I use pretty much every single type of device there is, from Android phone through Apple tablet, all the way to Windows 10 desktops and I have a lovely Apple Macbook Pro (early 2014). I adapt to pretty much everything, I am not aligned to one single tech or product range.

With my Macbook Pro, I have a nice compact, high quality piece of hardware that runs a Unix OS – something I wanted in my job as an engineer but I also wanted to be able to do all the normal things as well. It cost about 30% more than the equivalent PC hardware from say HP, Dell or Asus – and I mean equivalent right down to the screen resolution. It suits me and I really appreciate the little touches on the hardware from backlit keyboard, the large mousepad and the good battery life (always a big thing for me).

I was looking forward to seeing what the new refresh would bring, not sure what I was expecting, but we have received a touchbar, the change to USB-C and the removal of the SD-Card slot. The port changes were to be expected, although I would miss the nifty magsafe power adapter as that has been a really nice touch, but two things disappoint – the touchbar and the price.

The touchbar looks to me like an attempt to give touch functionality without admitting the need to introduce full touch screen features – something I do find useful. That touchbar as well seems to have pushed the price up – far beyond the adjustment from the Brexit exchange rate adjustments. The latest base Macbook pro is almost 50% above the price of the existing model. Let me say that again – 50% above the current price of a Laptop that was already 30% above the equivalent machine in the Windows world.

Oh my god is all I can say. The Macbook Pro is now 100% more expensive than an equivalent Windows machine. That cannot be ignored, and I predict that will actually be the case – consumers will see the price and go elsewhere.