![]() ![]() Now some of us might start to wonder if the MacBook Pro is a pro notebook, or perhaps a notebook version of the iPad Pro. It’s a “pro” notebook, and it needs to connect many things. Many of us have appreciated the diversity of ports in the last generation MacBook Pro. Photographers, especially the more professional ones, and even the not-so-professional types like myself, use the SD card slot a lot. We aren’t all ready to give up on USB Type-A just right yet. ![]() But I think many of us question Apple’s decision to totally embrace so quickly and so exclusively the new USB-C ports. I’m sure we can all understand the move forward to support USB-C. Are those other legacy ports any less important than the 3.5mm headphone port? Yet, all the other legacy ports were removed from the MacBook Pro. In this year’s iPhones, Apple was so bold as to remove the 3.5mm headphone port, but somehow they felt necessary for it to be retained in the MacBook Pro. This has cooked up a big storm amongst MacBook Pro users, and even heavily criticised by others who don’t use Macs. Everything is now USB-C, safe for that lone 3.5 mm headphone port. Apple’s legendary MagSafe or MagSafe 2 ports are also gone. That means there’s no more legacy USB Type-A ports, no more Mini-DisplayPort or Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 ports, no more HDMI ports, and, no more SD card slot. I’m surprised Apple didn’t make a big issue about how they’re reducing shipping wastage and being more environmentally friendly like they’ve done before. The retail box inside is smaller, naturally because the notebook within is smaller, but there’s less “air space” inside the shipping box too. They still do offer great protection during shipping. This year’s MacBook Pro arrived in smaller shipping boxes. Unboxing Apple hardware is always an experience in itself. The Touch Bar versions became available later, with the 15-inch one last week and the 13-inch one following closely after. It was immediately available after Apple’s unveiling in late October. Those have lower hardware specifications in the base configuration, but the primary difference in the entry-level MacBook Pro is the absence of Touch Bar. I previewed the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro recently. It is the lower-end of two 13-inch Touch Bar versions, with RAM upgraded to 16GB. The unit I have for this review is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. The SSDs are hugely faster, and there are updated processors. The Touch Bar models have a 60 x 2170 pixel OLED touch display with Touch ID sensor integrated into the power button. The new display is brighter and has a wider colour gamut. It’s thinner, less voluminous, and lighter, to begin with. The good thing, though, is that there’s also a lot of things new on the new MacBook Pro. This year, they removed the headphone jack on the new iPhones. The MacBook Pro of 2016 was unveiled with a bunch of stuff missing. ![]() ![]() In 1998, for example, they dropped floppy disks in their then new iMac G3. They put CDROMs on the death row starting from the MacBook Air in 2008. At the same time, some of us might be apprehensive about Apple’s eagerness to throw out old things. New things the new MacBook Pro definitely has plenty of. The last time any spec was refreshed at all was in early 2015, which is longer than what you might even expect from other manufacturers. There are high expectations of this new MacBook Pro, and we’re keen to see what it has brought to the table. After waiting four long years, Apple has finally unveiled a brand new MacBook Pro design. ![]()
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