Apple Unveils New MacBook Pro With OLED 'Touch Bar'

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Apple has unveiled a new MacBook Pro that has what the company is calling a "TouchBar." Oviously this isn't very exciting considering everyone has known for months about this but it still gives Apple's faithful following a reason to upgrade.

While the overall design of both laptops looks similar to what came before, there's some significant refinement here. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is 14.9mm thin (17 percent skinnier than before), has 23 percent less volume and comes in at just 3 pounds. The 15-inch model is 15.5mm thin (14 percent less than before) and has reduced its volume by 20 percent. Overall, that bigger version is just four pounds.
 
Now if they'd make it with a full display capable trackpad that would be interesting for such purposes but, that limited strip there at the top of the keyboard will come in handy for some folks I'm sure. Watching that DJ during the event make music just kinda looked a bit silly to me to be honest but it worked for him so, I suppose that's what counts.

If they truly wanted to re-invent their laptops, it's going to take a lot more than just removing the physical function keys IMO.
 
The touch bar feels like an intern's pet project that got out of control. It's also not strictly a new idea, Lenovo tried a prototype of this on their X1 Carbon ultrabook a couple of years ago and it was universally hated. It's not the display aspect so much as it's just a tactile-less strip that keys come and go at will, and the software has to be 100% in tune with the strip and what to display, which on the X1 was questionable at best.

The Retina laptops we see at work tend to get pretty banged up, making them even THINNER is going to result in more laptops getting broken in bags etc. Joy!
 
I think the TouchBar looks pretty slick. Looks like they weren't brave enough to remove the 3.5mm jack from the side, though, and I'm not really a fan of the apparent lack of dedicated charging port.

The function keys are available on the absolute base 13" model, but you only get two Thunderbolt ports with that.

That said ... not for me.
 
This is a big FU to anyone developing on MacBook Pros. I use function keys like once every minute when I am writing code.
 
meh. im not a fan of the prices and thus forcing us to take the crappy AMD chips in the 15 inch version. but i will still buy it @ some point.
 
The second gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon had a similar touchbar. It was not popular and they reverted back to actual keys the next generation.

In other words, this is not a new idea. And it's not a good idea either.

keyboard.png
 
Tiberian said:
Now if they'd make it with a full display capable trackpad that would be interesting for such purposes but, that limited strip there at the top of the keyboard will come in handy for some folks I'm sure. Watching that DJ during the event make music just kinda looked a bit silly to me to be honest but it worked for him so, I suppose that's what counts.

If they truly wanted to re-invent their laptops, it's going to take a lot more than just removing the physical function keys IMO.
Click to expand...

DJing software such as Serato has been having a lot of issues with newer Mac OS's. Some DJ's looking for reliability are sticking with the older OS's and not upgrading their hardware, or moving to PC (with an Intel CPU). The last thing they want during a routine is something not to be dependable, which ironically used to be the problem on the PC end of DJing.
 
Nice, but I still think HP has the best looking laptop on the market now (Sceptre X360).

I'd love an Apple Laptop, but I need one about a grand less than this but still well equipped.
 
The prices are ridiculous. Perhaps I haven't shopped laptops in a while, but the pro 15" version with toucher stars at 2799 and once you add a 1TB drive and faster processor with 4GB video memory it's up to $3499. You can't add more than 16GB of memory either. Is this comparable to PC's?
 
I've thought for some time that it would be cool if we had a standard keyboard api to control lights and key backgrounds (presumably some keyboards will support displaying an image for each key). Then games or apps or whatever could highlight some keys as appropriate and either your keyboard supports coloring the keys or swapping pictures or doesn't, and life goes on. But I wanted to keep them as keys. Otherwise you could just make a keyboard shaped ipad and be done, but you'd lose the ability to actually press keys which I think would be a big loss.

The programmable strip on top seems ok to me, but part of me thinks maybe a screen behind the touchpad (a little 3ds like) or just a touch screen monitor would have more utility. It's just unfortunate if it's gimmicky and not included on every product they sell going forwards it won't be well supported. That said, maybe it's actually pretty nice. I will have to try it out.
 
And there's no ESC key... And they're using the previous gen sky lake processors, and nowhere near top tier GPU.. And 16GB MAX?! And 4 USBC ports for everything (1 to charge the laptop, 1 to gigE, 1 to external display and one to your phone. Need to plug in a thumb drive, CANT! And you need dongles for everything you currently own. And it is about 500-1000 more than it should be, it is even more expensive than the older versions. I am NOT an apple hater (my daily driver is an iPhone 6, have 2 iPads a pro and an air and a rMBP) but this is just so underwhelming and overpriced. Not even a single USB to USBC adapter in the box to connect your iPhone!
 
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Well I think you know whats comming next. They will replace the keyboard with a touch screen and that will be the end of the keyboards all together. Since the keyboard is the last thing apple still has.
 
andrewaggb said:
I've thought for some time that it would be cool if we had a standard keyboard api to control lights and key backgrounds (presumably some keyboards will support displaying an image for each key)
Click to expand...
Didn't the Optimus Maximus keyboard try that and fall flat?
 
Cmdrmonkey said:
The second gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon had a similar touchbar. It was not popular and they reverted back to actual keys the next generation.

In other words, this is not a new idea. And it's not a good idea either.

keyboard.png
Click to expand...

Since when has Apple had new ideas? More to the point , since when has one company's attempt at an idea failing had any consequence to Apple? Because Apple have control over the OS and the hardware, they can implement these things more seamlessly, and because their fanbase is so unobjectively loyal, whatever idea they push out 'just works', broken in concept or not.
 
Ahh, time for another Apple thread, where this forum collectively loses its shit and can't believe that people might have good reason to use or appreciate Apple products.

Cmdrmonkey said:
The second gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon had a similar touchbar. It was not popular and they reverted back to actual keys the next generation.

In other words, this is not a new idea. And it's not a good idea either.
Click to expand...

You're channeling your fellow CmdrTaco with this one.
 
Although I do enjoy a larger touchpad... this one might be too large.

I can see my own palms hitting it occasionally while typing.

Hopefully it won't be like so. I plan on picking one up this holiday season.
 
Touchbar feature is useless once you add secondary/multiple displays and external KB/mouse. Unless you like using the laptop keyboard with external displays.

Or they'll sell a new Apple keyboard with built in touch bar!
 
mwroobel said:
And they're using the previous gen sky lake processors, and nowhere near top tier GPU..
Click to expand...

How can you tell they're using older skylake processors?
mwroobel said:
And there's no ESC key... And they're using the previous gen sky lake processors, and nowhere near top tier GPU.. And 16GB MAX?! And 4 USBC ports for everything (1 to charge the laptop, 1 to gigE, 1 to external display and one to your phone. Need to plug in a thumb drive, CANT! And you need dongles for everything you currently own. And it is about 500-1000 more than it should be, it is even more expensive than the older versions. I am NOT an apple hater (my daily driver is an iPhone 6, have 2 iPads a pro and an air and a rMBP) but this is just so underwhelming and overpriced. Not even a single USB to USBC adapter in the box to connect your iPhone!
Click to expand...
 
Cmdrmonkey said:
The second gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon had a similar touchbar. It was not popular and they reverted back to actual keys the next generation.

In other words, this is not a new idea. And it's not a good idea either.
Click to expand...

The adaptive keys wasn't the only complaint about that machine's keyboard. They also got rid of Caps Lock and Insert. Not to mention the driver for it was very buggy, so chances are the keys didn't work right or worse case took the entire keyboard out when it crashed.
 
pgwalsh said:
How can you tell they're using older skylake processors?
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Because you can tell from both clock speed and which Iris Pro version they are using.

Both pointing at the original Sky lake. Also, Kaby lake doesn't even have Quad-Core version...

I don't even know why people complain about not using latest? Since it's not even out yet.
 
Up until recently, Razer offered a numpad-sized touch-display plus neighboring Optimus-like LED keys in their 17" laptop. They still offer a standalone keyboard with that same design & functionality.

Novelty or not, adding a touch-display device of any size will drive up the cost of the product. I think the reason why Razer abandoned the in-keyboard touchscreen concept (other than cost) is that a full-on touchscreen display makes auxillary ones redundant. It helps that the quality of touchscreen displays has improved greatly over the past few years. Quality touchscreen technology is also probably why the Microsoft Surface exists. If you want that kind of swipe, pinch & zoom, etc. functionality, then why go small?

The only argument I can come up with favoring the Apple touch bar vs full-on touchscreen is that you don't have to worry about pivoting the screen back when you push too hard. That and fingerprints. Well, you're still gonna end up with fingerprints on the touch bar, but I don't think it's nearly as distracting.
 
I think that apple will have more success with their oled function key display than lenovo because it seems apple has tailored it to work with menu selections and key functions of programs better than lenovo did.
It is interesting because lenovo did not do a bad job on their implementation. so who knows.

I do hope apple opens up their API to other developers, but they're probably gonna pull an apple app store insane requirements BS and make it impossible for anyone other than the big boys to develop for.

It really does seem stupid that they did not also implement a touch digitizer on the LCD as well. scrolling through photos, messing around in google earth, and page flipping is one of the main benefits of touch screen laptops.
A gigantic glass touch screen creates a big fingerprint smudge magnet, so maybe that's their reasoning.
 
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This is another pretty pathetic effort.

I really want to buy some kind of damn Mac for development but Apple just makes it impossible vs. a PC when you compare the prices and specs.
 
I just picked up a loaded 2015 13" Retina MBP from a guy that was all hysterical about upgrading to the new hotness. PCIe storage is the shit.
 
Oof. Apple's prices, what a fucking rip.

13" Macbook Pro. 3lbs. 2.0Ghz i5 with Intel Graphics. SIXTH GENERATION. (Skylake) 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD. Only two USB C ports, meaning you'll need a hub or dongle for everything.

$1499.99 WITHOUT the Touch strip.

And I cannot find ANYWHERE what resolution the LCD is. Why is Apple hiding this?

13" with Touch Bar. 2.9Ghz i5, still Intel Graphics. Still Sixth Gen. 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD. Four type C ports.

$1799.99.

Versus

12.5" Razer Blade Stealth. 2.85lbs. 2.7Ghz i7 with Intel Graphics. SEVENTH GENERATION. (Kaby Lake) 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD, USB 3.1 C/Thunderbolt 3 Port with two USB 3.0 A type Ports, HDMI Out.

$1249.99

LCD is 2560x1440 and multitouch on the Blade. 70% Adobe RGB (which Apple doesn't mention on theirs, big red flag)

You can go up to 512GB SSD for the same above specs for $1399.99.

Or down to 8GB Ram, 128GB SSD for the same above specs for $999.99

Screen upgrade to 4K, 100% Adobe RGB, 512GB SSD, 16GB Ram: $1599.99

Screen upgrade to 4K, 1TB SSD, 16GB Ram: $1999.99.

Apple's MacBook Pros are outclassed by an existing, already available release that is CHEAPER.
 
rat said:
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And I cannot find ANYWHERE what resolution the LCD is. Why is Apple hiding this?

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Click to expand...
Resolution on any Retina 13" MBP is 2560x1600. Apple's site lists the new MBP as Retina models.
 
rat said:
Oof. Apple's prices, what a fucking rip.

13" Macbook Pro. 3lbs. 2.0Ghz i5 with Intel Graphics. SIXTH GENERATION. (Skylake) 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD. Only two USB C ports, meaning you'll need a hub or dongle for everything.

$1499.99 WITHOUT the Touch strip.

And I cannot find ANYWHERE what resolution the LCD is. Why is Apple hiding this?

13" with Touch Bar. 2.9Ghz i5, still Intel Graphics. Still Sixth Gen. 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD. Four type C ports.

$1799.99.

Versus

12.5" Razer Blade Stealth. 2.85lbs. 2.7Ghz i7 with Intel Graphics. SEVENTH GENERATION. (Kaby Lake) 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD, USB 3.1 C/Thunderbolt 3 Port with two USB 3.0 A type Ports, HDMI Out.

$1249.99
Click to expand...

I want to trash Apple on this one as much as I can, but sometime it just going too far.
There is NO QUADCORE KabyLake...

KabyLake is just a some simple optimization of skylake, there isn't any point of downgrade to dual core for no apparently reason.

For touch screen, I honestly can't give a fuck about it since I haven't even used my laptop's touch screen since I got it. It's practically useless and only dirty the screen badly.
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The usage of USB type C on all port is just plane stupid, and why the fuck they even took out the MagSafe? It's such a brilliant thing to have without dragging your laptop to the floor every time when someone trip over the cable. Both Human and Laptop will be on the FLOOR. Dumbing down too much. Not to mention the SD Card slot disappeared as well with weak ass GPU. The $400 price increase just make my decision of keeping 2015 rMBP even more appealing.
 
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