Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Registers 7 Unreleased Mac Notebooks in Eurasian Database

Baymowe335 said:
Butterfly keyboards aren't going anywhere because they aren't nearly the problem believed here in the echo chamber.
Click to expand...

Funny, because it's only online that I ever come across someone that says "actually, I like the butterfly keyboard". In our company, we all adapt and can physically type on the butterfly, but it is NOT a good experience, and everyone uses external keyboard when they can. "I've learned to deal with it", is NOT something Mac users are accustomed to, and it's pushed many people I know into Windows.

It's not a *little* worse - it's worse than any keyboard Apple has ever launched in the 25+ years I've been using them. And that statement has ZERO to do with reliability issues. I find even the iPad Pro keyboard cover a lot more comfortable to type on. And that's not acceptable for a device whose two most critical features are the screen (still good), and the keyboard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kazmac, saytheenay, jeffreyg and 1 other person
ls1dreams said:
All I want to see is a fixed keyboard Apple. Get with it.

With that said, what I -really- want in 2020 is:

- fixed keyboard (no keys that break, more travel, and a proper arrow key configuration)
- dropped touchpad, and save us some $$$ in doing so huh?
- at least 4 USB-C ports. 2 is absurd - at the bare minimum most people want power, mouse, monitor, and a spare port to pop in a USB thumbdrive/etc without having to unplug something else.
- AV1 hardware decoding w/ the igpu
- 512gb base SSD (this will never happen)
- 802.11ax wi-fi

OLED screen would be cool, but probably would add way too much expense to be worth it. I personally don't see much difference on iPhone XS vs. XR despite looking pretty closely. Might be nice for dark movies, but I don't want movies on my laptop or phone.
[doublepost=1560553403][/doublepost]

Not to mention Apple has already made 3-4 attempts w/ band-aid fixes to improve the keyboard. They wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't still a problem!
Click to expand...

Personally, I would prefer the return of a couple USB A ports, magsafe, and HDMI to the laptop. Also, OLED's are a terrible idea on computer monitors. That's literally the worse use case for OLED as the likelyhood for burn-in is far greater since PC's have a lot more static content on the screens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: saytheenay and happygodavid
I suspect Alexandro's right about the MacBook (base plus three cell models), and hope he's right about the MBP 16".

His two hypothesized MacBook Airs would not be new A numbers, though. The Air just got its new A number when it made the transition to Retina - processor variants go under the same number...

Is one of the two remaining numbers a redesigned MBP 13" (14"?)? Seems likely.

The last one could be a "big MacBook", an OLED or other ultra high end MBP, or something else?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
Baymowe335 said:
Welcome to reality.
[doublepost=1560617572][/doublepost]
The Mac is selling well too. Mac sales were just up and have been very steady over the last several years. Mac is a mature product, like the iPhone, and lasts many years. Watch is a completely different product, still in its infancy.

The new Mac Pro will again boost Mac sales and I’ll be sure to post that when we get the numbers.
Click to expand...

How much do they pay you? Are we talking minimum wage or per post here?
 
Do iPads fall under "Portable computers"?

When iPad models have leaked on this Eurasian database in the past, did it say portable computers, or something else?

Also, doing a quick search, it seems like all MBPs have model numbers that are lower than A2000, whereas these mystery 7 are all above A2000, which seem to fall closer to the more recent iPad model numbers.

So, why are we sure these are for MacBooks and not iPads?
 
Last edited:
Is the operating system these machines run listed? If that's so, it's most likely one Mac with a cellular modem option (which would use up four numbers) plus three additional Macs.

The obvious candidate for the cellular modem is the 12" MacBook (or its successor with a slightly different screen size).

Of the remaining three Macs, two of them are almost certainly MacBook Pro redesigns - Ming-Chi Kuo predicted them, and the only other option is three entirely new products. The Air just got its redesign a few months ago when the Retina Air came out.

Even assuming two of the three are MacBook Pro redesigns, there's still a mystery Mac out there. It could be an extra screen size of any notebook, or perhaps an ultra-high-end variant of the 16" MBP.

The possibilities (perhaps in order of likelihood) are a big MacBook (14"?, 15"?), a tiny MacBook (either something like 10", or a change from a single 12" model to an 11" and 13" lineup?),a variant of the new 16" MBP (OLED?) or a third MacBook Pro larger than the larger of the two redesigns. Instead of a 13" (or 14") and 16" lineup as predicted by Ming-Chi Kuo, the lineup with a third model would probably be 13", 15", 17"? There's a slight possibility of a second screen size for the Air instead, but I think that's less likely than a second MacBook on one side or the other of the 12" MacBook or even a 17" MBP.
 
My prediction:

Given cellular capacity takes up four model numbers.

First four models: 12" MacBook with cellular modem.
Fifth model: 14" MacBook.
Sixth model: MacBook Air 13".
Seventh model: MacBook Air 15".

No big redesigns, same butterfly 2019 keyboards, apple thinks they finally fixed it with this year's MacBook Pro refresh, so they want to push it to their other notebooks with updates.

Dual cores for both October 2019 MacBooks, dual for 13" Air and quad for 15" Air (perhaps ice lake?). Then 16" and 17" MacBook Pros in 2020.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
Apathy Overdose said:
My prediction:

Given cellular capacity takes up four model numbers.

First four models: 12" MacBook with cellular modem.
Fifth model: 14" MacBook.
Sixth model: MacBook Air 13".
Seventh model: MacBook Air 15".

No big redesigns, same butterfly 2019 keyboards, apple thinks they finally fixed it with this year's MacBook Pro refresh, so they want to push it to their other notebooks with updates.

Dual cores for both October 2019 MacBooks, dual for 13" Air and quad for 15" Air (perhaps ice lake?). Then 16" and 17" MacBook Pros in 2020.
Click to expand...
lets just confuse the whole world a little bit more shall we.
do you want a 12" 13" 14" 15" or 16" laptop hmmm...
 
The problem with that lineup is that the 13" Air was JUST refreshed a few months ago with the Retina Display (which generated a new A number). That isn't one of them...

Either a 14" MacBook or a 15" Air makes sense. My money is on the 14" MacBook, because I think a big-screen ultraportable is most likely to show up in a premium line, and Apple considers the MacBook premium and the Air value. I'm not at all sure on that, though - a 15" Air wouldn't surprise me at all.

What would surprise me tremendously is both a 14" MacBook and a 15" Air. What would the difference be? Both would have Retina displays, the 14" MacBook would probably sprout a second USB-C port (and I suspect the ports will be Thunderbolt 3 compatible on everything including the 12" MacBook)...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
What causes a change in the A number without a full chassis redesign? We know it's not the processor.

A change to the wireless components like BT, WiFi, etc? For e.g. if a machine goes from BT 4.2 to 5.0, would it need a new A number?
 
Ice Lake would probably not do it alone, but a significant motherboard redesign to accommodate Ice Lake might very well.

I looked through the A numbers on EveryMac a few weeks ago, and came up with some general rules (Apple sometimes breaks their own rules, though). Remember that A numbers are significantly broader than Apple's other two model numbers (the M****LL/A order number and the EMC number) - those distinguish configurations, while the A number is relatively broad models.

Regular annual upgrades generally don't trigger A numbers (for Macs - the rules are different for things with cell modems - those do change A number on annual upgrade, and they use up a lot of A numbers due to regional variation).

A visible redesign always creates a new A number (if you can distinguish the two machines on the outside without looking carefully, they have different A numbers).

A display change often, but not always creates a new A number (all the Retina portables have distinct A numbers from non-Retina equivalents). The major exception is that the Retina iMacs share A numbers with the non-Retina iMacs going back to 2012 - all slimline iMacs except (very, very oddly) the 2019 models share a pair of A numbers (21.5" is A1418, 27" is A1419).

A CPU or GPU upgrade generally won't trigger an A number (even major differences). All Retina 15" MacBook Pros share an A number, including the models that omit the discrete GPU entirely.

Internal architectural changes can trigger an A number that doesn't seem to make sense. The 2017 Touch Bar MBP has a different A number from the seemingly similar 2018 MBP. What changed? The T2... More confusingly, the 2019 iMacs have unique A numbers (so far) - they supposedly don't have a T2, so what changed?



 
danwells said:
Internal architectural changes can trigger an A number that doesn't seem to make sense. The 2017 Touch Bar MBP has a different A number from the seemingly similar 2018 MBP. What changed? The T2... More confusingly, the 2019 iMacs have unique A numbers (so far) - they supposedly don't have a T2, so what changed?
Click to expand...

I think it’s related to wireless. 2017 had BT 4.2, 2018 and 2019 have BT 5.0.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
danwells said:
The problem with that lineup is that the 13" Air was JUST refreshed a few months ago with the Retina Display (which generated a new A number). That isn't one of them...

Either a 14" MacBook or a 15" Air makes sense. My money is on the 14" MacBook, because I think a big-screen ultraportable is most likely to show up in a premium line, and Apple considers the MacBook premium and the Air value. I'm not at all sure on that, though - a 15" Air wouldn't surprise me at all.

What would surprise me tremendously is both a 14" MacBook and a 15" Air. What would the difference be? Both would have Retina displays, the 14" MacBook would probably sprout a second USB-C port (and I suspect the ports will be Thunderbolt 3 compatible on everything including the 12" MacBook)...
Click to expand...
Hopefully you’re right about the 14” MB, I’ve been wanting Apple to make one since the 12” came out. Intel is adding Thunderbolt 3 to the on-package chipset for new Y-class CPUs so I do think we’ll see that replace the USB-only USB-C port. Not sure there will be enough PCIe lanes to support two TB ports though.
 
cinq2 said:
Why? It makes perfect sense and it's consistence with Ive's philosophy. Just hope there will not be a 20% tac for this sexiness :)
Click to expand...
Doesn’t make any sense to me, on a monitor, iMac or a laptop. Sure, on a handheld device where you’ve got radiused device corners and you’re trying to push the display out as far to the edge as you can to get the absolute minimum bezel possible. Without rounded display corners, you’d end up with larger bezels than necessary.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DCIFRTHS
So we know that the new 13" MBP that just came out is the A2159. That makes it 1 down, 6 more to go.
It seems like the newly released MBA model number is still pending, could be 2 down shortly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
The MBA is not another of the new numbers - it showed up on EveryMac as an A1932 - exactly what you'd expect, a Retina MacBook Air. It's just new configurations of that 2018 machine...

The other two model numbers - the M****LL/A number and the EMC number - are still pending, but those change with configuration, which the A number doesn't (other than cellular configuration, for whatever reason - probably regulatory).

The European leak was 7 new A numbers - we still have 6 to go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dgdosen and Apathy Overdose
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back