Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Isn't it kind of impossible to make MacBook Pro any thinner?
- Thread starter Kendo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I just can't see how you guys are willing to opt for a thinner mbp, if it means losing the ports and getting rid of the hard drive and only having an ssd. Optical fine I can live with that being external, but whats the point of having a laptop if I have to carry around all this crap to use it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that "removing the hard drive" is an option on the table at this point. Replacing the HDD with a SSD doesn't save any space really.
Not sure if this was mentioned earlier...
My old PC laptop had an ethernet port that slid out like a little CD tray. Kind of hard to explain, but it was only about as thick as a couple of credit cards. You'd plug in downward and all the important bits seemed to line up....
that being said - Apple's known to kick the older technologies before anyone else, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide it's time to go exclusively WiFi soon.
My old PC laptop had an ethernet port that slid out like a little CD tray. Kind of hard to explain, but it was only about as thick as a couple of credit cards. You'd plug in downward and all the important bits seemed to line up....
that being said - Apple's known to kick the older technologies before anyone else, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide it's time to go exclusively WiFi soon.
The Superdrive and the HDD make up a little more than 1/3 of the volume inside the MBP case, not to mention that they are the thickest parts inside the MBP. If Apple gets rid of those they will have much more space to work with.
They could elongate the Motherboard (just like in the air) and distribute the ports equally on both sides. Now the ethernet port is only 0.4" thick. They could put that all the way up towards the screen (oposite magsafe) and have a wedge design with the thickest point being 0.7-0.8 and going all the way down to 0.2-0.3. Slimming down the screen would help a lot. With the elongated motherboard (on the 15" MBP) they will have enough space for a great heatsink with 2 fans (offering enough air to cool down an ivy bridge quadcore and a mid size GPU) and towards the thinner part they could fill it up with a great battery.(~10 hrs).
The 2nd possibility is that they could go with a uniform design (~0.7") just like in the current ones and save ~1lb of weight. Either or the next MBP wont have HDD nor the Superdrive and IT WILL BE THINNER AND LIGHTER.
They could elongate the Motherboard (just like in the air) and distribute the ports equally on both sides. Now the ethernet port is only 0.4" thick. They could put that all the way up towards the screen (oposite magsafe) and have a wedge design with the thickest point being 0.7-0.8 and going all the way down to 0.2-0.3. Slimming down the screen would help a lot. With the elongated motherboard (on the 15" MBP) they will have enough space for a great heatsink with 2 fans (offering enough air to cool down an ivy bridge quadcore and a mid size GPU) and towards the thinner part they could fill it up with a great battery.(~10 hrs).
The 2nd possibility is that they could go with a uniform design (~0.7") just like in the current ones and save ~1lb of weight. Either or the next MBP wont have HDD nor the Superdrive and IT WILL BE THINNER AND LIGHTER.
I rather like the MBP form factor as it is right now. Thinner? I don't care, and I dislike the design of the Air.
As others have noted, it'd be difficult to make the MBP much thinner and to retain an actual Ethernet port, which I need. And I refuse to use an adapter - that defeats part of the point of having an all in one laptop. As does removing the optical drive - I use mine quite a bit.
As others have noted, it'd be difficult to make the MBP much thinner and to retain an actual Ethernet port, which I need. And I refuse to use an adapter - that defeats part of the point of having an all in one laptop. As does removing the optical drive - I use mine quite a bit.
And the only thing you are losing by switching to SSD is storage space, at least until high-storage SSDs are cheap enough.
Ethernet won't die. Too many dorms, universities and "secure" work environments just won't allow it.
This could work. It still thinner than before, but not as thin as Air. Thus justifying the 2 lines (MBP and Air). If went any thinner, then whats the point of MBP and Air? Just call em all Air and be done with it.
As long as I get all the functionality and performance, I welcome a thinner, lighter MBP. However, since it's thermal management is already horrible, I doubt that even Apple can handle thermal problem with thinner design.
If making it thinner requires compromises in spec, it's no longer a mbp.
If making it thinner requires compromises in spec, it's no longer a mbp.
No, I suppose I haven't. I guess I just assumed they were similar in size to the HDD replacement SSDs that I've seen.
7lbs isn't heavy... the 13" MBP weights only 5lbs (I doubt 2lbs is that much of a difference). I have owned 17" laptops before (back in 2003 and around) and they weighed around 11-12 lbs...
The only reason anyone feels the wedge is a good design is because Apple produced it. That stupid wedge shape would have been shot down if produced by any other manufacturer. We will eventually have components that run cooler, facilitating a thinner design, but I am hoping it doesn't turn into a mess of unreliable dongles just to plug anything in.
They'll probably analyze the percentage of users that require higher capacity drives versus what they are willing to pay for them. I imagine we'd need at least something along the lines of cost effective 512GB capacities to make this happen. No one wants to own a laptop and then carry around external drives, adapters, and a bunch of other stuff just so that the base machine can be manufactured in a slightly more compact form. They need better solutions rather than forcing what they consider a small percentage of users to actually increase the amount of extras that need to be carried with the laptop.
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
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 has been pushing more and more toward integrated gpus as the norm across their laptop line. Next year the quad core won't be able to run in an air like enclosure (at least not one like what is in the pro), as the tdp isn't coming down that much. If they do manage to get one in, you will see many complaints about heat.
There are a lot of comments that are pretty far off in here, like a slimmed down macbook pro retaining firewire. That's probably the first thing I'd expect to see go even given the outrage last time. Thunderbolt should become a replacement for firewire accessories, but it doesn't have the price or adoption yet.
It wouldn't surprise me even a little. Some things about their designs just annoy me so much. They constantly try to hide wires then for the masses, then a smaller percentage of users are stuck with a hideous mess of adapters and dongles with high failure rates and weak connections. It's incredibly frustrating. The failure rate on all of these little dongle adapters is always high so they even require a backup (they're way more prone to failure than the internal components).
The Dell Inspiron 7000 weighed 8.9 lbs. The battery alone weighed 1.45 lbs. Basically two of my MBPs.
Last edited:
I firmly believe either the Air will get a "Pro" version, or something of that nature because the MacBook Pro in its current state, will only go the way of the dinosaur. Mark my words. The reason I say this is because even with all its power, the current MBP (I own the 2011 that first hit the shelves this year) is heavy to be lugging around.
Yes we have netbooks and smartphones etc, but we are spoiled.... Plain and simple we it ALL and it better be light! Don't believe me? Then where did the netbook (and Air) come from in the first place? Because we wanted lighter. I don't care, I would rather have all the port and power and lug around my MBP, then to have an Air and not have what I need when I need it.
The condom rule applies here fellas: Better to have it, and not need it, then to need it and not have it.
Yes we have netbooks and smartphones etc, but we are spoiled.... Plain and simple we it ALL and it better be light! Don't believe me? Then where did the netbook (and Air) come from in the first place? Because we wanted lighter. I don't care, I would rather have all the port and power and lug around my MBP, then to have an Air and not have what I need when I need it.
The condom rule applies here fellas: Better to have it, and not need it, then to need it and not have it.
Last edited:
yeah it was a long tie ago. My memory is certainly fuzzy! It must have been more than 7 lbs!
It was probably closer to 10 lbs. All I know was it was thick, heavy and slow!