Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2nd gen rMB...
- Thread starter Eggtastic
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
ooo... President Trump will make it an order to arrest people who troll him on there internet...
JK
I contend that Apple has much bigger fish to fry in 2016 before rushing a second-gen RMB that really has only been in a good retail stock position since August. The Air and the Pro, for starters, they need serious facelifting, not to mention Apple Watch, Apple Music, iPhone 7, there's a lot on their plate right now. As for price drops, that's not happening at Apple, the prices are dropping at big retailers like Best Buy whose overall notebook business is plummeting so markdowns need to be taken to reduce overall stock position. The RMB is a top of the line notebook for them, it's likely tying up a lot of inventory dollars.
Agree with what you're saying but feel it's just too soon and Apple has other priorities. The slowness on the Pro and the Air tell me that they're not going to be in any rush to advance the Retina, a new model with a niche audience, when their bread-and-butter notebooks are aging rapidly. The RMB, by the way, is the primary culprit there- it makes the Air and the Pro look old as they sit next to each other on the sales table.
Yes, it's a crapshoot on timing. I still believe firmly that Skylake doesn't offer anything special enough to make someone want to delay an RMB purchase as it's got terrific battery life and it's not designed for a Pro audience. And that's what I think is going on here- you've got people who want the Pro's performance in the Retina's form factor and that's not possible yet.
BJ
There is very little "engineering investment" required for a silent CPU bump.. And it's in Apple's best interest to keep its flagship laptop "current", as opposed to shipping last year's technology. There may also be supply chain benefits to refresh to Intel's current gen chips.
There is no reason not to expect rMB to be updated in 2016, around Spring/WWDC timeframe.
If there is, it would likely be in the form of an investment in something that would actually stimulate sales, like a larger 14" or 15" screen. A processor bump isn't a game-changer for a machine predicated on a revolutionary form factor.
BJ
Who says rMB update must be a "game changer"? Apple updates their flagship laptops on a yearly basis. Most of those updates as silent CPU bumps, some are more visible design changes.
See Macbook Air history below as an example of what I am talking about. rMB is not going to be any different.
Macbook Air Release History:
- Early 2008
- Late 2008
- Mid 2009
- Late 2010
- Mid 2011
- Mid 2012
- Mid 2013
- Early 2014
- Early 2015
Last edited:
I don't really get it though. Apple refreshes all of this on a yearly basis. It'd be no different this time around. I definitely see the rmb getting a refresh, just like Apple has done basically on all their devices yearly. Skylake is basically made for these ultrabooks, as both an increase in power efficiency as well as the boost in gpu power.
I think what's not being seen here is that the Retina MacBook is the first MacBook for which traditional "performance" metrics simply do not matter.
Last time I checked, these machines perform at the level of an i3 so anyone who is a candidate to buy one doesn't really care about the horsepower. So where you might have seen a traditional mid-year refresh of a Pro or an Air with the latest and greatest processor I just don't think Apple cares about that game this time around. The Retina is just a different animal entirely.
Now, if a third party came out with an alloy at half the weight or a battery half the thickness or a 1080p camera thinner than a human hair I could see Apple updating the MacBook for those types of betterments as those types of physical characterisics are why we buy these notebooks, not the 'performance' from a processor we don't really care about. Apple doesn't want the RMB to hum like a Pro. So stop expecting them to deliver that.
BJ
There's no point not going to skylake. You'll get better battery life and better responsiveness due to the implementation of speedstep.
It's cooler as well when compared to broadwell which is better for a passively cooled notebook.
We will just agree to disagree then, I am not of the belief that Apple will care about such fractional improvements to a machine that already has best-in-class battery life, isn't hot, and has an audience that doesn't need every ounce of horsepower to read emails and post on Facebook. They'd best be served to do something radical to the Pro and Air and protect the highest-end and the lowest-end of the performance range.
BJ
Every Intel CPU update is a fractional improvement. By your logic, Apple would never CPU-bump their laptops, unless they undergo major redesign (which happens ~ every 5 years). But as already mentioned, Apple refreshes Macbooks on a yearly basis. rMB won't be any different.
It's not necessarily CPU specific we get the same problem of higher than normal battery drain in sleep mode on our rMB with bootcamp/Win10
Hibernate is fine although some say it adds wear and tear to your SDD writing the 6gb file each time you close the lid, not sure if it's that significant or measurable as it depends on other personal factors
Nothing to worry about, even under OS X the system writes the hibernation image to the SSD every time the system sleeps. Last time I checked my 13" rMBP the SSD had written over 12TB of data with no indication of wear.
Q-6
Here`s a snapshot of my 13" rMBP current SSD status, not too shabby for having written close to 14Tb, notebook is coming up for 14 months old, with the SSD having an uptime of over 5K hours. Modern SSD do wear equally it`s far more likely the system will be redundant by the time the SSD is significantly impacted.
My 1.2 rMB will have significantly less wear and the 15" rMBP likely significantly more, none are presenting any issue.
Q-6
Cool info, so around 10% is due to sleep writes.
I never thought it was a concern but you see others noting it, I never keep anything that long to be of a worry
Cool info, so around 10% is due to sleep writes.
I never thought it was a concern but you see others noting it, I never keep anything that long to be of a worry
Probably significantly less, as this system is heavily used for work purpose and see`s a lot data throughput.
Q-6
I can see the rMB getting a quiet spec bump, particularly if it effects the GPU, in either March or June although the MBA and rMBP will the stars of 2016.
I am not so sure about the MBA being the star of anything.. Although, I could see Apple keeping 13" MBA in the lineup as a low-cost option for educational markets for another year..
I think 2016 should be the time to drop non-retina Macs from the product lineup, which is already quite complicated. I'd like to see the following Apple Macbook lineup for 2016 and beyond:
- 12" rMB
- 14" rMBP (thinner, smaller bezels, same footprint as current 13" rMBP)
- 16" rMBP (thinner, smaller bezels, same footprint as current 15" rMBP)
Last edited:
My predictions exactly.
Now if we can get the generally reliable and esteemed Ming Chi-Kuo to confirm this, we're good as gold.
Just went into the Apple store today and played around with a Retina Macbook for the first time, which I felt I had to do after reading so many of your opinions on it. Few observations.
I was worried the keyboard would be terrible, it felt perfectly fine with just the right amount of travel in the keys. I can see myself being able to really rapidly touch type with this. It also felt more solid with less wobble in the keys compared to my previous rMBP. The keyboard backlight was also very nice. So my biggest concern was alleviated. The trackpad feels nice, same as the revised one in my previous rMBP.
Display looks excellent, just a slightly smaller version than what I was used to before with my rMBP.
Performance of the system was solid; opening programs, browsing webpages, playing back video. Really didn't feel it lacked anything. I'm sure in sustained demanding tasks it would show, but I'm not wanting to buy this rMB for anything that demanding. Email/music/web browsing/writing documents/video and maybe a little photoshop work, that's it.
Design and lightweight feel was stunning. Really love the Space Grey version, couldn't believe how small thin and light the thing was, could pick it up with two fingers.
Speakers were surprisingly good, which is ideal for using it to watch films on etc.
I'll still wait for Skylake, as I'm not in any desperate need for it.
I was worried the keyboard would be terrible, it felt perfectly fine with just the right amount of travel in the keys. I can see myself being able to really rapidly touch type with this. It also felt more solid with less wobble in the keys compared to my previous rMBP. The keyboard backlight was also very nice. So my biggest concern was alleviated. The trackpad feels nice, same as the revised one in my previous rMBP.
Display looks excellent, just a slightly smaller version than what I was used to before with my rMBP.
Performance of the system was solid; opening programs, browsing webpages, playing back video. Really didn't feel it lacked anything. I'm sure in sustained demanding tasks it would show, but I'm not wanting to buy this rMB for anything that demanding. Email/music/web browsing/writing documents/video and maybe a little photoshop work, that's it.
Design and lightweight feel was stunning. Really love the Space Grey version, couldn't believe how small thin and light the thing was, could pick it up with two fingers.
Speakers were surprisingly good, which is ideal for using it to watch films on etc.
I'll still wait for Skylake, as I'm not in any desperate need for it.
A key question is what will Apple do with the MB Air? I thought that it would disappear in 2016 in favor of an expanded line of rMBs, but the prediction roundup on page one suggests that the MB Air may stay around. And, if it does remain in the lineup, will it get a retina display? Regardless, I still expect Apple to quietly update the processor in the rMB some time this year.
I guess they will keep it as the entry level Macbook with it's low end screen then go rMB then rMBP.
I agree. I don't think Apple will get rid of the Air line anytime soon. It will probably be treated the way the aluminum/plastic unibody MacBooks were when the updated MBPs came out.
The rMB's build quality is incredible compared to the current MBP when compared side by side. It would make sense that Apple brings the same quality to the MBP line next. The MBA can stay with the same design and act as the low-end model the way the original MacBook was.
As for Apple not dropping the price on the rMB-- I wouldn't rule it out. After the unibody MB first came out in 2008, the next update saw a price drop of $100 off the entry-level model if I remember correctly. They also added back some ports that were missing because of user request (firewire, etc). It would be nice if they added a 2nd USB-C to the rMB, but they might not because of what the computer stands for (the elimination of EVERYTHING unnecessary to achieve pure portability).
For people who appreciate the laser-focus of Apple, the rMB is a great machine. It's built for people who already have a primary machine at home. I have a desktop at home and never liked the iPad; the rMB is the perfect solution. I sold my MBA recently to wait for the rMB Skylake update. It's almost certain Apple will update it (they have no reason not to as it's only an internals update).
2016 will be an exciting year for Mac laptops. Hopefully Apple delivers.
Last edited:
What do you think people do at home, that requires them having another primary machine? I have been using rMB as my only machine since it came out, and couldn't be happier.