A New MacBook Pro May Be Just Around the Corner

16 Inch Macbook Pro Concept Credit: Viktor Kadar
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We might be seeing Apple’s next M1 MacBook Pro much sooner than we originally expected, with leaks suggesting that Apple is preparing to release a new MacBook Pro in some form at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

If true, this would be the first time Apple has unveiled new MacBooks at its traditionally software-focused event in several years. While Apple did use WWDC 2019 as an opportunity to take the wraps off its new Mac Pro, it’s also fair to say that was a much more developer-focused piece of hardware. Of course, a 16-inch MacBook Pro would arguably fall into the same category as well.

This latest report comes from prolific leaker Jon Prosser, who provided no additional information beyond confirming that a MacBook Pro is coming.

Hence, we’re not quite sure what to expect. Apple released its first M1 MacBooks back in November, of course, however that only included the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, which features much more limited MacBook Air-like specs when it comes to ports, RAM, and SSD sizes.

Meanwhile, Apple has kept an Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro in the lineup for those who actually need more than two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, or want to go beyond a 2TB SSD or 16GB of RAM — although it’s fair to say that the M1 handles the 8GB and 16GB configurations far better than the Intel versions do.

Then of course there’s the 16-inch MacBook Pro which was last updated in late 2019, putting it a generation behind even the current Intel-based 13-inch models. While Apple refreshed the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with 10th-gen Intel CPUs last spring, the 16-inch model has been chugging along with only the 2019-era 9th-gen chips.

In fact, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is in such an odd situation that we really expected Apple to push out one last Intel update for that model before moving to the M1. However, the company clearly didn’t want to risk taking any of the spotlight away from its Apple Silicon accomplishments by releasing any new Intel Macs, and we can’t say we blame them.

Prosser’s comments actually came on the heels of a leak from developer and app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who took a deep dive into Apple’s WWDC graphic to discover that the reflection in the glasses included the Emoji unicodes for a fork and knife, sleeping emoji, and a MacBook.

While many suspected this could have hinted at a new MacBook making an appearance, as Manchun Wong conceded, it’s more likely just a subtle play on “eat, sleep, Mac,” or probably more accurately, “Eat, Sleep, Code.”

So, while it’s fair to say that people are once again reading far too much into Apple’s event invitations, the addition of Prosser’s voice to the chorus suggests there could be something to it after all.

What We’re Expecting

There have rumours circulating since at least this time last year that Apple has a major redesign in the works for the MacBook Pro family, with the 13-inch models getting a bump to 14 inches, in much the same way the older 15-inch MacBook Pro became a 16-inch version.

However, after Apple announced the plan to transition to Apple Silicon last year, it became fairly obvious that it was saving these new designs for MacBooks that would feature its own chips.

This made it a bit surprising when the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro debuted last fall with no design changes, although in this case, it was likely that Apple wanted to showcase the M1 on the traditional designs to emphasize how much of a game-changer it truly is.

As Apple moves into the second generation of Apple Silicon Macs, however, it’s clearly decided it’s time for some pretty sweeping changes. We’ve already seen this with the 24-inch iMac released last month, which has more of a design language in common with an iPad Pro than the iMacs that came before.

Naturally, the rumours have persisted that Apple is still working on powerful new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, although they probably won’t feature the M1 chip, but rather its even more powerful successor — something like the M2 or M1X.

In fact, the new MacBook Pro would require an improved M-series chip if it’s going to differentiate itself from the entry-level model released last fall, since many of the limitations of the current Apple Silicon MacBooks — a maximum of two Thunderbolt ports, 16GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD — all seem to be a function of the M1 chip. Even the new M1 iMac, which has four physical USB-C ports, still only supports Thunderbolt connections over two of them.

The new “M1X” or “M2” chip could feature as many as 10 CPU cores, plus 16- or 32-core GPU options, and would support up to 64GB of RAM.

That said, recent rumours have also suggested that the new MacBook Pro could see the addition of even more ports, bringing back several features like an SD card slot and HDMI ports that were removed years ago as Apple continued to obsess with making the MacBook Pro as thin and light as possible.

Apple is also reportedly planning to bring back the MagSafe port for power, freeing up one of the USB-C/Thunderbolt ports for other purposes, as well as offering faster charging speeds.

Still, as the recent 24-inch iMac demonstrates, Apple hasn’t completely abandoned its ultra-thin design aesthetic, so it’s not clear how many of these rumours of additional ports are accurate. For example, it would be tricky to find room for a standard HDMI port in even the current M1 MacBook Pro without increasing the thickness. With the 24-inch iMac, Apple went so far as to include the Ethernet port in the power adapter, as there was no room for it in the body of the iMac.

So far, Prosser is the only leaker who has offered any indication that new MacBooks will come at WWDC, and to be fair he doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to WWDC announcements, specifically, having predicted the AirPods Max would launch at last year’s conference, which of course wasn’t even close to happening.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]

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