Gadgetory

the key thing that struck me about Apple's new MacBook Pro line was that it was much more different than I expected our first saw during the exclusive hands-on walkthrough with a new MacBook Pro several days before Apple's launch event and it was immediately clear this wasn't just the same old MacBook squeezed down into a slightly slimmer package with an updated CPU nearly every part of it has been remade for what is essentially the 10th anniversary edition of this iconic laptop the headline here is the touch bar a slim strip of an OLED display that six above the keyboard it's just 60 pixels high but it's a tool that has the potential to be a Swiss Army knife of laptop input changing itself on-the-fly to work across different apps imitating a series of touch buttons control sliders and even jog dials this is Apple's answer for the question of how to do a Mac version of a touchscreen without actually adding a touchscreen aside from the touch bar the force touch trackpad has been blown up to double its previous size and now dominates the wrist rest even more than before with force touch the pan doesn't actually click down saving space and allowing for thinner laptop designs the keyboard is a major departure for the macbook pro it looks and feels a lot like the very flat very shallow keyboard in the 12 inch macbook i like the 12 inch macbook but putting the same style of keyboard in the macbook pro is going to be a big learning curve for some and some people are just never going to love it the bodies on these new 13-inch and 15-inch models available in traditional silver or now Space Gray are both a few millimeters thinner than before and each is a half pound lighter than the previous versions these are thinner in part because they only have to fit in USB C port four of them for power data accessories video output just remember to bring all your dongles but don't worry the headphone jack is still there for now but you asked what about the MacBook Air with Retina display I've always wanted well there's no new air but there is a compromise Apple also has a less expensive version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro it's got the same updated design keyboard and trackpad but no touch bar that's about as close to a retina MacBook err as you're going to get