Wednesday, February 22nd 2012
MacBook Pro To Look More Like MacBook Air
Later this year, Apple will refresh its MacBook Pro line with a new generation, and it is reported that these new products will look increasingly similar to the MacBook Air, as they will get a lot more slimmer. MacBook Pro is Apple's main line of portable Mac computers, and arguably its most popular Mac. Apple has mastered ultra-compact notebook design with the MacBook Air, which its PC rivals are struggling to get even close to. It is now going all out on the ultaslim form-factor by designing ever more powerful MacBook Pros based on it.
The ultra-slim form-factor will also see hardware such as optical drives and hard disk drives leave. Primary storage will be handled by SSDs, there will be an increasing relevance of iCloud for additional storage. "They're all going to look like MacBook Airs," a source familiar with the designs of the upcoming MacBook Pros told AppleInsider. We will get to see MacBook Pros that are as slim as the MacBook Air, but as big as 15-inch and 17-inch, while being backed by powerful hardware, even as PC makers struggle with big Ultrabooks since they're government by specifications laid down by Intel, a move that could limit their success in Europe, creating a great market opportunity for Apple. AppleInsider provided mock-ups of what the new MacBook Pros could look like.
Sources:
AppleInsider, MacRumors
The ultra-slim form-factor will also see hardware such as optical drives and hard disk drives leave. Primary storage will be handled by SSDs, there will be an increasing relevance of iCloud for additional storage. "They're all going to look like MacBook Airs," a source familiar with the designs of the upcoming MacBook Pros told AppleInsider. We will get to see MacBook Pros that are as slim as the MacBook Air, but as big as 15-inch and 17-inch, while being backed by powerful hardware, even as PC makers struggle with big Ultrabooks since they're government by specifications laid down by Intel, a move that could limit their success in Europe, creating a great market opportunity for Apple. AppleInsider provided mock-ups of what the new MacBook Pros could look like.
19 Comments on MacBook Pro To Look More Like MacBook Air
What is the point of 3 laptop lines now? Why even call it a Pro? Heck, this means no more NV or AMD GPUs in Mac laptops. Or at least not midrange ones. Can't cool power user machines properly with something that thin. High end CPUs and GPUs need to breathe!
Think I'll avoid the Christmas rush and start hating these now. Rumor or not.
APUssorry, Heterogeneous Systems Architecture - but I'm too skeptical of them ever doing that (anytime soon).Trinity with Piledriver has features I could see Apple wanting to play with. But yeah, CPU power wouldn't be there. Apple did the wonderful bonehead thing of making all their lines pretty much the same on performance...i5s, i7s. They can't change for Trinity easily without people getting upset.
However, if Apple completely redid all their lines, cut some fat out, they could introduce a more budget Mac based on Trinity. But then, that implies Apple knows the meaning of the word "budget."
You cant please all buyers with just one product. But you can please most buyers most of the time with an MacBookAirPro concept.
Would I buy one? Well no, not because they don't look great or have enough power... but because I'm an old skool netbook to LAN user, and my LAN is W2Kx and I need full W compatibility for files and applications. Not unless bootcamp came preloaded ;)
Core i5-3570K Graphics 67% Faster Than Core i5-2500K, 36% Slower Than GeForce GT 240
We might conclude that Ivy Bridge HD 4000 series integrated graphics could bring some noteworthy improvements.
Personally I don’t see the attraction to making such things thinner and slightly less massive than parading it as a selling point. A thinner slightly less massive laptop is of no practical benefit to the average user. IMO, it’s nothing more than a “thin is in” fashion statement and fashion isn’t worth a price premium or idle consideration for me.
That just means generally slower machines. And honestly OSX is a freaking hog of hogs. It hogs 8gb of ram and constantly pegs out my sandy bridge proc when Im using it, and even though mountain lion is supposed to be all IOS inspired, it will still be a freaking hog.
Also I love my optical drive... what they need to do is put a bluray in there and allow me to stream it over my wifi network at home to my hdtv lol. That would be sweet.
You can see as the apple logo shrinks, apple logos are not smaller or larger on different sized notebooks. I know that there are probably no pictures of the real notebooks yet, but it sounds to be untrue.
I hope that they do not get rid of the optical drives on the pros... or if they do, to use that space for another hard drive or something... like and SSD/ docs drive.
So, if they're Ivy Bridge based, which is likely, I'm guessing the cpu will be underclocked and undervolted, and the on die gpu overclocked a little.
Unless they can shoehorn in a small discreet gpu.