Apple quietly updated several product lines last night, making some of the top Retina display-equipped devices more powerful and faster — and in one case, more affordable.
The newest member of the iMac family is a 27-inch Retina 5K display model for just US$1999. For that price, buyers get a 27-inch Retina 5K display machine with 8GB of RAM, 1 TB HD storage, an Apple Magic Mouse or Magic TrackPad, and an Apple Wireless Keyboard. That machine is powered by a 3.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU with Turbo Boost up to 3.7 GHz, and there’s an AMD Radeon R9 M290 2GB GDDR5 GPU inside to move all of those pretty pixels around. Have Thunderbolt 2 accessories? The new iMac has twin Thunderbolt 2 ports.
At the same time, the top-of-the-line Retina 5K iMac has become even more affordable, with a price now starting at $2,299 — $200 less than the previous price. Fully load that machine with a 4.0 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.4 GHz, 32 GB of RAM, a 3TB Fusion Drive, and an AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB GDDR5 GPU, and the price tops out at $3,549. Of course, it’s less expensive to outfit your device with expansion RAM from OWC.
The MacBook Pro with Retina Display has been updated as well. The 15-inch model now has all of the features added to its 13-inch little brother, with a Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, better graphics and longer battery life. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in 2.2 GHz ($1,999) and 2.5 GHz ($2,499) versions, both with a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and Intel Iris Pro Graphics. The 2.5 GHz model comes with additional flash storage and RAM.
Finally, Apple introduced a new iPhone Lightning Dock ($39) that works with any iPhone 5, iPhone 6 or 5th-generation iPod touch. The Dock works with your existing USB to Lightning cable and provides a 3.5mm audio line-out port for connecting speakers or headphones to your iPhone as it charges.
Apple’s premium line of portable computer systems, you still have a lot of options left to make. Prior to we obtain begun going over MacBook Pro configuration choices, this might be an opportune time to double examine the choices you has made so much that have led to your selection of the MacBook Pro
Another feature of the higher end MacBook Pro is the 5K graphics support via the Thunderbolt ports.