Apple Developing Thinner MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone

[pksv]

I think it depends on the tasks a user uses their laptop for. If someone is hammering the SoC, then battery life really isn't anything like as good as it otherwise would be.

If you're hammering the SoC you usually have a socket close to you.
Don't get me wrong, of course, I'd like a week's worth of battery life in the MBP. However, it would probably be a compromise in the thickness of the device. I prefer an all-day battery life and a lighter and thinner device.

 

[jmgregory1]

Given the real world improvement in battery life that my M4 iPad Pro 13” has compared to the M1 12.9” iPP, I‘m sure Apple is going to take what they’ve learned and incorporate these things into the iPhone, Watch and MBP’s. I used to get 8-9 hours of use when traveling with my old M1 iPP, but the M4 gets me through the day working, a few hours in the night using it for reading and video watching and still has enough battery to get me half-way through the next day working. All in a thinner and lighter design.

 

[aroom]

Well the HDMI port doesn’t have a dedicated lane, so if Apple replaced the HDMI port with a Thunderbolt port, you would have the same bandwidth as the current three Thunderbolt ports.

If bandwidth is what you care about - the HDMI port isn’t taking anything away from you.

I think that is the point I was trying to make. Well that and total bandwidth has increased since the old MacBook Pros.

thanks for your expertise then. so we lost a thunderbolt port due to the Apple Silicon design?

 

[ralph_sws]

Now lots whine that it's too thick and if apple makes it thinner, people will start to whine that it's too thin 😂😂😂

 

[ric22]

If you're hammering the SoC you usually have a socket close to you.
Don't get me wrong, of course, I'd like a week's worth of battery life in the MBP. However, it would probably be a compromise in the thickness of the device. I prefer a one-day battery and a lighter and thinner device.

If you're sitting at a desk you usually have a socket close to you, to be fair, which is most of the time we work. 😅 The argument is that you don't want to drag your big lump of a charging brick everywhere with you, even if it's only from room to room at home. Damn things are so expensive it's not like most people own a bunch that can power a MacBook Pro.

 

[spillled typos]

So we squeeze a few mm off the iPhone but then add a terrible case because the iPhone alone is not designed for actual real life usage. A design flaw in my view.

Depends on the person. I've never used a case on any of electronic devices. The only one that has been damaged was a Nexus 7 tablet back in the day.

 

[Kottu]

My Xperia 1V has same thickness as my 15PM. But Xperia feels thinner because it doesn’t have camera bump. I use case on my phones. Due to the bump, difference is much bigger.

 

[pi6xjdskfa]

Amen!

For $5k laptop I wish it could be 2.5 pounds. Innovate and Defy gravity apple.

 

[koil]

What about performance?

I mean, machines are so overpowered these days I find it hard to think they'd be able to significantly mess up performance. Plus, performance is also one of those things people will benchmark and compare, so it's naturally an aspect that simply keeps improving.

I'm not worried about performance, but I am worried we'll get terrible keyboards with no travel, or that they'll put smaller capacity batteries in them and claim that "improvements in efficiency" mean I get "the same battery life as before", well I don't want the same, I want a phone with 2 days of battery life, a laptop I only have to charge once a week or more often if doing heavy work.

 

[trusso]

Nope. No. No, thanks.

If Apple feels the need to diet, they could trim some of the old guard from the C-suite. No one gives a damn about thinness if software bugs and poor business practices plague the brand.

 

[coffeemilktea]

In 2021, Apple significantly redesigned the MacBook Pro, making it thicker and heavier. A major highlight of the redesign was the reintroduction of several ports that were removed in previous iterations in favor of chassis thinness.

I actually miss how the 2019 MacBook Pro looked; to me that was the nicest-looking model, and it's not like it was lacking in battery life.

I could do without the Touch Bar though.

 

[czoli]

They are thin enough. Give us more battery life.

I swear, when they run out of ideas they resort to "make it thinner"Thinner

and make it more complicated to cool ? hence increase price? and reduce sustained performance?

I want it. Battery life has already reached the point where it no longer matters. How many days does a laptop have to run on battery for you and why? The all-day battery is enough, there is no need to carry a larger battery inside at all times especially since we have fast charging and devices consume so little power. Now is the time to lighten those devices.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Bring back the iPhone mini!

 

[pksv]

want a phone with 2 days of battery life, a laptop I only have to charge once a week or more often if doing heavy work.

In all seriousness, why do you need an all-week battery laptop? Do you work in the forest, off the grid or what is the reason? I can get on board with a 2-day (or more) phone battery life though.

 

[bodhisattva]

Bring back the era of Mac Pro G5 lol. I don't care if it's bigger, as long as it is powerful, nice battery life, and speaking of the ol' G5 please don't make it sound like a jet engine is sitting under my desk. MacBook Air, make it as thin as you want, but please keep the pro line "pro"

 

[theluggage]

They are thin enough. Give us more battery life.

Isn't there a maximum size of something like 100Wh for batteries in airline hand luggage, that Apple are already close to?

Making devices thinner and lighter is OK in itself, the question is what gets sacrificed.

It got ridiculous with iPads and phones when they got too thin to accommodate the camera lens & needed "camera bulges". Or with the iMac where they had to switch to an external power brick & pointless magnetic connector, and couldn't even fit in a proper Ethernet socket. Or the studio display, with no space for a proper IEC power connector. Doubly stupid in those last two cases because they're not even mobile devices. Then, of course, there's the all-round turkey that was the 2016 MacBook Pro - the whole butterfly keyboard fiasco, overheating, throttling, removing a bunch of useful ports...

 

[UltimaKilo]

If you're hammering the SoC you usually have a socket close to you.
Don't get me wrong, of course, I'd like a week's worth of battery life in the MBP. However, it would probably be a compromise in the thickness of the device. I prefer an all-day battery life and a lighter and thinner device.

The issue for me is more in the iPhone and Apple Watch product lines. Apple has likely gotten to the point where they can slim these products down and keep the same battery life, but I believe that an extra 15-20% battery life would be more welcome for people than getting thinner, for now.

The Apple Watch, for instance, is really close to “good enough” for most people, but it could use an extra 4-5 hours of battery life. Likewise, the iPhones could use an extra 2-3 hours before a slim down.

I don’t think it’s an issue with the laptop lines as the SoC becomes more and more efficient.

 

[WWPD]

Will be interesting how they do a thinner iPhone with the current camera bump sizes.

 

[john123]

Apple has done it again! Introducing the innovative and thinnest ever MacBook Pro! Featuring a design with absolutely no ports whatsoever and speedy wireless charging that will take you from 0% to 50% in less than a week!

Naw, seriously, I'm a fan of this as long as we're not back to the times of sacrificing function over form.

 

[SpotOnT]

thanks for your expertise then. so we lost a thunderbolt port due to the Apple Silicon design?

No, we gained a Thunderbolt lane with Apple Silicon.

On Intel MacBook Pro we had 2 lanes and 4 Thunderbolt port. Each Thunderbolt port shared a lane.

On Apple Silicon MacBook Pro we have 3 lanes and 3 Thunderbolt port.

So Apple Silicon has more bandwidth. We gained a whole lane for Thunderbolt on Apple Silicon.

 

[pksv]

The issue for me is more in the iPhone and Apple Watch product lines. Apple has likely gotten to the point where they can slim these products down and keep the same battery life, but I believe that an extra 15-20% battery life would be more welcome for people than getting thinner, for now.

The Apple Watch, for instance, is really close to “good enough” for most people, but it could use an extra 4-5 hours of battery life. Likewise, the iPhones could use an extra 2-3 hours before a slim down.

I don’t think it’s an issue with the laptop lines as the SoC becomes more and more efficient.

On point, I agree wholeheartedly with your argument. The threshold I would finally say "It's enough" when I comes to iPhones is all-day battery life no matter what you're doing on it. So 16-18h full brightness on-screen, GPS, 5G, etc.

 

[cocky jeremy]

More useless "upgrades". The iPhone is thin enough, come up with something that is actually useful.

 

[Saturn1217]

Can they not go to extremes though?

I personally think the MacBook Pro (especially the 16”) could stand to be a little lighter.

But we also do not need (or want) the thinnest pro laptop EVER!!! Just get us back to where we were in the 2016-2019 era but with working keyboards and a chip that can support that form factor and I’d be happy.

As for the iPhone, I absolutely do not want thinner at all. Lighter materials is all good. But thinner. No. I think I will always want more battery life out of my phone. Just got stuck unexpectedly in the ER with a phone at 30% charge. Thank god it was a pro max because it lasted me just barely until the morning. I had no chance to charge it. And no other communication device or entertainment device. Having multiday battery life in a phone is always better even if usually you don’t need it.

 

[bunce66]

I have been super happy with the move AWAY from making everything as thin as possible. I think pointless and I'd much rather have better battery, features, and overall design.

I was actually happy to see Johnny Ive nudged out, because he ruined several products with the thin obsession.

There's literally NEVER been a situation where I thought, "Gee, I want to take my laptop with me, but it's 0.5mm too thick, so I won't bring it."

 

[mrmod]

I don't know a single person that complained about device thickness. Is there a large consumer base that wants a thinner device? Focus on shrinking the bezels.