Good day gents, I wanna get your thoughts on what you think might happen, are we looking at a potential 14 inch release in the near future with ARM or intel cpu, I’m currently on a 2015 mbp 13 inch and I would like every much to get the new 2020 13, but not in a rush if there is going to be a 14inch Intel cpu on the horizon. I know at this time its all speculation, but would nevertheless Like to get some thoughts of what you guys think.
My assumption for years (since the 2016/2017 MacBook Pro keyboards were found to be problematic) was always that Apple would steer their way out of this problem by releasing a larger screened laptop to obscure that fact that the case volume had to increase to accommodate what is now known as the Magic Keyboard (Scissor Keyboard mark 2). Bigger screen needs bigger battery to keep the battery life at 10 hours wifi browsing (this seems to be Apple's standard measure).
It was too easy to suggest a 14" and 16" size after rumours some years ago about Apple looking at those size panels for laptops and that's where I made the inference about their reasoning for quietly reversing the Butterfly keyboard misstep.
Obviously Apple have their reasons for not making the most recent 13" MacBook Pro a 14" but they still made the case very slightly thicker and I think it's also slightly heavier. I don't think there's been an outcry about it though.
Next up for Apple according to the rumour mill is 14" mini LED screens to go alongside the iPad Pro and iPhones some time next year. I don't see any reason to go against this but the thought now occurs that next up from a 12" iBook (ARM laptop) would be a 14" iBook.
The guys at
Barefeats suggest that an iPad Pro A14z CPU (from the 2020 iPad Pro) stands toe to toe with anything in a current 13" MacBook Pro. And it does this with a TDP of probably under 10w vs the 28w in the Intel CPUs. I made this point in a different thread but the 12.9" iPad Pro drives a panel of 2732x2048 with 120Hz Pro-motion refresh.
This is far above the standard 2560x1600 of the 13" MacBook Pro with 60Hz refresh which is driven by the 28w Iris Plus powered Intel Ice Lake CPU.
Think about this for a moment - a 12" iBook (macOS running on an M1 CPU (bit of marketing sparkle by Phil Schiller but largely an A12z because Apple won't want direct comparisons with iPad) driving a screen of 2304x1440 with 120Hz Pro-motion but also a power saving function through variable refresh rate where the frame rate drops to as low as 1Hz if the OS detects that the user just just staring at a picture or a spreadsheet.
Variable refresh rate 1-120Hz laptop aspect ratio 16:10 panels could again be a source for 'gaming' Mac but bear in mind that the A12x was compared directly to Xbox One S/PS4 a couple of years go - could the A14x draw comparisons with Xbox One Series X/PS4 Pro for benchmark purposes?
There's a logical progression from that to a 14" iBook running M2x/A14x/z next year and driving a screen which would be roughly the same number of pixels as an iPad Pro 12.9". And also with 1-120Hz variable Pro-motion.
Apple could do this with the existing A12z CPU but imagine a situation where developers have had 12 months to code for macOS on ARM based on the merits of an ultraportable Mac at the end of which is waiting an A14x.
I therefore have no doubts that Apple could drive a 14" panel for a macOS machine using an ARM CPU by next summer and the marketing guys have some nice product separation by size:
12" ARM M1/A12x Ultraportable iBook
13" Intel MBA/15w MBP/28w MBP
14" ARM iBook
16" Intel MBP
But next year, we could have this:
12" ARM iBook M2/A14x ultraportable with MiniLED panel
13" Intel MBA/15w MBP
14" Intel MBP 28w with MiniLED panel
15" ARM M2/A14x iBook with 2880x1800 MiniLED panel (compare with 2732x2048 of iPad Pro 12.9)
16" Intel MBP with MiniLED panel
A return to 14" and 15" sizes allows for bigger battery to power the mini LED panels. The 16" could get thicker or might be looking at a lower power RDNA2 graphics chipset to reduce power draw to reach that magical 10 hour battery life. The RDNA2 is reputed to carry a huge increase in compute so Apple could easily ask for lower TDP versions to keep the 16" light and svelte.
At some point in the future the 13" MBA and 15w MBP can be replaced by ARM variants - remember the benchmarks appear to show that ARM is a match for the Ice Lake 15-28w CPUs performancewise.
The only remaining target for now could be 16" MacBook Pro which by next year could be paired with RDNA2 graphics. I can't see Apple overhauling that within a year...
And drifting slightly off topic, an M2/A14x 23" ARM iMac powering a 3840x2160 4k panel (non retina) potentially at 120Hz with Pro-motion?
