Apple’s Hidden Hints Reveal New MacBook Pro Details

Consumer Tech Apple’s Hidden Hints Reveal New MacBook Pro Details Ewan Spence Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Storyteller exploring digital worlds, mobile, music and podcasting Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 10, 2022, 01:05pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Apple’s first launch event of its traditional end-of-year double-header saw the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro take the stage .

But the event also laid out the direction regarding hardware and consumer sales. Tim Cook is taking his team. What can we learn from Apple’s recent events and the decisions behind the iPhone 14 family? How will this impact processor choice? What will it do to the price? And why is Apple offering so many options to so many consumers? Flat Lay of different apple products on a dark grey background.

getty First up is what will power the new MacBooks? The simple answer is Apple Silicon, but there’s no easy progression being employed by Apple. The summer 2022 launch of the MacBook Air saw Tim Cook and his team introduce the M2 chipset, which offered around 20 per cent performance improvement depending on the benchmarking tool. But the M1 MacBook Air remained in Apple’s portfolio.

It stayed at Apple’s beloved $999 entry point to the MacBook, which allowed Apple to increase the price of the new M2 MacBook Air to $1299. . .

which is a nice piece of monetary misdirection. We’ve seen a similar trick with the new iPhone 14 compared to the iPhone 14 Pro, as the more expensive Pro handset picks up the new A16 chipset while the cheaper handsets stick with last year’s A15. MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event Apple is expected to launch the new higher-tier 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in October, and these are like to sport an updated M2 – likely the M2 Pro and the M2 Max.

Don’t expect the M1 Pro and M1 Max models to disappear. . .

and if that’s the case, expect the new M2 14- and 16- MacBook Pros to have a premium on the current price. Then there’s the design. Apple introduced a new design language with the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models; this offered a more angular design, a screen with smaller bezels (as well as Apple’s signature awkward notch), and the return of the MagSafe power connector and more I/O ports.

That new design carried over to the M2 MacBook Air, albeit without some of the newer screen technology. Should we expect a new design in the upcoming MacBook Pro? Not on the outside. The logic board will likely need to accommodate the new chip and allow for the best cooling solution possible, but it’s unlikely that consumers are going to have anything physical to tempt them.

. . beyond perhaps a new color tint.

Finally, there are the almost artificial steps that Apple is engineering into its products. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are on older chips, with weaker cameras and fewer connectivity options, especially over 5G, when you put them next to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The M2 MacBook Pro is essentially an M2 MacBook Air but with a fan.

That same consumer-focused 13-inch MacBook Pro ships with an older design, slower chipset, and fewer ‘whizz-bang’ options on the spec sheet when compared to the larger MacBook Pro models. You can also see a similar pattern in the M1 MacBook Air and M2 MacBook Air comparisons. Apple is working hard to create differences in its portfolios.

It can offer price flexibility by creating more models, over many iterations of hardware going back over a few years. But that also loses something that once felt very important to Apple: no matter what you bought, you were getting the latest technology that was focused on giving you the best tools for the job. Apple didn’t follow the likes of Dell or HP and flood the market with a different laptop at every $100 step up in price.

Apple hardware had a price premium, but it was an easy pitch to understand. That was then. Brussels, Belgium, 12th july 2022: Entrance of the apple store in Brussels, Apple logo on the window getty What does that give us? Two new larger MacBook Pro laptops priced a few hundred dollars higher than the current laptops, which will stay in the portfolio; no changes to the external design or any additional hardware features; a complicated matrix of specifications and capabilities that feels more about Apple’s bottom line than making it easier for consumers.

And perhaps a new color. Tim Cook’s Apple, one of the world’s richest companies, knows what it wants to be in 2022, and is happy to demonstrate that through its product line. It’s less “Think Different” and more “Think About Everything Everywhere All At Once.

” Now read the latest MacBook, iPhone, and Apple Watch headlines in this week’s Apple Loop news digest. . .

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