Possible entry level MBP refresh this month??

[James Godfrey]

So what are your thoughts on the possibility of the entry level MBP getting a refresh this month?

As we all know by now the M1 MBA and MBP are very similar in terms of performance, making the MBA pretty much a no brainier between the 2, this leads me to think either Apple are going to scrap the entry level MBP completely or possibly refresh it to make it a more worthwhile purchase over the Air.

My thoughts are either it getting the 14 inch display but instead of miniLED just getting standard LCD and either having the M1X like the higher end models or I am thinking this may be an M2 event.

I think we could potentially see the M2 launching in the base MBP and the M2X launching in the higher end MBP’s reason I have a feeling this may happen is due to the MBA now rumoured to be refreshed at the end of 2022.

Now I imagine Apple will want to debut the M2 in a Mac over an iPad, so if the delays to the Air are true the next iPad Pro won’t get launched until late 22 at the earliest also.

On top of this a design refresh of the entry level MBP makes sense as having the entry level being the only Mac with that design language and that being the only Mac with Touch Bar (a marketed pro feature by Apple) just doesn’t seem to sit right IMO… what are your thoughts on the future of the entry level MBP?

 

[ascender]

I don't know if it makes sense to Apple to have an entry-level MBP once the new Pros with four ports come out. Given the performance of the M1 Air, I could see them ditching the current one altogether. I get the impression its there just now so they have a machine which gives improved performance over the Air for sustained loads. I think its a stop-gap model which will disappear when the new machines are announced.

 

[James Godfrey]

I don't know if it makes sense to Apple to have an entry-level MBP once the new Pros with four ports come out. Given the performance of the M1 Air, I could see them ditching the current one altogether. I get the impression its there just now so they have a machine which gives improved performance over the Air for sustained loads. I think its a stop-gap model which will disappear when the new machines are announced.

Yeah that’s definitely possible… would be nice to see an entry level MBP at say $1399 with a standard LCD panel, no Touch Bar and an M2 or M1X and the new design though… maybe with only USB-C too, be interesting to see what the event reveals about the future of the MBP line up.

It’s just a case on whether Apple feel that there needs to be an option between the Air and the higher end pros once they launch…

I know for me personally miniLED isn’t a need in a MBP but would like the upgraded design and larger display and faster chipset.

Apple seemed to fill the gap when they launched the Touch Bar with a non-touch bar version of the MBP so I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple launch an XDR and non-XDR version of the MBP also.

 

[ascender]

That's a good point, I'd forgotten about the non-TouchBar version of the Intel MBP, although even that was a strange machine in their lineup.

There are people who will buy a MBP rather than an Air, just because they want the Pro label, prefer the design or need the ports, so I guess Apple have a few different ways they could go.

I still think they will take the chance to tidy-up their lineup now that the Air is such a great machine but who knows!

 

[theluggage]

I don't know if it makes sense to Apple to have an entry-level MBP once the new Pros with four ports come out.

That - and the fairly firm rumours of an all-new M2 MacBook Air next year. It’s hard to see where an entry-level MBP fits in between that and a 14“ MBP. Higher-spec Air vs. base 2-port MBP has been a tricky choice for a few years, and that was with Intel where the Air and entry MBP had distinctly different processor models, now Apple silicon has made that even more marginal, with the air and the entry-level MBP sporting the same processor.

Of course, we don’t know what the starting price for the 14” is going to be. That could affect whether there is a niche for an entry-level MBP.

 

[theluggage]

Yeah that’s definitely possible… would be nice to see an entry level MBP at say $1399 with a standard LCD panel, no Touch Bar and an M2 or M1X and the new design though… maybe with only USB-C too, be interesting to see what the event reveals about the future of the MBP line up.

Well, the rumours say that the touch bar is going away anyway, so that’s unlikely to be a distinguishing factor.

I doubt that there will be a new 13” MBP - that would involve a whole new case design, halfway between the 2022 air and the 14” MBP, just for that model.

If the 14” offers a choice between regular and XDR displays or number of ports, then whether that counts as a “revised entry level MBP” comes down to pricing.

 

[darngooddesign]

The Air is so capable now that I think the line will be 13" MBA, 14" MBP, and 16" MBP.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you're speaking about the current m1 MacBook Pro 13", the answer is no, there will not be.

Not sure where the MPB 13" is going to "fit into" the lineup after the MBP 14" arrives.
It -might- continue in production a while, and then be discontinued and "re-emerge" as simply a "MacBook 13" (not "pro")...

 

[TechRunner]

The Air is so capable now that I think the line will be 13" MBA, 14" MBP, and 16" MBP.

Wouldn't it be nice to see Apple slot in a 15" Air? That would give the product mix a nice rhythm...and I would buy one over the 14 MBP I'm looking to get when they're released.

 

[ascender]

Wouldn't it be nice to see Apple slot in a 15" Air? That would give the product mix a nice rhythm...and I would buy one over the 14 MBP I'm looking to get when they're released.

If there was a 15" Air, I'd be much more tempted to buy that and have a powerful desktop of some sort, but as things are, I'll probably end up with a 16" MBP and a large monitor of some description.

 

[Arctic Moose]

No chance. I'll be surprised if it even survives beyond the first update to the 14", at which point the "old" (not yet released) one can drop in price.

The MBA covers these duties admirably well, and it makes zero sense to have one laptop with a Touch Bar in the lineup.

I think it was only released at all as a stop-gap.

 

[UltimateSyn]

I don't know if it makes sense to Apple to have an entry-level MBP once the new Pros with four ports come out. Given the performance of the M1 Air, I could see them ditching the current one altogether. I get the impression its there just now so they have a machine which gives improved performance over the Air for sustained loads. I think its a stop-gap model which will disappear when the new machines are announced.

There's a lot of monetary ground to be covered between the $999 MacBook Air and the $1799 4-port MBP. It definitely still makes sense for them to have a watered-down 2-port MBP at a pricepoint between the Air and the 4-port variant.

Apple is king of the Gradual Upsell and it's much harder to get someone to justify $999 -> $1799 vs. $999 -> $1299 -> $1799. Stepping stones.

All that being said, I don't expect the MBA or 2-port MBP to get updates until late spring of next year at the earliest. Seems like they will be closer to an 18-month release cycle for those.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Wouldn't it be nice to see Apple slot in a 15" Air? That would give the product mix a nice rhythm...and I would buy one over the 14 MBP I'm looking to get when they're released.

13" / 15" MacBook Airs alongside 14" / 16" MacBook Pros would be a heavenly lineup. Only problem, for Apple and not for the consumers, is that they would likely sell significantly less 16" MacBook Pros.

 

[DHagan4755]

The upper echelon of the MacBook Pro range won't have much of a downstream impact on the lower-end of the Mac notebook line. What's probably going to happen is the current 13" MacBook Pro M1 will stay in the line-up until the newly redesigned "colorful" M2 MacBook Air comes out sometime mid-2022. This new MacBook Air will assume the price levels of the the current low-end MacBook Pro. It will also push the price of the existing MacBook Air down to the $899 price range.

 

[James Godfrey]

There's a lot of monetary ground to be covered between the $999 MacBook Air and the $1799 4-port MBP. It definitely still makes sense for them to have a watered-down 2-port MBP at a pricepoint between the Air and the 4-port variant.

Apple is king of the Gradual Upsell and it's much harder to get someone to justify $999 -> $1799 vs. $999 -> $1299 -> $1799. Stepping stones.

All that being said, I don't expect the MBA or 2-port MBP to get updates until late spring of next year at the earliest. Seems like they will be closer to an 18-month release cycle for those.

It’s definitely going to be an odd line up for quite a while considering the MBA isn’t likely to get refreshed until late 2022 at the earliest judging by the latest rumour mill.

If they are keeping the current M1 MBP with Touch Bar in the line up it’s going to be odd that the entry level has the Touch Bar (a pro feature advertised by Apple for the past 5 years), but then again if they discontinue it after this event it’s going to look awfully strange for Apple to have the MBA starting at $999 and then the MBP starting at $1799…. Going to be very interesting how they handle it tbh…

 

[UltimateSyn]

This new MacBook Air will assume the price levels of the the current low-end MacBook Pro. It will also push the price of the existing MacBook Air down to the $899 price range.

I think this is exactly right.

 

[theluggage]

There's a lot of monetary ground to be covered between the $999 MacBook Air and the $1799 4-port MBP. It definitely still makes sense for them to have a watered-down 2-port MBP at a pricepoint between the Air and the 4-port variant.

The current Intel MBP, 1799 gets you 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM - those two options will bring the M1 Air up to 1449. So if the 14” M1X MBP starts at 1799 that seems like a reasonable price interval for twice the CPU and GPU cores.

...also, we’re expecting an all-new M2 Air next year, which should be somewhat faster than the M1 so I really don’t think a new M1 (non-x) 2-port MBP is likely to appear just now. If the “2 port” does get replaced I think it would need to wait for the M2.

Meanwhile, even the M1X is likely only going to beat the M1/M2 on “pro” apps optimised for multi threading and GPU compute - so the M1X Macs really are going to be pitched at a different audience than the 2-port (which, honestly, is only called “Pro” because straight “MacBook” was used for something else...)

N.B. With M1 the “2-port” Macs have the same theoretical TB3 bandwidth as the old 4-ports (notwithstanding claims about poor USB 3.1gen2 speeds) and the rumours & leaks suggest that the new M1X MBPs will only have 3 USB-C (of undisclosed capacity) plus legacy ports... We‘ll see.