I will be looking at alternative plateforms with better GPU options, i.e., I'm done paying top dollar for secretary no class graphics processing 

You need to look at another AI article, http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/27/amd-radeon-pro-450-455-460-chipsets-debuting-in-the-macbook-pro-detailed-benchmarked, that shows how much of a difference the new AMD chipsets make. Find another laptop GPU that can drive two 5K monitors as well as the Retina display. What's a "secretary no class graphics processing" supposed to mean?

Amaury125

does anyone know if the SSD is removable ? if yes I will just go for the 1Tb version and upgrade later to a 2Tb SSD when they become available from third parties.

pulseimages

Does it make sense to max out the 15" MacBook Pro for Photoshop and Lightroom work?

mr o

They're amazing.

Shame they put the Macbook Pro writing back on the screen. It is a bit distracting.

>:x

jumpcutter

The new Macbook Pro is not that great of an improvement. The touch bar is cool but nothing innovative. It is a gimmick. The fact that you can not plug your iPhone into the Macbook Pro is silly. You need an adapter for that. How much will that cost? $79 maybe. That is ridiculous. Or need to buy a Belkin dock for what $200 or more. That is insane. Someone asked about if the flash storage can be replaced... I called Apple sales and was told that the RAM, Flash Storage and the GPU are all soldered onto the Motherboard. The RAM is still at 16 GB limit. No flexibilty for the future if you want to increase your RAM or Flash Storage later. This is an overpriced machine with a gimmick. It took 3 years to create this version of the Macbook Pro, Wow. What a joke. I guess it going to take a year or two more to update the rest of the limited Mac computer line up. Apple really knows what it is doing. Something simple as making sure your iPhone can plug into the Macbook Pro is not an oversight but Apple wanting to increase it's margins. Apple you should be ashamed of yourselves. 

matrix077

jumpcutter said:

The fact that you can not plug your iPhone into the Macbook Pro is silly.  

I stop reading right here.

jsh56

I agree with jumpcutter. Touch Bar is strictly a gimmick. I prefer "point and click" for all of my activities, and now the touch bar requires me to take my hands away from the trackpad and up to the top of the keyboard. Not only does my positioning change, but now I have to look away from the screen and down to the keyboard area which is at a different angle. I’ll never use it nor doubt I’ll buy it. Too bad there’s not a non-touch bar version of the 15". 

And the single port is going to make the laptop less portable, requiring not only a handbag full of adapters to go with you, but perhaps a portable dock you have to lug around. I go from desk to desk or location to location, and the current ports allow me to just take my laptop. Now I’ll need to bring the store with me to be compatible…

And, way too expensive. I can no longer justify a 15" purchase. Again, OFFER A NON TOUCH BAR 15" MACBOOK PRO !!!

bnd10706

I have to say I waited for this to buy a new laptop since I am using a 2008 Macbook thats slowly dying. I am budgeted minded and I was going to cap my purchase at $1500. Here is my dilemma.

The computers are not a very good jump. Even if you take the BASE model with no touch bar, add 16g of Ram (lets face it, thats industry standard) your looking at a $1600 machine, that is overpriced by about $400-600.

I love my macs but its hard to justify the price points when I could get a pretty bad ass windows laptop with much better processing power and graphics power for $1500.

Even more so, to stay with a mac, last years mid level 13' Model is about equal to the new model and cheaper.....

I am sorry Apple, but for the first time I am extremely underwhelmed with your product.

While I think the touch bar is nice, and a lot of the "features" you have are nice, the way you price your hardware, and make it so we cannot add, or remove the ram or the SSD makes it difficult to choose you as the computer of choice.

I feel Apple dropped the ball with this release.

jansabai

Imagine that TrackPad was a nice touch sensitive OLED screen.
Wow...

minisu1980

bnd10706 said:

I love my macs but its hard to justify the price points when I could get a pretty bad ass windows laptop with much better processing power and graphics power for $1500.

That would then run Windows, thus negating the increases in both graphics and processing, then add on the performance hit from whatever anti-virus your going to run. On top of that you will likely be buying another Windows laptop in less than 4 years, not quite the ROI you got with your Macbook. I understand being cost conscious, but you should look at the life cycle of the unit when determining true cost of ownership.

gilly33

jumpcutter said:

The new Macbook Pro is not that great of an improvement. The touch bar is cool but nothing innovative. It is a gimmick. The fact that you can not plug your iPhone into the Macbook Pro is silly. You need an adapter for that. How much will that cost? $79 maybe. That is ridiculous. Or need to buy a Belkin dock for what $200 or more. That is insane. Someone asked about if the flash storage can be replaced... I called Apple sales and was told that the RAM, Flash Storage and the GPU are all soldered onto the Motherboard. The RAM is still at 16 GB limit. No flexibilty for the future if you want to increase your RAM or Flash Storage later. This is an overpriced machine with a gimmick. It took 3 years to create this version of the Macbook Pro, Wow. What a joke. I guess it going to take a year or two more to update the rest of the limited Mac computer line up. Apple really knows what it is doing. Something simple as making sure your iPhone can plug into the Macbook Pro is not an oversight but Apple wanting to increase it's margins. Apple you should be ashamed of yourselves. 

"The touch bar is cool but nothing innovative. It is a gimmick." Ok then what would be innovative and not a gimmick in your book? Please share with the rest of us. It better be something that I want to buy. Do a mock up and then create it. Start your own PC company. Why wait for Apple to do it. 

gilly33

Hey I'm no expert like most you guys sound in here. The Pros look amazing to me a 'novice'. I read people complaining about graphics and how thinness effects stuff from being removable, and price points. Are they Windows PCs out there that have these things beat on innovation, price point and so on. I hear HP makes one that is the thinnest there is?

rzindubs

I was looking forward to the MBP release yesterday. The pricing of the units is insane. Macs used to be good value but I don't think that's the case anymore. I will unfortunately will not be buying one for personal use. It's not a question of affording one, it's just that's it's not good value. A 13" MBP with 16MB Ram is $2,600 CDN and a 15" MBP is $3,300 CDN after taxes. Considering keeping a computer for 5 years brings the realistic price to $500 to $660 annually. Between my iPhone, Apple TV and MacBook Air. I'm just not seeing a rallying point to upgrade unfortunately. 

Will continue to use my Macbook Air, which is suiting my needs fine at the moment. Apple, you're pricing yourself out of reach for the consumer market. 

Soli

rzindubs said:

I was looking forward to the MBP release yesterday. The pricing of the units is insane. Macs used to be good value but I don't think that's the case anymore. I will unfortunately will not be buying one for personal use. It's not a question of affording one, it's just that's it's not good value. A 13" MBP with 16MB Ram is $2,600 CDN and a 15" MBP is $3,300 CDN after taxes. Considering keeping a computer for 5 years brings the realistic price to $500 to $660 annually. Between my iPhone, Apple TV and MacBook Air. I'm just not seeing a rallying point to upgrade unfortunately. 

Will continue to use my Macbook Air, which is suiting my needs fine at the moment. Apple, you're pricing yourself out of reach for the consumer market. 

How much would a MBP from Wednesday have cost you for the same RAM, storage, CPU tier, etc? I thought the jump in price is around $200. If that's the case and you've said you'd use if for 5 years, is $40 per year, $3.33 per month, or 10¢ per day really worth slowing down your work efficiency because you're sticking with a MBA?

rzindubs

Soli said:

rzindubs said:

I was looking forward to the MBP release yesterday. The pricing of the units is insane. Macs used to be good value but I don't think that's the case anymore. I will unfortunately will not be buying one for personal use. It's not a question of affording one, it's just that's it's not good value. A 13" MBP with 16MB Ram is $2,600 CDN and a 15" MBP is $3,300 CDN after taxes. Considering keeping a computer for 5 years brings the realistic price to $500 to $660 annually. Between my iPhone, Apple TV and MacBook Air. I'm just not seeing a rallying point to upgrade unfortunately. 

Will continue to use my Macbook Air, which is suiting my needs fine at the moment. Apple, you're pricing yourself out of reach for the consumer market. 

How much would a MBP from Wednesday have cost you for the same RAM, storage, CPU tier, etc? I thought the jump in price is around $200. If that's the case and you've said you'd use if for 5 years, is $40 per year, $3.33 per month, or 10¢ per day really worth slowing down your work efficiency because you're sticking with a MBA?

Good question. The 13" is about $300 more and the 15" is about $400 more than current pricing here based on current exchange rates. I was probably expecting the costs to be inline with the existing models or with the typical flat pricing of new iPhones every year. I have no doubt that the hardware is excellent, it's just that the investment is more that I expected or for what I really need. I've typically gone for the MBP as it's a fast machine that will last a long time.

The MBA I have is a work computer for light business work/browsing. In that case the 2016 13" MBA is probably the Mac that makes the most sense for my needs. 

Cheers!

chelin

16GB was on the tiny side 4 years later it is just pure Meh!

really really disappointed I do not care if my laptop is thin as a sheet of paper, but if it can't do my job then I seriously have to look for a Pro alternative. Had hope to upgrade this year..

welshdog

2Cool said:

The graphics options are very weak for a high end laptop. I have a 2015 MBP and I will be looking at alternative plateforms with better GPU options, i.e., I'm done paying top dollar for secretary no class graphics processing 

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