Apple has now started shipping the first new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar orders with the delivery notifications indicating that the laptops will arrive in people’s hands as soon as Monday, November 14.
Apple originally offered an estimated shipping timeframe of 2-3 weeks with the new MacBook Pro models that first went up for preorder on October 27 following the company’s unveiling.
However, this quickly slipped to 4-5 weeks as customers snatched up the first major design revision to the MacBook Pro in four years. The Apple Store is still reporting 4-5 week delivery times for new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar orders.
Here’s another 15-inch customer receiving shipment confirmation by UPS; often the courier beats Apple to posting the Shipped notifications on the tracking website.
So far, we are yet to receive confirmation of shipments for 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar or non built-to-order 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models. However, we expect all SKUs to be shipping shortly with deliveries across the week.
@9to5mac my shipping notification that came in today for a first day order 15" MBP estimates delivery of Monday pic.twitter.com/dfRqSr3ZBp
— Andrew Rose (@andrewrose_) November 12, 2016
At its October event, Apple relaunched the MacBook Pro line with three new laptops, a cheaper $1499 13-inch laptop and two new MacBook Pro with the new Touch Bar. The former model has been available for some time but the focus is on the ‘revolutionary’ Touch Bar equipped machines.
@9to5mac @reneritchie received shipping notification for the MacBook Pro this morning. pic.twitter.com/12TADqri5l
— Justin L. Fowler (@justinlfowler) November 12, 2016
Instead of physical function keys, the Touch Bar MacBook Pros feature a multitouch OLED screen where the function row usually resides on the keyboard.
This enables Apple to offer dynamic buttons, sliders and contextual widgets relevant to the app the user is currently interacting with on the primary display. We’ve walked through how this works in Apple’s apps already and third-party developers have also started announcing integration with their apps.
All new MacBook Pro’s feature upgraded CPU and GPU options, 100% faster SSD read and write speeds, USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, a larger trackpad and improved speaker system housed in a 20% thinner and smaller chassis enclosure.
My MacBook Pro shipped. pic.twitter.com/38WUOVabBY
— Aaron Zollo (@Zollotech) November 12, 2016
However, the new Pros have not been accepted by the community with open arms, far from it. The products have caused several controversies in the last few weeks. Most notably, Apple has removed all legacy IO (such as traditional USB-A ports, SD card reader and a HDMI port) in favour of Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro has two USB-C ports and the 15-inch model has four. Although the port is much more flexible than what it replaces, some people were upset with the transition as it means customers need to buy an array of dongles, adaptors and new cables in order to connect their new laptop with existing accessories. In response, Apple is holding a temporary sale of USB-C accessories on its website through the end of the year.
Apple has also been criticised for the lack of a 32 GB RAM option (Apple cited battery efficiency concerns) and the general price increases seen with the Touch Bar machines.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts from $1799; the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts from $2399. In terms of buyer response, though, the new laptops are appear to be selling well. Apple announced that the new MacBook Pros set a record for online Apple Store sales and a third-party analytics firm said the new MacBooks bested the rest of the industry in just 5 days.
