Waiting for 2021 MBP

[DanMan619]

Report: 12.9-inch iPad Pro with mini LED in Q1 2021, followed by 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro - 9to5Mac

A pair of new reports from research firm TrendForce today offer additional details on Apple’s transition to Apple Silicon, as...

9to5mac.com

If the new report cited in this is accurate. We get 14" and 16" MBPs (and an iPad Pro) with Mini LED displays in early 2021. I assume those will be ARM. If this is correct, then it's almost certain their wouldn't be ARM 14"/16" ARM MBPs by end of this year. This obviously doesn't rule out Tiger Lake Intel MBPs in the fall/winter 2020 though. Kuo seems to think the first ARM Mac will be a 24" iMac. There's also rumor of the redesigned iMac that is Intel based (there was a benchmark of it that popped up recently) and could launch basically any seemingly any time now. It was initially rumored to be planned for a WWDC reveal. So this is what the timeline is looking like to me so far based on the rumor/leaks we have thus far.

Q3 2020/very soon: iMac redesign with Intel CPU.

End of 2020: ARM iMac. Maybe new/final Tiger Lake MBPs.

March Event 2021: 12.9" iPad Pro with Mini LED screen.

Unknown Quarter 2021: 14" MBP and 16" MBP. Both assumed to be ARM and both having Mini LED screens.

I also though could see a lot of this moving. I could see the possible Tiger Lake MBPs being early 2021 and the first ARM MBPs being end of 2021. I could see there not being any more Intel MBPs. I could see the iMac redesign being ARM and there not being a "final" Intel iMac this year. It really just depends on what Apple has in store and for how long, when they said they still have Intel Macs in the pipeline and how quickly they want to get those out the door and be done with them. The only thing that's certain is we get at least one (the first) ARM Mac sometime in the next 5 months.

 

[DHagan4755]

Does anyone here think that that 16-inch we’re gonna have later this year is the first ARM based one?

It's possible but I think it's more likely that the 13 inch MacBook Pro & the iMac get the ARM processors first.

 

[nikhsub1]

Tim did say there are still 'great' intel machines in the pipeline. I would be super happy with the current 16" with just the 10th gen CPU in it.

 

[Altherekho]

Is it already confirmed that Tiger Lake won't come to MBP?

??

 

[fokmik]

 

[garrel]

They better include an intel option at least at the beginning.

 

[Falhófnir]

They better include an intel option at least at the beginning.

The current 16 and 13 inch Intel machines will probably stay on sale alongside them for a while, they might even be updated one last time next year when Tiger Lake is available in volume, though I wouldn't count on that. Outside of that refurbs will probably be available even once Intel Macs aren't sold new any longer, so you'll have options for a while yet, just maybe not bleeding edge new ones.

 

[Merkava_4]

I would love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think Apple will back away from the Touch Bar.

Why are they so insistent on the Tough Bar if everybody hates it?

 

[DanMan619]

Why are they so insistent on the Tough Bar if everybody hates it?

Because not everyone hates it. Online forums like these aren't representative of the actual whole customer base.

 

[pcdtech]

Because not everyone hates it. Online forums like these aren't representative of the actual whole customer base.

It's true that not everyone hates it, but I'm sure more hate it than love it. I think Apple is so insistent on the Touch Bar because they believe it would be viewed as a sign of defeat if they remove it.

 

[SuperSonic80]

Because not everyone hates it. Online forums like these aren't representative of the actual whole customer base.

... but Apple made a decision for the "whole customer base" and people hate this rather than TB itself.

It's true that not everyone hates it, but I'm sure more hate it than love it. I think Apple is so insistent on the Touch Bar because they believe it would be viewed as a sign of defeat if they remove it.

Probably, Apple could offer models with and without TB and let customers make their own choice instead of leaving them with no choice.

Personally, I hate TB.
I would happily pay extra money to get non-TB model, because I'm losing more money using TB (it does not speed up my workflow but slow it down because of "misfire").

 

[pcdtech]

Probably, Apple could offer models with and without TB and let customers make their own choice instead of leaving them with no choice.

Personally, I hate TB.
I would happily pay extra money to get non-TB model, because I'm losing more money using TB (it does not speed up my workflow but slow it down because of "misfire").
[/QUOTE]
Apple doesn’t often let you customize user-facing hardware features on a single product. I’d love to be proven wrong because I, too, would opt for a non-touch bar MBP if given the chance, but I highly doubt the specification option will come. There was a reason why they created the touch bar, and Apple likely has a certain end game that they have in mind. Sadly, I don’t see them pulling it from their existing products.

 

[MacTalkToMeWlFgThOut]

Uh yeah, no. I am not a fan of the touch bar to start with. A bigger one would firm up my current drift towards figuring I could get by with a MacBook Air anyway.

(so let them bring it... I'll be sad to let my streak of MBPs come to an end but maybe it's time)

What don't you like about touch bar?

 

[LizKat]

What don't you like about touch bar?

The touchbar is essentially an extension of the idea of a virtual keyboard.

Now I was delighted by the whole idea of the iPhone's virtual keyboad when that device launched. I got it immediately: you can program that sheet of glass to be whatever you want it to be when you press on it. A keyboard, a panel of buttons, it can turn your finger into a pencil or paintbrush. A magic wand... and it certainly put paid to the keypad limitations that cellphones had adopted from landline phones.

But the touchbar on a laptop appeared around the time I had started to think that the OS side of Mac apps was starting to get dumbed down (poor choice of words, perhaps, although apt in some cases like Music) just to make OS feel more like iOS. It felt like a tradeoff: loss of features on the OS side in order to make development and maintenance simpler. Easier porting. More press-of-a-virtual-button in apps and less expansive use of the larger real estate of a Mac's display.

So in my mind the dumbing down of some of the OS apps, notably iTunes before it was butchered into a bunch of so far less capable apps, and the appearance of a programmable stretch of keyboard in the MAc Book Pro became associated. Just a personal thing, but it was a dealbreaker for me along with port changes on the laptops, and I hung onto my mid-2012 MBP for a long time.

Meanwhile... Anyone remember the days when you could have multiple playlists open at once for editing, or when the press of a "shuffle" button at bottom of the side panel included a visual reordering of the content right in the main iTunes window? No? Right... and Apple's so glad we've forgotten or never knew those times. It's like they hope we'll soon forget that we used to be able to resize columns in the Mail viewer window...

Anyway I went for the 2020 MBA. Dongles and need for an external optical drive aside, it's my dream machine, even if several of Catalina apps are not my cup of tea. I await Big Sur and beyond, hoping that Apple will restore some capabilities to the Music app that it took away from iTunes even before the disassembly at the launch of Catalina.

To me, the touchbar on the MBP to me remains a sort of symbolic Trojan horse bearing iOS gifts to the MacOS. I hope I'm wrong. The appearance of a more robust keyboard for the iPad doesn't allay my concerns along those lines. It's not really about the keyboard any more than it's about that touchbar. It's about the operating system and the apps.

 

[Madhatter32]

What don't you like about touch bar?

The biggest problem with the touch bar is that it requires you to look at it to operate it. It is not the best solution for a touch typist who needs to feel the keys. I think that removing a part of the keyboard to add a touch bar was a poor stop gap for Apple's reluctance to provide an actual touch screen interface. It would have been better if they added it above a full function key row in my opinion. But, I think most people would rather pay less for the laptop than pay more for this technology. That is probably why Apple never offered it as an option.

 

[MacTalkToMeWlFgThOut]

The biggest problem with the touch bar is that it requires you to look at it to operate it. It is not the best solution for a touch typist who needs to feel the keys. I think that removing a part of the keyboard to add a touch bar was a poor stop gap for Apple's reluctance to provide an actual touch screen interface. It would have been better if they added it above a full function key row in my opinion. But, I think most people would rather pay less for the laptop than pay more for this technology. That is probably why Apple never offered it as an option.

Thank you fpr the write back. I'd like to get a MBP in the next year, not sure the 2021 16 MBP will loose the touch bar.

 

[DanMan619]

It's true that not everyone hates it, but I'm sure more hate it than love it. I think Apple is so insistent on the Touch Bar because they believe it would be viewed as a sign of defeat if they remove it.

I think you're overestimating how many people hate the touch bar. I see this on literally every tech forum i'm on. People think because most people on the tech forum for enthusiasts hate/love a certain feature, that the general public feels the same way and it's almost never the case. I'm not saying everyone loves it either, i'm just mainly saying the assumption that it's this widely agreed upon hated feature (like the Butterfly Keyboard is because it's actually outright broken) is an echo-chamber effect and not because everyone actually feels that way. If anything, i'd bet more people feel completely neutral on it rather than actively dislike.

 

[MacTalkToMeWlFgThOut]

Thanks so much for the good feedback on this matter. I'm hoping that in 2021 there will be a big change. I'm learning and getting more comfortable with this Microsoft Surface Pro 4, I really really miss the MBP as my messages, photos work so much smoother, you know how great that stuff works on a Mac. Thanks again!

 

[pttai]

I still have the feeling that the next 16-inch MBP is going to be an ARM one. This is where they can show off how strong the new chip is, not in the 13-inch MBP.

 

[MacTalkToMeWlFgThOut]

Thanks. Will have to wait and see. I’ll want to do something, get something of a MBP 16 inch, by then. Not sharing pictures I take with my I phone is a pain.

 

[pcdtech]

I think you're overestimating how many people hate the touch bar. I see this on literally every tech forum i'm on. People think because most people on the tech forum for enthusiasts hate/love a certain feature, that the general public feels the same way and it's almost never the case. I'm not saying everyone loves it either, i'm just mainly saying the assumption that it's this widely agreed upon hated feature (like the Butterfly Keyboard is because it's actually outright broken) is an echo-chamber effect and not because everyone actually feels that way. If anything, i'd bet more people feel completely neutral on it rather than actively dislike.

I didn’t say that it’s a widely agreed upon hated feature. I said I’m sure that more people hate it than those who love it. I didn’t say that more people hate it than those who are indifferent to it, which I’m sure is the majority of people. But I would be willing to bet that among those who hate it and those who love it, the hate group is larger in number.

 

[Broko Fankone]

I didn’t say that it’s a widely agreed upon hated feature. I said I’m sure that more people hate it than those who love it. I didn’t say that more people hate it than those who are indifferent to it, which I’m sure is the majority of people. But I would be willing to bet that among those who hate it and those who love it, the hate group is larger in number.

Source? I kinda get the sense that you base these statistics on... a personal feeling, rather than any kind of factual information. A vocal minority =/= most.

 

[pcdtech]

Source? I kinda get the sense that you base these statistics on... a personal feeling, rather than any kind of factual information. A vocal minority =/= most.

Ok, bucko.

 

[MacTalkToMeWlFgThOut]

Ok, bucko.

Thanks. I’ll check this issue out when is like to buy, maybe not that bad after all.

 

[Rashy]

This is what I did, very good advice from you. Bought the 2.5/512/M370 model for 1200€ in December. It sounds a lot for an "older" device, but the month before, the display had been replaced because of Staingate, same for the battery/topcase/keyboard/trackpad thanks to the mentioned recall programm. Leaving the logicboard aside, it (still) seems like a factory-fresh machine, which is looking and working beautifully and according to most benachmarks, actually isn't even really slower than the 2016 / 2017 models, while maintaining the useful ports and reliability. I wouldn't torture it with extensive 4K-editing, but FHD is absolutely fine, same for Photoshop, Serato DJ, Blender 3D and causal gaming on 1440x900 in medium/high details. With TurboBoostDisabler and GfxCardStatus, you can keep this unit really silent, as long you don't hook up an external display.

I can't recommend any succesor, leaving the current 13" / 16" models aside (and they still lack Magsafe, HDMI, SD-Slot, optical out; while enforcing Crapalina and the T2 chip), and they are still extensive.

My honest advice on this one: If you're only buying this thing to last you comfortably through the ARM transition, look for a 2015 MacBook Pro on eBay. If it's the 13", then you've got Broadwell, fast RAM, fast and removable SSDs. If it's the 15", then you've got decent AMD graphics, a super-fast SSD, and if it's eligible for that battery recall, then you just send it to Apple for a day or two and it'll come back to you with a brand new keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and battery for free! Your rate of devaluation won't change, you'll just be spending less money to tide you over as, specs-wise, both of those Macs are plenty good even still. Hell, you may even want to keep it for backwards compatibility seeing as, ports-wise, it's a very different machine.