Apple No Longer Sells a MacBook Pro Without a Touch Bar

Tuesday July 9, 2019 6:09 AM PDT by Joe Rossignol
With the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro being refreshed with a Touch Bar and other new features today, Apple no longer sells a MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar in its current lineup. In other words, it is no longer possible to buy a new MacBook Pro with a physical escape key directly from Apple.


The Touch Bar has been a controversial feature since its debut on the 15-inch MacBook Pro in October 2016, with some critics describing it as a gimmick. The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro was until now a way around the Touch Bar, with its physical escape key earning it the nickname of "MacBook Escape."

A physical escape key remains available on MacBook Air models.

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Tag: Touch Bar
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123 comments


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HappyDude20
10 weeks ago
Mark my words, I will never buy a Mac with a Touch Bar.

Glad I got the 2017 non-Touchbar model.
Rating: 24 Votes
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bladerunner2000
10 weeks ago
Get RID of the touch bar Sell and sell a MacBook with a decent keyboard.
Rating: 16 Votes
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caliguy
10 weeks ago
While I think the Touch Bar is a mostly useless gimmick, I love a cleaner product line.
Rating: 14 Votes
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JetTester
10 weeks ago
If only they sold one with a decent keyboard. Hopefully next year...
Rating: 14 Votes
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mpick92
10 weeks ago
I like how the MacBook Air has Touch ID with function keys. Should go ahead and make that the standard.

I much prefer physical keys for quickly changing volume/brightness on my Mac laptops.
Rating: 12 Votes
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ikir
10 weeks ago

Mark my words, I will never buy a Mac with a Touch Bar.

Glad I got the 2017 non-Touchbar model.

I hope Touch Bar is here to stay, is very very handy to create shortcut, F keys are quite useless.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Return Zero
10 weeks ago
I like the idea of the touch bar, but would never want to give up a physical escape key. Maybe they could keep it symmetric with escape on the left, power/touchID on right, and touch bar in between?

Reminds me of Honda going full touch screen on their infotainment, but everyone clamored for a volume knob, so they brought it back along with a tuner knob on the other side as well, and the result is a pretty nice system.
Rating: 8 Votes
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asdavis10
10 weeks ago
Bad form, Apple. Touch Bar is mostly a gimmick. It's nice at times, but for those who use Windows on their Mac, it's completely useless. This is about driving up ASPs. Bad form. And I'm a shareholder. Also, I'm Typing this from my 13" MBP sans Touch Bar.
Rating: 7 Votes
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nathan_reilly
10 weeks ago

Please explain. When dual booting Windows in Boot Camp, the Touch Bar defaults to function keys. And if for some reason yours doesn’t, set it to. Are you looking for something else?


yeah but like, once you see the digital function keys in windows, then voila...thats it. No benefit over physical keyboard anymore...I believe that's his point. And maybe this isn't a big deal for you, that's cool. But there actually is a fair bit of software out there that uses the fn keys...I use CAD software pretty heavily and I tried it on a touchbar but it really slowed me down. Always have to look down from the screen to see where the desired button is. I like the physical feedback of the edge of the key. Solution for me is an external keyboard that I put on top of my laptop. Which annoys.
Rating: 7 Votes
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ikir
10 weeks ago

Bad form, Apple. Touch Bar is mostly a gimmick. It's nice at times, but for those who use Windows on their Mac, it's completely useless. This is about driving up ASPs. Bad form. And I'm a shareholder. Also, I'm Typing this from my 13" MBP sans Touch Bar.


I'm a technician and an IT specialist, Touch Bar is super handy with VMware Fusion for example, for creating Automator shortcut. F keys are there just with a press of a key, but 99% F keys are useless.
Rating: 6 Votes
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