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16-Inch MacBook Pro With All-New Design Expected in 2019, 13-Inch Model May Gain 32GB RAM

Now, here is a Mac rumor I'm actually intrigued by.

Srsly though, is there any hope that it will be an actual sanity checked functional redesign with better connectivity, thermals, keyboard, optional emojibar, trackpad size, screen connectors, symmetrical 4K screen etc and not the exact same dumpster fire MacBook "Pro" design just fitted with a "concentric" rounded edge screen and without a headphone jack (or worse)?

I would be much more confident about it if I knew Jony Ive was not involved, honestly. To him the ideal machine is a wafer thin unusable single machined piece of aluminium that slays in photoshoots while making users want to kill themselves.
 
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KPandian1 said:
It can start at $4000 for all that matters; it should have MagSafe, SD-card slot, 2 USB type A housing for the USB-C ports, two regular full featured USB-C ports, HDMI and an audio-jack.

And, no bloody Touch Bar!
Click to expand...

USB type A? HDMI? Card slot? Any DVD Rom I guess and DVI por....give me a break.
 
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KPandian1 said:
It can start at $4000 for all that matters; it should have MagSafe, SD-card slot, 2 USB type A housing for the USB-C ports, two regular full featured USB-C ports, HDMI and an audio-jack.

And, no bloody Touch Bar!
Click to expand...

Why not buy an Imac?
Also pretty portable with a carrying bag, especially the 21 inch version.
All the ports you need, more power and a bigger screen.

I can’t imagine anyone hooking up an external hdmi monitor, and external disks, a keyboard and raid... while on the train.
 
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Funky_Alphonzo said:
Why not buy an Imac?
Also pretty portable with a carrying bag, especially the 21 inch version.
All the ports you need, more power and a bigger screen.

I can’t imagine anyone hooking up an external hdmi monitor, and external disks, a keyboard and raid... while on the train.
Click to expand...

Funny. Ha. Ha.
 
Zenithal said:
It isn't unheard of for some people having to purchase a few hundred dollars in dongles or simply an all in one unit like OWC's offerings just go get functionality they seek.
Click to expand...

It has gotten way better. You can get new cables with USB-C easily and cheaply. Decent USB-C to A adapters are under $4 USD. Its a slightly higher cost to get a HDMI adapter, but today it's hard to break "hundreds" in USD without getting to things like thunderbolt hubs. I suppose if you do all your shopping at the Apple Store without comparison shopping you'll rack up a big bill.

There are two big problems I see for adoption:
  1. There is no legal way to make a USB-A to C adapter, aka old device connecting to a USB-C cable. This is both because USB-C has alt modes (like DisplayPort and thunderbolt), and because before USB-C the ports were structured specifically to prevent 'loops' in the cabling.
    This means even if most devices had C ports, device manufacturers will still ship A cables in the box - both sets of users can use the cable, although some need an adapter. Ship a C cable, and one set of users have no way to use the cable without buying a new machine.
  2. Right now is that the hubs out there are all compatibility hubs - USB-C in to a Swiss army knife of HDMI, ethernet, USB-A ports. There are very limited "pure" multi-port USB-C to C hubs. This makes it hard to consolidate on just USB-C for devices like the MacBook and Air with their limited ports.
 
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vonj said:
Man if theat **** don’t work then take it back a 5th a 6th a 7th a 8th a 125th Time Damn . You spent your hard earned money on it & you shouldn’t have to suffer because Apple was trying to cheap & make a thin device.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you have broken it four times, or that they have failed to repair it? If the latter, I'd check lemon laws in your state. That is hardly typical in either case.
 
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KPandian1 said:
It can start at $4000 for all that matters; it should have MagSafe, SD-card slot, 2 USB type A housing for the USB-C ports, two regular full featured USB-C ports, HDMI and an audio-jack.

And, no bloody Touch Bar!
Click to expand...
Anyone have any evidence Apple is planning on reversing their decision on MagSafe? I still have the original MBP retina, and I kick my cord out at least once a day. I can’t imagine having a MacBook Pro without MagSafe.

Anyone with a new USB-C Mac have any thoughts? Do you miss MagSafe? Any accidents?
 
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KPandian1 said:
Be Best, Apple. (A bow to where Tim Cook is spending more time and money today)

First - Soldering. Go back to pre-2011 MacBook Air days. Yeah, don't solder the Ram and SSD to the mother board.
Click to expand...

Modern Macs do not ship with a SSD. They have flash memory as a component, same as iOS devices. The "SSD logic controller" portion is the T2 chip.

They could hypothetically standardize the "flash memory on a card" for replacements, the other reason they solder it on board is that you don't have the mechanical connection to fail or create data corruption. You would still have issues like having all data be lost once that card is removed - the T2 chip has the encryption keys for the data, and will throw them away.

Memory has a different trade-off there, but even if it was swappable you are talking about an intermediate to expert level repair job to replace it nowadays. You really need to go back to the last user-serviceable memory upgrade MacBook Air/Pro design , which yeah is probably 10 years back.
[/QUOTE]

The cheap thrills you (Apple) get from denying user upgrades (RAM and SSD) is offset more than conceivable by your own ability to keep those mother boards motoring.
Click to expand...

Hardly cheap thrills - just like iOS devices, they upsell you on memory and storage. They make a tidy premium there.

Second - Thin is bad; don't go 2-D on us. It is the weight that is more uncomfortable. If aluminum is too heavy, think aircraft alloys (Mg-Al wheels are so common). Or go plastic/carbon fiber - no plastic ports though, like you've already done with the USB-C ports.
Click to expand...
Apple is actually somewhat limited on materials because they would be paying for the retooling of the (massive) assembly lines if they pursue newer techniques. If they were going to launch that somewhere, a MacBook Pro might be a good place to do so - its actually one of their lower volume devices.

Sixth - Repair - Laptops malfunction. Make it easy on yourself on fixing them, not junking them. Five consumers visiting the Apple store once to buy a device is better than one consumer visiting the Apple Store five times for a repair. Same "foot" traffic, better results. Don't you people have an MBA? Or ten!
Click to expand...

I guarantee this figures directly into a lot of people's bonuses and even performance evaluations at Apple. Repairs are costly for Apple to do under warranty.

That said, it only figures into their numbers for the expected warranty coverage, which usually maxes out at 2-3 years (except in some countries). The easiest way to get Apple to focus on longevity would be more countries to force them to provide longer term warranties - but this would slow down their design changes, and increase costs.
 
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Naraxus said:
All new design...

Unless it has PROPER ports (and multiple ports at that), a keyboard that doesn’t need a condom to work properly, a matte screen, proper heat thermals & actual function keys then they can call it whatever they want to but it certainly won’t be a pro machine or anything close to what true pros want or need.
Click to expand...
I always wondered what happened to the matte screens. I had one on my old 17 inch MacBook and thought it was great.
 
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I'd love to buy a 16inch macbook pro, but knowing it will probably be around $5000 I can't afford that.
 
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I'm excited. I currently use a 2017 15" MBP. I am not thinking of replacing this. I also have never had any issues with the keyboard,when I am on the move the keyboard has never let me down (yet...), and in the office I hook it up to an LG 4K and a wireless external keyboard, so no issues there.

But..., if a new and realistically configured 16" MBP gets:
  • A slightly new design (and remember: thinner is not always better!)
  • 16" screen (up from 15.4", so not a very big difference, just even smaller bezels I guess)
  • 4K (!) resolution (with latest dedicated GPU)
  • Reliable and great to use keyboard (like all Apple laptops used to have, in the old days)
  • 4 USB-C ports and 1 headphone jack
  • Improved Touch Bar (or no touch bar, I never use it)
  • Improved cooling to handle the best i7 and i9 processors
  • i7 processor, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD in base configuration
  • Base price starting at around $3000
Then Apple will have a winner and I might even consider replacing my 2017 MBP early.

I also saw other useful features suggested in this thread, but I don't really need legacy ports (USB-A, HDMI, card slots, etc.), a touchpad and/or touchscreen with Pencil support, better camera (everybody puts tape over their cameras, out of fear for Facebook, Google and other criminal companies), etc.
The one thing I would love to see coming back though is better configurability after purchase, so please don't solder the RAM and SSD, and please make it possible for the end user to replace the battery after a few years.

On the other hand, if Apple makes just another model, alongside the ridiculous line-up of 12" MacBook, 13" MBA, 13" MBP nTB, 13" MBP, 15" MBP, and starts prices of the MBP 16" at around $4000 then I guess they are just confirming what more and more people are saying about overpricing their products.
 
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sidewinder3000 said:
Anyone have any evidence Apple is planning on reversing their decision on MagSafe? I still have the original MBP retina, and I kick my cord out at least once a day. I can’t imagine having a MacBook Pro without MagSafe.

Anyone with a new USB-C Mac have any thoughts? Do you miss MagSafe? Any accidents?
Click to expand...

I do miss MagSafe, painfully much. I've been using the 15" TB MBP for the last two years for work, and whenever I'm at home I default to my 2015 MBP or my iPad because they're just more pleasant to use (largely thanks to MagSafe).

There's no chance in hell they're reversing it IMHO. Not only Apple is too arrogant to admit mistakes, their guiding principle post Jobs is unilateral reductiveness and overconfidence that the user will adapt to their designs instead of designing to adapt to user habits.
 
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dwaite said:
It has gotten way better. You can get new cables with USB-C easily and cheaply. Decent USB-C to A adapters are under $4 USD. Its a slightly higher cost to get a HDMI adapter, but today it's hard to break "hundreds" in USD without getting to things like thunderbolt hubs. I suppose if you do all your shopping at the Apple Store without comparison shopping you'll rack up a big bill.

There are two big problems I see for adoption:
  1. There is no legal way to make a USB-A to C adapter, aka old device connecting to a USB-C cable. This is both because USB-C has alt modes (like DisplayPort and thunderbolt), and because before USB-C the ports were structured specifically to prevent 'loops' in the cabling.
    This means even if most devices had C ports, device manufacturers will still ship A cables in the box - both sets of users can use the cable, although some need an adapter. Ship a C cable, and one set of users have no way to use the cable without buying a new machine.
  2. Right now is that the hubs out there are all compatibility hubs - USB-C in to a Swiss army knife of HDMI, ethernet, USB-A ports. There are very limited "pure" multi-port USB-C to C hubs. This makes it hard to consolidate on just USB-C for devices like the MacBook and Air with their limited ports.
Click to expand...
While so, the general cables I've seen non-MFI have a price difference of 4-6 USD. That adds up, especially since third party cables aren't as durable. MFI certification bumps that price up. Reality is that Apple's move was to cut costs. It would have been simple to keep the SD slot and just one legacy USB port. For people on the move who don't use a MBP as a fashion item like some Mac owners, the need to take cables and keep track of them is excessive. You're just making excuses for a company that routinely removed features and charges more. If Kuo's theory is right, then this is Apple admitting they messed up. Why else would they possibly introduce a newly designed MBP this soon?
 
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cult hero said:
I never understood these things. They have their devotees (the old 17” machines anyway) but even in their heyday I’d say the general MBP user went for the 15”, another large contingent went for the 13”, and a tiny number went for the 17”. And most the people I saw getting these were basically older guys already accustomed to lugging around boat anchors.

Don’t get me wrong, if the demographic exists, serve it. I’m never sad to see someone get the product they want but this machine always seemed the El Camino of computers.

Of course I talk about portability like it’s a huge deal and 99% of the travel on my laptop is from home to office and back with workstations set up in both locations. I’m hardly doing the road warrior thing with my 13”, lol.
Click to expand...
It’s fairly obvious: it’s for pro users who either do work in the field or don’t want to hook up to an external monitor. Editing on a film set or using at a photo shoot would be way better with a larger screen.
 
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sidewinder3000 said:
I always wondered what happened to the matte screens. I had one on my old 17 inch MacBook and thought it was great.
Click to expand...
Industry ditched anti-glare coatings because they affected color accuracy and added mild blurriness to text. Industry moved onto reflective screen that was a laminated plastic. Which is what Apple shortly used before discovering it was a problem. This type of panel was problematic for other OEMs, too. Apple moved onto using a refined technique for some of their cheaper mobile computers, but stuck to glass sheets in better computers. And, obviously glass on their AiO.

You can get anti-glare coated monitors these days at various price points. The techniques are more refined than they used to be and color accuracy in IPS isn't as bad as before.
 
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Funky_Alphonzo said:
Professionals use flightcases ;-)
But i get your point
Click to expand...

I can't use myself as a reference because I fly 2x-3x as a consultant and I don't expect a broad user base to work along the same lines..

But yea, laptops are portable for a reason ;)

About the original post, I'd agree with him/her about MagSafe and some of the ports returning as native I/O (HDMI, SD card) but I see it as totally, completely unlikely. They'd sooner cancel the MBP as a product altogether than compromise the slimness factor.
 
thequietaussie said:
2016 version was released in October. Which puts it currently at 2 years and 4 months. So it'll be close to 3 years by the time WWDC rolls around, but well short of 4. But given all the problems they've had, maybe they're pushing up the redesign?

Or maybe they're pushing up the redesign as otherwise there's not much they can do this year due to Intel and AMD being heavily delayed on Ice Lake and Navi.
Click to expand...
Possible the 16.5” will be redesigned in 2019 and be the vanguard, and the rest of the lineup will follow in 2020.
 
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I am really happy and exited about this news because I always wished for 14" and 16" MBPs with same outside dimensions but a screen without the bezels. I also hope for a complete overhaul of the keyboards but hopefully for the better and not the worse.

Still I will wait at least until a second or third generation to get on board in particular due to the extreme pricing.
 
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