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No New MacBook Airs as Apple Instead Makes Lower-End, $1,500 MacBook Pro (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shut-up-and-dance dept.

Alongside the two new MacBook Pros, Apple also unveiled a refresh for its popular MacBook Air lineup. The company is calling this: the MacBook Pro, same branding as the other two MacBook Pros. It's a lower-end version of the new MacBook Pros, with no "Touch Bar" (or the Touch ID) and is powered by a slightly slower processor. Starting at $1,499, this MacBook Pro model is slightly cheaper too, though. From an ArsTechnica report:Apple said it will continue selling the existing 13" MacBook Air, but the company made a point of comparing that model to this new lower-end Pro, putting it somewhere between the Air and the other Pros in the lineup. The new 13" MacBook Pro starts at $1,499 and will begin shipping today. The new higher-end Pros will start at $1,799 for the 13" model and $2,399 for the 15" model while shipping in two to three weeks. If you don't select any hardware upgrades, the low-end 13" Pro has a sixth-generation Intel Core i5 processor with dual cores clocked at 2.0GHz, Intel Iris Graphics 540, 8GB memory, and 256GB SSD. It is available in space grey and silver, and it can cost up to $2,599 if you select the highest CPU, memory, and storage upgrades. Those available upgrades include a 2.4GHz Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage. The new 13" laptop has a 2560x1600 Retina display, two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, and a headphone jack. It has the same Force Touch trackpad and redesigned keyboard as the higher-end models despite not integrating the Touch Bar and Touch ID.

22 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. I hope Apple knows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    As of the latest surface announcements, Microsoft is ahead of them hardware-wise in everything except for the iPhone.

    1. Re:I hope Apple knows by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That doesn't matter at all. The vast majority of people don't buy electronics based on the hardware. The Surface is DOA. They are on version 4 and LITERALLY no one is buying them. Even the NFL doesn't want them, and they are getting $100 of millions to use them.

    2. Re:I hope Apple knows by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe they can work on the OS next.

    3. Re:I hope Apple knows by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ^This.

      Any new computer hardware on the market these days is plenty powerful enough to handle anything a typical user might ever want to do.

      That means that unless you're a power user (or video game or VR enthusiast), there's going to be very little difference between your experiences using a modern low-end vs a modern high-end system; either one will work just fine for you.

      So the remaining criterion (other than purchase price) is the quality of the user-experience -- i.e. how much of your time at the computer is spent getting accomplished the things you want to accomplish, and how much is spent dealing with computer problems?

      Minimizing the latter is what Mac users are willing to pay extra for.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    4. Re:I hope Apple knows by bloodhawk · · Score: 2

      perhaps you live in a different universe to the rest of us. Surface Pro's and Surface books have been a massive sales success for them. The NFL issues have nothing to do with Surface devices and everything to do with the application and network connectivity provided to teams.

  2. Bye, MagSafe by beckett · · Score: 5, Interesting

    they removed one of the biggest selling features for me: MagSafe. That one connector has saved my notebook's ass many times, and it's a sad day to see it disappear off notebooks until Apple's magsafe patent expire someday. PreviouslyApple claimed the macbook air was too light for the magnets to separate, but i don't think that argument applies for the heavier macbook pro.

    jerks.

    1. Re:Bye, MagSafe by j-beda · · Score: 3, Insightful

      they removed one of the biggest selling features for me: MagSafe. That one connector has saved my notebook's ass many times, and it's a sad day to see it disappear off notebooks until Apple's magsafe patent expire someday. PreviouslyApple claimed the macbook air was too light for the magnets to separate, but i don't think that argument applies for the heavier macbook pro.

          jerks.

      I like MagSafe too. Looks like Griffin (and others?) are selling magnetic couplers for USB-c ports:

      https://griffintechnology.com/...

    2. Re:Bye, MagSafe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You just lack courage!

    3. Re:Bye, MagSafe by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It makes sense for Apple: one MacBook saved is one less sale for them.
      And I'm not even joking - I would not put this past them.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  3. Only from Apple by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is a $1500 notebook considered "lower end."

    1. Re:Only from Apple by nine-times · · Score: 2

      You: "Only from Ford is a $27k car considered 'lower end'."

      Me: "Yeah, but that's the lower-end *Taurus*. Ford sells cheaper cars. You can get a Fiesta for $14k"

      You: "I didn't say that the Taurus was their low-end car. I said lower end."

      Me: "Yeah, but lower-end *Taurus*."

      You: "Exactly. Lower-end."

      Me: "What the hell are we talking about now?"

  4. Re:Low end? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    I swear to god Apple is like a "stupid" tax.

    Not exactly. Taxes are involuntary: you're required to pay them whether you want to or not. No one is forcing anyone to buy an Apple. People do this entirely willingly, just like they happily and willingly buy or pay for things like cable TV (including premium sports channels), church tithes, horrifically expensive handbags or designer clothes like from Coach or Gucci, Jeeps, or Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

  5. I'll be skipping this generation ... by timholman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've got a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro that's been my workhorse. Between media files and virtual machines, I'm using about 850 GB of a 1 TB hard drive. At my current rate of data expansion, I'll probably break the 1 TB barrier in the next year or so.

    After seeing today's product announcements, it looks like I'll be buying a Samsung 2 TB SSD for my current machine instead, given that the cheapest 2 TB configured MacBook Pro would be a 15" edition at $3800. There is no longer a 13" model to replace what I have.

    I've been a loyal Apple laptop buyer for 15+ years, but the wheels have finally fallen off the wagon for me. I don't need a laptop thin enough to shave with. I want something that will allow me to upgrade the SSD at the very least. And no more Magsafe adapter? I can't count the number of times the Magsafe has saved me from damaging my laptop, not to mention the insanity of having only USB-C on a supposedly professional model.

    So what's the alternative? A Dell? An HP? A Surface? Every bit as bad, or worse. Who would have ever imagined that the entire laptop market would have either cost-cut or over-specialize itself into irrelevance for professional users?

    All I can do is wait and hope that the next iteration of MacBooks will provide a return to sanity.

    1. Re:I'll be skipping this generation ... by timholman · · Score: 2

      Don't hold your breath.

      Yeah, I know. I'm not particularly hopeful either.

      On the other hand, in two to four years we may be seeing Micron's 3-D Xpoint memory moving into the high-end prosumer market. So maybe, just maybe, Apple will market a 13" laptop with several TB of memory before the end of the decade. If I can just keep the current laptop going with an SSD upgrade, I may be able to make it.

  6. NFL is useing a shity web app over wifi in a poor by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    NFL is using a shity web app over wifi in a poor environment for 100% uptime must work wifi. I hope the servers are local and are not being held back by web traffic getting in the way.

  7. Still limited to 16GB of RAM.... by firebeaker · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... no magsafe, no headphone jack, no optical out.

    Not excited.

    --
    -beaker
    1. Re:Still limited to 16GB of RAM.... by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      It has a headphone jack.

      Literally the only good announcement here is that they didn't remove the one thing they stripped from their other flagship device. What a frigging joke. It's good now that I can't connect my phone to my laptop without an adaptor, can't connect my laptop headphones to my phone without an adaptor, and best of all both adaptors are different so I get to pay twice as much for the privilege of nothing being inter-connectable all brought to you by a company who used to have inter-connectivity of their products be a number one selling feature.

  8. mini, imac, mac pro still same price and same old by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    mini, imac, mac pro still same price and same old hardware configs.

  9. That and Unix supported by corporate IT by raymorris · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The last two places I worked, Windows and Mac were the allowed, supported desktop operating systems. Everyone in my group would much prefer Unix over Windows, and Mac is certified Unix.

    My employer before these last two supported one desktop environment, CentOS. It was a security company with a lot pf access to customer networks, so Windows wasn't allowed on the company network.

  10. Re:2 ports and one needs to to be used for power by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I get it that some people do need the extra ports.

    Yes. They're called "Pros."

    But truthfully most people don't and can work fine without it.

    Most people aren't "Pros." For those people, there are options like the MacBook and MacBook Air.

    If Apple wants to sell to "Pros," they need to have a MacBook that does what a Pro wants to do. That means performance--I'm fine with an extra pound of weight if it's 50% faster at rendering images, compiles, etc. I need to be able to charge it while attaching a camera and a USB dongle or external hard drive. That's the sort of thing a "Pro" might do.

    I agree that my Mom isn't going to be doing something like that and there are a lot more people like my Mom than there are people like me. But taking a laptop designed for my Mom and sticking the word "Pro" at the end doesn't suddenly make it a Pro laptop.

    Look, if the "Pro" market isn't big enough for Apple anymore, that's fine. Go out with your head held high and make computers for my Mom. I'm sure she'll love them.

  11. No new Macbook Air? by Photonmaker · · Score: 2

    Dang..my current one is getting dull. What am I going to shave with now?

  12. Re:Escape Key? by cfalcon · · Score: 2

    > She is a vim user

    Is the offspring of a vim user and an emacs user fertile? I don't know if such miscegenation is legal- I would check the POSIX standard to be sure.