Rumors of a MacBook Pro refresh have been pouring in at a dizzying pace over the past few days, and all signs are pointing towards a launch this upcoming Thursday, which, don't ya know, coincides with Steve Jobs' 56th birthday.
Rumors of a MacBook Pro refresh have been pouring in at a dizzying pace over the past few days, and all signs are pointing towards a launch this upcoming Thursday, which, don’t ya know, coincides with Steve Jobs’ 56th birthday.
Over the weekend, copped photos from Best Buy’s inventory system showed the addition of 5 new MacBook Pro SKUs at 5 pricepoints – $1,199, $1,499, $1,799, $2,199, $2,499. Breaking down the price by configuration, users can likely expect two 13-inch Pro models to occupy the low end of the price spectrum while two 15-inch configurations are likely to take up the $1,799 and $2,199 pricepoints. The monster $2,499 sticker price will naturally be reserved for the 17-inch model.
But enough about pricing, onto the meat and potatoes.
The upcoming MacBook Pro refresh is poised to be a lot more exciting than your typical under-the-hood enhancements. Rumor has it that the upcoming MacBook Pro lineup will sport an all-new redesign influenced by the recently revamped MacBook Air, meaning that Apple may disregard optical drives on the Pro lineup altogether.
There are also rumors that Apple’s forthcoming MacBook Pros will sport solid state drives. Indeed, Boy Genius Report relayed a rumor on Monday evening (from a trusted Apple source) indicating as much.
The next bit of information doesn’t quite make sense to us, but we have been told the OS on the laptops will be loaded to a separate (internal) 8-16GB SSD while everything else will remain on the regular hard drive. There will be options for just SSD drives but the base models will feature regular hard disks with the SSD combo for the OS.
Intriguing, and I guess we’ll be finding out what tricks Apple has up its sleeve in just a few days.
Apple is also rumored to have lowered the weight of the new MacBook Pro models by one half-pound while also increasing the size of the already generously portioned out trackpad.
Lastly, a report from this weekend hints that Apple may also implement Intel’s blazingly fast Light Peak transfer technology, albeit under a different name, into its next generation of MacBook Pros. If these Light Peak rumors come to fruition, geeks will have all sorts of reasons to celebrate, and here’s why.
Light Peak can transfer data at 10 Gbps both up and down. And in the interest of getting conspiratorial, it’s interesting to note that Intel has been dragging its feet somewhat in its support for USB 3. Maybe, just maybe, Intel wants to get its own transfer technology off the ground before devoting resources to USB support.
In any event, if you’re in the market for a new MacBook Pro, you’d be well-advised to hold off for just another few days. If any of the above rumors carry any weight, you’ll be getting a lot more bang for your buck.
