MacBook Pro 2018 release date, price, features, specs
The MacBook Pro line was last updated on 7 June 2017 at WWDC 2017. Apple’s Pro laptops gained faster Kaby Lake processors just eight months after the launch of the Touch Bar MacBook Pro in October 2016. Read on to find out why not everyone was happy with the update – and the new features users are hoping for in 2018.
In November 2017 Apple’s head of design Jony Ive admitted to being aware of the disappointment and criticism regarding the MacBook models.
Speaking at Smithsonian Magazine’s Future of Design event in Washington DC in December, (listen to the recording here), Ive said: “Absolutely, all of your feelings and feedback around the MacBook you use, we couldn’t want to listen to more… And we hear – boy, do we hear.”
So, with that revelation in mind, it seems likely that Apple will be focused on fixing the criticisms of the MacBook Pro range in 2018.
Read on to find out what might be in store for the MacBook Pro in 2018 – including the possibility of 6-cores in the 15in models.
You can read more about the current MacBook Pros here – 2017 13in MacBook Pro review and 2017 15in MacBook Pro review. We also have a comparison of the two models and a comprehensive Mac buying guide. In this article, which will be regularly updated, we examine some of the rumours about the 2018 MacBook Pro.
2018 MacBook Pro: Release date
We think it’s likely that Apple will update the MacBook Pro in June 2018, to coincide with WWDC. We may see new MacBook Pro models during the WWDC keynote. Read all about the next Apple event here.
However, we may not see a major update in 2018 – despite Apple head of design Jony Ive stating that he was aware of complaints about the models (as referrenced above).
Possible evidence that Apple has no exciting plans for the MacBook in 2018 comes from Digitimes sources, who claim that Apple is moving more of their MacBook manufacturing to Foxconn because they want that company to take on mass production of the current models.
“Since Apple has not had a major upgrade to its MacBook product line since the releases of its new MacBook Pro devices at the end of 2016 and has no plan for one in 2018, the US-based vendor is planning to shift orders for models that are already in mass production to Foxconn to save costs and reduce risks,” claims the report.
2018 MacBook Pro: Design
Looks-wise we’d be very surprised if Apple made any significant departures from the new look unveiled in 2016. However, it’s possible Apple may tinker with the colour options.
The MacBook Pro series currently comes in two colour finishes: silver and Space Grey, while the MacBook series is available in Gold and Rose Gold as well. Is the MacBook Pro ever likely to adopt the gold colour?
It’s a possibility. But our prediction is that Apple will continue to offer gold as an option on its consumer-focused laptops, while keeping the more business-like silver and space-grey for the professional machines.
2018 MacBook Pro: 4K Screen
The current MacBook Pro models have impressive screens: 2880 x 1800 on the 15.4in model, and 2560×1600 on the 13.3in one.
However, there are calls for Apple to increase the pixel count on the 15in MacBook Pro and offer a 4K display – something that Dell, HP, and Asus are already offering. Apple is lagging in this area.
In addition, while the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro can output the full DCI P3 colour space used for films for digital cinema output, as our colleague on Digital Arts notes in his review: “It’s the Adobe RGB colour space that really matters as this is what’s used internally by tools from Photoshop to Illustrator to Premiere Pro – and again here the MBP is lacking. In our tests with a DataColor Spyder5Elite colorimeter, we found that the MacBook Pro’s screen can output 91 percent of the colours in the Adobe RGB.”
In their tests Dell’s Precision 5510 and the Wacom MobileStudio Pro could output 91 percent of the colours in the Adobe RGB. In the next version of the MacBook Pro we’d like to see an improvement here.
Another desirable addition to the screen would be touchscreen capabilities, something much of the competition also shares. While Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs said that he felt that touch screens were a bad idea (because they would make your arm ache) there is some value in being able to touch a screen rather than use a mouse or track pad when you are in cramped conditions, such as those in which our colleague on Digital Arts wrote his review.
Apple may have a solution to the touch screen wishes in mind. Apparently the company is looking at hooking an iPad Pro up to a Mac to use it as a Cintiq-like device, according to OSnews.
2018 MacBook Pro: Processor
It seems likely that the next geneartion of MacBook Pro will run on Intel’s Coffee Lake processor, which means that the 13in MacBook Pro could finally move from dual-core to quad-core.
Currently only the 15in MacBook Pro is available with a quad-core processor.
In addition, the new Core i9 processor from Intel could bring 6-core (in 12-thread configurations) to the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Coffee Lake will apparently delivered more than a 30 percent performance boost over the current Kaby Lake processors.
Coffee Lake should also offer performance improvements and a reduction in power consumption (so the new models should offer better battery life).
The new processors also include support for LPDDR4 memory, a factor that could make a 32GB RAM possible in a MacBook Pro (read more about the calls for 32GB RAM below).
In the future, Apple could move away from Intel chips and look at what’s on offer from other companies. We think such a transition is unlikely however, given the fact that Apple had to rewrite the operating system to prepare for the Intel switch in 2006. Perhaps more likely is the idea that Apple will design its own chips (although we think all rumours about this pointed to the processor that powers the Touch Bar in the 2016 MacBook Pro.)
An Apple-designed processor
There were hopes in 2017 that a new Apple-designed chip would replace Apple’s T1 chip (that powered the Touch Bar and Touch ID in the 2016 model) and offer an improved low-power performance mode. However, the T1 chip remained.
This was despite a report from Bloomberg, which predicted in February 2017 that the new MacBook Pro would feature an Apple-designed chip to handle simple tasks such as email and updates while the laptop is asleep, citing “people familiar with the matter”.
“The chip, which went into development [in 2016], is similar to one already used in the latest MacBook Pro to power the keyboard’s Touch Bar feature,” Gurman writes. “The updated part, internally codenamed T310, would handle some of the computer’s low-power mode functionality.”
By building a dedicated low-power processor, Apple could reduce battery consumption.
It seems likely that a new MacBook Pro scheduled to be introduced at WWDC could feature this new, Apple-designed chip to manage and improve the computer’s low-power performance mode.
According to a subsequent Bloomberg report in January 2018 Apple is indeed developing more of its own coprocessors – like the T2 chip in the iMac Pro and the T1 chip in the MacBook Pro. That report claims the new chips will be used in a desktop Mac as well as an updated Mac laptop, although it doesn’t specify which laptop.
2018 MacBook Pro: RAM
As we said above, there is expectation that the next generation of MacBook Pro will offer 32GB RAM at the high-end.
Currently, all the 13in models offer 8GB RAM (although there is a build-to-order option for 16GB RAM). The 15in models ship with 16GB RAM as standard.
There have been calls for Apple to offer up to 32GB RAM in the MacBook Pro for some time. Pro customers, such as video editors, were so disillusioned with the 2016 update to the MacBook Pro that in November 2016 Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller spoke out in defence of Apple’s decision not to offer more RAM, saying that this would be detrimental to battery life and require a power-hungry memory controller unsuitable for use in portable machines.
In an email to MacDaddy’s Benedict Slaney, Schiller said: “To support 32GB of memory would require using DDR memory that is not low power and also require a different design of the logic board, which might reduce space for batteries. Both factors would reduce battery life.”
The problem lies with the CPUs. These processors support up to 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM at 2133MHz. There are processors capable of addressing more than 16GB of memory, but these rely on less efficient DDR4 RAM and are usually deployed in desktops because they can be plugged into mains power. Understandably Apple does not wish to hinder the battery life of its laptops in this way.
The calls for a 32GB RAM version of the MacBook Pro have grown loud enough for Apple to make a statement regarding it, but this doesn’t mean that a RAM update is imminent. Even the Kaby Lake processor upgrade for the MacBook Pro could not break the RAM cap of 16GB because the Kaby Lake processor doesn’t support LPDDR4 RAM and Apple is not expected to engineer a new RAM controller that does any time soon.
An Intel processor capable of supporting LPDDR4 RAM isn’t expected before 2018.
However, Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicted that Apple will start to manufacture a 15in MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM in the fourth quarter of 2017, and he thinks Apple will adopt desktop RAM in order to do so. So perhaps a new MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM could be announced in early 2018.
In the meantime, Dell’s Precision 5520 laptop is directly comparable to the MacBook Pro and has a 32GB RAM build-to-order configuration.
2018 MacBook Pro: Battery
With Apple pointing to battery life as the reason it won’t offer more RAM in the MacBook Pro you might be wondering whether there is room for improvements to battery life in the next model, or if battery life could (or should) suffer if Apple is to offer a truly pro-level machine.
The new Cannon Lake chips mentioned above could account for some reduction in power consumption.
2018 MacBook Pro: Graphics
The MacBook Pro graphics differ depending on whether you have a 13- or 15in MacBook Pro. The 15in models currently offer the Radeon Pro 555 or 560 (replacing the Radeon Pro 455). We expect a similar bump from the 2018 generation of MacBook Pro.
2018 MacBook Pro: Touch Bar
Will all the MacBook Pro models offer a Touch Bar in 2018? If Apple fails to roll out the touch sensitive bar across the top of the keyboard to any other Macs, we feel it will be an indicator that the Touch Bar isn’t a popular feature.
We feel that the Touch Bar is a bit of a gimmic, and the fact that Apple hasn’t rolled it out to any other Macs to date means that developers aren’t updating their apps to support it.
2018 MacBook Pro: Keyboard
There have been reports of the keyboard on the MacBooks being easily broken. One report explained how a tiny spec of dust could render a keyboard useless so that the whole front of the MacBook needed to be replaced. Hopefully Apple will address this issue in the next MacBook Pro.
2018 MacBook Pro: Ports
When Apple launched the new MacBook Pro many of the familiar ports disappeared replaced by USB-C/Thunderbolt 3. The headphone jack remained despite being lost from the iPhone. Will it remain in the next version of the MacBook Pro? Possibly, although Apple could choose to swap it for Lightning or another USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 port in the future.
Another possibility is that if Apple is able to reduce the size of the circuit board inside the MacBook Pro it could add more ports. Apple may be looking to integrate faster and more versatile circuit boards into the MacBook design – according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, this could save a lot of internal space, making it possible for Apple to add USB 3.2 and other I/O connections to its MacBooks.