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15-inch MacBook Pro with Force Touch, and cheaper $1999 27-inch Retina iMac, officially launched

mbp-15

Yesterday’s report of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Force Touch trackpad, together with a new 27-inch iMac, have been confirmed via an official announcement by Apple.

Apple today updated the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, longer battery life and faster discrete graphics, delivering even more performance and capabilities to the MacBook Pro line. Apple also today introduced a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display featuring a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, quad-core processors and AMD graphics, and lowered the price of the top-end iMac with Retina 5K display to $2,299.

While the upgrade to the latest Broadwell Haswell processor doesn’t show a speed-bump, Apple says that the flash storage is 2.5 times faster and greater power efficiency provides an extra hour of battery-life … 

The flash storage now offers throughput of up to 2GB/s, and Apple also says that the discrete graphics is up to 80% faster using new AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics. Battery life is up from 8 hours to 9 hours. In real-life use, the updated model is likely to feel significantly faster than the one it’s just replaced.

Starting price of the 15-inch MacBook Pro is unchanged at $1999. That gets you a 2.2GHz quad-core i7 (with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz), 16GB RAM, the much faster 256GB PCIe-based flash storage and the same Intel Iris Pro graphics card as the previous model. Both processor and storage can be upgraded (to 2.8GHz and 1TB PCIe flash).

The $2,499 model gets you a processor bump to 2.5GHz, the new R9 M370X graphics card with 2GB GDDR5 memory – and doubles the flash storage to 512GB. Maxed-out specs are the same 2.8GHz processor and 1TB flash storage.

Apple added a Force Touch trackpad to the 13-inch MacBook Pro back in March, with the 15-inch version catching up today.

Both models are listed now in Apple’s online store, with 1-day delivery on the base model and 1-3 days on its beefier brother.

imac

The 27-inch iMac with Retina display has seen a big price-cut, with the base level machine reduced from $2499 to $1999 – a surprising drop for a machine first introduced just seven months ago.

With a resolution of 5120 x 2880, the new $1,999 iMac with Retina 5K display has 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display, and features a 3.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost Speeds up to 3.7 GHz and AMD Radeon R9 M290 graphics. The new iMac also includes 8GB of memory and 1TB of storage, as well as four USB 3.0 ports and two Thunderbolt 2 ports that deliver up to 20Gbps each, twice the bandwidth of the previous generation.

However, the price cut isn’t a free lunch: the CPU speed has been cut from 3.5GHz to 3.3GHz (with no option to upgrade), and the fusion drive has been replaced by a conventional 1TB hard drive, so expect the new model to feel a little slower than the original entry-level machine. You do, though, get an AMD Radeon R9 M290 graphics card with 2GB RAM.

The top-end machine is now just $2,299, getting you a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, the same AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics card and your 1TB drive is a fusion one.

Both machines are listed in the online store, with 1-day shipping shown for the base model and ‘in stock’ for the more powerful machine.

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Comments

  1. Kingu Prima - 9 years ago

    Better waiting for SkyLake

  2. No mention on the MBP 15 price?

  3. andredewaard1991 - 9 years ago

    Wow, Flash 2.5 times faster? previous macbook pro has already speeds of writing: 600MB/s and reading 720MB/s.

  4. I know I may be jumping the gun here, but is that desktop wallpaper a hint at what it will be for the next version of OS X announced at WWDC? Might help with guessing what it will be called. Hint hint ;)

    • bipedxing - 9 years ago

      That’s one of the wallpapers that was released with the Retina iMac launch last year. So if it is as you say, they’ve been hinting for a while.

      • Ah ok thanks for responding bipedxing! Didn’t realise it was already used. Just had not seen it before which is why I raised it. Still be curious to know what they’ll name the next version of OS X, hopefully there’ll be hints soon.

      • Brandon Trout - 9 years ago

        Where can we find that wallpaper, do you know? Cheers.

      • chroniktronik - 9 years ago

        The wallpaper on the iMac yes, but the wallpaper above it on the 15″ rMBP looks new to me.

  5. Julian (@thejulianw) - 9 years ago

    There go my hopes for a radically new 15″ rMBP for WWDC :(

    • luckydcxx - 9 years ago

      This is good news. Better off waiting for skylake for a redesign. these are still using Haswell processors.

      • FTA
        “While the upgrade to the latest Broadwell processor doesn’t show a speed-bump, Apple says that the flash storage is 2.5 times faster and greater power efficiency provides an extra hour of battery-life … ”

        Maybe you meant that the jump is not significant, but it seems that they are going to have Broadwell.

      • Kelly Lehman - 9 years ago

        Haswell and Broadwell have the same microarchitecture. The big difference is in the fab 22 nm vs 14 nm. This largely effects power consumption and heat generation.

      • Re-read the article. They’ve updated it. It’s Haswell.

    • iAlborz - 9 years ago

      radical like the new MacBooks? or radical like with holographic display?
      there was no mention of a change besides speed bums for the 15″ retina…

  6. Apaches911 - 9 years ago

    YAY! time to get the credit card out. First though, I need bootcamp! My current rig is a 2011 MBP maxed out and running Windows 7 on boortcamp (so I am going to appreciate the speed bump for sure!). I read somewhere that WIndows 7 is no longer supported in Bootcamp on new MBPs. Presumably lots of readers are using bootcamp so can I get some advice please? Windows 8? wait for Windows 10? Are there any major issues? Will the force touch touch pad work properly in Windows?

    Before anyone gets snarky saying why use windows, we need to use CAD software not available in OSX!

  7. I think the SSD for the iMac 5k got more expensive!

  8. tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

    Worthless upgrade. Apple should allow user-end upgradeability/expandability. Restricting access for users would be a great disappointment since users like me would never upgrade each year when new Mac comes out. Over 65% users target for long-term use and not a short-term, As a result of that Apple should consider allowing the users to upgrade without restricting access to RAM, Processor, Hard Drive and Graphic Card.

    • I agree fully with your entire statement. I think it’s nuts to charge $2,000-$2,400 for a computer that can NOT be upgraded at all. The storage and RAM traditionally are the things users look to upgrade. I’m pleased that the MBP comes standard with 16 GB RAM, but if I’m spending that amount of money on a laptop I’m not going to even consider getting another for at least four years, probably five. Towards the end of that time I would want to add more memory for sure, as I did with my 2011 MBP 13. I upgraded it to 8 GB RAM and a 240 GB SSD and it felt like a new computer, all for under $220.

      I really want a 15″ MBP, but I won’t be getting it anytime soon. It’s not the money, it’s my perceived value. I don’t want a 2015 $2,400 computer that I can’t bump to 24 GB RAM or add more storage in 2017/18. Just like I don’t want a $1,200 computer that has no ports.

      • tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

        It’s true, But when during Steve Job’s term as CEO, He allowed users to upgrade Processor and Graphic Card on the iMac 2009-2011 as well among other (except MacBooks) models until Tim took over as CEO suddenly everything got changed even their policy is changed for upgrade. Now they’re forcing users to upgrade to new computer if they wanted better performance, I guess it’s a very unfair treatment from Apple. If they don’t change their policy, I would be forced to switch to Windows PC in next term for my new computer. Horrible Tim.

      • i Agree..!!! So True..!!!

      • djfriar - 9 years ago

        Unless this update changed something, the SSD is user replaceable, but nothing else. That said, I don’t think it’s nearly the big deal it used to be. I’ve been running 16GB of RAM for 4 years now, and have yet to feel I needed more. While I understand its hard to let go of the “I can upgrade it myself to make it better” mentality from the past, the truth is the shelf life for these out of the box is much longer than they used to be (Especially compared to older Windows machines). The mid-2009 models aren’t that much slower than today’s models. Throw an SSD in the older ones, and that gap is even less noticeable. True, if you are doing something computationally heavy all the time, then maybe raw performance will matter more, but for just using a computer how normal people do (not us tech types), the lack of upgradeability really is a non-issue, and they are still cheaper in the end to own/operate then their Windows counterparts.

      • Matthew Judy - 9 years ago

        I believe that 16GB is the maximum that the MBP’s chipset supports, so you wouldn’t be able to add more memory, even if it were user-replaceable. If the chipset supported 32GB, I’m sure Apple would make that an option.

        I definitely would want to upgrade the flash storage at some point, though.

    • There are many reasons why apple are the richest company in the world – not letting Joe Public upgrade or alter what they have bought is one of them.

      • tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

        @AuntyTroll They have become richest all is from the iOS sales mostly. Mac is still not the world’s most sold device yet.

      • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

        Apple is wealthy is due largely to iPhone sales. That’s their biggest money maker. While Mac sales has been steadily going up, they need to kick it up a couple of notches and release higher end i7 headless units. While I like the new iMacs. I would much prefer to buy a higher end headless unit, get a 5K display and do things that way. I have an iMac and the thing that I don’t like is if it needs to be serviced, I have to bring the entire unit when the display is fine.

        It would be great if Apple did a tower design, but the problem is that they would have the same problems by having to stuff big power supplies with lots of fans.

        I’m personally thinking about just buying a CalDigit, Promise or some other external RAID 5 box that’s bootable under OS X and then just not relying on internal storage. That way, i can have storage that’s fast, reliable and transferable from machine to machine without having to transfer date each time I upgrade the computer. Yeah, it would be nice to be able to throw in any GPU card, but the problem is that these GPU mfg simply don’t want to have to write OS X drivers for each cards they make.

      • djfriar - 9 years ago

        @RichDavis9 I am fine wit the speeds of the internal SSD, and I have a nightly clone job that runs for backup redundancy. If i get a new machine, I just boot from my clone backup, and have CCC clone it to the factory drive in the new machine. Takes about an hour and I can still work from the old machine while it is working. All my normal documents and such sync via Dropbox, so once the clone comes back up, I just rename the machine to something unique and then Dropbox will sync any changes I made while it was being setup.

        Unless you are doing some crazy video editing stuff, I don’t think those external RAIDs are worth the cost just yet, but then I’m a relatively normal user, I’m not doing to much power work aside from some photography stuff.

      • M - 9 years ago

        Complete bullshit. Apple isn’t the most successful company in the world because of lack of upgradeability in their mac line. The entire Mac line is almost negligible in terms of their total revenues, and those who have any desire to upgrade a pro machine are a tiny sliver of even that. And if it WAS really such a big issue, people wouldn’t buy the machines in the first place. But keep trolling and telling yourself that that’s why Apple is rich.

    • rick gregory (@rickg) - 9 years ago

      Fewer that 5% of people do component upgrades, though. This was overall (Mac and Windows), but it’s a small percentage. Offsetting that are the people who want things thin, light etc. Soldering components on means it’s easier to make the thing smaller, lighter etc.

      • tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

        The new (i)Macs, Are soldered components which makes users impossible to upgrade to newer version of processor. But in my iMac 2009 version i can upgrade to Broadwell Processor if i wanted too (however, this may be incompatible with the motherboard).

        I’m hoping that Apple willing to grant access to components (RAM, Processor, Graphic Card and Hard Drive) easier than before. Unfortunately I’m losing faith in Apple each time when they release new Mac they’re soldering the components into motherboard this means in case of failure of a component it will forcibly break your bank and buy new Mac which cannot be repaired through Applecare or user-end.

  9. I’m surprised they’re using slower ram in the 15″ than they are in the 13″. That seems very odd to me

  10. Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

    When is Apple going to get off their asses and release some higher end i7 headless units that use the latest 8 core processors, up to 64GB of RAM, etc. etc.? They really need to step to the plate and do that. I see a huge potential market for the prosumer class headless unit.

    • tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

      Actually, Intel core i7 max for consumer-entry, If you’re going for the 8-core processor, then you may need to go for workstation version which is Mac Pro they have up to 12-cores Xeon and 128GB of RAM.

      I do not think Apple will go for 8-cores for consumer-entry, Mostly they’d go for quad-core. If they bring an option for upgradeability for Processor and Graphic Card, there may be third parties willing to allow you to run 8 core processor on your consumer-entry Mac.

    • djfriar - 9 years ago

      You say headless, but I think you are really wanting enthusiast upgradeable. They sell a headless machine, its called the Mac Mini. But like tonyadams669 said, you really are talking about Workstation class machines in your description, which they sell as the Mac Pro.

      I don’t know why people keep beating this same drum. They are not going to release a consumer upgradeable hobby station. It goes completely against everything that Apple is trying to do and their core philosphies. If you want to tinker with the components, then you need to go to the Linux/Windows world. That isn’t Apple, they are the polar opposite of that mentality and have been for close to 20 years now.

  11. No USB-C port? (and no USB-C charger cable for Apple Watch yet either).

    • Yes, very weird. Apple does questionable things. If USB-C is “the present and future” why not include it in the newest computer when they just included it in the Macbook?

      • Matthew Judy - 9 years ago

        Because on a MacBook Pro, you have independent power, Thunderbolt, and USB3 ports. I think it’s great that Apple are clearly establishing the specific use case for USB-C.

  12. simonhestermann - 9 years ago

    I’m hoping the iMac changes are a hint for a new Mac Pro model!

    • tonyadams669 - 9 years ago

      For next 3 years you won’t get new Mac Pro. Apple releases each 4 years compared to consumer-entry machines. Workstation-class machines are not being released each year with new upgrades.

  13. I have the 2014 15′ MBP all maxed out. That means the MGXG2 2,8 intel i7 4980HQ + 1 TB PCIe SSD. It seems I bought it in the right time, the new 2015 15′ MBP doesn’t change a thing, except for the force trackpad (easily solved with an external force trackpad when available or changing the trackpad internally) and the PCIe storage. So that’s my question, does anybody know if the new PCIe storage that supposedly goes to up to 2 GB/s (probably only on the 1 TB drive since mine is already up to 1 GB/s and ssds tend to be faster as more memory they have) will fit into my MBP when I consider spec it up a bit in the nearby future? That would be nice. In theory should be all ok, but it’d be really nice to know. My motherboard may not accept it due to drivers/PCI lanes or whatever, so an expert guess would be good on this! 2GB/s makes quite a difference, it’s 2 times the speed and that’s not the case in processor ticks and tocks (generally 10% gains with each new architecture).

    Also, I wouldn’t consider to buy a MBP now since the biggest bump will be with skylake and actually this processor core (crystal well) is one of the more stable releases from intel, in a very matured architecture (revision from 1st gen Haswell core), no wonder they chosen it over the problems Broadwell family line seems to have for the moment in the the beefier processor needs.

    My question is important, cause it would mean someone buying an used one in a year could get barely the same computer as the one now on the shelves and probably until the late of the year (if exchanged the updated PCIe), therefore, making a better deal.

  14. Winky225 (@Winky225) - 9 years ago

    Is this MacBook Pro going to be the new model for this year or will Apple likely announce something brand new? I am in the middle of deciding which MacBook Pro to get and am not sure if something newer will be announced in June.

    My current MacBook Pro is a mid 2010 model so I know I am due, however, I would like to hold off and see if something else is coming doing the pipeline.

    Thoughts anyone?

    Thanks!

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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