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Next macbook pro will have design modifications

LoveToMacRumors

LoveToMacRumors

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 15, 2015
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Canada
I belive its been 3 yrs the mbp had the same design, the couples years were always internal upgrade.

I bought a mbp a couple weeks earlier but decided to return it, i just bought a gold mb at bestbuy at its been working fine.

Mbp is still too heavy i believe for students. I handle the mb one handed with no problem but the mbp feels so clunky. So many ports yet i dont use any of them except usb.

What do you guys think? Is buying the mbp now rhe worst time since the cycle is ending design speaking
 
This answer can go 5 different ways. I think its worth it 100% with Best Buys sale the other day. Which was $1099 and you can use a 10% movers coupon. So essentially $989 for a computer that is WAY more powerful than the MBR. Yes that was the 2015 version.

But again some people value "portability" or "bleeding edge" design, but that is fine. Also version 2 of the MBR could have a big spec jump, so that leaves the original MBR first version "feel" sorta outdated. Or if they introduce the same sexy design but with a 14" screen :eek:.

At the end of the day Apple products wether the latest model or not holds its value. So its fairly easy to sell it and take a small loss and upgrade to the newer version if you wish. There will ALWAYS be something new coming. But at that price BB had yesterday. You could almost break even when you sell it next year if they did upgrade. AND still enjoy its power "if you need it" for the time being.
 
Having just graduated from university where 90 percent of my peers across all three years had either a MBP or a rMBP I would disagree with your statement about the students. Not one of them had an air.

Having said that I am fairy happy with the design, it might need a little refinement but I'm against them making it ridiculously thin and light at the expense of performance and features.That is why we have MBA and the new MB.The design will always be a little bulkier because it is supposed to be a PRO platform (with a combo of pro power/performance that has greater battery, space, ports and cooling requirements) and not a casual platform. A pro platform without extra ports wouldn't make much sense for me considering I am now a professional user.

There isn't a need to gut the rMBP for the sake of it and I really don't feel there will be any major changes other than the adoption of the new style keyboard so I personally think it is not too much of a risk in buying now, if people are concerned with weight and too many ports then they really would be silly to contemplate the MBP.
 
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It's all about the compromises.

I use the Thunderbolt ports and USB ports and occasionally the SD-card port on my 15" rMBP. If those were to go away and be replaced by one or maybe two USB-C ports as seen in the new Macbook, that would really crimp my productivity.

But eliminating those ports is what allowed the new Macbook to be so thin...

I would hope that if Apple were to cut down bulk anywhere, it would be in the bezels. An inch could then be trimmed off all sides of the machine with no loss of functionality. That would shave a bit of weight off. Maybe it wouldn't satisfy Apple's thinness obsession, but this class of machine shouldn't be compromised in terms of functionality or capability.
 
Other than color, it can't get much thinner without ridding the USB-A and Thunderbolt ports which Apple won't do on their pro system.
 
Traverse said:
Other than color, it can't get much thinner without ridding the USB-A and Thunderbolt ports which Apple won't do on their pro system.
Click to expand...

I agree, its pretty damn thin and light for its "pro" power. If you want portability, they make TWO laptops for that. The Air and the new MBR :)
 
xban said:
I belive its been 3 yrs the mbp had the same design, the couples years were always internal upgrade.

I bought a mbp a couple weeks earlier but decided to return it, i just bought a gold mb at bestbuy at its been working fine.

Mbp is still too heavy i believe for students. I handle the mb one handed with no problem but the mbp feels so clunky. So many ports yet i dont use any of them except usb.

What do you guys think? Is buying the mbp now rhe worst time since the cycle is ending design speaking
Click to expand...

protip: The pro laptop line doesn't need to change at all. You just bought the wrong laptop.
 
I just visited the local university here and most students have the MBP 15". I don't know where you get the idea that students carry around the smaller 13" or 12" models. They maybe high school students; but not 4 year or grad students.
 
I agree with the user who said it could go so many different ways. There is such a large market for the current pro. I also think it would really help to differentiate the product lines. The rMB and the rMBP are essentially for two different types of people.

I have been using by side by side for a few days. I love the portability of the rMB, but you do feel the "lag", and it is not b.c of the processor. It is b.c the graphics card is nowhere near equipped to handle the retina display. I would hate to see them do this to the pro line, sacrifice power for looks.
 
I teach economics and statistics/econometrics at a college and have students bring their laptops to class regularly to work with data. Five years ago, 3/4 of students had Windows laptops because they were cheaper. Now it's more like 50-50; yes, Windows laptops are still cheaper, but MacBooks are more prevalent than they used to be.

Among the MacBooks students have, the 13" MBA seems the favorite, but I also see a lot of MBPs including retina and nonretina. 15" ones aren't common, whether due to their cost or weight, but I see some.

Interestingly, buying used MBs (of whatever type) is not uncommon among students; in other words, students who can't afford a new MacBook choose a used one over a new Windows laptop.

What I don't see a lot of is students using tablets; maybe 2 per class. A few years ago, I predicted students would migrate toward iPads. More and more textbooks are available in electronic tablet-friendly versions. iPads since the late 2013 models have been pretty powerful; combined with an external keyboard and Google docs or MS Office iOS version, you can do some serious work on an iPad. Ditto for Android tablets.

Anyway, there are plenty of MBs on campuses, including MBPs.
 
xban said:
I belive its been 3 yrs the mbp had the same design, the couples years were always internal upgrade.

I bought a mbp a couple weeks earlier but decided to return it, i just bought a gold mb at bestbuy at its been working fine.

Mbp is still too heavy i believe for students. I handle the mb one handed with no problem but the mbp feels so clunky. So many ports yet i dont use any of them except usb.

What do you guys think? Is buying the mbp now rhe worst time since the cycle is ending design speaking
Click to expand...

If the rMBP is too heavy: Hit the gym. You need it badly.
 
It's a Macbook Pro. People do serious work on those machines. And as an iOS developer, I would prefer a MORE powerful computer, not a thiner one.

Also, if they stopped doing the 15" i would be really pissed off :/
 
Traverse said:
Other than color, it can't get much thinner without ridding the USB-A and Thunderbolt ports which Apple won't do on their pro system.
Click to expand...

I would expect them to do it in a couple years, unless their attempt at USB C fails. But I really don't see them doing it in the pro for a few years at least.
 
Traverse said:
Other than color, it can't get much thinner without ridding the USB-A and Thunderbolt ports which Apple won't do on their pro system.
Click to expand...
It can get quite a bit thinner. Have you ever looked at the design. There is a good bit of a belly unneath that ring. You can effectively shave off 3mm before the part with the ports even gets touched. It is supposed to look thinner than it is but here I thought everybody still realized it, yet people act as if that is how thin the body actually is and any thinner and the ports would need to shrink. Seriously take a closer look at the design.
 
dusk007 said:
It can get quite a bit thinner. Have you ever looked at the design. There is a good bit of a belly unneath that ring. You can effectively shave off 3mm before the part with the ports even gets touched. It is supposed to look thinner than it is but here I thought everybody still realized it, yet people act as if that is how thin the body actually is and any thinner and the ports would need to shrink. Seriously take a closer look at the design.
Click to expand...

You have to take into account that the connector inside the body is bigger than the hole in the body. It needs space for electrical contacts.

No, it can't get much thinner, that 3mm is eaten away INSIDE the computer.
 
the next iteration

I doubt it gets significantly lighter but the chassis may change. Apple does not want it to compete with the new Retina Macbook and it also needs to be thicker to allow the fan which is needed for the Pro model.

Apple will likely put the new keyboard in the next rMBP. This should mean a slight change in the model's appearance.

I expect it to be available in the three colours which iPhones, iPads and the new Macbook are available in.

The question is what type and how many ports will Apple give the model. How many USB ports? And will be a mix of USB-a and USB-c? I think Apple will include at least one USB-c in any new Macbook. It will likely keep HDMI and Thunderbolt for at least another iteration.

Skylake brings wireless charging according to Intel.
 
snaky69 said:
You have to take into account that the connector inside the body is bigger than the hole in the body. It needs space for electrical contacts.

No, it can't get much thinner, that 3mm is eaten away INSIDE the computer.
Click to expand...
I just did a little measuring. The vertical part with the ports is 6 mm. The shaped part below is 5mm. And no it is not true that connectors inside are significantly bigger.Look at a a logicboard from both sides. They need those 6mm and that is it. For Type-A USB and TB/DP, type-c would need less still.
The 5mm are filled mostly with battery. If you shrink the logicbaord like in the Macbook, thin out the keyboard and make the heat sink thinner but deeper. You could even cool it almost the same. The battery would need to shrink and a newer even skinnier battery would be needed. Shrink the belly down to 2mm instead of 5 and you got a noticeably skinnier MBP.

It is doable especially if they dump the dGPU on the 15" and not try to go all wedgy. The heatsink design could also be optimized, imo those should be bigger. Like the Razer blade mostly has a bigger heat sink which gives it the extra cooling power. It is the same height just deeper and bigger. They should have made room for that and reduce the max necessary rpm and noise. Worth the bit of extra space imo. Anyway they could do it now thinner and better to come out about the same level.
Newer cpus don't really need 95Wh for decent battery life. Displays also get more efficient which reduces the Wh needed. Batteries have been unchanged in the rMBP but they get better every year. A new pack would probably need less space this year than this 2 year old one does for similar performance.

It is all doable even with Type-A USB but I seriously doubt they would do a redsign without switching to Type-C all round. I just don't see it happening this time around. Except that if they drop the dGPU they will do it this generation or not for a few, because once they switch to Maxwell and later HBM 16nm GPUs, Iris Pro won't look good enough in comparison. If they go that route then they would release something else like a 17" along with shrinking the 15", I think. If that was likely we would hear rumors. There are none so there will be just the same old with new chips in all likelihood.
 
dusk007 said:
I just did a little measuring. The vertical part with the ports is 6 mm. The shaped part below is 5mm. And no it is not true that connectors inside are significantly bigger.Look at a a logicboard from both sides. They need those 6mm and that is it. For Type-A USB and TB/DP, type-c would need less still.
The 5mm are filled mostly with battery. If you shrink the logicbaord like in the Macbook, thin out the keyboard and make the heat sink thinner but deeper. You could even cool it almost the same. The battery would need to shrink and a newer even skinnier battery would be needed. Shrink the belly down to 2mm instead of 5 and you got a noticeably skinnier MBP.

It is doable especially if they dump the dGPU on the 15" and not try to go all wedgy. The heatsink design could also be optimized, imo those should be bigger. Like the Razer blade mostly has a bigger heat sink which gives it the extra cooling power. It is the same height just deeper and bigger. They should have made room for that and reduce the max necessary rpm and noise. Worth the bit of extra space imo. Anyway they could do it now thinner and better to come out about the same level.
Newer cpus don't really need 95Wh for decent battery life. Displays also get more efficient which reduces the Wh needed. Batteries have been unchanged in the rMBP but they get better every year. A new pack would probably need less space this year than this 2 year old one does for similar performance.

It is all doable even with Type-A USB but I seriously doubt they would do a redsign without switching to Type-C all round. I just don't see it happening this time around. Except that if they drop the dGPU they will do it this generation or not for a few, because once they switch to Maxwell and later HBM 16nm GPUs, Iris Pro won't look good enough in comparison. If they go that route then they would release something else like a 17" along with shrinking the 15", I think. If that was likely we would hear rumors. There are none so there will be just the same old with new chips in all likelihood.
Click to expand...
TL-USB%20drawing.jpg


Overall height including the board underneath and solder points for it should come out to about 9mm.

The overall height INSIDE the port is a hair over 5mm. That's quite a big difference. nearly 50% of the port's overall height is not visible from the outside. The port's taking up pretty much all available space. You need a smaller port to go thinner.
 
We're living in a sad world if 3.5 lbs is too much weight. I carried more than that in school books in Elementary School. :|
 
IMO the design of the 13" MBPr is very close to perfection. I'd love a bit smaller bezel and a native resolution bump to 2880 x 1800 which scales at a "best for retina" setting of 1440 x 900. Replace a TB port with USB-C. That's it. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Sadly I think I'm in the minority and think Apple's obsession with thinness will continue as will overall consumer demand for change just for the sake of change.
 
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