Rumors on 9to5Mac say that the 2018 MBP will have an e-ink keyboard. That could be interesting
What is an e-ink keyboard?
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Waiting for the 2017 MBP (Kaby Lake / Cannonlake / Coffee Lake??)
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What is an e-ink keyboard?
Well... this is the most known keyboard that has something similar. In this case though it uses small LC-Displays, rather than e-ink. I still think the picture is a good example for what it does/could do.
While e-ink is a low power technology that looks similar to paper and was used in basically all e-readers like the kindle.
The advantage is that is does not consume ANY power displaying stuff. It only needs power if that what it is displaying changes.
Not sure if this has much to do with it but many Best Buy stores in my area are showing in store pick-up dates of various 13" and 15" MacBook Pro models for June 8th. This includes the older 13" and 15" models as well.
I had the same suspect, but The Serban was the One and Only.
By the way, I was reading the news about upcoming Coffee Lake CPUs for Mac, and people already started complaining about Macs with Kaby Lake being already outdated...
My God, history is truly doomed to repeat itself.
I can totally agree that 32GB RAM will be damn expensive. If Apple were to introduce 32GB, it would mean it's a custom solution since the chipset won't natively support low-power 32GB RAM. This means it's going to be expensive.
However, I can't really foresee them offering the 32GB RAM as a non-touchbar only option. I think it's very possible they'll introduce additional SKU's to offer models without touchbars (given customer feedback), but I don't think they'll offer any model without their "revolutionary" touchbar. It would would discourage adoption of the touchbar, which is one of the key selling points of the new models.
CannonLake really can't be moved forward. CoffeeLakee is plausible to move forward because just switching from 14nm+ technology to 14nm++ technology. Moving from something quite mature to a small process tweak on the exact same equipment that give slightly better. Intel can make dies cheaper (or same cost and bigger ... i.e., go from 4 to 6 cores ) at lower risk.
Going to 10nm dies isn't going to be cheaper. Trying to drag those launches forward 6 months even less so because the yield are likely to be just that much worse. If it happens to yield higher I don't think Intel is going to sit on it, but I doubt they are betting the farm they can move that up very much. ( 10nm modems for iPhones is a bigger juicer target for late next Spring if they can pull that off. Intel has more 'small die' problems than just x86 cores. )
Intel has accounted for Ryzen. It is CoffeeLake and the new "X series"/Basin Falls that is going to roll out and the new enterprise SP processors (that all the major cloud players who buy $100's of millions of stuff have already had for 6 months) that will be rolled out to mere mortals around the time AMD server Zen derivatives do. Longer term CannonLake is part of the response.... just not anytime in this calendar year.
If this update is strictly an unimportant spec bump (Kaby Lake, possibly a minor video refresh - NO 32 GB or significant video card upgrade), really the only way they could introduce a second update this year is to add a high-end model. They won't do something minor and then introduce a major new feature across the line a few months later... I thought they had added a high-end model when they introduced the Retina Display (I had remembered it as having been a few months after a regularly scheduled refresh). It turns out that it was released THE SAME DAY as a boring refresh, but it had delayed availability.
In other ways, it WAS an "add a high end model" strategy - the newly upgraded unibody models were available along with the Retina model, which was in a different chassis (the Retina is actually a full pound lighter than a non-Retina unibody, although it is SSD only and doesn't support an optical drive). The Retina was several hundred dollars more expensive than a comparable non-Retina model, although the exact price difference is tough to calculate because the Retina uses an expensive SSD instead of a cheap hard drive. At the NEXT refresh, Apple went (nearly) Retina-only, introducing a 13" Retina model while discontinuing the 15" non-Retina line and all but one low-end 13" non-Retina model (that orphan 13" would go on to have one of the longest lives on the market of any computer in recent years - introduced in June 2012, finally discontinued in October 2016!!!).
They could do the same thing with a 32 GB model with a different motherboard (it might have one or two other distinguishing features - 4K (or even higher) display? Dual SSD capable? Bigger battery? Significantly better graphics card?Probably not all of the above, but I could see any one). They'd release a boring Kaby Lake refresh of the whole 15" line - a spec bump to the processor and MAYBE the discrete graphics, but nothing worth noting. They might cut the prices enough that the 15" line ends up spanning the historic MBP range from $1999 to $2999 instead of starting at $2399 and reaching $3499 even without the painfully expensive 2 TB SSD(maybe reserve the 2 TB SSD for the new 32 GB model only) The "one more thing" is a 15" (or maybe a 16") in a different chassis with 32 GB of RAM and additional features. It might very well be heavier than its predecessor and stablemates (Apple would love to make it a 16" if it was), and it would certainly be more expensive (it might start around $3000 and go up with options - they've had high-end MacBook Pro models up to $4500 before).
They might do this with this refresh (quite likely with delayed availability if so - "all new MacBook Pros are available today, except the 32 GB model is available in October") tomorrow, or they might do a boring refresh tomorrow, and do this type of refresh next year :-(
In other ways, it WAS an "add a high end model" strategy - the newly upgraded unibody models were available along with the Retina model, which was in a different chassis (the Retina is actually a full pound lighter than a non-Retina unibody, although it is SSD only and doesn't support an optical drive). The Retina was several hundred dollars more expensive than a comparable non-Retina model, although the exact price difference is tough to calculate because the Retina uses an expensive SSD instead of a cheap hard drive. At the NEXT refresh, Apple went (nearly) Retina-only, introducing a 13" Retina model while discontinuing the 15" non-Retina line and all but one low-end 13" non-Retina model (that orphan 13" would go on to have one of the longest lives on the market of any computer in recent years - introduced in June 2012, finally discontinued in October 2016!!!).
They could do the same thing with a 32 GB model with a different motherboard (it might have one or two other distinguishing features - 4K (or even higher) display? Dual SSD capable? Bigger battery? Significantly better graphics card?Probably not all of the above, but I could see any one). They'd release a boring Kaby Lake refresh of the whole 15" line - a spec bump to the processor and MAYBE the discrete graphics, but nothing worth noting. They might cut the prices enough that the 15" line ends up spanning the historic MBP range from $1999 to $2999 instead of starting at $2399 and reaching $3499 even without the painfully expensive 2 TB SSD(maybe reserve the 2 TB SSD for the new 32 GB model only) The "one more thing" is a 15" (or maybe a 16") in a different chassis with 32 GB of RAM and additional features. It might very well be heavier than its predecessor and stablemates (Apple would love to make it a 16" if it was), and it would certainly be more expensive (it might start around $3000 and go up with options - they've had high-end MacBook Pro models up to $4500 before).
They might do this with this refresh (quite likely with delayed availability if so - "all new MacBook Pros are available today, except the 32 GB model is available in October") tomorrow, or they might do a boring refresh tomorrow, and do this type of refresh next year :-(
like i said- March/April next year - I wouldn't be so dismissive. they'll eat the cost if they are losing share.
If there is a refresh tomorrow won't be this be the new dGPU? https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-Pro-WX-4150-GPU.215312.0.html
I honestly might wait for coffee lake. I really like the 30% speed bump idea. And having 6 cores never hurt anyone right?
yes CL +ddr5 will make a difference but until then we have 2-3 more years to wait
Isn't it a possibility that we see Coffee lake computers at the end of this year or early 2018?
I personally think this is the one and only MacBook update we're getting this year. So early 2018 seems like the next plausible update.
anyone knows with how many hours apple usually close the store for new products to be updated?
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CL in 2018 it can be, but DDR 5 only from 2019 at earliest
While all this talk and speculation is great... I'll have to pick one up, regardless if it's only a minor bump in specs. Hopefully by now the production kinks have been completely worked out. My 2008 MBP, even with it's better expandability (go fig) just doesn't cut it anymore. I honestly can't believe I've made it this long, and I'm thrilled that they will be releasing it today, as I don't know if work would allow me to wait until October or later.
My dream of dreams would to actually have upgradeable internal storage in some sort of standard (or even just upgradeable) format. My bar has been lowered since the 2016 came out. That said, work's gotta be done, and I've never had a retina screen before, so I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll whack some serious emogi productivity on my spanking new touch bar. Woot!
My dream of dreams would to actually have upgradeable internal storage in some sort of standard (or even just upgradeable) format. My bar has been lowered since the 2016 came out. That said, work's gotta be done, and I've never had a retina screen before, so I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll whack some serious emogi productivity on my spanking new touch bar. Woot!
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I've got a 2010 15" MacBook Pro with matte screen, 1680x1050. Typing on it right now. Although I also own a 15" Retina MacBook Pro, my old 2010 is my go-to machine. The screen is crisp and clear and has zero reflections. For writing, which is what I do for a living, you can't beat a matte screen. But sadly, we'll never see a matte screen on an Apple laptop ever again. So I'll keep pounding away on my 2010 until the keys fall off or I die of old age. Whichever comes first.
Although the mbp upgrade is "minor", I believe it's worth a little more credit. Skylake will handle 4K content without breaking a sweat; including good battery life while doing so. This was not exactly the case with the 2016 models. Considering how relevant 4k is becoming I'd say the timing to buy this new one is perfect. "Future proof"
Ooooh. I hope you are right and that my future self is glad I held out as long as I did. Thanks for the ray of hope and sunshine.
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