Apple has recently submitted some filings to the EEC, and one of them is for a portable
personal computer running macOS 10.15. And based on past experience, this could only
mean one thing, a MacBook. And it means that a new one is coming soon. But which MacBook?
We don’t know, but we do have a couple of ideas.
So in this video, we’re gonna talk about the MacBook model we think it’s most likely
to be and why, as well as a runner-up possibility that isn’t as likely, but would definitely
be an awesome addition to Apple’s MacBook lineup.
With the success of the 16” MacBook Pro, including the new Magic keyboard which most
people, including us, absolutely love, it would make sense for Apple to switch the rest
of their MacBook lineup over to using this keyboard.
The whole butterfly keyboard debacle was horrible for Apple. They went through multiple class-action
lawsuits and an expensive free repair program for MacBooks with butterfly keyboards.
Not only that, but the general consensus was that all MacBooks with butterfly keyboards
are flawed, and a LOT of people chose to go with Windows laptops because of it.
The only solution was to create a new keyboard, the Magic keyboard, and people are loving
it! And a lot of people who are wanting a smaller MacBooks are sitting and waiting for
a refresh with the new keyboard.
So with that, we personally believe that this mystery MacBook is either an update to the
13” MacBook Pro to include the Magic keyboard, or a full redesign that’ll bring the display
size up to 14” and include a bunch of other feature changes.
Either way, we’re most likely to see a switch to Intel’s 10nm processors, which should
give us a small boost in processing performance, but a pretty huge boost in graphics performance
with the new Iris Pro graphics.
This is going to be the biggest deal for the lower-end MacBook Pro, since graphics is the
biggest bottleneck on this machine.
As for processing, we don’t expect it to change much, other than the chance that we’ll
actually be able to upgrade to a 6-core processor on the high-end 13 or possibly 14” Model.
Now this would give us a big boost in processing power as well.
We can also expect upgrades to battery life, possibly a thicker body with better cooling,
better speakers, microphones, and more, just like we saw on the 16” MacBook Pro.
However, don’t get too excited.
We here are Max Tech are pretty sure that only the higher-end $1800 model is going to
be updated or refreshed with these new features, or at least at first.
Why would we think so? Well, because it’s happened before.
In 2018, Apple updated the 13” MacBook Pro with the touch-bar, a quad-core processor
and other features. But the lower-end $1300 model stayed exactly the same for another
year.
This gave people a lot of incentive to spend a few hundred dollars more for a newer and
more capable MacBook. But if Apple would’ve updated both of them at the same time, not
a lot of people would want to spend the extra cash on the higher-end model for a little
bit more performance or features.
And that’s why we think Apple will do the same thing again this year.
The only difference is that that current $1300 MacBook Pro is an excellent deal, it’s actually
the best bang for the buck model in terms of processor performance per dollar out of
any MacBook, including the 16” MacBook Pro.
And that’s because it was updated last year with a quad-core processor, which is enough
for most people, making it an excellent value even now in 2020, especially when it’s on
sale for $100 off like it is right now on Amazon, which we’ll link to down below.
So because it’s still a great value, it doesn’t really make sense for Apple to update
this lower-end model at the same time as the $1800 model.
This means that for those who aren’t planning on spending $1800 on the upcoming 13 or 14”
MacBook Pro replacement, it actually makes more sense to just buy the lower-end model
right now and enjoy it for the next few months instead of waiting.
But for those who have the cash ready, the upcoming MacBook Pro refresh is going to be
great, especially if it’s refreshed with a new 14” display.
Now let’s talk about the other possibility that this mystery MacBook might become.
There’s a chance that it could actually be the return of the 12” MacBook, with one
very important change, the switch to Apple’s ARM-based processors, basically a similar
processor to what comes in iPhones or iPads.
Apple discontinued the 12” MacBook last year because it didn’t really have a strong
place in the lineup, but if Apple were to switch to ARM processors, the 12” MacBook
would actually make the most sense.
Microsoft has recently tried this with their Surface Pro X, which packs an ARM processor.
However, their product has a high price is aimed at the Pro market, so people have high
expectations for it.
Unfortunately, the software is running a little bit behind, not being able to support all
of the native 64bit apps that many people expect to use on a pro device, like photoshop
and other apps.
It actually has to use an emulator to 64 bit apps, causing them to run very slowly compared
to what people are used to, and even then not all apps work so a lot of customers and
reviewers were not happy with the Surface Pro X.
This is actually the same thing Apple wants to do. They want to switch their Macs from
Intel chips over to their own ARM chips.
Even Intel is expecting Apple to switch to ARM chips this year in 2020.
And this isn’t something new. Last year at WWDC, Apple announced their Catalyst project,
and it has one main goal: creating a new and simple way to turn ipad apps into fully native
Mac apps.
They’re basically creating the software that could end up being used to not only make
iOS apps run on macOS, but also do the reverse, have Mac apps run on ARM processors.
But of course, this transition is going to be rough, and that’s why it makes the most
sense for the very first ARM-based MacBook to be a very low-end and cheap MacBook that
doesn’t really have high expectations performance wise but it would make for a super portable
machine with amazing battery life.
If Apple priced their first ARM-packing MacBook at around $1000, the bulk of the market will
be using it for common tasks like web-browsing, streaming video and using simple apps.
No one will be expecting it to have the fastest performance for a bunch of high-end apps,
so there will be less issues with it, and it’ll allow Apple to start working on the
software and getting it ready for the rest of their higher-end MacBook lineup.
Now I know it’s much more likely that this mystery MacBook is a refreshed 13 or 14”
MacBook Pro, but Apple is going to switch to ARM processors soon, so there’s always
that small chance that it’ll happen.
But whatever it ends up being, we’ll be here making videos on it, so if you’re not
already subscribed, go ahead and click that circle above to do so now, and check out one
of those two videos right over there. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next
video.