What does the new 2011 MBA's mean for the next MBP's?

J

josh2012

macrumors member
Can we expect the next MBP's to opt for flash storage instead of hard drives, higher res screens, and even further improved battery life?

Will the extremely small logic board allow the 13" MBP to move up to i5 processors and finally sport discrete graphics?
 
With their statement "the next generation of macbook" they definitely hinted that the next revisions of Apples notebooks will take queues from the new Air. Use your imagination (please get rid of the optical drive, could be such an amazing machine without one).
 
theres a good chance that next MBP wont have an optical drive, and will offer solid state drives as a consumer SKU.
 
josh2012 said:
Any thoughts on the 13" MBP?
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Since they upgraded the 13inch resolution for the first time since introducing 13inch laptops I am very hopeful that this will eventually translate to an increase in screen resolution for the 13inch macbook pro. Hopefully apple will just do the exact same thing they did with the 15inch and 17inch and have a high-res anti-glare option for the 13inch as well. That would be my dream computer! :D

I'm not sure how they'll integrate the other new Air technologies into the MBP line especially since regular hard drives aren't going anywhere soon with the low capacity of their new SSD storage.

It would be nice to have an official hibernate mode or perhaps the more efficient sleep time that the Airs get (although that probably has something to do with the new SSD storage)

Please apple just make the upgrades to the MBPs soon (before you start installing Mac OS X Lion on everything because based on today I definitely DO NOT want an iOSized mac). Off topic I know but I had to get it out there...
 
I think they'll ditch the optical drive and add the instant boot flash drive for main drive plus a secondary 2.5" ssd or hdd option(kinda like the new imac's SSD+HDD option).
 
Haven't used my optical drive in... um... ??? Number of times that have used my optical drive... um... not enough to warrant caring it around as part of the device. My desktop is a different story.. I use that optical drive lots. Apple, please take away the optical drive in the MacBooks!
 
Screen resolution change was from going to 16:9 from 16:10. MBPs won't follow suit until a chassis revision.

MBPs will have CD Drives for a few more years.

Flash storage as an option or standard for new MBP revision (probably standard).

MBP13 will most likely stick to the C2D line of processors. nVidia & Intel need to get their act together.
 
melterx12 said:
theres a good chance that next MBP wont have an optical drive, and will offer solid state drives as a consumer SKU.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far as to say it won't have an optical drive. Possibly an option, but they won't simply get rid of it. The majority of users will use it for DVDs, ripping CDs, etc. So it's still more useful than it seems around here.
 
alust2013 said:
I wouldn't go that far as to say it won't have an optical drive. Possibly an option, but they won't simply get rid of it. The majority of users will use it for DVDs, ripping CDs, etc. So it's still more useful than it seems around here.
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I agree, but time to move on to external DVD drive that you keep at home and do all your ripping at home, no need to take it on the road, take only the material that you've ripped at home. How often do people rip while traveling anyways? SSD or flash hard drive memories and 12 hour batteries. I just hope they don't stop making full power laptops in favor of weaker versions like the air. Keep the full computer laptops until air versions catch up..maybe the next macbook pro will be a macbook air pro?
 
CD/DVD drives are such relics and hard drives are well on their way. I'm really really glad Apple is moving on. The boot USB key out of the box is also great -- I've been making them myself for some time.

I would *love* a 15" "MacBook Air Pro" along the same lines that was a (mostly) full powered laptop with a high(er) resolution screen, dropping the bulky disk drive and hard drive in exchange for a thinner profile and less weight. I don't mind integrated components if that's what it takes. I'm pretty happy with Job's vision here.
 
wkw said:
maybe they are going to do away with backlit keyboards altogether! :mad:
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This is a scary possibility; assess for a minute WHY the MBA just lost it's backlit keyboard. Hint: it has nothing to do with battery life because the keyboards are power sipping LEDs, and they were able to effectively double the battery life of the MBA (given the new testing measurements) as it is, so it has *nothing* to do with battery life.

Look closely. Steve couldn't bear the thought of a power button in the casing, so he HAD to move it into the F row of keys, and something had to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, that something was the keyboard backlighting.

So it was yet another pure form over function move, and a pretty dastardly one at that IMO.

There are two scary parts about the way this was done:

1) It looks doubtful that they will be able to put the backlit keyboard back in later as you might expect to make everyone feel they NEED to upgrade to the better, new model, unless they want to add another key to the F row, making them smaller, which I doubt they will do because then it wouldn't be "full-sized".

2) Expect the power button to migrate into the F row on the MBPs during the next redesign down the road. What do you think will be sacrificed?

I think in the next redesign, we will lose the optical drive, get the F row power button, and get a wedge shape.
 
Screen resolution upgrade to 1440x900 on 13" MBP in the next major revision.

The crappy 1280x800 resolution on the 13" MBP was one of the reasons I got a 15". Seems that this won't be an issue for long.
 
Darth Cow said:
CD/DVD drives are such relics and hard drives are well on their way. I'm really really glad Apple is moving on. The boot USB key out of the box is also great -- I've been making them myself for some time.

I would *love* a 15" "MacBook Air Pro" along the same lines that was a (mostly) full powered laptop with a high(er) resolution screen, dropping the bulky disk drive and hard drive in exchange for a thinner profile and less weight. I don't mind integrated components if that's what it takes. I'm pretty happy with Job's vision here.
Click to expand...

Even though they are relics, they are also way cheaper. So, for at least a couple of years, Apple will continue to use them.

Like you, I would love a 15" or a 17" mbap!
 
I agree that MBP may come with higher res screens next. In that case I would need to buy the current MBP as I have below average eyesight and would get a headache looking at the screen.

The optical drive will probably stay or else it will become too similar to the Air.

Perhaps they will become 16:9 for a new chassis shape for Sandy Bridge. Not a major redesign but just new shape like how the iMacs changed last year.

Apple says that the new Air is "The future of MacBooks" so we will see similar things like power button on the keyboard.

Maybe hybrid SSD and HDD kind of storage as well.

I just hope Apple do not stuff up the product by making it like iPads and those kinds of things.
 
New MBPs aren't going to come with any higher res screens. All that happened is the Air "caught up" with the rest of the line, sans 13". You'll get a 1440x900 13" MBP, but the rest of them aren't going to change their resolutions.
 
alust2013 said:
I wouldn't go that far as to say it won't have an optical drive. Possibly an option, but they won't simply get rid of it. The majority of users will use it for DVDs, ripping CDs, etc. So it's still more useful than it seems around here.
Click to expand...

I agree, i use my optical drive pretty regularly. I would hate to see them go as i have no use for an ssd as OSX has no trim support, nor do i need two HD's in my machine.
 
puma1552 said:
Look closely. Steve couldn't bear the thought of a power button in the casing, so he HAD to move it into the F row of keys, and something had to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, that something was the keyboard backlighting.

So it was yet another pure form over function move, and a pretty dastardly one at that IMO.

There are two scary parts about the way this was done:

1) It looks doubtful that they will be able to put the backlit keyboard back in later as you might expect to make everyone feel they NEED to upgrade to the better, new model, unless they want to add another key to the F row, making them smaller, which I doubt they will do because then it wouldn't be "full-sized".

2) Expect the power button to migrate into the F row on the MBPs during the next redesign down the road. What do you think will be sacrificed?

I think in the next redesign, we will lose the optical drive, get the F row power button, and get a wedge shape.
Click to expand...

I think you're making a big deal out of nothing. have you thought that maybe the power button can't be in the same location as in all the other Macbooks because of space constraints? the Air is thin, there're ports on the rear sides, and it has speakers on either side of the keyboard.

Apple could reappropriate the "show-all-windows" key, which everyone does via corners or multitouch anyway, and there's the two keys for the backlight.

the Air always had a tapered shape. have other Macs adopted that shape yet? no.
 
It makes sense about the Blu-Ray decision. Taking away a DVD player / burner isn't a big deal and replacing with a HD or battery and making it thinner.

People would scream more with the Blu-Ray. Genius.
 
Optical drive is going and the Mac App Store is its coup de grâce. The new MBP may use 8GB flash just to boot from and then kick over to an SSD or 2.5" for mass storage. Once the new MBPs are out I think the white MacBooks will be discontinued.
 
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