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Lighter 15" rMBP?
- Thread starter hajime
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If someone thinks a 15" rMBP is heay, they must have never had to carry an older 15" or 17" laptop full of spinning drives and/or optical drives.
When I had the two generations of 17" MBP, they did not feel heavy. Now, I feel the rMBP heavy !?
2kg is too heavy!
How to you manage to move anything - e.g. drive, open doors, lift a drink?
Think about it: What would Apple need to remove from the system to make it 20% lighter?
Making it 1 mm thinner or something isn't going to do it. The innards are a certain weight.
I suppose they could include a smaller battery...
Making it 1 mm thinner or something isn't going to do it. The innards are a certain weight.
I suppose they could include a smaller battery...
Maybe a 15" MBA? But I really doubt we'll see that happen.
They can't make it any lighter without sacrificing performance. IMHO, most people that care so much about weight are probably fine compromising on screen size and get a smaller MBA.
I don't even feel my 15" rMBP in my bag, I'm always checking to make sure I'm not forgetting it somewhere.
They can't make it any lighter without sacrificing performance. IMHO, most people that care so much about weight are probably fine compromising on screen size and get a smaller MBA.
I don't even feel my 15" rMBP in my bag, I'm always checking to make sure I'm not forgetting it somewhere.
Technically it will, but I doubt you'll really notice handful of ounces being freed up.
I have a 15" rMBP, its not that heavy. If you're struggling with the wait, then I suggest you sell it, and get a 13 or 11" MBA.
Not this year, but Broadwell's 14nm process could make machines thinner and lighter across the line.
Because it produces less heat it needs less cooling, and because it uses less power they can shrink the battery. Nobody has done 14nm before so I'm really curious what Apple has in store for us.
Let's also not forget that the battery technologies are going to be developing and I think in not so long future Apple will be able to fit physically smaller batteries that would hold a charge longer. But I don't see it happening in 2014/15, just like other people have said earlier - macbook's are redesigned every 4-5 years and current retinas have been out since 2012, so 2016 is when we can expect some physical changes at the earliest.
Broadwell should offer a Quad Core System on a chip which should lower platform power quite a lot. New Displays with more power efficiency. The last two models had essentially the same displays with no real improvment but the tech in the industry has progressed quite a bit in that time frame. I guess switching to a new better panel would get them back to the display power consumption before the high res move.
Combine all that and maybe drop the dGPU and they can remove some battery and make the whole thing thinner. In theory until they get to usb plug thickness they have room. 3-4mm of the bottom. Even with a dGPU from Maxwell it should be doable. They never really care about the actual battery life with the dGPU enabled.
The whole speaker assembly can in theory also be shrunk if needed. It would loose some quality but people don't buy the 15" for the better speakers over the 13" anyway. The biggest weight loss obviously comes from a smaller battery. Back to 70wh maybe. That part is dense. Removing the dGPU would make the logicboard a bit smaller and with a thinner body the heatsinks would drop some weight.
Not saying they will do any of that. But they could in 2015 (2014 is not likely). That the last models stayed around for so long doesn't say much. They also had less competition for a while. There is probably a bit more pressure on them now and they used to deliver what is possible and always aim for thinner at similar speed rather than faster at the same overall weight and look.
Broadwell might be what they have been waiting for.
BTW Quad Core SoC also help make the logic board smaller or less cramped. With the dGPU gone that is two chips fewer that need space and wiring. It would also explain why they don't deliver a refresh with the 850M/860M still. Those are overdue.
That's a huge assumption. What is this based on?
Unless they've come up with a completely new display technology that nobody knows about, or they switch to an existing technology (e.g. OLED) that's better than IPS, I don't think it's coming soon. You can talk about percentage gains here and there, but nothing that would allow Apple to reduce the battery size.
As these systems are designed, the dedicate GPU is used very sparingly as it is. Well, I should say that it's only used when it's needed, in which case NOT having one would mean that the work you want to do is either impossible, or frustratingly slow. Dropping the GPU would only allow Apple to reduce the battery size if you really believe that the dGPU often kicks in when it's not necessary.
Once you drop the dGPU and ask OS X to perform all graphics-intensive tasks via the integrated GPU, it's going to use up system RAM and your CPU to perform graphics-intensive tasks, but in a slower, less efficient way that has the additional downside of not being as good (i.e. gaming). If you drop the dGPU, your CPU will be operating at max load more frequently, and for longer periods of time. That combination sucks for battery life, so giving your laptop the option of using a dGPU isn't costing you anything.
Besides, that's why the 15" Macbook Pro is $2000+ machine, and intended as Apple's highest-end "pro" machine. When you need the power, the power is there. When it's not, then the dGPU doesn't do anything.
Up until now, what I meant was that the current 15" Retina MBP, with a similar set of hardware and features, is very difficult to shrink down.
My guess is that some people are after a 15" MBA-like device (with Retina display), which is a different story, and requires a different product line. Surely there's a market, so I guess there's a point to be made there.
I'd like to see the rumoured 12.5" MBA that's more similar to the size of the 11.6" MBA, along with a bigger 14" or 15" MBA.
So:
12.5" and 15" MBA with Retina display
13.3" and 15" MBP with Retina display and dedicated GPU.
Apple has never offered a lot of different hardware options in the past, and due to the introduction of tablets, people's usage and dependence on computers has changed anyway. It would be very Apple-like for them to streamline the laptop lineup even further, with the understanding that their customers are looking to have a tablet and laptop.