Will the 13" get a 16GB option?

[joewillmott]

Been wanting to switch to a 13" rMBP for a while now. I don't NEED too, so I am fine waiting for Haswell. Obviously the nice new things I would like with Haswell are a slightly thinner profile, larger SSD and a dedicated GPU, but I cannot see any of those honestly coming just yet.

My main concern is the RAM, I get rather close to maxing out my 8GB at the moment and I know in the future I will, but the rMBP 13" does not even offer the option of upgrading to 16GB like the 15" which is annoying. Can anyone see this option being available in the near future? Maybe with the Haswell updates? If not, it might be the thing that makes me hold off buying one...

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The chances are there, but the 16 GB are another way to differentiate the 13" and 15".

And the 13" will probably not get a dedicated GPU especially since the Haswell IGP offers that much more power.

 

[InfinitiG]

probably not, since mavericks brings more efficient memory management

 

[bcaslis]

Thinner profile: Seems very unlikely despite what analysts (who were WRONG with their WWDC predications) say. The 13" was a complete redesign in 10/2012. The likelihood for another redesign in 1 year time is virtually zero. I can't think of any Apple product this has happened.

Larger SSD: You can already customize to 768GB. Larger default? Seems unlikely if there are trying to hold down the price of the entry model. My guess would be no.

16GB RAM: I would like this. However given Mavericks has the fancy new memory compression scheme, my guess would be definitely no as a default configuration. Customizing to 16GB, maybe but I would guess no if I was betting my money unless they add Thunderbolt 2 and support driving retina desktop displays (in other words a bigger update than just adding Haswell).

 

[KylePowers]

Thinner profile: Seems very unlikely despite what analysts (who were WRONG with their WWDC predications) say. The 13" was a complete redesign in 10/2012. The likelihood for another redesign in 1 year time is virtually zero. I can't think of any Apple product this has happened.

I'm not sure if to call it a new product or a redesign, but I understand why you'd consider the latter. Nevertheless, it may not have been in 1 years time (perhaps less or more), but plenty of second iterations were redesigns of the first: iPhone, MacBook Air, iPad, probably a slew of iPods, etc.

It's very possible they make it slightly thinner, so I wouldn't write it off just yet.

 

[alex0002]

The chances are there, but the 16 GB are another way to differentiate the 13" and 15".

Or to differentiate the rMBP from the MBA.

 

[bcaslis]

I'm not sure if to call it a new product or a redesign, but I understand why you'd consider the latter. Nevertheless, it may not have been in 1 years time (perhaps less or more), but plenty of second iterations were redesigns of the first: iPhone, MacBook Air, iPad, probably a slew of iPods, etc.

It's very possible they make it slightly thinner, so I wouldn't write it off just yet.

iDevices can be redesigned each year (although the iPhones have recently been on a 2 year external design cycle).

I don't recall any Mac ever that got an external physical design change (even if it's only a little thinner) in less than two years. I could be wrong, but I would bet heavily against any change.

 

[B...]

iDevices can be redesigned each year (although the iPhones have recently been on a 2 year external design cycle).

I don't recall any Mac ever that got an external physical design change (even if it's only a little thinner) in less than two years. I could be wrong, but I would bet heavily against any change.

It would just be making the 13" as skinny as the 15" if anything.

 

[errol]

I also don't think the 13" Haswell will be any thinner. 16GB of ram seems like more of a possibility.

 

[bcaslis]

It would just be making the 13" as skinny as the 15" if anything.

I understand that. I'm saying Apple has never done this with any model of Mac that I can remember. If they could have made the 13" as thin as the 15" don't you think they would have done that to begin with? It will take a redesign to make it thinner.

 

[sofianito]

probably not, since mavericks brings more efficient memory management

However given Mavericks has the fancy new memory compression scheme, my guess would be definitely no as a default configuration.

The new Mavericks' fancy memory compression reminds me the disk compression utility Stacker for MSDOS released by Stac Electronics back in 1990. Because hard drives were very expensive at that time, Stacker was very successful because it allowed to double disk capacity by compressing data on the fly. RAM compression is not something new, and whether Mavericks will double the free memory without reducing performance is something arguable. I also hope they allow end users / power users to enable/disable manually Mavericks compression feature...

Nowadays, 8GB RAM is actually the base configuration for pro and non-pro laptops, and in few months 16GB RAM will likely be "de facto" the base of any respectable pro configuration.

I wish and believe Apple will not use the RAM size as a differentiator between the 13" and 15". The CPU, Screen size / resolution, and iGPU / dGPU are already big differentiators, and knowing Mavericks would be more CPU,RAM,DISK hungry than its predecessors, it would be unfair and a bad move from Apple to limit the 13" to only 8GB, and likely a deal breaker for many people...

 

[Lolito]

feels like the retina mbp are like the air when they were introduced: too ahead of time, but then they improved a lot.

A new laptop with 8gb of ram and not upgradable is a shame, no matter how you look at it.

 

[fskywalker]

Or to differentiate the rMBP from the MBA.

I don't think the 13 inch would get a 16GB RAM option unless they release a 32GB option for the new Haswell 15 inch rMBP since also think they will look to differentiate the 13 from the 15, keeping the 15 as the flagship (at least until a new 17 inch rMBP is released, if that ever happens)