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Isn't it kind of impossible to make MacBook Pro any thinner?

K

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
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Could someone please explain how the MacBook Pro can get any thinner? Unless they remove the Ethernet port, that is the main reason why it can't get any thinner because that port cannot shrink. That little sliver of space below it is used for the battery.

I don't think removing the optical drive would make it thinner at all because it isn't adding to the thickness. However it would just be a good place to put an SSD like the current models.

Is it really feasible for the MacBook Pro to get much thinner or are we setting ourselves up for disappointment?

MacBook-Pro-Side-535.jpg
 
Not impossible if it morphs into something else other than what you're thinking...
 
That IS a lot of ports... The Air only has like 2 on each side.

So, they'll either keep the same form, or they'll make it an Air and make you buy adapters.
 
Yumunum said:
That IS a lot of ports... The Air only has like 2 on each side.

So, they'll either keep the same form, or they'll make it an Air and make you buy adapters.
Click to expand...

It makes you wonder if they make something like the MacBook Air but include a small rectangular Thunderbolt adapter on the side that includes Ethernet and USB.

I wonder how people would feel about that...
 
Also, like the current Air's, they could make it non-uniform thickness.

If you put the ethernet all the way in the back, and then tapered the thing down to almost nothing, you could easily save 1/2 to 1/3 the volume.

Or, with thunderbolt being what it is, make a TB adapter that gives you Ethernet/FW800/USB, and have 2 ports on the side, like a current MBA.
 
They can definitely shave of something off the lid. There are lots of notebooks out there including the air with thinner lids.
Currently the hd bay has 12.5mm space. If you limit that to the minimum you can remove 2.5 mm add 2 mm of the lid. You you'd be at 2cm instead of 2.5 and that isn't yet limited by the optical bay thickness.
Removing the optical bay frees up space for battery, bigger cooling fins, fans bigger in diameter to make up for thinness. Or more logicbay space.
If they limit HDDs to 7mm you could make it even smaller but I doubt that is feasable because even without the optical bay there would be enough space left for a big enough battery to power a "powerful" notebook for a long enough time.
Also shrinking the cooling fins to that height would probably not work and making them deeper doesn't help all that much usually because it kills air pressure.

I think 5mm thinner is realistic everything else not so much. It is not dependent on the optical bay thickness but only freed up space.
 
Unrelated to thinness but they should definitely get rid of the HDD and use SSD chips on the board like the Air. For both the 13" and 15" Pro. If they did it on mass they could get the Flash cheap enough. You wouldn't get 750GB of storage, I'd say anywhere between 128GB and 512GB depending on the model and how cheap Apple can get the storage. And the loss of storage size is made up ten fold by the advantages of SSD. Not to mention you can plug in a high speed thunderbolt drive (which would be 3.5" and by default way faster than a notebook hard drive).

This would give them much more room to play with. A killer GPU, 10 hour battery, more cooling. They could keep the 17" as is, so those who really need a terabyte of storage in the machine can still have it, as well as their express card slot. Do away with the superdrive on the 13" as well. No superdrive, no hard drive, gives them room to make a truly kick ass 13" notebook. Quad Core, 10 hour battery life, a decent GPU, and room left over to cool it all. To the people that say it needs to retain its superdrive to be a "professional" machine (inherently stupid, because there is no definition of a professional machine, professionals need different things), let me put it like this: By your definition of professional, a killer fast notebook is less professional than a crippled notebook just because it lacks a superdrive.

Get rid of it, get rid of the hard drive, the superdrive, all that archaic crap, Apple, bring us in to the future as you always do.
 
Right now I don't see how they could make it that much thinner with sacrificing performance.

The can probably make it a little thinner but won't be like the Air. I hope they don't try to make it too much like the Air. They're not the same thing.
 
Kendo said:
Could someone please explain how the MacBook Pro can get any thinner?
Click to expand...
Without reading the rest of this post or the thread, I've got to say this question is strange to me, considering the fact that years ago, they thought you couldn't get any thinner than something like this:
inspiron-7000.jpg
The point is, everything in technology keeps getting smaller and smaller, so why is it so hard to imagine that miniaturization will continue? I'm sure someday people will look back and consider the 11" MacBook Air to be a horribly big and clumsy antiquated computer.
 
Path of the Macbook Pro is no doubt going to be a machine that is a step closer to the present Air. Steve Jobs very much eluded to this, and the Air is the fastest selling Apple Notebook. I am sure we will see a sliming of the system, with a similar wedge design to that of the Air`s

The hardware; I can see the option of SSD being less of an option and more of a mainstay, utilizing a similar "blade" SSD to the Air`s larger capacities, lower costs. I personally very much like the idea of a hybrid system with both SSD & HD, however I dont believe that Apple will take this path, preferring to focus on single SSD systems and push "Thunderbolt" as a means to fast mass storage for profesional use. Nor will Apple want to diminish battery run time which is an in important factor for them.

The big question is will Apple ditch the optical drive, it`s inevitable the only question is when. With the Pro`s there is enough footprint to retain the drive by clever placement with only a very minor physical reduction in the drives height. personally I can live without an external optical drive as I rarely have use them. If anyone is going to loose optical drives across their range of portables, it`s likely Apple will be first...

The other side of the coin is sales, I have yet to see anyone not impressed by a 2011 MacBook Air`s performance. A moderately fast SSD, coupled with a moderately fast CPU really does equal blistering performance for the average user, very much giving the impression of instantaneous computing, and let`s face it the majority of people buying Mac`s are the "average user".

Now couple the same SSD to a Quad Core & discrete GPU and you are going to have a far more versatile system, as long as the storage is priced reasonably. A system attractive to all; professionals, prosumers, educationalists, students and of course the casual user offering Speed & Power :apple:
 
GGJstudios said:
Without reading the rest of this post or the thread, I've got to say this question is strange to me, considering the fact that years ago, they thought you couldn't get any thinner than something like this:
The point is, everything in technology keeps getting smaller and smaller, so why is it so hard to imagine that miniaturization will continue? I'm sure someday people will look back and consider the 11" MacBook Air to be a horribly big and clumsy antiquated computer.
Click to expand...

OMG, I used to own that exact DELL laptop. It was so heavy carrying across an airport. It must have been like 7 lbs!!

I'm happy with the MBP as is. The 13" size is perfect for my needs.
 
If the Pro ends up looking like the Air then Apple might as well call all their laptops MacBook Airs. ;) I think a lot can be done with the Air to retain the design and bump up the power to Macbook Pro level. But I don't see what can really be added to the Pro-lots can be stripped out-the HDD, the optical drive, some ports etc.
 
Lee Adama said:
OMG, I used to own that exact DELL laptop. It was so heavy carrying across an airport. It must have been like 7 lbs!!
Click to expand...
Yes, I've owned several Dell laptops over the years, including that model. We've come a long way since then! It's only gonna get better!
 
GGJstudios said:
The point is, everything in technology keeps getting smaller and smaller, so why is it so hard to imagine that miniaturization will continue? I'm sure someday people will look back and consider the 11" MacBook Air to be a horribly big and clumsy antiquated computer.
Click to expand...

Yea but how much smaller will technology get from now to march/april?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

If "they" can fit an entire ship, albeit miniaturized, inside of a bottle.

http://www.dwtenkhuizen.nl/engels/images/flessenscheepjesmuseum_1.jpg

"They" can bring us a thinner form factor with all the bells & whistles your throbbing heart desires. XD
 
GGJstudios said:
The OP didn't say anything about march/april, or any time frame.
Click to expand...

You're right, but I just supposed he meant the next release.

"Is it really feasible for the MacBook Pro to get much thinner or are we setting ourselves up for disappointment?" I'm pretty sure he was talking about all the rumors about the thinner MBP that are going around at the moment.

Obviously computer will get a lot thinner in a few years.
 
There are lots of ways to make the current 15" MBP thinner. Remove the opitical drive, remove the ethernet port, and distribute the rest of the ports on the left and right side of the keyboard. Limit hard drive size to 9.5mm. Move the hard drive/battery under the keyboard. The shape will probably be a wedge shape like the current MBA.
 
Move the NIC and FW800 to the back left and right sides and then you can shrink from there, making the thickest point only as big as a NIC port.

Then you just organize the ports by size going down the side. That lets you still get a wedge shape and keep the ports while also still being slimmer.
 
i remember, after the 12" powerbook was discontinued, people said apple would never make a small notebook again.

when the 2008 13" macbook came out (the first aluminum one), there was no firewire port, and people argued there would NEVER be one on the 13", it would not fit.

apple keeps changing the game, a good thing.

what i'd like to see: bigger screen but same footprint (i.e. no bezel), or, for example, a 13" screen with a SMALLER form (and no bezel).
lighter weight. and all the usual suspects (screen resolution, battery, etc).
 
They could always remove that pointless round part at the bottom and make the bottom lid flush with the case. If they wanted to make it even thinner, they could just remove uncommonly used ports and make adapters.
 

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