Future Apple Silicon Macs Rumored to Include Redesigned 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro, 24-Inch iMac, and Smaller Mac Pro

[Onelifenofear]

So at this point I guess the iMac is going to become touchscreen and Apple pen compatible with a funky arm mount. Well we can hope.

A smaller Potential Mac Pro Surely will just become “Mac”. I can see the tag line...Mac’s Back...Return of the Mac.

The reason the Mac Pro is.. well.. pro is the sheer amount of PCIE slots, rams slots etc but a smaller cheaper option will please A LOT of people... 4 PCIE, half the ram slots etc. Half the price

 

[robertcoogan]

Cool!

Will key travel be further degraded to the point where we feel that we're just tapping expensive paper? 🤔

 

[Spock]

Or it will be wildly more powerful. One of those.

I am sure it will be more powerful but that doesn't change the fact that it won't have any expansion.

 

[Maconplasma]

If Apple's claims are true (I have no reason to doubt the claims), then Intel should be ashamed of how far they have slipped.

I'm willing to bet everything Apple claimed was 100% true. When a company (Intel) gets a sale with or without improving their product they have no motivation to make it better.

 

[Maconplasma]

My soul needs a new 12-inch MacBook.

Tell your soul to get over it. Not gonna happen. Apple has made that clear with the new fan-less MBA.

 

[Maconplasma]

Interesting
But at some point, having only one processor will be limited

If they put an M1 into a 16", people will feel weird to pay 2k+ to have the same processor as the one in a computer 1k$ cheaper

My bet is Apple will have 3 levels of the M chip. M1 for entry level. M2 for the 14" (if it ever exists), M3 for the 16" and other M-series for the iMac and Mac Pro.

 

[PickUrPoison]

and it's still 720p...

So is digital OTA broadcast HDTV. Looks amazing, even on a 65” screen.

Resolution isn’t the problem; in fact higher res can result in much lower quality, depending on the quality of your upstream connection.

 

[PickUrPoison]

So at this point I guess the iMac is going to become touchscreen and Apple pen compatible with a funky arm mount. Well we can hope.

A smaller Potential Mac Pro Surely will just become “Mac”. I can see the tag line...Mac’s Back...Return of the Mac.

The reason the Mac Pro is.. well.. pro is the sheer amount of PCIE slots, rams slots etc but a smaller cheaper option will please A LOT of people... 4 PCIE, half the ram slots etc. Half the price

Half the RAM slots and half the PCIe slots saves like $5 in BOM cost. A smaller case and power supply will save them maybe another $200 or so.

But a Mac Pro mini definitely won’t take the Afterburner card or have two (or maybe any) MPX slots—and maybe not even a 200-300W GPU slot. The specs will drive the price, which could be anywhere from $2k-5k imo.

 

[VanNess]

So is the digital OTA broadcast HDTV. Looks amazing, even on a 65” display.

Resolution isn’t the problem; in fact higher res can result in much lower quality, depending on the quality of your upstream connection.

Fox and ABC are 720 OTA. CBS, PBS, and NBC are 1080 OTA. Nevertheless recent 4K TVs do an outstanding job of upscaling both

 

[gaximus]

That's my thought. Imagine it will be basically double everything of the M1.

It'll be the M1S or some suffix with probably just more gpu cores, and maybe more ram.

 

[ericwn]

Really? I’ve just ordered the new MacBook Pro with M1 and I already feel buyer’s remorse before I even got it in my hands. Should I consider cancelling my order?

Consider using it during the extended return period and then make a decision based on experience rather than listening to forum guesses.

 

[oldsuttree]

Tell your soul to get over it. Not gonna happen. Apple has made that clear with the new fan-less MBA.

Nah, I wouldn't draw that conclusion just because the MacBook Air is fanless. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple revives the MacBook—a laptop designed around a fullsized keyboard allows them the smallest form factor.

 

[ericwn]

So at this point I guess the iMac is going to become touchscreen and Apple pen compatible with a funky arm mount. Well we can hope.

A smaller Potential Mac Pro Surely will just become “Mac”. I can see the tag line...Mac’s Back...Return of the Mac.

The reason the Mac Pro is.. well.. pro is the sheer amount of PCIE slots, rams slots etc but a smaller cheaper option will please A LOT of people... 4 PCIE, half the ram slots etc. Half the price

I like the iMac idea but don’t think it’s gonna happen. Nor would it be interesting for anything but graphic work and my wild guess is that the typical iMac audience is far bigger than the Microsoft Surface Studio audience.

But yes we can dream

 

[BERMUDASHORTSDREIECK]

I'll jump on a 14" macbook pro day 1. I just hope I have time to replenish my fun money after Christmas before they drop. Q2-Q3 2021 as rumored would be a good time for me.

upvoted for "fun money"

 

[haddy]

Update that webcam already! It’s embarrassing.

It's okay, no need to be embarrassed, just get yourself a 2020 iMac

 

[PickUrPoison]

Fox and ABC are 720 OTA. CBS, PBS, and NBC are 1080 OTA. Nevertheless recent 4K TVs do an outstanding job of upscaling both

Yup, though max 1080i (until local ATSC 3.0 transition). Most can’t tell the difference between it and 720p, but 1080i is less than ideal for sports. Pretty much the same amount of data in 720p vs. 1080i.

But my point is that 720p isn’t really a problem wrt webcam quality.

 

[Frank Philips]

Curious about the smaller Mac Pro if the rumor is correct.

Lately I've used various Mac mini. A smaller Mac Pro could be tempting.

Me too. That could be a very neat machine, depending on real perfs and what's under the hood.

Not denying that what Apple is doing right now is nothing short of impressive.
But the Mac Pro would be aimed at a category of users that want to be able to add components at will, or simply add more Ram when they sit fit.
Let's not forget the possibility to repair/upgrade the whole stuff, and a good warranty with pro services (something that Apple is lacking, at the very least here in Japan).

Basically, if the Pro follows the current thread of M1 products, it would almost everything that its target users abhor.
I'm wondering how Apple is going to convince them.

Also wait and see about the price. Even with a complete redesign, knowing Apple's habits, I'm worried a AS-based Mac Pro would still cost way north of $3K.

 

[reyesmac]

If Apple plans on killing the Apple upgrade industry, ram, drives and so on. They really need to provide computers that don't require upgrades from the stock configurations. If they started with 16 gigs and max out at 128 and drives start at 500 then I could see where the con of having base prices be $200 more expensive than before for a decent machine who's specs could last a while before feeling like you don't have enough to cut it would be worth it. Even if it does kill several kinds of Mac related businesses.

 

[Maconplasma]

Nah, I wouldn't draw that conclusion just because the MacBook Air is fanless. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple revives the MacBook—a laptop designed around a fullsized keyboard allows them the smallest form factor.

Okay give me a great reason as to why Apple would still bother making the 12" MacBook when they have the new M1 MacBook Air? Please provide me a real business decision on Apple's part, not a personal need/want of yours.

 

[Maconplasma]

If Apple plans on killing the Apple upgrade industry, ram, drives and so on. They really need to provide computers that don't require upgrades from the stock configurations. If they started with 16 gigs and max out at 128 and drives start at 500 then I could see where the con of having base prices be $200 more expensive than before for a decent machine who's specs could last a while before feeling like you don't have enough to cut it would be worth it. Even if it does kill several kinds of Mac related businesses.

Those are your personal needs/wants, not the reality of the average consumer. The average consumer (who represents most of Apple's customers) isn't thinking the base config doesn't have enough ram or SSD space. Please put yourself in reality outside of what techie forum members want.

 

[Krizoitz]

They will simply 'obsolete' otherwise perfectly good hardware as they have repeatedly done.

You realize that that "perfectly good hardware" doesn't stop working just because Apple moves it to the obsolete category right? Supporting increasingly old and less used hardware makes no financial sense, at some point you have to draw a line. Or do you think Apple should still be supporting the Mac SE?

 

[Tagbert]

AI won't upgrade the megapixel count. Yeah it will have less noise and nicer colors but as good as the M1 chip is, 720p will always be 720p.

It would likely require a new physical design to fit in a significantly better camera. That is hopefully happens in these new models.

 

[panjandrum]

You realize that that "perfectly good hardware" doesn't stop working just because Apple moves it to the obsolete category right? Supporting increasingly old and less used hardware makes no financial sense, at some point you have to draw a line. Or do you think Apple should still be supporting the Mac SE?

Apple does indeed obsolete hardware that is perfectly capable of running current operating systems by ceasing to support them for no reason other than they can't be bothered (or, if we wan't to attribute more nefarious motives, because they wish to force new hardware purchases before they would otherwise be necessary.) This is demonstrated over and over as again though third-party efforts that make these systems absolutely usable with excellent performance. (However, the vast majority of Apple users will never even be aware of, let alone use, any of these.) Being unable to update the OS causes a snowball effect when other app developers stop releasing updates for older version of the OS. Thus; a) Apple stops bothering to support older machines on current OS even though it is perfectly possible to do so. Then b) apps eventually stop being updated for older versions of the Mac OS. Then c) A perfectly good piece of equipment is rendered obsolete needlessly once the critical apps can no longer be kept up to date. Sometimes this isn't a big deal as the older app versions might be perfectly good. In other cases, however, such as out-of-date browsers, it becomes essentially impossible to continue using a piece of equipment which still otherwise works and is still sufficiently powerful in all regards. It's simply been forced into obsolescence. That's bad for you, me, the planet, and everyone except Apple.

 

[Tagbert]

It may be a dumb question, but what would be the difference of performance between the Mac book air and the MacBook Pro since they have the same ship?

In the models announced this week:

The Air has no fan. It has the potential to need to throttle the CPU under heavy load.
The Pro has a fan and so would not likely have that problem.

There may or may not be differences in the CPU clock between the models. We probably will find that out when they are unboxed and perf tests are run.

 

[KPOM]

Compared to a quad core i7 machine. It’s in Apple’s website.

That’s what’s impressive. Apple compared the performance with the highest end builds of their previous generation. And now they don’t even offer CPU upgrades. The i7 was a $250 upgrade on the Air. So in a way, Apple did make the M1 Macs cheaper.