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Apple saw itself at the centre of plenty of controversy in 2016, whether it was because of tax rulings, the ‘courage’ to remove a headphone port, or the the port-lite, battery-draining and underpowered MacBook Pro. While most of those look set to carry on into for a good while, reports have emerged suggesting that 2017 will see a much more powerful MacBook Pro.
The main gripe that consumers had with the 2016 MacBook Pro (when it came to the insides at least) was that it wasn’t very Pro. A maximum of 16GB of RAM and aging processors meant that the device is pretty underpowered for any professional looking to use it for video, photo or audio editing.
According to a report by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is set to launch new variants of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro this year, with Intel’s latest Kaby Lake processors. He goes on to say that we will see a “significantly redesigned” 15-inch MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM later in the year.
It’s not only the Pros getting some love, as Kuo also says that Apple will update the base MacBook with Kaby Lake processors, and possibly the option for 16GB of Ram. That would see a significant boost to the device’s performance which currently maxes out at 8GB.
These new MacBooks could see production in the early second quarter of 2017, with the updated 13- and 15-inch Pros entering mass production in the early third quarter, and the 15-inch Pro with 32GB entering mass production in the early fourth quarter (that’s March, July and September respectively in case you were struggling to keep up).
Kuo also predicts that the 13-inch MacBook Pro (the one without that oh-so vita Touch Bar) will get cheaper this year in order to replace the MacBook Air which has been neglected by the company since March of 2015.
Bear in mind that these are all rumours and none of this has been confirmed by Apple. We shall see what the company has to offer in 2017.
