The MacBook Pros, including this 15-inch model, have newer Intel processors, the aluminum unibody chassis is both thinner and lighter, the keyboard has been shifted to a flatter design, akin to the 12-inch MacBook, and the trackpad (Apple's touchpad) has doubled in surface area. You can read much more about the Touch Bar experience here.īeyond that, there are a lot of other updates and upgrades that got lost in the noise about USB-C ports and the Touch Bar. At launch, it didn't have the software support to be a must-have productivity tool, but that's slowly changing. The inclusion of a slim touch strip for commands, called the Touch Bar, was also polarizing - it's moderately useful in many circumstances, amazingly so in a handful. Despite it being a near-total refresh of this decade-old line, a good deal of the focus was on complaints about the (still) high price and the switch away from traditional USB and HDMI ports to USB-C/Thunderbolt ports. Much has been written, blogged or Tweeted about Apple's newest laptops, first unveiled in late October 2016. It makes the 13-inch models, which start at $1,499 and $1,799 (£1,449 and £1,749 or AU$2,199 and AU$2,699) seem very reasonably priced in comparison.Ģ,048MB Radeon Pro 455 / 1,536MB Intel HD Graphics 530

The two base configurations of the 15-inch model, however, both include Touch Bar and Touch ID and both start with roughly the same premium features, including four USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, an Intel Core i7 processor and a discrete Radeon Pro graphics card.Īnd that's why the price for each is eye-wateringly expensive, starting at $2,499 (£2,349 or AU$3,599) in the US, and bumping up the processor, storage and GPU for $2,799 (£2,699 or AU$4,249), which is the configuration tested here.

There are two base configurations of the 13-inch Pro - the less expensive stripped-down model, with only two USB-C ports and lacking both the new Touch Bar control strip and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and a premium version, which includes the Touch Bar and Touch ID, better specs and twice as many USB-C ports.

Even though these are all part of the same family, the 15-incher offers important differences from the 13-inch models, starting with the configuration options.

Apple mac pro 2016 review