Waiting for the 2018 MBP

[richinaus]

I severely doubt that Apple would put a dedicated GPU inside the 13" MacBook Pro. Not because of space, but because of cooling and battery concerns. We'll probably get similar GPU performance to the current Iris Pro in the next version. Best case would probably be an improved Intel GT3e or even a GT4e iGPU.

I still think the Surface Book 2 13" is a far better system, using the lower wattage CPU and the Nvidia 1050 together with good design. If I was in the market for a 13" this would be top of my list [and test it out properly for all the defects previously mentioned]. The Dell would be a close second but the pen and screen clinch it for me. If the pen is not needed then Dell wins.

Apple wont react to any of this and do their own thing in their own time like they always have. All we really need is a keyboard and gpu improvements along with 8 gen chips and most should be happy [note not all......].

 

[cyberone]

Read somewhere Apple's working on a keyboard with keys having integrated LED display?

Any chance we see this in the 2018 Macbook Pro?

 

[TekAdvice]

I really wish we could see disk drives again in MacBooks. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro with a disk drive and I just can't seem to make myself give it up. I hope Apple also continues to feature standard USB 3.0 ports in some of their MacBook Pros. Don't sacrifice performance for size.

 

[oldtime]

Don't sacrifice performance for size.

That ship sailed a long time ago.

 

[TekAdvice]

Sad but true.

 

[audiomatt]

I'm really sad the OLED MBP monitor rumors died out. I think a much better use of the touchbar would have been to sit the oled above the monitor where the bezel is and make it double as the menubar. That way the panel would be full screen 100% of the time. OLEDs are transparent, they could just shut it off where the camera it's being used.

 

[ugru]

That ship sailed a long time ago.

With a blindfolded helmsman....

I am ok with this route for DELL or other OEMs because they have a much wider laptop offering...thin and underpowered and thicker and more performance focused laptop....

Apple on the other hand...

 

[Persian-apple]

I have the 2012 rmbp with 650m and the mid 2014 with 750m
Although I do audio work i cant justify buying a 2800dollar computer with such a weak gpu
I mean, the pro 560 isnt Even In the "gpu" category
Its 2018,i meanni want that My 2014 rmbp has a dead GPU(iris pro almost dead) the 2012 has some serious smc problems
So i do need a rmbp but i simply cant Justify the cost
It did make sense to buy 2012rmbp 5years ago
But the only reason to not wait is: "i need one now"
Its a shame what apple has done with MBP line
They made A Huge leap Back in 2012 and Kept upgrading the internals For 4 years
Jumping to AMD was A big mistake
And The 2016 version is a mess
I dont see why they removed mag safe people who needed the extra port Will probably need to run intensive tasks So They cant use it unplugged More than a few hours(2-4h maybe i dont know what theyve changed but according to my experience 2h of gaming probably kills the battery on bootcamp side)
And The touch bar!jesus christ what was that?It didnt solve anything just made it more conplicated
The beautiful thing about apple (before steve died) was that if you could do something (like turn off wifi on ios or sth like that) then You probably shouldnt add a button with the exact same Function just to make It easier to access ,cause if you dont follow this strategy you're Getting it More and more complicated
And in this case Now having physical function keys is Really wierd
And the larg trackpad
Maybe if they increased the size by 10percent it wasnt too bad but There wasnt a problem with it so if it aint broken,then don't fix it
And the start up chime i cant understand when the screen is on so some times If i have to Boot into windows Ill have to restart several times until i press the option at the roght time maybe they could provide an option To Turn it off but completely removing it ? I dont see the point...

What I expect in the 2018 upgrade :
1:32gb ram
2:a real dGPU;at the very least It has to be gtx1050 Or something better ( or amd Equal models)
3:a redesigned Keyboard and track pad
4:some Innovation (something likewhat they did back in 2012)

I dont know if its only one who feels This thing is Totally a piece of crap(all of my devices are apples iphone 5s /5/ 6splus ipad pro 1st gen/ipad2/air2 imac 5k 2017 2xrMBPs ipods, etc) but I just cant convince myself to buy this piece of crap, and somethings telling me theyre only Gonna Do Some minor updates Like they did from 2012-14
Maybe Get a 10percent faster gpu and 0.1ghz faster processor and Theyre done
I hope its not true but sadly They didnt Do any real (internal/in design) innovation after the Redesign back in 2012

Sorry for being too long/grammatical errors/typpos Marks Etc...
[doublepost=1515156437][/doublepost]

With a blindfolded helmsman....

I am ok with this route for DELL or other OEMs because they have a much wider laptop offering...thin and underpowered and thicker and more performance focused laptop....

Apple on the other hand...

View attachment 745326

Who ever wanted a thinner rmbp?
Its a pro What did they really think?
Thinner isnt Always Better,specially when it means you get an underpowered Laptop which costs 3k

They really messed up with iphone /macbook pro line ups

6s plus Is the last iphone i liked And its still performing like it did ~3years ago

And the 2014 rmbp is the last I liked

Certainly there are people who Feel like what apples doing makes sense but to me,nah im Keeping my half dead 2014rmbp (with a dead Iris pro gou) and The 128gb 6s+ Until they Start to make sense

Maybe Im obsessed with old technology?
But when the 6splus came Out i felt like this is the Best smartphone with No weaknesses(great camera,performance,classic design,Premium aluminum,etc)
And i felt the same about the 2014 rmbp

 

[afir93]

Read somewhere Apple's working on a keyboard with keys having integrated LED display?

Any chance we see this in the 2018 Macbook Pro?

With all the speculation about the 2018 models, I'm actually surprised not to see more people talking about this. There were the Foxconn insider leaks some months back which I believe were even verified to be legitimate to a certain extend, and a lot of their predictions regarding the 2017 iPhones, Homepod etc. came true. They also predicted "dynamic keyboards" for the 2018 MacBooks, i.e. having some screen functionality built directly into the individual keys of the keyboard.

If true, this seems like a rather significant change from a usability point of view and would also put the Touch Bar more into perspective as a feature, with it not being a one-time "gimmick" (as many people see it) but instead the first step towards a more interactive, capable and dynamic keyboard panel.

Now these leaks are of course to be taken with a grain of salt, and it's possible that 2018 is still too early for such a technology to debut. But on the other hand, several other supposed leaks of this Foxconn insider came true so I wouldn't consider it too unlikely to happen, and if true, it would elevate the 2018 MacBook Pros from "just" being a spec-upgrade like the 2017 ones to a decent improvement with a focus on new usability elements.

With the direction Apple is taking with the Touch Bar, it certainly seems like a feature that we can expect from Apple. iPhones, iPads etc. already have dynamic keyboards, and while we're far from the stage to drop physical buttons on the MacBook keyboards, bringing dynamic keycaps onto the keyboard while maintaining the haptic phyiscal buttons seems like the logical next step Apple would take into this direction. Think of how much of a benefit dynamic keycaps would be for multilingual users, or for people learning a new language. Think of people who are looking to type a special character that you can only type by "Command + Alt + Shift + ..." or something, and how much faster such a letter could be found on the keyboard if the keycap descriptions would change when holding down these buttons. Think of the capabilities for third party apps, games, etc.

 

[mehdijobs]

What really surprised me about the TouchBar, is that after it was launched in 2016, Apple dit not talk about it at all.
During the 2016 Keynote, they spent maybe 20 min showing what the TouchBar could do, and they concluded with the usual "we can't wait to see you what will be done with the TB".

In 2017, when Apple presented more powerful MacBooks, not a single word about the TB. As if it was not even there.
To me, it means that not many exciting things were developed for the TB, even from Apple side. Also, the TB is not included in the iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook air, MacBook, even MBP 13 and MBP 15 (old design) have a non TB option. meaning that the majority of the computers sold today do not have the TB.
I understand the idea of changing a bit the way you use a computer, with 2 hands instead of 1 finger only on your trackpad. To me it comes from Microsoft Studio and their Surface Dial. And I understand that Apple really wanted to think what kind of experience makes sense, instead of just adding a touch screen to their MacBooks.
But Apple failed there (talking from experiences I read cause I have a 2014 rmbp). The question is, are they gonna push with the TB for the next 3, 4 years (until new design), or are they gonna indirectly admit and make changes to the current design?

 

[afir93]

What really surprised me about the TouchBar, is that after it was launched in 2016, Apple dit not talk about it at all.
During the 2016 Keynote, they spent maybe 20 min showing what the TouchBar could do, and they concluded with the usual "we can't wait to see you what will be done with the TB".

In 2017, when Apple presented more powerful MacBooks, not a single word about the TB. As if it was not even there.
To me, it means that not many exciting things were developed for the TB, even from Apple side. Also, the TB is not included in the iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook air, MacBook, even MBP 13 and MBP 15 (old design) have a non TB option. meaning that the majority of the computers sold today do not have the TB.
I understand the idea of changing a bit the way you use a computer, with 2 hands instead of 1 finger only on your trackpad. To me it comes from Microsoft Studio and their Surface Dial. And I understand that Apple really wanted to think what kind of experience makes sense, instead of just adding a touch screen to their MacBooks.
But Apple failed there (talking from experiences I read cause I have a 2014 rmbp). The question is, are they gonna push with the TB for the next 3, 4 years (until new design), or are they gonna indirectly admit and make changes to the current design?

I don't think the fact that Apple didn't talk about it during the WWDC 2017 is necessarily any admittance that they consider the Touch Bar a failed product. Not only did they have many other topics to cover, but the WWDC is primarily a software event with a focus on the upcoming iOS/macOS/watchOS changes for both developers and users, and the Touch Bar simply didn't get any changes at that point, so why spend precious time talking about it when there's so much else to talk about. MacOS generally got rather little attention at the last WWDC from what I remember with the focus instead being on iOS 11, which isn't surprising considering how little was changed in High Sierra on the user-end of things.

Also remember that the Touch Bar was only out for 7-8 months at the last WWDC, and right now it's only out for little longer than a year, so it's to be expected that we didn't really get new features for it in that timespan, or much new coverage from Apple.

That said, I agree that the Touch Bar is in a weird place right now when it comes to availability, with it being obligatory on the 15" MacBook Pros, optional on the 13" MacBook Pros, and completely unavailable on the 12" MacBooks and on Desktop Macs.

Apple has a history of debuting new features in a single flagship device (retina screen, Touch ID, Face ID, etc.) and later on bringing them to other devices of their linup, so the current Touch Bar situation is not too surprising, but I still hope Apple makes the distribution of the Touch Bar in the Mac lineup more consistent this year, i.e. introduces a Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar option (which doesn't seem too far-fetched, considering there were rumors about new iMac accessories in 2018) and maybe makes it an option on the 12" MacBook aswell (which could use some more significant new features by now like the inclusion of the Touch Bar, considering the last two updates were just incremental whereas the price has stayed the same).

 

[mehdijobs]

I don't think the fact that Apple didn't talk about it during the WWDC 2017 is necessarily any admittance that they consider the Touch Bar a failed product. Not only did they have many other topics to cover, but the WWDC is primarily a software event with a focus on the upcoming iOS/macOS/watchOS changes for both developers and users, and the Touch Bar simply didn't get any changes at that point, so why spend precious time talking about it when there's so much else to talk about. MacOS generally got rather little attention at the last WWDC from what I remember with the focus instead being on iOS 11, which isn't surprising considering how little was changed in High Sierra on the user-end of things.

Also remember that the Touch Bar was only out for 7-8 months at the last WWDC, and right now it's only out for little longer than a year, so it's to be expected that we didn't really get new features for it in that timespan, or much new coverage from Apple.

That said, I agree that the Touch Bar is in a weird place right now when it comes to availability, with it being obligatory on the 15" MacBook Pros, optional on the 13" MacBook Pros, and completely unavailable on the 12" MacBooks and on Desktop Macs.

Apple has a history of debuting new features in a single flagship device (retina screen, Touch ID, Face ID, etc.) and later on bringing them to other devices of their linup, so the current Touch Bar situation is not too surprising, but I still hope Apple makes the distribution of the Touch Bar in the Mac lineup more consistent this year, i.e. introduces a Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar option (which doesn't seem too far-fetched, considering there were rumors about new iMac accessories in 2018) and maybe makes it an option on the 12" MacBook aswell (which could use some more significant new features by now like the inclusion of the Touch Bar, considering the last two updates were just incremental whereas the price has stayed the same).

Got your point.
But I just compare it to Siri for example, for which they give regular updates about new voices, new things you can ask, etc, etc..
Actually to me, the most surprising thing is that they did not include the TB in the iMac Pro. Which would have been the perfect opportunity to add it.
With Face ID now, and the possibility to add Face ID on iMacs and MacBooks, the TB makes even less sense (cause from what I read, most favourite thing about the TB is Touch ID).
So yes, in a weird place now.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

All I want is 32GB of ram.

 

[pandamonium54]

The only redeeming factor (to me) about the touch bar was Touch ID. The moment they debuted Face ID (thereby signaling the end of Touch ID), the touch bar lost *all* utility (for me).

I work in healthcare. Epic is one of the big players in electronic medical records. One of the oft-used shortcuts in Epic is to F3 through parts of your documentation. (ie: if it's something that can be "fill-in-the-blank", like a procedure note, you F3 between each blank)

The loss of function keys becomes a serious problem for me from a productivity standpoint. I would argue that dropping the function keys alienates people who use Epic with any regularity.

The sad thing is that nowadays, I have a reasonable amount of disposable income. Unless Apple starts designing with user-upgradeability in mind, my wallet can tolerate Apple's insistence to force overpriced upgrades at the time of sale. But there's nothing compelling in Apple's lineup from a technical or "wow" standpoint right now.

The Mac pro is something I considered buying, were it not for the fact that it's grossly out of date. I also almost pulled the trigger on an iMac pro, until the teardowns revealed that I couldn't later upgrade anything myself. I'm a little more cautious to spent $8-10k on the configurations I'd find acceptable from a value standpoint.

But the MBP is what I have my eye on, because my (previously trusty) 2010 MBP mounted in a hengedock gave me drop-in access to my Microsoft natural keyboard, Magic trackpad, ethernet, power, etc. And if I was traveling somewhere, I just pulled it out and left. But with each iterative "upgrade", I'm finding more and more reasons to sit back and wait, and more and more reasons to seriously consider going back to Windows. 90% of my workflow is via Citrix anyway.

 

[The Mercurian]

All I want is 32GB of ram.

That was all I wanted 2 years ago.

Now, however, I want 32GB RAM, 6 cores, no Touchbar, no FaceID, oh and if it is at all possible preferably no massive hardwired security flaw

 

[TheralSadurns]

All I want is 32GB of ram.

By the time the update drops... I actually want 16GB min (13"), 32GB standard for 15". And an option to have 64GB. Even if it costs an additional 1k.

 

[BrittWentz]

I just want to be able to afford it lol. So far i'm expecting 2k for the 13'' base model...

 

[richinaus]

There are a lot of comments on what people want, but really overall the current MBP are still very good, as an overall laptop, compared to others. I still find it very hard to go for another brand over Apple despite all the failings [I am OS agnostic but much prefer macOS and am a 20 year Mac user]

If they just manage to get :

32gb RAM [personally I can still live with 16gb]
Decent GPU [1060 comparable]
Hexcore I7 [or lower wattage to allow for the GPU]
Improved keyboard
Reduce the trackpad

It would be a great machine that would suit a lot of people. Increasing the power on the CPU to the detriment of the dGPU is not good, and creates an unbalanced system that someone like myself cannot justify to buy.

The one benefit I can see to having a fast CPU and weaker GPU is that I can use it with an eGPU and get the best of most worlds. This is one possible solution that would be attractive. OK GPU for the road / notebook use, and power at the desk.

 

[sputnikBA]

Its gonna be:

13" - up to quadcores with that intel / amd hybrid chip (specially binned versions for apple with much lower thermals) [EDIT: I also see them using these in the 4k iMacs]
15" - up to hexacore with a dGPU based on Vega but not that much more powerful compared to 460/560 - just better thermals. For anything beefier than that they will recommend you go eGPU.

Display brightness goes up from 500 to 600 nits to comply with recent new HDR standard. Won't really matter because you still won't be able to watch 4K iTunes videos on a Mac anyway.

- Bluetooth 5.0
- T2 stye chip like iMac Pro.
- 1080p facetime camera with new DSP enabled by above chip.
- Minor changes to keyboards. They will still work in the same way, probably just a substitution of materials for manufacturing to alleviate current issues.
- Possibly second gen TouchBar — though I cant speculate on if this will add any features (eg haptics), or if it will just be cheaper for them to manufacture. Better support thanks to T2 chip though.
- No FaceID until 2019. FaceID manufacturing will only be able to ramp up supply enough to cover new iPhones models and new iPads.
- RAM will still have 16GB limit.

This is the most realistic outlook for 2018. I'd be happy to be wrong on these though because I don't want to get a MBP until they offer 32GB RAM & FaceID.

 

[c0ppo]

The only redeeming factor (to me) about the touch bar was Touch ID. The moment they debuted Face ID (thereby signaling the end of Touch ID), the touch bar lost *all* utility (for me).

I work in healthcare. Epic is one of the big players in electronic medical records. One of the oft-used shortcuts in Epic is to F3 through parts of your documentation. (ie: if it's something that can be "fill-in-the-blank", like a procedure note, you F3 between each blank)

The loss of function keys becomes a serious problem for me from a productivity standpoint. I would argue that dropping the function keys alienates people who use Epic with any regularity.

The sad thing is that nowadays, I have a reasonable amount of disposable income. Unless Apple starts designing with user-upgradeability in mind, my wallet can tolerate Apple's insistence to force overpriced upgrades at the time of sale. But there's nothing compelling in Apple's lineup from a technical or "wow" standpoint right now.

The Mac pro is something I considered buying, were it not for the fact that it's grossly out of date. I also almost pulled the trigger on an iMac pro, until the teardowns revealed that I couldn't later upgrade anything myself. I'm a little more cautious to spent $8-10k on the configurations I'd find acceptable from a value standpoint.

But the MBP is what I have my eye on, because my (previously trusty) 2010 MBP mounted in a hengedock gave me drop-in access to my Microsoft natural keyboard, Magic trackpad, ethernet, power, etc. And if I was traveling somewhere, I just pulled it out and left. But with each iterative "upgrade", I'm finding more and more reasons to sit back and wait, and more and more reasons to seriously consider going back to Windows. 90% of my workflow is via Citrix anyway.

I went on OS X side in 2008 I believe. Even though I have to use windows sometimes (Visual Studio and Windows Server), I really never believed I would go back to windows. Windows 10 has telemetry, still uses registry editor, upgrades are a complete mess, etc. I could go on for days about Windows and lousy MS decisions.

But then again, I could go on for days about Apple as well.
For months now I have been using Lenovo for work. And I am really impressed. Best laptop keyboards ever. Doesn't overheat, no loud noises, has all the ports in the world... Of course, not perfect. Far from it.

And just today I have ordered Corsair One from USA. Corsair One doesn't sell in my country. And Corsair One is almost 50% cheaper to order and be delivered from USA to Croatia, then purchasing an iMac 27 in Croatia.

But I have owned iMac 27 2017. It would be my dream desktop setup if it weren't for thermals. Fans spin like crazy when doing nothing! And I sent it back. So now my only Apple solution for desktop would be iMac Pro. I have enough $ to pay for it, but it is a total overkill for my needs, and simply can't justify purchasing AIO workstation.

So I will wait some more. I will have Lenovo P series, Corsair One, and a macbook 12 (great little machine!). I will wait for 15" without TB. If it doesn't come, well, Lenovo is there. Apples loss, not mine. I will wait for real Mac Pro as well. If it ever comes. I could justify purchasing a modular desktop, even at high price, and even when I really don't need the horsepower. At least I know that with upgrades it would last me years and years...

But most of all, I really want a decent MBP 15. No gimmicks with TB, and with some decent battery.
But then again, Apple is doing really well. So I highly doubt they will change their course. And who could blame them?

 

[jerry70450]

There are a lot of comments on what people want, but really overall the current MBP are still very good, as an overall laptop, compared to others. I still find it very hard to go for another brand over Apple despite all the failings [I am OS agnostic but much prefer macOS and am a 20 year Mac user]

If they just manage to get :

32gb RAM [personally I can still live with 16gb]
Decent GPU [1060 comparable]
Hexcore I7 [or lower wattage to allow for the GPU]
Improved keyboard
Reduce the trackpad

It would be a great machine that would suit a lot of people. Increasing the power on the CPU to the detriment of the dGPU is not good, and creates an unbalanced system that someone like myself cannot justify to buy.

The one benefit I can see to having a fast CPU and weaker GPU is that I can use it with an eGPU and get the best of most worlds. This is one possible solution that would be attractive. OK GPU for the road / notebook use, and power at the desk.

whats wrong with the trackpad? the big trackpad feels nice.
[doublepost=1515196203][/doublepost]Personally I wish they'd put the touch bar ABOVE the function keys but thats just me

 

[BrittWentz]

whats wrong with the trackpad? the big trackpad feels nice.
[doublepost=1515196203][/doublepost]Personally I wish they'd put the touch bar ABOVE the function keys but thats just me

The trackpad is hideous IMO. Wouldn't mind a slightly bigger one than the 2015 model (by like, millimeters) but that's just too much. Plus, i don't know if it's my imagination but the entire thing looks way smaller than past MBP's. Like, obviously it's thinner and has more screen space yada yada, but when i look at it next to my mid-2012 it looks extra small.

I just can't stand the new design. It might look good in ads but IRL it's insulting. The 15'' isn't as bad, but damn is it expensive...

 

[Falhófnir]

Its gonna be:

13" - up to quadcores with that intel / amd hybrid chip (specially binned versions for apple with much lower thermals)
15" - up to hexacore with a dGPU based on Vega but not that much more powerful compared to 460/560 - just better thermals. For anything beefier than that they will recommend you go eGPU.

Display brightness goes up from 500 to 600 nits to comply with recent new HDR standard. Won't really matter because you still won't be able to watch 4K iTunes videos on a Mac anyway.

- Bluetooth 5.0
- T2 stye chip like iMac Pro.
- 1080p facetime camera with new DSP enabled by above chip.
- Minor changes to keyboards. They will still work in the same way, probably just a substitution of materials for manufacturing to alleviate current issues.
- Possibly second gen TouchBar — though I cant speculate on if this will add any features (eg haptics), or if it will just be cheaper for them to manufacture. Better support thanks to T2 chip though.
- No FaceID until 2019. FaceID manufacturing will only be able to ramp up supply enough to cover new iPhones models and new iPads.
- RAM will still have 16GB limit.

This is the most realistic outlook for 2018. I'd be happy to be wrong on these though because I don't want to get a MBP until they offer 32GB RAM & FaceID.

Honestly anything beyond a perfunctory chip upgrade to 8th gen will be a bonus and is quite unlikely. Things like keyboard tweaks can (and likely are) done without even being noted, so likely if a better design has been found, it’s already being used on 2017s rather than debuting on the newer model. Unless it is so bad that they felt the need to switch up the design in a way that requires a significant chassis alteration, which is a completely different ball game.

 

[afir93]

The trackpad is hideous IMO. Wouldn't mind a slightly bigger one than the 2015 model (by like, millimeters) but that's just too much. Plus, i don't know if it's my imagination but the entire thing looks way smaller than past MBP's. Like, obviously it's thinner and has more screen space yada yada, but when i look at it next to my mid-2012 it looks extra small.

I just can't stand the new design. It might look good in ads but IRL it's insulting. The 15'' isn't as bad, but damn is it expensive...

But where is the harm with the bigger trackpad? What issues do you experience? Accidental inputs might happen somewhat more frequently but the palm rejection generally does a good job of preventing them, so what other problems are there with a trackpad of this size?

One of the main issues I've always had with trackpads the size of the ones in the pre-2016 MBPs are that you don't have an awful lot of space to move your fingers around and quickly hit the edges when dragging something around or just moving the cursor from one end of the screen to another, forcing you to release your finger and continue its movement at another part of the trackpad. I'm not saying that it makes these sort of trackpads unusuable or anything, but having the edges get in the way of your finger-movement and gesturing is a nuisance. I know you can turn up mouse movement speed to somewhat counter this, but a faster movement speed doesn't feel very natural to everyone, and you give up a certain amount of precision when doing this.

With the new trackpad sizes, this is pretty much a non-issue, and I think this is one of the main reasons why Apple made the trackpads so large: to simply give you more room for all the 2-, 3- and 4-finger gestures and for moving around stuff without hitting the edges. Your fingers aren't forced into such a crammed space anymore. You don't have to put any thought into where you want to place your finger when you want to drag a file from one end of the screen to another. If you place your fingers roughly at the middle of the trackpad, you're very unlikely to hit the edges during normal mouse movements, which isn't always the case with smaller-sized trackpads.

 

[sputnikBA]

Honestly anything beyond a perfunctory chip upgrade to 8th gen will be a bonus and is quite unlikely. Things like keyboard tweaks can (and likely are) done without even being noted, so likely if a better design has been found, it’s already being used on 2017s rather than debuting on the newer model. Unless it is so bad that they felt the need to switch up the design in a way that requires a significant chassis alteration, which is a completely different ball game.

Nah I don't see them changing the whole design. They think its fine. the move will be to alleviate the possibility of any problems and lessen returns/repairs.

Think of it like the switch in the grade of aluminium they used between the 6 and 6s to "resolve" bendgate issues that were being publicised. Everything else I've suggested is stuff they likely have on roadmap (T2 chips and locking down boot security + other fixed function parts that can be replaced with a single chip), are new versions of parts they use now (45w chips for MBPs), or changes they could make to bring down manufacturing costs / improve margins / lower overall power draw.