The MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar is remarkable

I feel like there’s something missing.

Yeah. We get that too after an Apple splurge. It’s an after-effect of anticipation, mixed with shame. But, new MacBook Pro! All the specs and whatnot are written up here and…

Shh… Wait… Got it! Where’s the power key?

Yep. Gone. Replaced by a Touch ID sensor on the far right of the Pro’s fancy new Touch Bar. You can turn on and turn off your laptop using your fingerprint, and you buy things with it, and another registered user can log in on your laptop by just slamming their finger down.

Is anyone going to do any of that?

Boom! That there pretty much sums up the Touch Bar chat now howling around the networks. The general consensus is “that looks cool in the demos, but very much doubt it will work so slickly here in the really real.” Which, interestingly enough, is almost exactly the same thing we said whilst watching Microsoft launch it’s Surface Dial accessory just the other day.

I dunno. One hand dancing on the Bar, one hand mousing about nearby: all seems pretty ‘Pro’ to me.

You’d think so, right? But Stuff’s Art Editor, who is a top Photoshop jockey, disagrees. Says he’s spent the last 15 years clawing his hands into Adobe keyboard shortcuts, and that no single finger prodding at a skinny touchscreen is going to be faster. Which is lucky, because there’s no way any of us are getting company MacBook Pros any time soon. They are spendy.

Yikes, they are too. £2350 and up for the 15inchers.

Exactly. Which are the ones that you’d want, because they have the quad-core processors and the proper graphics cards. Showing up with a 13in, dual-core Pro – Touch Bar or not – is going to get you laughed out of the business lounge.

But, not to worry: this is Apple. There’ll soon be Touch Bars showing up on other MacBooks, or standalone Touch Bar keyboards. Though, by ‘soon’, we mean this time next year.