It has been four years since Apple updated its MacBook Pro notebook range and existing users have been dying for a refresh. Their prayers have now been answered. Today, Apple announced the new and improved MacBook Pro line that is thinner, lighter and more powerful than the previous generation. Here are the details on the MacBook Pro 2016, the spec sheet and the pricing.
MacBook Pro
As with previous MacBook Pros, the new notebook comes in 13-inch and 15-inch form form factors.
An OLED touchscreen bar sits above the keyboard with dynamically changing icons depending on the context; they change according to what apps you are using and have replaced the row of function keys. This is reminiscent of Lenovo’s X1 Carbon. Apple is selling the base model 13-inch that doesn’t have the OLED touch bar.
For the versions with the Touch Bar, as was previously feared, the Esc key has been removed and folded into the contextual touch bar. This move will likely piss off a lot of regular Linux users because the key is used to exit ‘insert mode’ in Vim, the most commonly-used text editor in Linux.
The MacBook Pro uses a keyboard with what Apple calls a second-generation butterfly mechanism which provides greater comfort and responsiveness. The Force Touch trackpad is significantly larger as well. All of the laptops feature Touch ID.
The speakers on the MacBook Pro has been improved and has twice the dynamic range compared to the last generation.
MacBook Pro uses sixth-generation Intel Core processors and is very much able to perform high-level processing work such as 3D rendering and video encoding. The 15-inch version is especially powerful for graphic intensive tasks. It sports a Radeon Pro 450 graphics card with 2GB memory.
MacBook Pro Specs
| MacBook Pro | |
|---|---|
| OS | Mac OSX Sierra |
| Dimensions | 13-inch: 1.49cm x 30.41cm x 21.24cm 15-inch: 1.55cm x 34.93cm x 24.07cm |
| Weight | 1.37kg (13-inch)/1.83kg (15-inch) |
| Storage | 256GB/512GB/1TB PCIe-based SSD |
| Display | Improved Retina display with 500 nit brightness, higher contrast ratio and 25% more colours than sRGB |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| Processor | 13-inch: 2.0GHz or 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) 15-inch: 2.6GHz or 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz) |
| Graphics | 13-inch: Intel Iris Graphics 540 Radeon Pro 450 with 2GB memory |
| Memory | 13-inch: 8GB 1866MHz DDR4 RAM 15-inch: 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 RAM |
| Thunder Bolt 3 Ports | Base Model 13-inch has 3, the rest has 4. |
Pricing And Availability
The Apple MacBook Pro will set you back $2199 for the base level 13-inch that doesn’t have the touch bar. The 256GB storage version starts from $2699. As for the 15-inch MacBook Pro will cost you $3599 for the 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 256GB storage version. The 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 512GB storage one start from $4249.
You can tailor the specs to some extent, which will alter the cost.
The new Apple MacBook range ships now and buys can expect to receive their purchase within 2-3 weeks. You can buy the new notebooks at Apple Online.
Comments
5 responses to “Apple MacBook Pro 2016: Australian Pricing, Specs And Release Date”
It also happens to be one of the keys needed for the Force Quit combination when a single application or Finder stop responding.
Not exactly a wise move unless the mappings are changed which will be just as bad.
Hot damn, that is a lot of money. It’s going to be pretty hard to convince IT to buy these when our laptops are next due.
As a developer and Apple user for nearly 2 decades, I think they’ve finally jumped the shark here. Given that most of our tools are cross platform these days (as opposed to just a few years ago) We’ll be keeping a Mac Mini or two around purely for IOS builds, and moving to alternative Linux-based notebooks now. The price alone puts them out of contention. The apparent inability (STILL) to go beyond 16GB is a real issue. The lack of an Esc or function keys makes them practically useless.
So long, Sierra, we barely knew you!
Spandas there is a typo in the Storage spec – I think you meant 512 not 152!
I have been thinking about shifting across to a MacBook for a while but the Pros are just getting more and more out of my league price wise. I like the idea of new tech and new ways of doing things but that comes with a risk and the ROI added to the risk is a big factor.
I will go into the Apple store and have a play – but I’m not sure I will ever part with that much cash.
So there is! Sorry about that. Fixed now! Thank you for flagging it 🙂
25% more colors then sRGB
Please can i have the display with Red, Green, Blue and 3/4 of extra color