New MacBook Pros ship

Apple just surprised everyone with much-improved processors, Hey Siri support, new True Tone displays, and a range of other enhancements to its MacBook Pro with Touch Bar range.

These new Macs are available now.

“The latest generation MacBook Pro is the fastest and most powerful notebook we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

New features include:

• New Intel processors
• A better butterfly keyboard
• A T2 chip capable of supporting Hey Siri (you can just say this to activate the feature)
• Up to 32GB of memory
• True Tone Displays

The MacBook Pro that has no Touch Bar was not upgraded. The new Macs are available now. 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Barcosts from $1,799, while the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar costs from $2,399.

The chip

The new Intel chip is an 8th-generation Intel Core processor.You’ll find it inside both 15- and 13-inch models. Apple says the processor makes for a 70 percent performance boost on the 6-core 15-inch model and up to twice the performance on the high-end 13-inch MacBook pro with Touch Bar.

[Also read: 10+ Apple MacBook Pro Touch Bar tips]

The keyboard

Apple also upgraded the keyboard, The third-generation of its butterfly design should be more reliable and less prone to dust making keys stick.

Hey Siri

The T2 chip handles Touch ID and also monitors for the Hey Siri trigger command. The new processor means you won’t need to touch the Siri button any more (though you probably will).

More memory

With a view to a future in which Macs are used to create machine intelligence solutions and design AR experiences, Apple souped-up the Mac with the capacity to install up to 32GB of memory.

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Better display

The display has also been improved. The True Tone display is responsive to ambient light, changing screen temperature to match it – you’ll have seen this feature in action on current generation iPhones.

These enhancements are supplemented by existing features, such as Radeon Pro graphics, large Force Touch trackpad, revolutionary Touch Bar and Touch ID, dynamic stereo speakers, quiet cooling system, and Thunderbolt 3 for data transfer, charging and connecting up to two 5K displays or four external GPUs.

Apple also introduced leather sleeves for these new Macs, available in Saddle Brown, Midnight Blue and Black.

15-Inch MacBook Pro Highlights:

• 6-core Intel Core i7 and Core i9 processors up to 2.9 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.8 GHz
• Up to 32GB of DDR4 memory 
• Powerful Radeon Pro discrete graphics with 4GB of video memory in every configuration
• Up to 4TB of SSD storage2
• True Tone display technology
• Apple T2 chip 
• Touch Bar and Touch ID

13-Inch MacBook Pro Highlights:

• Quad-core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors up to 2.7 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.5 GHz and double the eDRAM
• Intel Iris Plus integrated graphics 655 with 128MB of eDRAM
• Up to 2TB of SSD storage2
• True Tone display technology
• Apple T2 chip
• Touch Bar and Touch ID

Apple also introduced leather sleeves for these new Macs, available in Saddle Brown, Midnight Blue and Black.