As you said it seems the processor allows 32Gb of DDR4 RAM which begs the question of for the 15" MacBook Pro why didn't they use that?
Once again apologies for taking this off topic, but I do think conversations like this are somewhere related to the Mac Pro as it shows the overall commitment to its Pro line.
LPDDR3 which is specially designed for LOW POWER, hence the LP.
DDR4 uses significantly more power.
Exactly what the real-world energy savings difference is can only be determined in a lab, but all of the laptops that I've seen that use DDR4 and can be expanded to 32GB of RAM are heavier or have less battery life than the 2016 MBP.
Of course Apple's choice to favor thin and light over 32GB capacity was exactly that - Apple's choice.
From Apple's perspective, it seems to make sense in that their RAM is non-expandable in their laptop line (again, Apple's choice) and those ordering 32GB capacity are going to be less than 5% of buyers, and in their opinion, that's not worth sacrificing weight and battery life for the other 95% of users who don't need 32GB, and Apple obviously doesn't think the design, manufacturing and support costs of a
separate logic board design that uses DDR4 are worth it.
With SSD performance being so fast, Apple feels that can mitigate to
some degree the 16GB RAM limitations for
some workflows.
I know this will just fall on deaf ears as everyone just wants to dog pile on Apple these days. While I of course would have no objection to Apple expanding their product range, they have concluded that the market is ridiculously small for them, considering that 90% of buyers in that niche market are going to purchase Windows laptops regardless of what Apple offers.
The "pro" nomenclature that folks around here continue to get so hung up on is just really bizarre. The name of a product doesn't magically make something "pro" or not.
