> But the base model has no Touch ID which seems terrible to me.

But that's the point. If you're super price conscious and a student, it's only $499! Typing a password is not a big deal compared to $100 for some people.

But if you want convenience, it's $599. Which helps subsidize the $499 price.

Product differentiation like this is what enables the cheaper price to begin with.

I'd probably go for a $50 Yubikey over a $100 Touch ID upgrade.

Honestly, I don't see it. Are you gonna stay at home with yubikey plugged in? On your couch, in your bed, etc.? It's a matter of months, if not weeks, before you break it? And also need to remember to remove, because otherwise what's the point?

Used to own Yubikey before fingerprint scanners were a thing. I don't see the appeal now, to be honest. I considered it now that I use Asahi on my M1 with no support for TouchID, but still just type in the password because I couldn't be bothered with Yubikey.

Or I'm missing something?

You're missing that the Yubikey Nano exists. You just leave it in the port. You don't need to remove it - you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor.

Same way? That thing isn't biometric, how is this protecting me in the same way? That's just ridiculous. Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are".

I swear you must be trolling here.

Well, okay, you can select two specific words to fuel your apparent outrage if you'd like, but if you actually read the entire sentence, you'll see that there is some critical context that you're missing: "you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor."

I did not claim that it was the same security scheme or that it's biometric or anything like that. I did claim that you have to physically touch it to activate it.

Edit to add:

re 'Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are".', I would argue that your finger is in fact a thing you have. The loss of a finger might change a little of who you are depending on the circumstances that led to you losing said finger, but these both fall into "thing you have" territory for me. I don't think it's wise to consider Touch ID much more than that, personally.

What the other person is trying to explain to you is that your Yubikey solution fails the following scenario: you leave your laptop at school.

With TouchID, nobody can unlock it. With a Yubikey in the USB-C port, anyone could unlock it.

That's why macOS Yubikey login integration requires you to type in a PIN on the lock screen. At which point it's no different from typing in a password.

Not equivalent to TouchID at all.

Dude, "thing you have" and "thing you are" are things that are already defined in context of authorization and MFA. You can't "argue" that just because it fits your narrative.

EOT here.