I would hope all & any new Apple Silicon Mac products would have a redesigned chassis. After all, switching to a totally different bunch of chips deserves a 'fresh start'...
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Will Apple change the Macbook's form factor / design for ARM laptops and add touchscreen support?
- Thread starter hungryghosty
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That was my feeling. The switch to ARM represents the perfect once in generation opportunity for Apple to introduce new features to the device and fundamentally change the form factor.
I'd struggle to believe Apple will do nothing with this opportunity other than simply shoehorning a new CPU architecture into the same chassis.
But you think they've achieved parity with AMD/Intel CPU's? At that level? I guess they're confident about it since they announced it. But still, seems lofty?
Benchmarks aren't everything, but try to find me an x86 processor showing better single core performance than the A13 in the 15W range. Likewise, try to find an integrated GPU with better scores than the A13 in the ~15W range. The A13 is only ~6W. The A14 will bring substantial improvements. And there is a lot you can do as you move it into a 10W, 28W, or 45W space.
CPU-side, the three obvious moves for bringing the A14 from a phone to a laptop are: double the perf cores from 2 to 4, increase cache sizes, and increase the power to the CPU cores until they reach at least 3GHz. Everything after that is diminishing returns, but you can still get decent bang from moving to 8 cores or pushing more watts at the CPU.
GPU-side, the ceiling is much higher. Just add more cores. More cores more better.
Apple can also break out LPDDR5 before its rivals, or even HBM2, which will boost performance substantially. I'm just scratching the surface here, but there's a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Well, if anyone knows it it's Apple. They're the only ones with access to both their own processor roadmaps and Intel's processor roadmaps. And I highly doubt they'd release processors that are worse performing than their Intel counterparts.
There's also benefits from the ASICs that are included in Apple's processors, such as the neural engine.
I am hoping for a redesigned chasis. They need to freshen the product even though its current form factor is very good. Personally, if a touchscreen means elimination of the touch bar, I would be in favor of that change. One should never be forced to look down at the keyboard. I doubt I would ever use the touchscreen but I still prefer it to being forced to use the touch bar.
Yeah, I could see control center replacing the touch bar on the new mac, especially if it has a touchscreen that lets you swipe down from the top right corner. This is a fairly accessible maneuver.
Not sure what happens to the Function keys though, or where TouchID goes. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if they just brought the fn keys back and replaced TouchID with FaceID.
If Apple does add support for touchscreens it is going to be an optional form of input. There are 100's of millions of non-touch screen Macs already out in the world. I can see the value for iOS/iPhone/iPad OS apps but otherwise it seems very niche. I can't see, for example, a ASi Mac mini requiring a new monitor with a touch screen to use macOS software effectively.
Yeah, I can also see touchscreens as an optional $400 upgrade instead of a form factor change accommodating touch. The thing is, just adding touch without making any change to the hinge is a pretty big waste. You can't use your Apple pencil to draw in Photoshop unless you can get the screen on a flat, stable surface.
I agree. That's what makes me wonder if the new MacBook will feature a rotating hinge like some Windows laptops so it can be used like a tablet/iPad when required?
Or maybe a surface book style detachable screen?
I kind of like the idea of it being more like the iPad Pro is when attached to the magic keyboard.
So like that but the base is bigger and screen slimmer since the base contains the working parts. And you can bring down the screen so it touches the lower lip of the base but is still angled up slightly, making a great drawing surface almost like a drafting table. Great looking, has the added advantage of making the display more flexible even when you're not using touch, and uniquely Apple.
You could also put the APU behind the screen and let it disconnect, like a Surface Book. I laid out how they could do that in hideous detail in this thread.
I observed the same behaviour at my workplace...and they were product designers!
As an illustrator though, I enjoyed my time with the Surface Book. The issue I had was with the Pen, which is just not as responsive as the Wacom pens or the Apple Pencil.
However if there was a MacBook/iPad hybrid with a similar design as the Surface Book, I would go for it.
But I represent a niche within a niche. My guess is that Apple won’t add touch screen/Pencil support to the Mac.
I guess the transition to Apple chips will be invisible to most users. They will use iOS apps on their new Macs as an added bonus, using the trackpad.
Meanwhile, Apple will continue to add more advanced features to iPadOS.
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