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What Next for MacBook Pro? Four Upgrades We're Likely to See
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But still, there is the cellular version of iPad. Who need cellular iPad when it can connect via iPhone?! Well some people do, and also some people would love the same option for mac.
Because battery life is the less of the issue now, and technology is now almost the same like in iPhone and iPad which both have cellular (option in case of iPad). And recently Apple both Intel modem division. So yes, I'm expecting it.
Please add touch screen and pencil.
True, but an iPhone is not an iPad. A better comparison would be if they introduced the iPhone A10 in SEP, then followed with the iPhone Pro A10X later in JUN. Phone & Pro Phone, Laptop & Pro Laptop, not Phone & Tablet.
Yup. This is phrased poorly by the author. It may have the same core count, but it'll probably have Avalanche/Blizzard cores, not Firestorm/Icestorm ones.
I don’t think Apple will add cellular connectivity until they can do it with their own modem. Sounds like that could be within the next few years though.
If Apple had been wary of using mini-LED, they wouldn't have done it. I don't buy that they introduce the technology as a one-off only to do a lateral move to OLED in the next revision. Instead, they'll stick to mini-LED, refine it for a while, and then eventually move to micro-LED.
Clearly I'm in the minority because this hasn't even come up yet. For every single MacBook Pro I've ever bought, I've not really used the touchbar or the trackpad. Why? Because I always end up buying an external keyboard because I need a numeric pad, meaning you have to reach over the keyboard to get at the trackpad or touchbar. So many PC laptops use the full width of the laptop to enable a numeric pad and they're perfectly functional - but Apple never have. I had so many versions of the 17" laptop (back when that was a thing) and the keyboard looked laughably stupid with wastelands of aluminum on either side.
Aside from that, I wish the Apple marketing bozos would rename the M1-MAX to something else. The number of times I've gone into the Apple Store expressing interest in the M1-MAX and they misinterpreted it as M1 Macs, and if you say M1-MAX Macs they look at you like you have a stutter.
Aside from that, I wish the Apple marketing bozos would rename the M1-MAX to something else. The number of times I've gone into the Apple Store expressing interest in the M1-MAX and they misinterpreted it as M1 Macs, and if you say M1-MAX Macs they look at you like you have a stutter.
I'm probably in the majority, but upgrading the HDMI 2.0 to HDMI 2.1 is an obvious future increment.
How useful is cellular connectivity in a laptop? 90% of the places where I might use a laptop have WiFi connectivity, and I have a hotspot in my iPhone for places without WiFi. I don’t even go for the cellular option in my iPad anymore.
One reason that cellular is still not a reality for Apple laptops is the way Qualcomm prices it’s modems. It’s not just the price of the chips; they charge a licensing fee that is a percentage of the selling prices of the whole device. For a MBP, that would be a significant amount of money.
I would not use public Wi-Fi for security and privacy reasons. If I’m not at home, I only use my iPhone and iPad on cellular.
Hotspot data is deprioritized and limited by most carriers.
An M2 would only rival the performance of the M1 Pro/Max in single core and even then the M2 is likely to only be 10-15% faster than the M1. the MBPs are all about multi-core performance for big jobs. Just based on how chips are designed and manufactured, the larger chips are likely to be be released after the smaller ones.
I think the M1 and Pro lines still have several years of speedbumps in them. I think the 3nm processors are for Mac Pro's and any iMac and MacBook Pro they want to sell at the $5,000-$6,000 price those computers start out at. Apple will make more money if they have Mac Pro speed in different form factors than one Mac Pro tower that only a few people will make the most out of. So Apple, like it has done with its iPad and iPhone lines, will keep everyone else on slower speed and lower spec'd devices while the new hotness gets all the bleeding edge tech because it commands the highest price. M1 is the low end, M1Max is the middle tier and the Mac Pro chips will be the new high end tier. That high end tier will be the first Macs to fully allow you to edit and create dual 8k HDR Ray traced content and serve it out to multiple simultaneously to multiple high end Apple VR glasses. Other than editing a actual Hollywood movie I can't think of a better way to get such expensive computers into the hands of more people. They would be used to create content for the new VR economy.
I agree with you — the point I was trying to make is that if they decide to add this option, I think it would only be when they are making their own modem and not before. If they can accomplish it in a cost effective manner, maybe this would be a good differentiator.
I wish it was easy to tether. One of the most buggy and annoying features ever! But yes, I'd rather they just fix that so that it "just works". If they did that, then of course, why would you ever need 5G in your laptop?
Do you mean bumps in speed or problems?
The VR/AR point is interesting. When you look back, big product categories exploded in growth only after Apple entered them — MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, smart watches.
Nah, those fanbois will cheer on anything and everything Apple does. Apple could re-start nuclear testing in the Pacific ocean, and they'd cheer it on as justified, and claim everyone else were just jealous of Apple's success.
Firstly, I'm not a fan of the way the notch looks. However, if somebody offered me more functional space on the screen but with a notch vs less screen and a much thicker bezel on top, then I'd take the additional screen real estate - every time! Sure, in the perfect world you'd have zero bezels and the maximum screen real estate, but this is a classic engineering trade-off. Frankly, if you don't like the bezel then there are CERTAIN to be apps out there that just paint the space either side of the bezel black (ideally it'd be a system preferences setting) and then you'd be right back where you were with every other legacy Mac that didn't have a bezel and you'd be happy, right? This was, in my opinion, a good call by Apple engineers.
I suspect we will now see yearly incremental releases of all Macs, just like the iPhones. Each year will have a chip increment, plus other little improvements and upgrades. Exciting times! Until the day they come up with another tragic stupidity, such as the butterfly keyboard, DooshBar, DongleLand, or God forbid, a misguided attempt at locking down macOS.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's what you get—alternating years of desktop and notebook releases. Apple has until November 2022 to make true on its two year project to replace all Intel chips; notebooks are all done, now for the desktops.
To match the 128GB RAM offered in the top end Intel-based iMac, Apple will need a dual die which can be based on doubling up the A14-based M1 design. But to offer an upgrade path for Mac Pro customers who can currently specify a 28-core Xeon CPU and 1536GB RAM, Apple will need to some clever engineering, maybe using the current A15 but possibly needing the A16. I don't think MacBook Pro owners really need a further upgrade before then.