MANILA, Philippines – Apple announced a new Macbook Pro at its “Hello Again” event, bringing a redesigned laptop that comes a new Touch Bar feature on its keyboard.

The Macbook Pro’s new display is 67% brighter and has a 67% better contrast ratio. It displays 25% more colors. These developments do not compromise power drain however, as this new Macbook Pro consumes less power than before.

The Touch Bar, meanwhile, is an OLED strip at the top of the keyboard that acts as a software enhancement, providing additional functions to apps on the Macbook Pro. The Touch bar responds to both gesture and tap controls, and features a Touch ID fingerprint authentication module on its right side. This portion is protected by a sapphire glass cover.

The Force Touch trackpad, meanwhile, is also improved and is double the size now. The keyboardis a second generation of the butterfly mechanism keyboard.

Specs and ports

The 15-inch Macbook Pro uses a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, and 2,133mHz of memory. It also uses an ATI Radeon Pro graphics card that carries up to 4GB of RAM. The Macbook Pro can also be bought with up to a 2TB SSD. The 15-inch Macbook Pro also has louder speakers with around twice as much dynamic range.

Meanwhile, the 13-inch Macbook Pro can choose from a Core i5 or i7 processor. it will use the same 2,133 mHZ of memory, in addition to sporting Intel Iris Pro graphics.

Both the 13-inch and 15-inch versions of the new Macbook Pro sport 4 Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C ports, with any of these available to be used as a charging port. While the new Macbook Pro has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, it doesn’t have appear to have SD card slots or other ports.

Apple did say, however, the Thunderbolt USB-C ports can also work as USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA ports, in addition to being a Thunderbolt and power port.

This Macbook Pro is now the thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro in the history of the device. The 13-inch Macbook Pro weighs 3 pounds and is 14.9mm thick.

Both models of the Macbook Pro are also touted to have 10 hours of battery life.

The 13-inch Macbook Pro without the Touch Bar is available starting at $1499, while the 13-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar will be available starting at $1799. The 15-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar will be available starting at $2399. 

– Rappler.com