Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Yes it will be a laptop of the same size as the 15 inch, but a new design.

Yea, all this talk and rumour of it being a new design still has me thinking it will next year. 2020 will be the fourth year of this design, usually that’s when Apple redesigns the MacBook Pro. Then again they can always change that if they wanted to.
 
The 15” MacBook Pro will probably be the 16” version with reduced bezels. I can’t see them adding a new 16” and keeping the 13” and 15” around as well.
Eventually the 16" will almost certainly be the next generation of what we now call the 15" Pro - but I believe what @jimmy43 meant was that the model introduced this year will sit above refreshed (2019) 15" touchbar models as an 'ultra-premium' offering (like the iPhone X over the 8/8 plus) before it is expanded next year to become the primary model. They did this when introducing the retina models in 2012 (keeping the unibody design around with the retina being a top end model before all models were made retina in 2013) and kind of in 2016 by keeping the 2015 model around (though it was ultimately not replaced with anything).

Knowing Apple I could probably see something like the following :p
2019:
16" Pro - £2,999
15" Pro - £2,699
15" Pro - £2,349

2020:
16" Pro - £2,899
16" Pro - £2,599
15" Pro (2019) - £2,199
 
They'll probably keep selling everything and just add to the lineup.

Tim loves more SKU's

The iPhone, iPad and Mac lineups continue to be a growing mess of "confusing".
Apparently Apple doesn't mind (or likes it?)
 
Eventually the 16" will almost certainly be the next generation of what we now call the 15" Pro - but I believe what @jimmy43 meant was that the model introduced this year will sit above refreshed (2019) 15" touchbar models as an 'ultra-premium' offering (like the iPhone X over the 8/8 plus) before it is expanded next year to become the primary model. They did this when introducing the retina models in 2012 (keeping the unibody design around with the retina being a top end model before all models were made retina in 2013) and kind of in 2016 by keeping the 2015 model around (though it was ultimately not replaced with anything).

Knowing Apple I could probably see something like the following :p
2019:
16" Pro - £2,999
15" Pro - £2,699
15" Pro - £2,349

2020:
16" Pro - £2,899
16" Pro - £2,599
15" Pro (2019) - £2,199

Interesting, i’m interested to see what the new design will be like, I would love Face ID :), although if they add Face ID those prices you mentioned may turn out to be true.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Falhófnir
With rumors of iOS & MacOS sharing the same App Store, or at least certified apps having cross-compatibility, I really wonder if buying an Intel MacBook Pro this year is wise, unless you absolutely need one. This just points to Apple putting their own chips into the Mac in some form. Is the T2 chip (or an updated T3 chip) alongside Intel processors enough to run iOS apps on the Mac?

This year's WWDC is going to be wild. It is really going to show people where Apple is headed with the Mac which has been in purgatory for years.
 
I really wonder if buying an Intel MacBook Pro this year is wise, unless you absolutely need one.

Totally agree - I'd hold on to whatever one has for the foreseeable future (if able to, as you said).

It's very possible, on the laptop side at least, that we are all currently using our last Intel Mac laptops right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Falhófnir
Anything noticeably better coming from AMD by the end of the year for the next GPU?

Seems like 9th generation Intel isn't much of an improvement? So... maybe that's why Apple is redesigning the MacBook Pros somewhat early, to give an incentive this year to buy them despite not being all that much faster.

Dave2D (if you don't know his YouTube channel please check it out) did a great video on a theory of the redesign - to give the laptop a little bit bigger of a footprint to improve thermals. I somewhat agree. It's crazy that Intel is basically doing Skylake +++ now.... since 2015 Intel's architecture hasn't changed besides adding two cores (which was a pretty big boost, but the other upgrades are not noticeable at all).

Probably not. Look for the PS5 announcement at E3--if it's there, Navi is ready by the end of this year. AMD is supposedly having its own event in July. They could absolutely clock these parts down to fit a Macbook Pro, but they'd need to already be talking to Apple about it. A 7nm Vega part is a possible consolation prize.

Intel's 10nm Sunny Cove cores are "just around the corner." I know they've been just around the corner for awhile, but I don't think Apple is going to redesign the chassis for all MBPs for better thermals at this stage. They might be making room for more powerful parts, like 8 cores of Intel CPU and a beefier GPU from AMD. But this kind of machine would be distinct from the Pro line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: afir93
Hopefully they make it even thinner.
They are currently way too thick, especially the keyboard.

There must be a way to make that even thinner and lower profile, right?

/S
Are you high? It doesn't need to be thinner and the current keyboard is ****. I want a bit fatter for a better keyboard
 
  • Like
Reactions: Howard2k
Given no news from Ming-Chi Kuo on the 13", I would guess that will only get a processor bump (the 9th Generation processor leak showed quad-cores suited for the 13"). It could either be conventional 9th Generation i5s or the odd Intel chips with AMD GPU modules that have shown up in the past couple of years.

My guess on the 15" (or 16") is three models, two of which are in the new 16" chassis, while the lower-end model is a carried-over 15" Touch Bar MBP. This offers a lower-cost option, while also addressing a CPU dilemma. The four 8-core CPUs Intel is releasing only account for two MBPs. There are two i9s with very modest performance differences plus two i7s that appear nearly identical (probably a minor feature difference that didn't show up in AnandTech's chart). It's easy enough to get two MBPs out of those four chips, but not to get two plus a "boosted" processor option. There is no chip that appears to be the successor to the 2.2 GHz i7 in the lower-end model.

How about these three MBPs?:

16" (4K+) i9, 32 GB/1 TB (standard), Vega 20 or 7 nm successor $3499 (the only sure CTO upgrade option is SSD capacity, we could see a 64 GB RAM option and/or a GPU bump option, either to a higher-end GPU or just GPU memory).

16" (4K+) i7, 16 GB/512 GB TB (standard), Vega 20 or 7 nm successor $2799 (CTO upgrades to RAM, SSD capacity).

15" (existing) 8th Generation i7 (existing 2.2 GHz chip), 16 GB/512 GB (standard), Vega 16 $2299 (CTO upgrades to RAM, SSD capacity, possibly GPU).

The high-end model is expensive, but it offers a lot, including not only the i9, but generous stock RAM and SSD. There may be a CTO upgrade (64 GB? a GPU upgrade?) that is exclusive to the i9 model as well.

The midline model is priced like the existing high-end model, and it offers a decent processor bump, Vega 20 standard and the new design.

The lower-end carryover model gets Vega 16 and 512 GB standard (which they should be anyway) and a $100 price cut. The year-old 6-core chip carries over, but it's a better option than anything in the 9th Generation - which would have to be a quad-core i5.
 
If Apple does release the redesigned 16" MBP this spring, I would probably wait a bit to purchase one in case they pull off another surprise update (ie Vega 20). I don't think there are any new dGPU's ready now other than what Apple is currently using. They probably won't use Nvidia's RTX dGPU's though that would be a pleasant surprise. The Radeon VII dGPU's for mobile probably won't be available until later this year.

Agree, unlikely to see a significantly new dGPU this year. AMD has a lot on their plate with launching new Ryzen processors, APUs, and Navi GPUs in 2H2019. I expect we'll see a mobile 7nm Navi next year.

There is no chance this update would include 10nm Intel CPU's right? However it looks like they could manage to maybe get Navi GPU's in there?

I'm pretty much going to buy this update if they fix the keyboard but I'd be disappointed if the next update after had a massive CPU bump from 10nm.

As I said above, with AMD launching so many products which are much more important to their bottom line this year, I highly double we'll see mobile Navi, but who knows?

Intel is expected to launch one mobile 10nm CPU in volume in the second half of this year, but it's a lower performance part, so it's unlikely to end up in the 15" MBP, let alone the rumored 16". The full mobile lineup of 10nm CPUs should be available next year, assuming there aren't more delays.

One possible consolation prize is the first generation of Intel 10nm is rumored to be pretty average, resulting in very modest clock increases and some power consumption reduction compared to the highly optimized 14nm++ process. So the performance difference between the 2020 and 2019 models may not be as significant as you fear.

The 15” MacBook Pro will probably be the 16” version with reduced bezels. I can’t see them adding a new 16” and keeping the 13” and 15” around as well.

That's exactly what they did in 2012, so there is precedent. Particularly if they are worried about the various complaints and issues of the 2016-2018 MBP line, accelerating the release of a high-end "halo" 16" MBP to this year (and rounding out the full MBP line with redesigns next year of the other model(s)) would take a lot of attention off of the 2016-2018 MBP issues.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cap7ainclu7ch
I hope see a new macbook pro without the nasty useless touch bar.

The main problem isn't the concept itself but the execution. Maybe make it like in the latest keyboard patent - so a glass thingy with actual physical borders and haptical feedback (Taptic Engine).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
The 15” MacBook Pro will probably be the 16” version with reduced bezels. I can’t see them adding a new 16” and keeping the 13” and 15” around as well.

Makes sense to me, I don't really understand why there aren't 14" rumours.

I'd really like a 14" without touchbar from the last batch of x86 chips before Apple totally cook the goose.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amacrumorsuser
Or maybe, just maybe... Get rid of that gimmick and give us function keys back :p
Or maybe, just maybe... make it optional (ideally on all devices, particularly on desktop Macs aswell, not just MBPs) and please both camps – those who like it and those who don't? ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ugru and 09872738
Or maybe, just maybe... make it optional (ideally on all devices, particularly on desktop Macs aswell, not just MBPs) and please both camps – those who like it and those who don't? ;)

I suspect that doesn't make economic sense to Apple - it must add a few hundred to the cost of every MBP, if they make it optional it'd cost even more, which would result in even fewer choosing it.
 
I suspect that doesn't make economic sense to Apple - it must add a few hundred to the cost of every MBP, if they make it optional it'd cost even more, which would result in even fewer choosing it.
Question is: if it were optional (even for free) - how many would order it? If people won't choose it in significant numbers wouldn't it be a good idea to just cancel it? After all it does not seem to be the most loved feature....
 
I suspect that doesn't make economic sense to Apple - it must add a few hundred to the cost of every MBP, if they make it optional it'd cost even more, which would result in even fewer choosing it.
I highly doubt it costs Apple a few hundred per model, the original 2016 TB MBPs were like ~300€ more expensive than the 2016 TB ones and most of that cost could be contributed to the much better CPU and GPU, higher TDP, the second fan, the two additional ports, etc. So while we don't have any specifics of that breakdown, I think it's safe to say that the TB production cost contributed maybe 50€ or so to that price-up, 100€ at most?

In any case, I definitely see your point, I think there'd be an easy solution for Apple for a nonTB-option to make sense: just offer it at the same price as the current TB model (and with otherwise identical specs, unlike the previous 2016/17 nonTB models). That way, many of those who don't care or are indifferent to the TB would still choose the TB-version since they'd be paying the same either way, while those who strictly prefer function keys could have it their way aswell. And those who prefer the TB wouldn't need to financially "justify" it over the nonTB-model and carefully consider if the price-up is worth it, since they'd get that feature without "additional" cost. Not saying this will necessarily happen (since these type of choices aren't all that typical for Apple), but it seems to me that this would appease both camps while still keeping the TB economically retainable, no?

The disadvantage of course would be that everyone, even those who choose to get function keys, would be charged the TB's price-up that way. But let's be honest, even if they do completely remove the TB with this year's redesign (which I personally still highly doubt), they most likely wouldn't lower the price because of its' removal, so wouldn't this kind of choice still be better from a consumer-perspective than either having the Touch Bar everywhere or removing it completely?
 
(...) But let's be honest, even if they do completely remove the TB with this year's redesign (which I personally still highly doubt) (...)

I agree. They put quite some effort into their SDKs, and even if they'd discontinued the TB they'd still have to support it for some time to come.
Developers, however, seem to disregard the TB in larger numbers anyway
 
I suspect that doesn't make economic sense to Apple - it must add a few hundred to the cost of every MBP, if they make it optional it'd cost even more, which would result in even fewer choosing it.

Then they should keep it but improve it, add haptic feedback.
 
  • Like
Reactions: afir93
Then they should keep it but improve it, add haptic feedback.

That risks losing customers who won't buy a touch bar model regardless of haptic feedback, so I'm not sure it's any better, possibly worse.

I doubt reverting it would lose them customers, but I can't see Apple wanting to lose face over it so I'd imagine it's here to stay regardless of the economics.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BluefinTuna
That risks losing customers who won't buy a touch bar model regardless of haptic feedback, so I'm not sure it's any better, possibly worse.

I doubt reverting it would lose them customers, but I can't see Apple wanting to lose face over it so I'd imagine it's here to stay regardless of the economics.

I don't see Apple removing it because it's probably part of their roadmap, they will probably update it at some point maybe with haptics. I do wonder if its going to start getting more use when Marzipan is rolled out to developers? i read this article a while back and it makes a good point.

https://insights.dice.com/2018/06/07/wwdc-2018-macbook-touch-bar-lurking/
 
  • Like
Reactions: afir93
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.