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Waiting for 2021 MBP

Well, my personal situation is maybe a bit different than most people here. I use my 2016 MBP 13" for social science research, and this dual core i5 is even struggling to scroll through my lengthy Word drafts while I have Zotero and Safari in the background.

I have a desktop PC for gaming, so I'm in no particular rush to upgrade vis-à-vis GPU performance - although I'm looking forward to that new use-case of portable gaming on a 13/14". I'm more interested in the battery life, general responsiveness of the system and mini-LED screen. I'm expecting to become quite mobile again post-pandemic, and will require a good machine. Plus, goodbye bad keyboard! :D

I'll probably upgrade whenever they release the 14", whether it's in August or October. But I'd feel let down to get an A14-based core design in late 2021.
 
AgentMcGeek said:
Well, my personal situation is maybe a bit different than most people here. I use my 2016 MBP 13" for social science research, and this dual core i5 is even struggling to scroll through my lengthy Word drafts while I have Zotero and Safari in the background.

I have a desktop PC for gaming, so I'm in no particular rush to upgrade vis-à-vis GPU performance - although I'm looking forward to that new use-case of portable gaming on a 13/14". I'm more interested in the battery life, general responsiveness of the system and mini-LED screen. I'm expecting to become quite mobile again post-pandemic, and will require a good machine. Plus, goodbye bad keyboard! :D

I'll probably upgrade whenever they release the 14", whether it's in August or October. But I'd feel let down to get an A14-based core design in late 2021.
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Very cool, you'll be in for a great upgrade. I am in a similar situation with a 2016 MBP that I demand a lot from, it is noticeably trying to keep up and driving me crazy!

Well said about feeling "let down to get an A14-based core design in late 2021." I think I'm going to have to wait if we see an M1x chip in the next 16" MBP.
 
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Arthur75 said:
There is a thread here about that, it can just be usual SEO practise, or apple trolling leakers.. :)
But if it was "almost" ready a good thing, it means we will probably get a special mac event soon!
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The news that some featured Monterey features will only work on Apple silicon almost guarantees a Mac event soon, doesn’t it? Hard to imagine Monterey would be released when it will only fully run on such a narrow selection of Macs.
 
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jk73 said:
The news that some featured Monterey features will only work on Apple silicon almost guarantees a Mac event soon, doesn’t it? Hard to imagine Monterey would be released when it will only fully run on such a narrow selection of Macs.
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Good point, that inspired me to look for the release date which is apparently "Fall 2021". Looks like we'll be seeing these machines around Sep-Nov unless they are released with an extra event or even no event.
Does that sound right?
 
AgentMcGeek said:
Looking at previous release patterns, we could get the following:
- July event, August / September shipping.
- October event, shipping shortly afterwards.

September will be watermarked for the iPhone event in any case.
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Wow, very little evidence for anything soon I suppose. One major thing was the April supply chain leak about the TSMC chips starting production which typically needs a 3 month lead time would = jul/aug readiness.
 
I guess these chips were on N5P, right?
If so, that's -10% power, +5% perf vs N5 from node only.

EDIT: From this MR story, it seems TSMC is shipping the enhanced version of N5 indeed.
 
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BenRacicot said:
Wow, very little evidence for anything soon I suppose. One major thing was the April supply chain leak about the TSMC chips starting production which typically needs a 3 month lead time would = jul/aug readiness.
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In terms of proof, we have the following:

1. The battery specs have already been filed with the Chinese regulatory database

2. TSMT has resolved some technical difficulties with its part in the mini-LED display production. Yields have increased to 95%.

3. Leaked schematics for the 14” from a partner manufacturing company. Leaked schematics for the new iMac match the new model exactly giving some credibility to the leaked MacBook Pro schematics.

4. Recent report from Apple suppliers that Apple plans to ship the MacBook Pro in Q3 which also matched Mark Gurmans claims of an early summer release.

5. Report of large scale production of M1X back in April. We got a similar report for the M1 back in September which turned up in the MacBook Air, 13” Pro and Mac Mini in November. If timing stays current, Apple should have enough M1X chips on hand for an initial launch supply as of this month.

Of course none of this is hard evidence but taking all of them into account points to these machines being very far into production and possibly nearly ready to ship out. As I said in another post, the battery specs being registered is a pretty big deal! Since the battery needs to be able to fit into the final casing and needs to be able to support all of the chips, fans, screen, etc. having the battery specs finalized means there’s a very good chance everything else has been finalized and sent to manufacturing partners. I HIGHLY doubt that anything this far along will just sit there until November…

There have been rumors of a July 20th event which is starting to sounds more and more likely. In fact for all the hype around WWDC, if we look back at all the rumors and leaks, it would seem that everything was pointing to July all along. We just discounted it since Apple doesn’t usually do a July event… but Apple has no obligation to always do things the same way.
 
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BenRacicot said:
Good point, that inspired me to look for the release date which is apparently "Fall 2021". Looks like we'll be seeing these machines around Sep-Nov unless they are released with an extra event or even no event.
Does that sound right?
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I had it in my head that Monterey’s “Fall” ETA meant September, but if it’s later than that, Apple could, indeed, wait until October to announce new MBPs. However, that would still leave relatively few AS machines in the hands of users by the time Monterey drops. Might just be wishful thinking, but seems like Apple would want to be shipping new AS Macs — especially its high-end MBP — for a couple months before dropping an OS release that needs AS to run many of the highlighted features (unless that restriction turns out to be fake news).
 
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jk73 said:
I had it in my head that Monterey’s “Fall” ETA meant September, but if it’s later than that, Apple could, indeed, wait until October to announce new MBPs. However, that would still leave relatively few AS machines in the hands of users by the time Monterey drops. Might just be wishful thinking, but seems like Apple would want to be shipping new AS Macs — especially its high-end MBP — for a couple months before dropping an OS release that needs AS to run many of the highlighted features (unless that restriction turns out to be fake news).
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Could be announcement in July, available to order July-August for shipping in September, alongside a September release of Monterey.
 
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baummer said:
Could be announcement in July, available to order July-August for shipping in September, alongside a September release of Monterey.
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I could see a July announcement for August shipments, but I can’t recall Apple staggering an announcement, preorders, and deliveries of a hardware update over a two-month period.
 
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jk73 said:
I could see a July announcement for August shipments, but I can’t recall Apple staggering an announcement, preorders, and deliveries of a hardware update over a two-month period.
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That’s fair. We’re in somewhat uncharted territory, so past releases aren’t necessarily a good measure of what they’re going to do in this specific instance. IIRC I think several years ago they released hardware a couple of months before an OS X release. Either way we’re all speculating until we hear more.
 
Prior to COVID, I didn’t use my 2015 MBP that much. But since I’ve been working from home since March ‘20, I use it heavily every day.

Today I noticed the battery had swelled. 😔 not sure how long it’s been like this, but I tried closing the lid (never do that) and it didn’t shut.

I was already planning on upgrading to the 14” MBP with reduced bezels in the fall. That’s still my hope/plan, assuming I can get it repaired. Got a trip to Apple store planned for tomorrow. If I’m forced to upgrade now, I’d really have to decide between the 13” MBP or Air.
 
Sukach said:
Prior to COVID, I didn’t use my 2015 MBP that much. But since I’ve been working from home since March ‘20, I use it heavily every day.

Today I noticed the battery had swelled. 😔 not sure how long it’s been like this, but I tried closing the lid (never do that) and it didn’t shut.

I was already planning on upgrading to the 14” MBP with reduced bezels in the fall. That’s still my hope/plan, assuming I can get it repaired. Got a trip to Apple store planned for tomorrow. If I’m forced to upgrade now, I’d really have to decide between the 13” MBP or Air.
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Coming from any 2015 machine, I'm sure you'll love it. If you can live with the 16GB you currently have, go for the 13" MBP. It's actively cooled and should run better when stressed.
 
14” 10 core CPU 14 core GPU 512GB SSD starting from ~$1799
14” 10 core CPU 16 core GPU 1TB SSD starting from ~$2099
16” 10 core CPU 28 core GPU 512GB SSD starting from ~$2399
16” 10 core CPU 32 core GPU 1TB SSD starting from ~$2799
Both 14” and 16” gets Mini-LED as standard
What are your thoughts about the pricing?
 
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jk73 said:
I had it in my head that Monterey’s “Fall” ETA meant September, but if it’s later than that, Apple could, indeed, wait until October to announce new MBPs. However, that would still leave relatively few AS machines in the hands of users by the time Monterey drops. Might just be wishful thinking, but seems like Apple would want to be shipping new AS Macs — especially its high-end MBP — for a couple months before dropping an OS release that needs AS to run many of the highlighted features (unless that restriction turns out to be fake news).
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Not sure the release of Monterey is a reliable indicator of MBP release. After all, the iPhone 13 has just been registered at the Eurasia files with iOS 14, not 15.
 
Appledoesnotlisten said:
So unlikely to have actual machines by September?
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No, I meant it’s unlikely there would be two months between announcement and shipments. Apple occasionally does that for a brand new product, but updates almost always start shipping within a few weeks of announcement, if not immediately.
 
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AgentMcGeek said:
Not sure the release of Monterey is a reliable indicator of MBP release. After all, the iPhone 13 has just been registered at the Eurasia files with iOS 14, not 15.
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Unless the reports here and elsewhere are wrong, a bunch of the new features in Monterey require Apple silicon. No chance Apple releases Monterey before 16-inch MBPs are capable of fully running it.
 
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