Will the nTB MBPs get an upgrade sometime this year?

[calabi-yau]

Oh yeah, now that you mention it I've heard the rumor than nTB MBPs will be re-branded as MacBooks.

What's weird about that is that nTB MBPs and MacBooks are very different form factors. MBs are razor-thin fanless ultrabook wedges, while nTB MBPs are thicker and have fans, and are way more powerful. I guess they could rebrand MBs as MB Airs, get rid of the Air, and nTB MBPs become just MBs?

This kind of tea-leaf reading about Apple hardware used to be fun. These years it's just frustrating.

 

[redheeler]

This kind of tea-leaf reading about Apple hardware used to be fun. These years it's just frustrating.

Apple rebranded the second-generation Unibody MacBook to a MacBook Pro in 2009, after adding a Firewire port and backlit keyboard. So maybe this is more of a return to the past...

 

[Karnicopia]

There was a rumor that they are coming up with a replacement for the air so I'd imagine that is going to be the replacement for the nTB MBP as well. I think they'll probably end up with a 12" and 14" Macbook with a price drop to make them more reasonable and a 13" and 15" TB MBP. They have an iMac and iMac Pro and iPad and iPad pro then I think the mac mini becomes the mac and we have the modular macPro. So if they name lcd phone iPhone and the OLED iPhone Pro and they have a lineup similar to the quadrant lineup but with 5 types of computer (desktop, AIO, laptop, tablet, phone) each with a consumer/pro set of options. Who knows what they actually do but this would make a heck of a lot of sense to me.

 

[case2001]

I think it will go the same direction as the iPad. You could get all the premium features with the iP Air 2


I think you should wait and see. The reason i bought it was that i had a friend coming from US and he brought it for me. US price is about 30% cheaper than EU.

Regarding the keyboard, i believe the issue is not as widespread as we think. However, I did buy Apple Care because i know that Apple will most likely replace my machine after 3 major repairs (they did replace my 2009 MBP with a similarly speced 2011 version). Since I have a MBP, they would have to give me another MBP which means im getting the 1800 machine. Im not hoping it happens, but chances are it will, considering that ill probably have at least 1 keyboard repair within 3 years.

I see.
I would do the same.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

It's a chicken and egg situation.

nTB uses a 15W TDP CPU with Iris Plus Graphics.
For X or Y reason, there is no 15W TDP Coffee Lake with Iris graphics, only with the UHD 620.
Apple could (a) wait for Intel to release this chip or (b) keep the nTB as is or (c) kill the nTB and release the new MacBook Air or whatever it's called with the inferior processor + GPU. Either because they were already planning to do so or because Intel won't release the processor, whatever came first.

I think they're going with (c).