“Meet the new mainstream MacBook,” Dan Ackerman reports for CNET. “Because the MacBook Air is now living in a form of suspended animation, still on sale, but lacking updated components or a tweaked design, it’s no longer the default mainstream choice. And the tiny 12-inch MacBook is a niche speciality system for frequent travelers who favor portability over flexibility.”
“The new MacBook Pro with Apple’s inventive Touch Bar and Touch ID fingerprint recognition is too expensive to be the go-to MacBook,” Ackerman reports. “It’s a disappointment to miss out on the most headline-grabbing feature of the new MacBook Pro line, but with that one exception, nearly everything else about this system is new… The touchpad, which uses Apple’s Force Touch technology, is twice as big as before. It looks and feels massive, completely dominating the front half of the system interior.”
“There are other compromises besides just the loss of the Touch Bar in this entry-level MacBook Pro. The starting CPU, part of Intel’s sixth-gen of Core i-series chips, is slower than in the $1,799 version. There are only two USB-C ports that need to handle all of your connection needs, including power, data and video output, while the higher-end MacBook Pros get four USB-C ports,” Ackerman reports. “If you were waiting for a MacBook Air upgrade with a Retina display, this is as close as you’re probably going to get. A more Air-like experience may actually be the 12-inch MacBook, which starts at $1,299, halfway between the price of the old Air and the new MacBook Pro. It’s meant for easy travel and is one of the slimmest, lightest laptops you can buy. But, it’s not an all day, every day laptop. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Choices, choices, choices!
SEE ALSO:
The key mission of Apple’s new MacBook Pros – October 28, 2016
TIME Magazine: Apple’s new MacBook Pro Touch Bar is an inventive new way to get work done more quickly – October 28, 2016
Apple does touch right and, as usual, Microsoft does it wrong – October 28, 2016
IBT: Apple’s MacBook Pro Touch Bar is the coolest thing ever; will change the way we use laptops – October 28, 2016
Wired hands on with Apple’s New MacBook Pro: It’s a whole new kind of laptop – October 27, 2016
CNET on the new MacBook Pro: Apple’s amazing strip show reinvents the notebook – October 27, 2016
Hands on with Apple’s new MacBook Pro: Looks and feels so good it’s unreal – October 27, 2016
Apple debuts three new TV ads for all-new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – October 27, 2016
Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro with revolutionary Touch Bar and huge Force Touch trackpad – October 27, 2016
Add another 10-15% to the cost for all of the dongles and adapters so you can connect to the to ethernet and your external HDs. I am not going to be pushing video through wifi to the office servers.
For a pro model, I am happy to take a pro model that is little thicker so I can have more ports, more battery and more ram.
I’m getting more and more depressed about these offerings, these prices, the buzz Microsoft is getting, and the lack of a new iMac. Limbo. Lots of unhappy, disappointed people. Bump in the road, but a seemingly big one.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4015675-a10x-macs-financial-analysis
What the Airs might look like with A10x
I hope Anandtech or someone else clears up this mess in options:
MBP w/o TB, i7 2.4GHz: €2059
MBP w/ TB, i5 2.9GHz: €1999
This makes no sense, the mobile dual core i7s aren’t that much more powerful at the same clock.
F intel for their marketing and pricing mess.