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2018 13-Inch MacBook Pro With Touch Bar Has Four Full-Speed Thunderbolt 3 Ports

Thursday July 19, 2018 5:32 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has confirmed that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is equipped with four full-speed Thunderbolt 3 ports.


2018 models ship with Intel's eighth-generation Core i5 or Core i7 processors, which both support up to 16 PCI Express lanes, providing enough bandwidth for maximum data transfer speeds up to 40Gb/s on all four Thunderbolt 3 ports.

2016 and 2017 models of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar could be configured with sixth- and seventh-generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, which supported up to 12 PCI Express lanes, limiting full speeds to the two left-side Thunderbolt 3 ports, with reduced bandwidth on the right-side ports.

Now, users have the freedom to plug higher-performance peripherals into any Thunderbolt 3 port they desire without compromise.

All three generations of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar have always had four full-speed Thunderbolt 3 ports, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys has only two Thunderbolt 3 ports, both full speed.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: Thunderbolt 3
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[ 102 comments ]


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Fidgetyrat
13 weeks ago

Very cool. Now is there any chance they release a 4 port non touchbar model? Heck, I'd even settle for the 2 port non touchbar macbookpro being updated.


Little chance. Apple likes to double down on their bad decisions rather than back pedle.
Rating: 15 Votes
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BWhaler
13 weeks ago
Talk about solving the symptom, not the problem.

The problem is it's a terrible keyboard to type on for most pros, and it was designed on the ever thinner ethos of Apple which has put them in a thermal corner again.

Pros want speed, memory, storage, ports. It's a professional workflow. No one asked for MM thinner to improve their workflow.

Apple used to understand this under Jobs. Yes, make the Air and MacBook to be limited and thin as possible. Great market for that. Some Pros, particularly devs, will love the portability.

But the rest of the pros, the tastemakers, need the tools for productivity, not Apple's meaningless vanity metric.
Rating: 12 Votes
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NinjaHERO
13 weeks ago
Very cool. Now is there any chance they release a 4 port non touchbar model? Heck, I'd even settle for the 2 port non touchbar macbookpro being updated.
Rating: 9 Votes
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lamina
13 weeks ago
I’d rather have a single USB port than 4 thunderbolt ports.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Nicksd84
13 weeks ago
Thank god. It really upgrades the dongle experience.
Rating: 7 Votes
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lambertjohn
13 weeks ago
Still too dang expensive. Give me the same computer with NO Touch Bar and let me keep $300 in my pocket.
Rating: 6 Votes
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ibivibiv
13 weeks ago
You don’t have to carry a dongle....


Sure, if I don't want to use pretty much ANY gear in 100% of the conference rooms in the world. The omission of HDMI natively is indefensible.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Klae17
13 weeks ago
Great update this time around Apple. Do it every year. For all devices. Kthxbye.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Andres Cantu
13 weeks ago
Finally, there’s nothing worse than the average consumer not knowing the difference because it’s not obvious.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Rocko99991
13 weeks ago

You carry around an HDMI cable, yes? Or do you rely on the kindness of strangers? What is the difference between carrying around a regular HDMI cable and carrying around a USB-C to HDMI cable?

You don’t have to carry a dongle. I use an excellent dock that attaches to the MacBook, matches the color too. The beauty is that I can detach it when I’m at home with my USBC and TB3 accessories. But if I’m somewhere with legacy stuff, it’s all integrated. No need for a dongle

Right, a big adapter to fix the lack of ports is a good thing, right?
Rating: 5 Votes

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