Apple Planning Five New Macs for 2022, Including Entry-Level MacBook Pro Refresh

[JPack]

Ok fair point. The SSD is arguably a performance part and a power saving part and was first introduced to Macs in the Air in late 2010. So there is some precedent for the air getting a fun new feature first. And you never know.

Apple didn’t design and make their own SSD. It was a Toshiba part. Given it’s Apple’s first in-house modem, it’s unlikely it would be used in a high performance device. I’ll concede it’s possible but wouldn’t make much sense given how conservative Apple is.

 

[dspdoc]

Time for certain lazy developers to get on with porting their software to natively support Apple Silicon. Many of them are using Rosetta 2 as a crutch and excuse to not get to work. Waiting until the last minute when Apple pulls the rug out from beneath them, stripping Rosetta from macOS. I don't understand this work ethic at all! Apple Silicon developer kits have been available for how long now?

 

[sunny5]

iMac, Mac mini, MBA, and MBP are too obvious.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

iMac, Mac mini, MBA, and MBP are too obvious.

Everything he stated today was way too obvious. Nothing new or groundbreaking news.

 

[lovehateapple]

Still hoping Apple releases a new stand alone monitor to go with the new larger iMac and Mac mini ?

 

[northernlight]

Maybe the entry-level MBP gets replaced by a bigger (15-16") Air, it would be much needed

For all of us who work with text and who don't need the extra power. Yes!

 

[Phil77354]

Still hoping Apple releases a new stand alone monitor to go with the new larger iMac and Mac mini ?

I agree! This had been rumored months ago but I haven't seen mentions more recently.

 

[JPack]

As for the 13" MBP, I concur with those who wonder what Apple could do to keep it relevant. It sounds like M2 will ship with 8 CPU (4E+4P) and 10 GPU cores (since the A15 is available with up to 5 GPU cores) which will close the gap a bit between the M2 Air and the M1 Pro 14" MBP. And with a thicker case, the M2 Air should have better battery life and thermal loading than the M1 model which is one of the few reasons to order the 13" MBP over the Air.

Just imagine 13-inch with M1 Pro. Plenty of business users want CPU power but have no use for 16- or 32-core GPU.

A lot of people forget the display is the most expensive part of the notebook. Right now, the 14-inch has 8,000 LEDs. I wouldn’t expect more than a couple thousand for the MBA. As a result, there’s a big difference cheap mini LED and good mini LED.

 

[ksec]

The big question in my mind is whether the current M1 MacBook Air model will saved in the line-up, lowered in price to ~$899, with these new M2 MacBook Airs slotting in above it at $999 & up.

I think a logical guess would be a 14" Notch MacBook Air with M2 at $1099. And the old MBA with M1 at $899. ( The same price as MacBook Air 11" in 2015, I expect some day Apple could introduce a $799 MacBook Air and market it as the lowest portable Mac in Apple's history).

And the update the MacBook Pro 13" with M2 for the same price. Possibly the last generation with Touch Bar.

 

[CWallace]

Just imagine 13-inch with M1 Pro. Plenty of business users want CPU power but have no use for 16- or 32-core GPU.

A lot of people forget the display is the most expensive part of the notebook. Right now, the 14-inch has 8,000 LEDs. I wouldn’t expect more than a couple thousand for the MBA. As a result, there’s a big difference cheap mini LED and good mini LED.

Apple is proud of their displays so while a 13" will likely have fewer zones just because of the smaller area, I don't see Apple intentionally making it significantly worse just to keep it cheap.

And even if the Air and 13" Pro share the same less-expensive screen, adding M1 Pro to the BTO list would raise the price to probably within $100-200 dollars of the 14" (since it would have to come with 16GB/512GB which is $1699 on the M1 13" MBP). And it would need to be as thick as the 14" for thermal reasons so I still wonder how popular it would be.

 

[pee jay bee]

Not sure what people's beef with an entry MBPro are - it's exactly what I need! Call it a 15" or 16" Air. Or a low end MBPro, I'm in. I guess a small screen version makes less sense to me - maybe that's the beef?

What I want is a slimmer 16" with great battery life - don't need HDMI, not desperate for sd. Just a great battery life and a big screen

 

[bradman83]

Personally I would ditch the Air brand and bring back the “Macbook” branding. Back to simplicity!

That's been the running rumor for a while now - that the next model will simply be called MacBook. Hopefully this means Apple will resurrect the MacBook Air in an ultra-light form factor similar to the 12" MacBook (swapping names).

 

[Phil77354]

Entry level MacBook Pro = Semi-Pro

 

[Orionfox]

Plenty of business users want CPU power but have no use for 16- or 32-core GPU.

Plenty of home users have realized they never come close to even using half of their Intel CPU power (much less an M1) but even with a eGPU have their GPU sitting maxed out trying to run simple games.

I can do anything I need to do except games on my first get iPhone SE, my 7th get iPad or my old 2014 Mac mini, my current I3 2018 Mac mini.

Even adding an eGPU doest fix things, though it does help a lot.

I don't understand why Apple thinks people who want to play games (like the ones they are targeting with the VR) would be willing to buy a $5 K workstation just to be able to do m ore than phone games.

 

[cmaier]

So nothing about MacBook Pro 14/16 model.

Why would there be? They just came out with brand new form factors for those. You think they‘re going to change again?

they will be the same as this year, but with M2 pro and M2 max.

 

[megastuff999]

When is the new cube coming? With space for additional HDD/nvme. And loads of ports and 10GBE. Please?

 

[Ahmedista]

I will get the entry level if they ditch the 2016 chassis (touch bar) and make it like the new 14-16 inch. I don’t want to buy a macbook that will break when the warranty is finished.

 

[Mac Marc]

While these machines were updated this year, their absence from Gurman's list could add clout to the theory that Apple is not planning to update its Apple silicon Macs annually.

That doesn’t mean they won’t update the chips.

 

[cmaier]

That doesn’t mean they won’t update the chips.

Yep. Everything on the list is a change in overall design. Obviously the machines that just got new designs aren‘t going to get new designs every year.

 

[CWallace]

I expect the base model (M) will update every generation in step with the A Series. So M1 (A14), M2 (A15), M3 (A16), etc.

I expect the "pro" models (PRO and MAX) will update every other generation. So M1P/M (A14), M3P/M (A16).

That being said, there is the rumor of an "M2 DUO" with 16 CPU cores (8E/8P) and up to 20 GPU cores, which would make it more powerful than the M1 PRO and M1 MAX on CPU and at least as fast as the 24 GPU core M1 MAX and close to the 32 core M1 MAX.

I wonder if we will not see a "Mac mini Pro" with the M1 PRO and M1 MAX, but instead this "M2 DUO" will become a BTO upgrade for the current Mac mini, with the M2 remaining the baseline SoC.

 

[jetjaguar]

Patiently waiting for the mac pro with new apple monitor

 

[JPack]

Apple is proud of their displays so while a 13" will likely have fewer zones just because of the smaller area, I don't see Apple intentionally making it significantly worse just to keep it cheap.

And even if the Air and 13" Pro share the same less-expensive screen, adding M1 Pro to the BTO list would raise the price to probably within $100-200 dollars of the 14" (since it would have to come with 16GB/512GB which is $1699 on the M1 13" MBP). And it would need to be as thick as the 14" for thermal reasons so I still wonder how popular it would be.

The MBP 14 has fewer zones and LEDs than iPad Pro 12.9", so I wouldn't be surprised if MBA and MBP 13 had a downgraded display, not just because of scaling. It just has to be better than the current display.

I would expect the refreshed MBP 13 to start with 8/256, just like the current ones. With a $500 gap between MBP 13 and 14, that's a lot of money. An organization can deploy 30% more machines with the same budget. Or give every user a pair of 27-inch monitors.

I wouldn't underestimate the number of business users who simply want CPU power and an HDMI port. They don't need 8,000 mini LEDs or 14-core GPU.

 

[tgwaste]

I just want a 12" with a m2 and no stupid notch.

 

[formerapplefan]

I like the idea of a Air & entry level Pro. I can think of lots of things that could differentiate the 2:
- 13” display on the Air (where weight is priority) vs 14” on pro
- Bigger battery and more ports on Pro
- and of course more CPU & GPU cores on Pro

 

[satchmo]

I think it would likely be an alternative to the rumored new M2 Air design aesthetic. Plenty of people may not need the Pro Or Max chips but don’t want the colors of a new M2 Air.

Upselling an entry level MBP by making a MBA with ugly colours sounds like something Apple would do.