Is it expected that the baseline 1299$ 13” macbook pro be updated as well this march?

[Mohamed Kamal]

It’s rumored that a march apple event will take place and the MBP 13” will be updated.
Is it expected that the low end base model will get the update or is it just the higher end model, with the lower end maybe being updated later than march or even next year?
What about the macbook air?

 

[robvas]

Probably but who knows exactly

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[DHagan4755]

This is an open question. My hope would be yes. But my real hope is that they simplify the mid-range a little bit. As of right now it doesn't make sense to spend the additional $$ on the top-tier 13" MBP because the performance is very similar.

 

[Idioteque_]

No one can tell. As far as I know, those EU regulatory leaks are for a form factor, not a specific processor, so the latest regulatory leaks can be for any of the potential models. I strongly doubt Apple releases a higher end 13" with the scissor keyboard while the lower end stays with the butterfly.

 

[throAU]

It’s rumored that a march apple event will take place and the MBP 13” will be updated.
Is it expected that the low end base model will get the update or is it just the higher end model, with the lower end maybe being updated later than march or even next year?
What about the macbook air?

Maybe. Supposedly intel have new CPUs out. That's what tends to drive macbook refreshes.

Thing is though that some of them (the new 10nm "ice lake" parts) actually perform WORSE than the old ones, except in iGPU performance. Intel is having a tough time of it, so maybe Apple won't bother until intel gets their house in order.

 

[jerryk]

Maybe by fall.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Maybe. Supposedly intel have new CPUs out. That's what tends to drive macbook refreshes.

Thing is though that some of them (the new 10nm "ice lake" parts) actually perform WORSE than the old ones, except in iGPU performance. Intel is having a tough time of it, so maybe Apple won't bother until intel gets their house in order.

Do you have benchmarks/reports that show this? I'm in the market for a 13" too this year.

 

[throAU]

Do you have benchmarks/reports that show this? I'm in the market for a 13" too this year.

very techy (semiaccurate is a very reputable semiconductor industry analysis blog), but read and look out for the gotchas in intel's new mobile lineup. they've made it deliberately confusing. If you're curious, Charlie over at semiaccurate is pretty on the ball with regards to what's going on behind the scenes both at intel, AMD and others. he's been doing this for a long time - if you want to really know what's going on with AMD or intel behind the marketing - check out his other articles.

Intel’s Comet lake is ‘meh’, the launch was not

Last week Intel launched their ’10th Gen’ CPUs, a self-inflicted wound that shouldn’t have been released.

semiaccurate.com

Some of their parts may be better, but you REALLY need to be on the ball with what you are buying this time around.

Some of the new parts are barely keeping up with last year's parts - at twice the power.

There hasn't been a lot of progress at intel for some years now. Which is why apple have been slow to put out new machines in recent years, and why macs that are 5+ years old are still actually usable.

I'm sure Apple will make a sensible choice out of what relative garbage intel have to offer. Well, we can only hope.

However if you are in the market for a 13" machine and also considering PCs - beware!

 

[SSD-GUY]

very techy (semiaccurate is a very reputable semiconductor industry analysis blog), but read and look out for the gotchas in intel's new mobile lineup. they've made it deliberately confusing. If you're curious, Charlie over at semiaccurate is pretty on the ball with regards to what's going on behind the scenes both at intel, AMD and others. he's been doing this for a long time - if you want to really know what's going on with AMD or intel behind the marketing - check out his other articles.

Intel’s Comet lake is ‘meh’, the launch was not

Last week Intel launched their ’10th Gen’ CPUs, a self-inflicted wound that shouldn’t have been released.

semiaccurate.com

Some of their parts may be better, but you REALLY need to be on the ball with what you are buying this time around.

Some of the new parts are barely keeping up with last year's parts - at twice the power.

There hasn't been a lot of progress at intel for some years now. Which is why apple have been slow to put out new machines in recent years, and why macs that are 5+ years old are still actually usable.

Thanks. Interesting read, especially around how he explains they're 'massaging' the numbers as they say in my trade.

Quick question though, for both Ice Lake and Comet Lake, there is only one 28W part. Does that mean even the top end 13" MBP that normally has the 28W i5 and i7 processors (and 2 fans) will use an i7 28W, but the i5 processors in that model will be 15W?

 

[throAU]

Quick question though, for both Ice Lake and Comet Lake, there is only one 28W part. Does that mean even the top end 13" MBP that normally has the 28W i5 and i7 processors (and 2 fans) will use an i7 28W, but the i5 processors in that model will be 15W?

It's possible. It's also possible Apple may even try and cram a 6 core in there at lower clocks, or even have some sort of exclusive-to-apple CPU from intel.

We really don't know (yet) - however the big take-away for me from that article is to look very closely at the intel "10th Generation" part numbers (when the machines ARE released) and look them up on ark.intel.com to figure out what you're actually getting.

Because what you think you're getting may be significantly different from what you actually get this time around. Intel are mixing and matching different generations of part on different manufacturing process, with different features - into the same "10th generation" marketing. It's a crock.

Maybe Apple could even drop a bomb and release an AMD 13" machine; maybe Apple are waiting for AMD to get more manufacturing capacity once Apple move their own iDevices off TMSC's 7nm process to 5nm. Built-in AMD GPU (which smashes the intel iGPU in performance) would line up nicely with Apple's graphics drivers in macOS at least.

 

[BootLoxes]

It's possible. It's also possible Apple may even try and cram a 6 core in there at lower clocks, or even have some sort of exclusive-to-apple CPU from intel.

We really don't know (yet) - however the big take-away for me from that article is to look very closely at the intel "10th Generation" part numbers (when the machines ARE released) and look them up on ark.intel.com to figure out what you're actually getting.

Because what you think you're getting may be significantly different from what you actually get this time around. Intel are mixing and matching different generations of part on different manufacturing process, with different features - into the same "10th generation" marketing. It's a crock.

Maybe Apple could even drop a bomb and release an AMD 13" machine; maybe Apple are waiting for AMD to get more manufacturing capacity once Apple move their own iDevices off TMSC's 7nm process to 5nm. Built-in AMD GPU (which smashes the intel iGPU in performance) would line up nicely with Apple's graphics drivers in macOS at least.

wasnt there hints of amd cpu code in a recent dev build? I could have sworn I heard something. I would instabuy a mbp with the new ryzen 4000 series mobile cpus they announced recently.

 

[throAU]

wasnt there hints of amd cpu code in a recent dev build? I could have sworn I heard something. I would instabuy a mbp with the new ryzen 4000 series mobile cpus they announced recently.

Probably.

However, even if Apple don't ship an AMD machine, it would be prudent for them to have AMD development systems to be able to change vendor quickly (in terms of development time) if needs dictate.

OS X was compiled for intel from the outset, way before the Mac shifted from PPC (it was derived from NextStep which was available on intel before PowerPC) - it would be foolish for Apple not to be doing the exact same thing internally today. You can bet your house that there are internal builds of macOS for ARM floating about inside Apple as well.

I'd take "AMD code in dev build" as "Apple are shipping AMD soon!" with a pinch of salt, but it is certainly feasible for them to do so if they want.