There is no suspense about the new Macbook Pro. You just need to save money to buy it.

More than 20 days ago, Apple’s press conference once again “dominated the screen”, but many people said that they did not wait for the MacBook Pro.

The current MacBook Pro still uses the Retina version design released in 2012. Although there are new models every year in the past four years, they are actually minor modifications to the internal configuration. The "not enough" situation often occurs, which makes people call for the emergence of a new MBP.

Ming-Chi Kuo, who is considered the "most accurate Apple analyst", also revealed at the end of May that Apple plans to launch a brand new MBP later this year. Although it has missed the launch event, we still have great hope that we will see it before 2017.

But you know what? You really don’t need to wait for the new MBP this time. All you need to do is save money and buy it.

MBP: The first choice for high-demand mobile office

Image from Twelvesouth

To understand the possible upgrades of MBP, we must first look at the user group of MBP itself. As a member of Apple's huge mobile product line, the user group of MBP was actually defined at the beginning of Apple's product layout.

For users who don't need a keyboard for efficient input, there's the iPad; for lightweight notebook users, there's the MacBook Air; for the most advanced users, there's the Mac Pro; many of the lightest applications have even been snatched away by the iPhone. In the end, the MBP only has one last position - users who have certain performance requirements, can work on the go, and have a certain level of battery life.

There are many imaging professionals in this group, such as the great directors of iFanr’s video group, who need to use MBP to process a large amount of video materials every day, and finally use software to synthesize the videos that everyone sees.

At this point, it is not difficult to find the three essential elements of MBP: high performance, portability, and long battery life.

What does the current MBP have? What does it need?

Image from Youtube

shell

Like the iPhone, the industrial design and thinking that Apple has adopted on the MacBook has greatly changed the entire industry. Unlike other traditional manufacturers who constantly launch new series of "molds" based on new hardware, Apple is very adventurous and keeps a set of molds in use for three or four years.

But this does not mean that Apple's molds are backward. On the contrary, Apple's molds have always been the target of plagiarism and comparison. After upgrading from the original plastic body to the overall CNC aluminum alloy body, there is actually not much potential for notebook molds to be explored.

This is also because there are basically only two routes for notebook shell materials at present: one is to use aluminum alloy, which has high strength, good heat dissipation, and good appearance while adding a certain amount of weight; the other is to use composite materials such as carbon fiber and glass fiber to reduce weight to the greatest extent while having sufficient protection performance.

Since MBA has adopted a more portable and lightweight solution, why would MBP give up the existing high-end aluminum alloy shell?

Screen

Image from Imore

This is actually the part that needs no explanation. Another name for the Retina screen used in Apple products is the "retina screen". The display effect has surpassed the ability of the human eye to recognize dot pitch. Under this ability, further upgrades will not only increase the power consumption of the screen, but also increase the pressure on configuration.

This will also be the component least likely to be improved on the new MBP.

CPU

Image via Forbes

"Moderate configuration" is another important feature of MBP. Except for the Retina screen which is indeed unique to the MacBook series, the rest of the configuration is actually not as good as the frequently updated Windows notebooks.

For example, the CPU, the MBP currently being sold on Apple's official website is actually still using Intel's 5th generation Core products, the four models are i5-5257U, i5-5287U, i7-5750HQ, i7-5850HQ. Intel has also made some "improvements" in the frequency and performance of the i5 model, and the power consumption has also soared from the common 15W in the same series to 28W.

Although Intel released the new KabyLake architecture in July this year, Broadwell has actually become a product of the "previous two generations". But this is not because Apple itself is "lacking ambition", but because of the "toothpaste squeezing" of its pig teammate Intel.

The latest 7th generation Core still uses the same 14nm process as the previous two generations, and the CPU microarchitecture has only a very limited improvement, which makes the CPUs currently used in MBP look up-to-date. Before Intel can really come up with a 10nm process, there is no hope for a big improvement in the CPUs in MBP.

According to the plan, the time when Intel's new products can be used will not be until the second quarter of 2017 at least.

GPU (Graphics Card)

Image from Semiconductorstore

MBP is not used for playing games, so why should we care about the graphics card? This question will definitely be asked by some people. But in fact, the role of GPU is no longer limited to games. Various image processing and data analysis can be achieved with the help of a large number of micro-processors in parallel inside the GPU, which completely surpasses the processing speed of pure CPU. This is also the biggest "weakness" of MBP at present. There are three models of MBP graphics cards:

• Intel Iris Graphics 6100
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics (6200)
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics + AMD Radeon R9 M370X

The first two Iris series products are actually a leap forward for Intel in "integrated graphics", and some of them can even match the performance of some desktop entry-level graphics cards (which are also weak). Then there is the more powerful M370X, which actually has a deep "origin" with AMD's HD 7750 released in 2012, and even uses the backward 28nm process.

Image from Youtube

Of course, there are also many rumors that Apple is likely to switch GPUs from AMD to NVIDIA in this generation of products. Judging from the current market share of consumer graphics cards, NVIDIA is indeed much ahead of AMD, but AMD has been cooperating with Apple for a long time and the cooperation is very deep. The Mac Pro "Trash Can" that breaks the ATX layout and is equipped with two customized AMD professional graphics cards is the best example.

Although the absolute performance lags behind, AMD's active cooperation strategy with Apple has greatly released the potential performance of GPUs, which is also true for the two major host platforms. The final result is that although AMD's GPU performance lags behind, it can show performance that exceeds that of ordinary desktop computers on Apple's own imaging software FinalCut Pro X.

Image via Creativebits

Deep optimization also has another subtext: targeting. Although both are GPUs, NVIDIA and AMD use different standards and systems in micro-architecture and general computing. If Apple really wants to turn to NVIDIA again, it will have to make major changes to its own software. From an economic perspective, this is not realistic.

In general, the fact that AMD's new 14nm process GPU can be used is the best news.

other

Image from Tuicool

Of course, there is more to an MBP than just a CPU and GPU, so what else should we expect?

Hard drive upgrade is probably what most people would think of. Currently, the MBP series products all use M.2 2280 (width x length: 22 x 80 mm) solid state drive products, and the maximum capacity that can be upgraded is 1TB. This is actually the maximum capacity that similar products can achieve. In other words: if Apple no longer sets up another hard drive interface, the hard drive capacity cannot be further upgraded.

Given that the size of M.2 is not large, adding an extra hard drive is not a big problem, and the MBP is likely to have a 2TB capacity by then. At the same time, the hard drive array can be used to obtain better performance.

As for the speed of the hard drive, although the M.2 interface is small in size, it actually utilizes the PCI-E channel directly connected to the CPU, which is not only fast but also has low latency. The performance of the previous generation of OEM products provided by Samsung is already very outstanding, and there is not much room for improvement.

In terms of memory, whether DDR4 will appear on the new MBP depends on whether the CPU is replaced. After all, the 6th and 7th generation Cores support DDR4-2133 memory specifications. As for how much performance can be improved, you just need to know that it is DDR4 (there will not be a significant performance improvement).

What everyone is most concerned about: keyboard & interface

Image via Cultofmac

keyboard

Surprisingly, the expectations for MBP on the Internet are focused on a relatively "exaggerated" point: whether touch function keys with LCD display will be used above the keyboard.

The news comes from a piece of news released by foreign media Appleinsider at the end of August: a user found a short text "Customize Function Row" in the MenuCommands.strings file of Apple's latest system, and the direct translation result is "Customize Toolbar".

Bloomberg's corresponding speculation is more specific: the new MacBook Pro will be equipped with an OLED touch bar above the keyboard, which can display virtual function keys, and can also have cool lighting and application support. But this is not a new concept.

As early as 2007, a keyboard called Optimus Maximus was released. While adopting the usual 104-key layout, it also put an OLED display in each keycap, so users can also define the pattern on the keycap through settings.

However, the hypothesis proposed by Bloomberg is more "advanced". The OLED does not correspond to each key cap, but occupies the toolbar row. With it comes a more flexible key layout, and even content such as displaying a volume bar in the function key touch area.

From a technical perspective, the basic technologies needed for the concept are currently available, from OLED screens to multi-touch. But how to control the "yield" in actual production? How to design to meet user habits? How to prevent users from "misoperation"? This series of questions still lies before Apple.

However, because Apple has a high level of control over its own systems and software, this is actually easier to do, and it is also less likely that "incompatibility" will occur.

interface

Image from PCworld

After Apple removed the 3.5mm audio jack on the iPhone 7 this year, many people have actually begun to worry that the same "phenomenon" will occur on the MacBook - the complicated interfaces will be replaced by Type-C in exchange for a bunch of adapter cables.

Objectively speaking, this will happen "more or less".

This is not because the MBP needs to consider the use of space like the iPhone. After all, the size of a few ports does not have a big impact on the battery capacity of a laptop. The key lies in Apple's own port strategy.

Compared to everyone, IEEE 1394 is a very iconic product. This interface standard launched by Apple in 1994 was in a fierce battle with USB at the time. Apple's plan was undoubtedly to achieve dominance and control over other hardware through its own interface patents.

But it is obvious that the free and universal USB interface has finally prevailed, and the emergence of USB Type-C is also another milestone in the development of USB interface. After all, an interface without foolproofing is the most humane. There is no doubt that Apple will introduce it on its own computers.

The second is the video interface. MiniDP should be the first choice. Compared with the previous HDMI interface, MiniDP and Apple's Thunderbolt actually share the same male and female connectors, but the definition of their own transmission pins is different. If MiniDP is used, it may mean that there will be an extra Thunderbolt.

Finally, there is the overall number of interfaces. As a tool, MBP must maintain its own efficiency. If Apple really reduces the number of interfaces for the sake of industrial design, it will not be the Apple we know.

Summary: No need to expect too much, just prepare money

Image from Wallpapersonthe

After the above analysis, it is not difficult to find that Apple MBP products have actually been at the forefront of the notebook industry. This is also the reason why this generation of MBP will not bring any "revolutionary" breakthroughs, but it will still use a series of the latest technologies in design and manufacturing.

In other words, MBP will be the same as iPhone7, nothing new, but still the best product of its kind, as long as you have money, you will still be tempted. Of course, if Apple can really bring us some "surprises" this time, it will be even better. As for the price, because the internal components of MBP are relatively complex and cannot be accurately predicted, we still have to look forward to the press conference.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.