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14-Inch MacBook Pro Now Rumored to Launch in 2021

otternonsense said:
Take your time Apple. It's not like anyone's expecting you to innovate on your Mac line a little :rolleyes:
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MCK said the 14.1" would have a mini-LED backlit display and he has subsequently rumored that the production of mini-LED displays is running behind due to COVID-19. This morning it was reported that Apple has invested hundreds of millions at a new facility in Taiwan to build mini-LED (and micro-LED) panels and it could be that this facility will be tasked to make the mini-LED panels for the 14.1" MBP (along with the 16" MBP and 27" iMac Pro refreshes). If that plant is indeed going to be making those panels and it is behind schedule (again, quite possibly due to COVID-19) then that would explain the delay.


drsox said:
I'll bet the 12in Macbook was a manufacturing trial run at making the form factor for an ARM offering.
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I long thought this, but now I am thinking the MacBook Air could be the (portable) ARM launch platform. The MBA does not have a fan (A14X will almost certainly not need one), has two TB3/USB-C ports and with an ARM CPU could have multi-day battery life.
 
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malko said:
Still waiting for an upgrade to my 12" retina Macbook. The line hasn't been updated for three years now and once you go fanless and ultra slim there is no way back to a fat old laptop with a spinning fan...

I've noted that the 12" models were criticised for having slow CPU:s and while it was a fair point for the 2015 models, my 12" i7 from 2019 is as fast as the two year newer (mid 2019) Macbook air base model. Only a couple of %-point difference in Geekbench.

Holding my thumbs for new fanless Macbooks with ARM next year...
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I really liked the form factor, very slim, very light, and fanless, that is zero moving parts. At one point, I was very keen on getting one. But then reviews about the performance was not great and also one of the major issue with it was that it had 1 single USBC port. Which meant if I have to plugin anything in it I will have to unplug the external monitor.
 
Zdigital2015 said:
I would not mind an homage to NeXT industrial design in the next couple of of years. I do miss the “Snow” designs like the Apple IIc, IIgs, IIci and a Quadra 700, but I don’t want new designs based on them. Thankfully, I don’t think Apple would ever entertain that suggestion anyways.
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I think he/she was being sarcastic due to a perceived attack on Apple.

Ironically, I think some of the most beautiful designs Apple had were plastic: the table lamp iMac and the G4 Cube. And the black (also plastic) MacBook/"BlackBook" was a big hit when it came out, if i remember correctly.

That said, I'm not advocating going back to plastic.

I like some Xr-like iPad concepts I saw, as well as what Dell is doing with with the XPS-line (bezel-wise in particular), and the current iPad designs are timeless (but that was Steve's taste, I think).

I've never been crazy about Jobs-less Ive's work. I don't like the MacPro design, nor the back of the pro display, nor the AppleWatch. The iPad Pros are good though, and the iPhones are fine as well.

I'm genuinely excited though,and again I wouldn't mind legitimately black devices, not the Space Gray BS.
 
Its funny that we are believing random people on Twitter about these 'leaks', I wonder if these accounts are actually people from the sales team at Apple and part of their marketing plan.
 
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Darth Tulhu said:
I think he/she was being sarcastic due to a perceived attack on Apple.

Ironically, I think some of the most beautiful designs Apple had were plastic: the table lamp iMac and the G4 Cube. And the black (also plastic) MacBook/"BlackBook" was a big hit when it came out, if i remember correctly.

That said, I'm not advocating going back to plastic.

I like some Xr-like iPad concepts I saw, as well as what Dell is doing with with the XPS-line (bezel-wise in particular), and the current iPad designs are timeless (but that was Steve's taste, I think).

I've never been crazy about Jobs-less Ive's work. I don't like the MacPro design, nor the back of the pro display, nor the AppleWatch. The iPad Pros are good though, and the iPhones are fine as well.

I'm genuinely excited though,and again I wouldn't mind legitimately black devices, not the Space Gray BS.
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I always thought the Quadra 840av was quite a sexy beast back in the 90's. Apple should do a retro headless mac based on that, easily expandable, tons of ports....haha, I'm dreaming.
 
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I know this is an opinion answer to my question but if I buy the base model $1299, what kind of trade in value do you think it would have if I trade it in for a 14" next year? I just have no idea.
 
HappyIntro said:
I always thought the Quadra 840av was quite a sexy beast back in the 90's. Apple should do a retro headless mac based on that, easily expandable, tons of ports....haha, I'm dreaming.
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Looking at the logic board for that thing and comparing it to a modern Mac LB I can't help but burst out laughing at how ludicrously expensive to manufacture that thing had to have been back in the day with all the stuff stuck to it.


VPRunner said:
I know this is an opinion answer to my question but if I buy the base model $1299, what kind of trade in value do you think it would have if I trade it in for a 14" next year? I just have no idea.
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Depends on who you trade it in with. Apple needs the Serial Number, but looking at Swappa a base 2019 model is showing asking prices of around $1100.
 
CWallace said:
Looking at the logic board for that thing and comparing it to a modern Mac LB I can't help but burst out laughing at how ludicrously expensive to manufacture that thing had to have been back in the day with all the stuff stuck to it.




Depends on who you trade it in with. Apple needs the Serial Number, but looking at Swappa a base 2019 model is showing asking prices of around $1100.
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I was assuming a trade in with Apple.
 
CWallace said:
I long thought this, but now I am thinking the MacBook Air could be the (portable) ARM launch platform. The MBA does not have a fan (A14X will almost certainly not need one), has two TB3/USB-C ports and with an ARM CPU could have multi-day battery life.
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If one could get all that is in the current MBA but in the form factor of the MacBook 12in (but bigger), why wouldn't that be preferable ?
 
HappyIntro said:
I always thought the Quadra 840av was quite a sexy beast back in the 90's. Apple should do a retro headless mac based on that, easily expandable, tons of ports....haha, I'm dreaming.
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Yeah, that time has passed for me.

Portables are so powerful now and do so much more than what I need as a consumer that I'll be trading all my old hardware, iMac included, for and iPad and/or an MBA.

My Mac enthusiast days are behind me, and since I don't need to (seriously) game and my work issues me my PC hardware, I don't need a personal PC.

I long gave up on the notion of a headless iMac.
 
ingambe said:
That's 100% false but we will not start the debate against
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Why would that be false?


Chompineer said:
“old fat laptop”

If you think a 13/16” is fat... You must be a child. I remember early 2000’s laptops very well...

Your fanless laptop shares a similar processor with a tinker toy, I’m not sure what the use of that is. My NAS has a higher passmark score. What a useless device short of for teenyboppers needing to check their Facebook.
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I remember the 1990's laptops well, I even had one. But though I obviously can't talk for you, 15-20 year old laptops aren't really the alternative I'm considering now. I'm comparing current offers to my current laptop.

akbarali.ch said:
I really liked the form factor, very slim, very light, and fanless, that is zero moving parts. At one point, I was very keen on getting one. But then reviews about the performance was not great and also one of the major issue with it was that it had 1 single USBC port. Which meant if I have to plugin anything in it I will have to unplug the external monitor.
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Performance wasn't good in the 2015 model but it was ok 2016 and pretty decent 2017. Again my 2017 fanless MB 12" can match a 2019 base model MB Air with a noisy fan.
 
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malko said:
Why would that be false?
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You don't test a processor on a small bunch of task
Real processor benchmarks perform a huge variety of different test and they last for hours, we want to see how the processor react depending on the task and its condition. Typical smartphone benchmarks perform only a small number of task and they last for a ridiculous amount of time.

Also if you compare the processor on two different platforms it's a huge bias, if you want an example, would you consider a benchmark of an i3 running on a 50Mo Linux distro without GUI vs an i5 running on Windows 10 valid?
Obviously no, one will be focused only on the benchmark, the other one gonna have a lot of other things to do.

Also, when you see that an i5 without a cooling system perform worse on a benchmark than an A12Z without any cooling system, there is obviously a big issue. It's impossible that a chip which gonna thermal throttle fast will be more powerful than a chip which can extract his heat and run in turbo mode more often and for way longer
 
otternonsense said:
Take your time Apple. It's not like anyone's expecting you to innovate on your Mac line a little :rolleyes:
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When innovation is merely a byword for throwing the baby out with the bathwater, then yeah... I'm okay with a lack of "innovation."

:rolleyes:
 
filmbuff said:
Does it make sense considering the product updates they have just done? I don't see them coming out with an ARM Macbook Air months after they announce a significant refresh of the Intel Macbook Air. I don't see them doing another 12" or basic Macbook when they have the iPad Pro filling that niche now, and I also don't see OSX for iPad anytime soon. I just can't see any products that make sense for a WWDC release right now which means the ARM Macbook will probably be more like a late 2021 or WWDC 2021 reveal.

Now if they do come out with a 14" ARM Macbook capable of running the desktop OS I would be all over that.
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That's why I am talking about Developers only versions. They still have some Macbook 12 inch cases which they can re-use with a glorified iPad motherboard, as for macOS running on the iPad Pro hardware it would be even simpler to put together and again be only available as a Developers edition. They would certainly limit its capability. (i.e. no functional touchscreen). Apple did exactly that in 2005. For $999 Developers could order something which looked like a G5 Tower with a pentium 4 at 3.6 Gigahertz. The developers who bought them had to send them back after a year.
 
ingambe said:
You don't test a processor on a small bunch of task
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And I've never said that. What you want to compare is performance in real usage scenarios and my experience from image manipulation and video editing on iPad is that only the beefiest mobile x86 CPU:s can match. And they're in need of a lot of cooling then.
 
Zdigital2015 said:
Total overkill and waste of GPU and battery power to put a 4K display in a 14” portable. You cannot see the pixels now at 2560x1600 on the 13”.

It is simply trying to check off a specs box to satisfy specs chasers. Apple doesn’t operate that way.
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I can see the pixels with current Macbook PPI and I can see the difference in sharpness when comparing to a PC laptop with higher PPI. However I still agree it is total waste since the difference to the eye is very minor compared to the cost in money, system resources and battery. At some point in the future it will most likely be worth it though, lex iPhone X.
 
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chances are likely this will be my next laptop... unless I break down and buy a iPad pro and realize between it, my iMac and current 2015 13 inch MBP I don't actually need a new laptop anymore. (iPad pro is swaying me because gamecube games are easily playable).
 
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