The next MacBook Pro redesign (merged)

[bmclaurin]

I wish they would slightly round the edges, at least near the palm guard area. The sharp edges kind of dig in after a while.

 

[iKrivetko]

I wouldn't expect any redesigns until MBPs go fanless. And that's not happening any time soon.

 

[11fajado]

I'm thinking there might be a trackpad redesign in the works soon.

 

[maflynn]

Apple does not change the design very often and the current design isn't that old, so I don't expect any major alterations coming to the MBP enclosure.

 

[Asuriyan]

The first MBP's appeared in 2006. That exact design had been used in the Powerbook G4 line (Apple's PowerPC notebooks from 2001 to 2006). That design stayed up until mid to late 2008 with the unibody MBP. Count it however you like, that's a whole 7 years without a hint of a design change.

The 2001 and '02 PBG4s were the Titanium series. That model had a very brief run due to numerous manufacturing issues- paint prone to chipping, hinges prone to cracking, LCDs rubbing on the keyboard due to close tolerances, etc.

2003 brought the aluminum body style that lasted until late 2008. Still quite a long run.

 

[CommonManDZ]

The Mac Pro has me thinking that a black, metal MacBook Pro (with much the same body style as the current gen) is coming.

No source...just a hunch. That would give the line some design "news" without reinventing the wheel.

 

[tresmith]

What do you mean by redesign? The design language or the engineering?

The MBP has gone through several major redesigns over the years, the last of which is the rMBP form factor. There's a good chance Apple has a revised model lined up for Broadwell and Skylake's 14nm process. They run cooler and use less power, which makes it possible to make them thinner and lighter. An opportunity which Apple rarely leaves untouched.

If by redesign you mean the grey/black color scheme, that could be around for a while. The grey/black color scheme was inspired by the iPhone in 2007, so the next major design language could be introduced with a completely new product category.

Maybe iWatch?

I was thinking the samething...the rMBP was a major redesign, thinner, lighter, new vents, new fans, retina display, removing the disk drive etc. how is that not a major redesign? You shouldn't expect the overall look and feel of a laptop to ever change but Apple has definitely made significant improvements/changes along the way to their laptops.

Personally I would like to see them add touchid, gps, and a cellular chip with sim so that I can pop in a sim and have direct access to internet without using my phone as a hot spot or using my phone's data.

 

[Sifinity]

if there was going to be a redesign this year , we should have gotten some sort of leak like the time we were expecting the retina to come out in 2012 or something

 

[5to1]

Personally I would like to see them add touchid, gps, and a cellular chip with sim so that I can pop in a sim and have direct access to internet without using my phone as a hot spot or using my phone's data.

Exactly what i'd like to see would take those and improvement in battery life well ahead of faster silicon.

 

[tresmith]

if there was going to be a redesign this year , we should have gotten some sort of leak like the time we were expecting the retina to come out in 2012 or something

judging by the steep discounts on the MBA's that have been recently announced I would say at the very least the Air's are right around the corner.

 

[skaertus]

Take a look at Apple's chronology of redesigning its laptops since 1999:

iBook/MacBook designs and redesigns:

July 1999: clamshell iBook G3
May 2001: snow iBook G3/G4
May 2006: polycarbonate MacBook
October 2009: unibody polycarbonate MacBook

PowerBook/MacBook Pro designs and redesigns:

May 1999: new-gen PowerBook G3
January 2001: titanium PowerBook G4
January 2003: aluminum PowerBook G4/MacBook Pro
October 2008: unibody aluminum MacBook Pro
June 2012: retina MacBook Pro

MacBook Air designs and redesigns:

January 2008: MacBook Air
October 2010: redesigned MacBook Air

I would say that the MacBook Air is due for a redesign this year (2014) or next year (2015) at the latest (and only if Broadwell chips are not ready for this year).

As for MacBook Pros, I don't expect a redesign so soon. Perhaps some minor improvements, but nothing major. I would expect the next redesign for 2016, give or take one year.

 

[walkie]

More than a redesign I would like to see a 17" MBP coming back to market with a retina display, that would be a really nice option to have.

 

[SarcasticJoe]

Apple as a company seems to have a policy not to change what works unless there's something really big to be gained from it.

The aluminium Powerbook design stuck around from 2003 to 2008 when the unibody designs showed up, the design of the iPhone could be divided into 2 major designs with minor revisions (original to 3GS and 4 to the current design) and let's not forget the old PowerMac G5 design that stuck around from 2004 all the way to last year. That's 9 years in total.

I think there was some talk about a new darker Macbook Pro made out of some new Liquidmetal designed alloy back in 2010 already, so I'd take any speculation about a new design with more than a pinch of salt. Then there's also the rumored 12" Macbook which might be the deathstroke of both the Macbook Air and 13" Pro, but I doubt we'll see if anything comes of it untill well into next year.

 

[maflynn]

More than a redesign I would like to see a 17" MBP coming back to market with a retina display, that would be a really nice option to have.

Not going to happen, apple killed off the 17" display for a reason, I don't see them bringing it back.

 

[skaertus]

Not going to happen, apple killed off the 17" display for a reason, I don't see them bringing it back.

Apple might bring back the 17-inch model with a quad full HD display, which was not possible to manufacture in large scales when the retina models were released back in 2012. However, I do not think this will happen.

 

[TheDeviceUser]

So, this June, it will be three years since the MacBook Pro received a redesign. Could this therefore be the beginning of a new design for the MacBook Pro this June? The cycles for redesigns so far have been.

2006 1st Generation

2008 2nd Generation (2 Years and 9 Months since original version)

2012 3rd Generation (3 Years and 8 Months since previous redesign)

Therefore it is certainly possible that we could see an entire redesign of the MacBook Pro this year.

What do you think?

 

[maflynn]

No likely, I think the design will be just as it was, perhaps apple's desire to make it thinner will mean a slightly thinner MBP, but that's about it, imo.

 

[Stetrain]

It's possible, but I don't see what the driving factor for a redesign would be. In 2006 it was the switch to Intel chips, in 2008 it was the CNC aluminum manufacturing process, and in 2012 it was the retina display and increasing practicality of SSDs.

This year there are new chips from Intel but I don't see them enabling MBP-level performance in a much different form factor.

If they start pushing the new USB-C connector (rumored to be on the new Macbook Air) then I could maybe see a MBP update that adds it in addition to the existing ports.

 

[Freyqq]

Maybe 2016 to switch to USB type C and make it slightly thinner. They might drop thunderbolt and just have 5-6 USB type c ports. It's possible that USB type c can carry a thunderbolt signal using "alt mode," but no one is really sure yet.

 

[maflynn]

Look how long Apple stuck with the Mac Pro design, the iMac design and the design that was the G4 PowerBook-> MacBook Pro.

Apple sticks with designs for a very long time.

 

[cambookpro]

I think if we do see a redesign it will be with Skylake, perhaps early next year. I'd expect it to get a bit thinner, possibly with USB type-C ports like the rumoured MBA (but still retaining Thunderbolt, perhaps a legacy USB port etc).

 

[andrewtm]

Do you think we'll see a new redesign in the next MBP refresh? I feel like after introducing the new keyboard, Apple will implement the new design changes on the next version of MBP hopefully later this year.

Apple has released two versions in the same year before (Ivy bridge in early 2013 to Haswell in late 2013)

What are your thoughts?

 

[puma1552]

I'm guessing a real refresh with that might come in 2016. We will get the force touch in the 15" rMBP this year, but I don't think we will get the new keyboard or any major design overhaul until Skylake, if not later. The Broadwell update is turning out to be turds on crackers and really kind of a joke with Intel's delays, so I think a lot of people are just going to sweep Broadwell under the rug and look towards a real update with Skylake, and that'd be a great time to do a full overhaul on the machines.

 

[andrewtm]

I'm guessing a real refresh with that might come in 2016. We will get the force touch in the 15" rMBP this year, but I don't think we will get the new keyboard or any major design overhaul until Skylake, if not later. The Broadwell update is turning out to be turds on crackers and really kind of a joke with Intel's delays, so I think a lot of people are just going to sweep Broadwell under the rug and look towards a real update with Skylake, and that'd be a great time to do a full overhaul on the machines.

2016, you think? I was hoping Apple would do the redesign earlier, like the second half of 2015. I would think they would want to get Skylake out as soon as it's available, so they're not off track with releases after the Broadwell delay. And with Intel being on schedule for a 2H 2016 release, it would seem for logical for a Skylake MBP to be released then

 

[puma1552]

My one concern is that there may not be a full blown redesign, just continual small evolutionary changes. The unibody has been around since 2008, largely unchanged, but if you want to get technical the bottom case changed at some point from 2 pieces to one piece, some of the ports have changed, they made it a lot thinner, etc.

For all we know the next evolutionary step design-wise is just a different keyboard like the new Macbook.

I'd like a full blown redesign myself though, instead of continual incremental changes.

The way it looks, with no rumors or leaks, there doesn't appear to be any redesign on the horizon anytime soon.