Just bought a new MBP

[jpeyton]

It's Apple... no matter what I get, there will be a refresh in a few months.

There's a difference between a "refresh" and a "revamp".

Refreshes are usually chipset/CPU/GPU updates. Apple has been doing that at least once/year for a while now.

Apple hasn't revamped the MBP since they moved to the unibody style in 2008. But all signs are pointing to another major revamp this year, with MacBook-Air-like 15/17 inch models coming out. Imagine the svelte-ness of a MacBook Air 13 slightly expanded, with Ivy Bridge and SSDs standard.

Hell, Samsung already has their 15-inch ultrabook out: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/29/2911827/samsung-series-9-review-15-inch-2012

Apple releasing one is a no-brainer.

 

[TheStu]

The real question will be whether Apple will keep the thickness around just so that they have mobile systems with dedicated GPUs. I don't think that the MacBook Pro 13 is long for this world, the MBA 13 basically nullifies it, the same way that the 11" Air took out the MacBook. And I definitely think that they will make a 15" Air. But I think that the 15" Air will be the new $1800 system (or maybe less, so long as we are speculating), and the $2000 Pro will remain as the full bore system with faster CPUs, dedicated GPUs, more ports, optical, all that jazz.

Of course, they will have to bump the 15" to the 1680*1050 res across the board, if not 1920*1200. But then what do they put into the 17"?

 

[Eug]

I still have hope for the MBP 13" for two reasons:

A different screen resolution, vs. the much too high pixel density of the MBA for my tastes.
Ports.

The main reason I haven't gone Air yet is because their screen rezzes are too high for prolonged usage with my old eyes, with current non-resolution-independent OSes.

I have no interest in a 15" MacBook Pro. If Apple updates the Pro line by eliminating the 13" Pro, I'll just stick with my current SSE-endowed 13" Pro for the foreseeable future. Actually, I may just do that anyway, depending upon what Apple releases.

However, one way around it would be to release a 13" Pro with a resolution of 2560x1600. That'd be perfect for me, as I'd run it as equivalent to 1280x800, but would still get the benefit of the higher pixel density.

 

[jpeyton]

and the $2000 Pro will remain as the full bore system with faster CPUs, dedicated GPUs, more ports, optical, all that jazz.

Doubt it. Apple has enjoyed taking a huge dump on the pro market that kept them alive during the 90s before the iPod (and other iDevices) became their cash cow.

Their devices are elegant, but they'll go form over function 99 times out of a 100. I don't see them making any notebooks thicker than 3/4" a year from now.

 

[TheStu]

Doubt it. Apple has enjoyed taking a huge dump on the pro market that kept them alive during the 90s before the iPod (and other iDevices) became their cash cow.

Their devices are elegant, but they'll go form over function 99 times out of a 100. I don't see them making any notebooks thicker than 3/4" a year from now.

How so? Can you cite specific examples? I know that when they made the intel switch for example, they pulled FW800 and technically dropped the resolution*. And when they released the 13" Aluminum MacBook, they removed FW there as well, but put it right back in for the 13" Pro. I would argue that they don't necessary favor form over function above all else, but they do seem to prefer form over function. At least in the sense that the form dictates how much function they can cram in. If you want the absolute top of the line everything, with 4 HDD bays**, desktop quad cores and SLI GPUs, then the system is going to be 2" thick and they don't do that.


*They switched aspect ratios and panel size to be more in line with the rest of the industry. Where before they had a 15.2" 1440*952 (IIRC) display, they went to a 15.4" 1440*900 display. They were one of the first to roll out widescreen, so when they did, nothing was really set in stone in terms of panel sizes, but when the MBP line was introduced, and they deprecated the PowerBook line, they switched to more industry accepted sizes.

**I am pretty sure that there are some Sagers and Clevos out there with 4 HDD bays. Either that or they have 3 and an mSATA. I would like to see Apple do that, switch to mSATA instead of bladeSATA (or whatever they are using) since that seems to be what everyone else is going to, making getting aftermarket SSDs for the Airs more feasible.