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14” and 16” with ProMotion?
- Thread starter jabbr
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I don’t think so. My bet is on miniLED but not ProMotion. A new chip, a redesigned chassis, updated ports, better battery life, better cameras, and XDR displays are a lot of updates for one year. They’ll save ProMotion for a later date. Only so much you can do (or want to do) in one year.
edit: ProMotion can be pretty taxing on a GPU, which is why I believe they will prioritize the other new features first.
edit: ProMotion can be pretty taxing on a GPU, which is why I believe they will prioritize the other new features first.
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I would love to see it but I think Apple will save this for next year. There are already very compelling reasons to get the new MBPs this year so Apple will want to stagger upgrades.
Apple used to lead the industry in display technology. When rMBPs came out, most other laptops were still using complete garbage screens. Right now, Mac screens are no longer leading the industry as highend laptops moved to 4k OLED displays.
I would love to see Apple put out a mini LED screen, at Retina resolutions, and have 120hz refresh rate. PCs right now can only do high refresh rates at low resolutions.
After all, the MBP 16" will likely be more than 2x the price if the iPad Pro 13". The iPad Pro 13" has had 120hz for years. And people actually use the MBP 16" for real work. It would be actually silly for Pro Macs to have worse displays than Pro iPads.
Apple used to lead the industry in display technology. When rMBPs came out, most other laptops were still using complete garbage screens. Right now, Mac screens are no longer leading the industry as highend laptops moved to 4k OLED displays.
I would love to see Apple put out a mini LED screen, at Retina resolutions, and have 120hz refresh rate. PCs right now can only do high refresh rates at low resolutions.
After all, the MBP 16" will likely be more than 2x the price if the iPad Pro 13". The iPad Pro 13" has had 120hz for years. And people actually use the MBP 16" for real work. It would be actually silly for Pro Macs to have worse displays than Pro iPads.
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iPad Pro 13" has a super high-resolution display and will have a significantly less powerful GPU than upcoming MBPs (if rumors of 16/32 cores are true), but it still has 120hz.
The GPU won't be a bottleneck.
I agree the GPU would likely be fine, but iPad has more limited high-end applications and demands on the system compared to MBP. I’d guess that the 16” XDR miniLED display would would be of the same PPI as iPad so it would be driving more pixels too, on a more demanding system. Like I said though, it’s more than likely going to be saved as a selling point for next year more than bottlenecks.
With the whole "drama" that 3rd party apps can't take advantage of 120 hz by default on the iPhone 13 Pro, Apple released a document which linked to a WWDC 21 developer video I hadn't seen before where they talk about supporting variable refresh rate displays with a new adaptive sync feature coming in macOS Monterey.
Perhaps Apple is adding this feature specifically for the handful of people using their Macs with an external gaming monitor who want slightly smoother frame-pacing, but to me I think this feature points heavily toward the new MacBooks getting ProMotion.
Perhaps Apple is adding this feature specifically for the handful of people using their Macs with an external gaming monitor who want slightly smoother frame-pacing, but to me I think this feature points heavily toward the new MacBooks getting ProMotion.
From the video from WWDC2021:
"We're going to introduce you to Adaptive-Sync displays on the Mac, and the new tools in macOS Monterey that you can use to deliver smooth frame rates in full-screen apps and games on these displays."
"Most displays on Apple systems work at fixed refresh rates. That is, they refresh themselves at a consistent rate whenever they are powered on. The exception is our ProMotion displays on iPad, and now with Adaptive-Sync displays on macOS. Let's start digging in to what's new with Adaptive-Sync displays on the Mac."
When they talk about "now with Adaptive-Sync displays on macOS", they show a picture of a mac connected to an external display. Now why would apple develop something like this for macOS if they don't have any display that support a variable high refresh rate?
I think that we might see an updated Pro Display XDR with ProMotion at the next event to support this new technology in macOS Monterey.
It would make sense that they bring ProMotion to the new Macbook Pro as well so that all the pro devices will have ProMotion 🤞🏽 but I don't want to get my hopes up too much.
"We're going to introduce you to Adaptive-Sync displays on the Mac, and the new tools in macOS Monterey that you can use to deliver smooth frame rates in full-screen apps and games on these displays."
"Most displays on Apple systems work at fixed refresh rates. That is, they refresh themselves at a consistent rate whenever they are powered on. The exception is our ProMotion displays on iPad, and now with Adaptive-Sync displays on macOS. Let's start digging in to what's new with Adaptive-Sync displays on the Mac."
When they talk about "now with Adaptive-Sync displays on macOS", they show a picture of a mac connected to an external display. Now why would apple develop something like this for macOS if they don't have any display that support a variable high refresh rate?
I think that we might see an updated Pro Display XDR with ProMotion at the next event to support this new technology in macOS Monterey.
It would make sense that they bring ProMotion to the new Macbook Pro as well so that all the pro devices will have ProMotion 🤞🏽 but I don't want to get my hopes up too much.
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These new MBPs are getting so hyped that they surely can't live up to it all.
I intend to get one so I hope they do, but the list of upgrades, performance and new features that seem "likely" is getting ridiculous.
I intend to get one so I hope they do, but the list of upgrades, performance and new features that seem "likely" is getting ridiculous.
Apple still leads. The combination of color accuracy, brightness, contrast, gamut and power efficiency on their displays is pretty much unmatched. The only objectively better displays are HP DreamColor used in some ZBook models. OLED laptop panels are certainly nice, but they are no panacea. For example, the Dell XPS with a 4K OLED panel suffers from poor average brightness, less than average color accuracy and gamut coverage, and takes a substantial hit to the battery life.
It is true however that Apple doesn't have as much lead in this area as they used to have. Others have caught up. But the problem is that the modern display technology has reached its peak. Next step would be microLED, but we are still some years off.
mini LED with ProMotion is what I'm expecting to ship on the 14/16" MacBook Pros this year, though the rumours have been all over the place with it. That should be a nice boost over regular LCD, and the high refresh box is ticked as the icing on the cake. Returning to integer scaling by default will also be a big bonus, I hate having to choose between that absolute retina sharpness and having enough resolution to work with. If it's going to be a squarer aspect as well, that's great with me!
sorry, but for gaming maybe 4k oled is a thing, still wondering if a laptop with mobile gpu can handle games at 4k..but nevermind...for me, projecting and 3d modelling and design to have an oled display is a cry for help, already tried 2 different machines thinking that oled came along the way in the last years..but now, oled has its limitations...oled is a transition between 2 great, long lasting display tech, the lcd and up coming microled. Mini-led is the best lcd iteration, the more minileds the more control you have almost in everything without loosing color accuracy, blue pixels, brightness and contrast.
SO yeah, for real work, oled is not a thing, its just a good display tech for the smaller displays that are used far less for shorter period of time
mini-Led yes, promotion for sure no. So dont have hopes for promotion, but high hopes for mini-led. Expect around over 12.000 mini-leds on the 16" mbp
I have no idea if we will see 120hz displays this year, but new adaptive refresh APIs in macOS 12 are kind of suspicious. It's not like Apple to offer a new API without the hardware to match. If not 120hz, at least we could get 60hz adaptive displays 
that would be a great start even so (are you thinking 10hz-60hz?). To have an 24hz in projection app, that would mean insane battery life for me while workingI have no idea if we will see 120hz displays this year, but new adaptive refresh APIs in macOS 12 are kind of suspicious. It's not like Apple to offer a new API without the hardware to match. If not 120hz, at least we could get 60hz adaptive displays
The 2019 16" MacBook Pro already supports 48hz, 50hz, and 60hz refresh rate options so it's not too much of a stretch for the new screens to get the ability to change refresh rate in real-time. I agree that getting 120hz sounds too good to be true for such a hyped product and 10-60hz might be more realistic, but we'll see.