Just when Apple is rumored to be ditching Intel?
One could hope Apple envisions a reinvigorated Macintosh line—instead perhaps no longer needing powerful chips as its own more than suitable for neutered Macs running iOS.
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Intel's New Core i9 and Coffee Lake Chips Pave Way for Quad-Core 13" MacBook Pro, Mac Mini Refresh, and More
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Just when Apple is rumored to be ditching Intel?
One could hope Apple envisions a reinvigorated Macintosh line—instead perhaps no longer needing powerful chips as its own more than suitable for neutered Macs running iOS.
Except they don't have the feature of macOS. Trust me, if I could keep the ecosystem, I would've certainly moved manufacturers by now. One day maybe we can get the best of both worlds.
Besides, such a tradeoff would only be for the 32GB, it's not like whatever you want to buy for yourself would be compromised.
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32GB looks like it will come to the MacBook before the MacBook Pro. 4.5W cannon lake chips are rumored for the end of this year, and they’ll support LPDDR4. Should also have fixes for meltdown and spectre, at least for those variants that can be fixed in hardware.
For the MacBook Pro, you’ll have to wait for Ice Lake, so next year assuming Intel can get their 10nm process working well enough.
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Yeah this would make no sense especially since the MacBook CPUs are weak. There wouldn't be much benefit from 32GB ram there. Better processors would make much more sense although Apple has limited themselves with that fan-less design.
Apple usually updates Macs with the appropriate Intel processors relatively quickly after they’re available.
There’s no better CPUs to update the MacBook to until the Y-series Cannon Lakes are released later this year. So Apple has a few options:
1) Update MacBook with Cannonlake when available, and offer a 32GB option from day one.
2) Update the MacBook later this year, but hold back the 32GB option until Ice Lake is ready and they can also offer it on MBP (might be a year or longer wait).
3) Skip the 2018 MacBook refresh altogether and just not release anything until MBP gets updated.
I suppose there’s also the option of never offering 32GB on the rMB but I don’t see why they wouldn’t. I think option #1 is most likely. There’s nothing to be gained by waiting, is there?
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Cannon Lake will offer those better processors, and I have no doubt some rMB buyers could benefit from 32GB!
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They are making a 13” MBP. It was an ‘if’ almost 2 years ago when the rumors began.
I don't agree. I work in IT in advertising and support about 10 of the new MBPs, and I've found them the most problematic Macs I've ever dealt with - and I've been using and supporting Macs since 1984. The unreliability of being forced to use hubs for network, monitor and wired keyboards, combined with their very temperamental keyboards and ultra-thin, delicate screens make these MBPs a very unsatisfactory user experience. Most of my users hate them. If they aren't having issues with networking or monitors, or keys that won't press due to a tiny spec of dust getting stuck underneath them, they've got cracked screens. They also seem very susceptible to water damage. A minor spill that wouldn't hurt a MacBook Air, can kill these things stone dead. I hate the darned things and am very reluctant to buy any more. For our use-case MacBook Airs - despite their old-fashioned specs - are a much better deal. They aren't sexy, but they're tough, cheap and totally reliable. The new MBPs might make a reasonable "personal" laptop, but in an office environment, they're a nightmare.
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i'll buy one today.. i dont need a top of the line machine, i need a little server. 800-1200.00 my current one is from 2011.. its still going strong but showing its age. If they release a ARM based one in two yrs.. i'll wait for the bugs to shake out 6months to a year.. and buy one of those too.
It has been quite long, Macbook Air hasnt seen a refresh since 2015. So does Macmini.
Out of curiosity, are these 2016 or 2017 models? I’ve heard Apple made changes to the keyboard after seeing a higher than expected rate of in-warranty repairs.
Apple has sold upwards of 25 million laptops since the newest generation MBP were introduced. I’m not sure how many were MBP, maybe 10-15 million? If these customers have to spend money out of pocket for keyboard repairs due to a tiny speck of dust, I imagine we’ll have dozens or hundreds of class action lawsuits filed shortly. Maybe some have already been filed. Anyone know?
Or maybe Apple is fixing them for free? I mean, a one year warranty is no solution for a manufacturing defect that’s triggered by a tiny speck of dust. Maybe Apple will have one of those warranty extension programs.
Ours are mostly the first model from 2016. And yes, the keyboard was slightly improved in the 2017 models, but it's hardly noticeable. We'd held off buying any new laptops for a couple of years while these new MBPs were always "just about to be released". So I bought 12 at once! The worst big IT deployment I've ever done.
The keyboard is the most manageable issue. I keep a can of aerosol air here, and can usually get them working again after a blast from that. It's the nightmare of living with hubs (for regular users, nerds like me seem to cope better), and screens cracking despite reasonably careful handling (these are used by young advertising types, who of course are rather cavalier about how they treat tech gadgets, but we've never had this level of damage before). I had one 15 inch MBP with a cracked screen that had never left the building - it was just put in an office drawer every weekend, and then back out on a desk.
We're in Australia, and Apple aren't as cooperative about fixing things under "warranty" here. So for any we buy now I get AppleCare - which I've never had a need for before. Previous Apple hardware was very hardy, and we had only rare catastrophic damage to our MacBook Airs, which we just paid to fix. But for these MBPs AppleCare is essential. I've just today received a 13 inch MBP back from having it's screen replaced. $1000!
That i9 sounds like a beast! If only Apple would make the MacBook Pro a few millimeters thicker, include the 32GB RAM and a bigger battery...
Quad core 13” MacBook Pro would be really nice. With eGPUs I don’t even care about discrete graphics anymore.
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Interesting about the fragile screens, I hadn’t heard complaints before.
Sounds like you’re using the dock for Ethernet/keyboard/monitor in the office and maybe charging; that’s a very typical usage and I wouldn’t expect much difficulty, but it sounds like it’s been problematic for you. Is it USB3 or Thunderbolt dock? Are they all the same model?
Thx again!
Don’t say that. Joni reading this will be holding anything off for another 6 months
Apple has been holding back on maximum RAM amount on lower-level computers (compared to what has been technically possible) before. It's not all unlikely that the MB will stay at 16 GB max for a while after they technically could offer 32 GB.
Take for example the first 13" retina MBP, released in October 2012. It was offered with only 8 GB while using 3210M and 3520M (Ivy Bridge) processors. The same processors in the non-retina 13" MBP (release in June of the same year) can be combined with 16 GB RAM (Apple didn't sell that configuration to you, but you could put in yourself two 8 GB sticks from day one). I would also be very surprised if the U-series processors used in the MBA only gained 16 GB RAM capability with Skylake (the 2016 13" MBP Escape offers 16 GB, while the 2016 & 2017 13" MBA with Broadwell is offered by Apple only with 8 GB).
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The MBA has taken on the role of the 2012 13" non-retina MBP which was sold for more than four years unchanged. This keeping the last non-retina version in the lineup for a couple of years has now happened several times: The iPad 2, the 2012 non-retina MBP, the 2015 MBA.
Sure, Apple could hold off on offering 32GB on the rMB even after it gets the new processor that could support it, but what would they have to gain from that? The 13” MBP and the 12” rMB have roughly equivalent price points when similarly configured. I don’t think Apple prefers that you’d by a 13” MBP instead of the 12” rMB.
In the case of the MacBook Air, it’s true Apple doesn’t sell 16GB configs. It’s not because there’s no demand; rather, it’s a market segmentation play to bump you up to the more expensive—and profitable—13” MBP or 12” rMB. If you want 16GB, you’ve got to move up to a more expensive line. But again, I don’t think Apple has a preference between those two alternatives.
Every year Intel releases new processors that suitable for MacMini, yet Apple choosing not to upgrade it. The last 4 core MacMini came in 2012 and since then it went down to 2 cores without to many updates, wonder when we’ll see 4 core (or even better, 6 core) version again…
About 13” MBP with 4 cores - that would be a dream come true, but i doubt Apple will release anytime soon. Although, if they’ll use the new 6 core version for the 15” MBP, there is a chance for it to happen.
It will be perfect timing for the 4 core 13” MBP to come out, my 13” MBP start to show its age… finger crossed.
About 13” MBP with 4 cores - that would be a dream come true, but i doubt Apple will release anytime soon. Although, if they’ll use the new 6 core version for the 15” MBP, there is a chance for it to happen.
It will be perfect timing for the 4 core 13” MBP to come out, my 13” MBP start to show its age… finger crossed.