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Forget the Incremental 16" MacBook Pro... 17" More Likely

Which New MacBook Pro Form Factor Would You Prefer?

  • 13" MacBook Pro

  • 14" MacBook Pro

  • 15" MacBook Pro

  • 16" MacBook Pro

  • 17" MacBook Pro

Results are only viewable after voting.
PROFESS0R

PROFESS0R

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2017
363
348
All,

Many of you, myself included, loved the 17" MacBook Pro. Who is to say that Apple will not break from their recent (trashcan redesign notwithstanding) incremental changes to their devices, and release a 17" MacBook Pro?

Imagine a new slightly thicker chassis with a 17" screen (touchscreen is simply too much to hope for, I think) and better cooling to run higher sustained CPU speeds.

I've added a poll to this thread, let's see what the preferences are.

Joe
 
I love the 13" hardware size. they could easily fit a 14.25" screen if they reduced the bezels.

My 2014 MBA has a 13.25" screen diagonally inside a 15" housing. I personally think the 15" hardware is good big. I think something between 13"-15" hardware with 15" screen would be fantastic.
 
Old 17" were way too large for me. More transportable vs notebook.

A 16" screen with minimal bezels on the current 15" chassis is my limit.
 
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16.4" sounds like a good balance between more screen space (hopefully big enough fo the 1920x1200 resolution to be usable without being minuscule?) but still a reasonable size/weight. If it's 16.0" I think the rounded corners will start to eat into any benefit over a 15.4, plus I think the 1920x1200 will start looking a little too small again.
 
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sboychuck said:
I still have my 17” MBP and it works fine. It is not a powerhouse anymore, but I’d does have a fast SSD inside now. Replaced the battery once. Very nice back-up computer, although I am interested in moving away from iMac and using a new MBP and an external monitor.
Click to expand...

I recently lost mine to an expanding battery. Too bad for me - then end of an era.

I'd love it if Apple did a 17.3 with a 4K display.
 
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14" would be nice I admit as long as it had a dGPU. But really, nothing wrong with 13" and 15".
 
nStyle said:
14" would be nice I admit as long as it had a dGPU. But really, nothing wrong with 13" and 15".
Click to expand...

I find the current 13” a little too small for my use, and if they could add an inch onto the current size it would be close to perfect. The new Intel CPU’s destined for this machine have much improved graphics so I doubt we will see a dGPU. My eyes are also eagerly watching the new surface launch on Oct 2 and what MS see for the future. Great to have options.

In relation to 17” MBP, I highly doubt this will happen and they will stick to the current footprint and we will see the 16” - all rumours point to this and a 17” is wishful thinking.
 
I had a 17". It pretty much turned into a desktop replacement as it was such a bitch to carry. I prefer the idea of a 16" max.
 
Imagine the possibilities with a 17”... larger fans for more cooling at the same thickness, a 12 core processor, of course the larger display. I cannot help but wonder what it would weigh in at. I gave my 17” to my granddaughter last year to use in college and it is going strong. I want to say it was a late 2007 model.

Hard to believe that after 12 years it is still going strong with no problems. I replaced the hard drive every couple of years as the drives got larger. I think it has a 1Tb in it now... perhaps 2Tb.

What a lovely machine. Damn I miss it.

Joe
 
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PROFESS0R said:
Imagine the possibilities with a 17”... larger fans for more cooling at the same thickness, a 12 core processor, of course the larger display. I cannot help but wonder what it would weigh in at. I gave my 17” to my granddaughter last year to use in college and it is going strong. I want to say it was a late 2007 model.

Hard to believe that after 12 years it is still going strong with no problems. I replaced the hard drive every couple of years as the drives got larger. I think it has a 1Tb in it now... perhaps 2Tb.

What a lovely machine. Damn I miss it.

Joe
Click to expand...

There are lots of Windows laptops with 17.3 4K display, up to 128 GB of RAM, slots for 3-4 SSDs, wide variety of video card choices, SD card slots, USB-3.1 and USB-C, charging from USB-C or with the proprietary charger, HDMI and/or MiniDisplay ports. They typically weight 8 pounds and are 1+ inches thick.
 
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Isn’t this interesting... for now, the 17” lead every other category in the poll.... interesting. I am not the only one.
 
I frequently travel internationally with a 17" notebook so a 17" Mac would not present any issue for me. The problem with the 17" MBP was that it didn't sufficiently differentiate enough in comparison to the 15" MBP and Apple priced it far to high for the value it represented.

Apple simply understood it was a niche product and priced it accordingly. A new larger MBP should offer a stronger dGPU, more ports and storage options (2XM.2) at a minimum, equally we all know that won't happen, likely just a bigger 15" with an inflated price point...

Q-6
 
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morze said:
I had a 17". It pretty much turned into a desktop replacement as it was such a bitch to carry. I prefer the idea of a 16" max.
Click to expand...

It was never the best choice for something that you were going to do a lot of travelling with, but mine did most of its travelling on the home desk <> car boot (occasionally bike) <> work desk circuit, for which it was perfect. Took it on planes a few times and, yeah, it’s a bit much to hump around Heathrow. Not that I haven’t seen people working on the things in cattle class seats...

Thing is, many laptops spend 90% of their lives sitting on desks plugged into the mains, maybe getting moved once a day, once a week... They don’t have to be ultra thin, ultra light or have massive battery life, especially if that means compromising performance and features. Still far less hassle to move a bulky laptop than an iMac or Mac Pro or, sometimes, a small laptop that needs a bunch of external drives and hubs...

The rumoured 16” sounds like it’s just a drop in replacement for the 15” with thinner bezels - which is fine. A 17” would need something extra - better cooling, space for internal 2.5” HD/SSD, more ports (even USB-C at a pinch)
 
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A non-pro 17" Macbook (Air?) that has the thin/light of the LG Gram would be a nice piece of kit to own (I'd buy one, for sure), but it would be such a niche device that it probably wouldn't sell enough units to make it viable for Apple to build.
 
TechRunner said:
A non-pro 17" Macbook (Air?) that has the thin/light of the LG Gram would be a nice piece of kit to own (I'd buy one, for sure), but it would be such a niche device that it probably wouldn't sell enough units to make it viable for Apple to build.
Click to expand...

That Gram is like a bigger Air with more ports. Shame it comes with Windows.
 
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A 17” using the minimal bezel approach suggested for the 16” (which I guess would make it a ~17.6”) would be interesting but I don’t see it being 4K. Every other retina Mac panel from Apple (including the announced new pro display) have a PPI around 220. On a 17” that’s somewhere around 3200x1800 for 16:9 or 3200x2000 for 16:10.

I doubt I’d bother getting something as big again, unless it offered something unique beyond screen size - the reality is I work from home a lot more and from random coffee shops and client offices a lot less, so a desktop gives me the grunt and the MBP15 works for the occasions when I need to be portable.
 
PROFESS0R said:
All,

Many of you, myself included, loved the 17" MacBook Pro. Who is to say that Apple will not break from their recent (trashcan redesign notwithstanding) incremental changes to their devices, and release a 17" MacBook Pro?

Imagine a new slightly thicker chassis with a 17" screen (touchscreen is simply too much to hope for, I think) and better cooling to run higher sustained CPU speeds.

I've added a poll to this thread, let's see what the preferences are.

Joe
Click to expand...

The title of your thread ‘17” More Likely’...according to who? There are many rumors from credible sources for months about a 16” device, which will very likely closely resemble the physical dimensions of the current 15” chassis.

Apple killed off the 17” years ago...I know it was loved by a lot of people on this forum, but the market is just not there for large laptops. Laptop sales do not drive the extreme profitability they once did, quite the opposite actually, it would truly make no sense for Apple to waste their resources and effort for a device which would hardly sell. They have real problems to address with the current line of notebooks.

They stopped selling the 17” years ago when you could argue that large laptops were still desirable because they felt the demand wasn’t strong enough. Since that time, laptop sales have declined pretty significantly YoY. Do you really think it’d make sense to introduce a large 17” laptop when the demand has only grown significantly weaker since they originally killed it off? More and more people are moving to iPads and Chromebooks, not 17” 4 pound behemoths.

I’m not trying to rain on your parade, I just don’t understand how you can call it more likely that they’ll release a 17” than a 16”. Wishful thinking would be an understatement. These 17” threads get old.
 
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