If you’re thinking about a new MacBook, Industry insiders are speculating that there will likely be a refresh coming soon for Apple’s MacBook Pros. As of today, it’s been 463 days since the last update, the longest ever wait for this product line, and we’re seeing promotional discounts, such as $150 sales at Best Buy that seem designed to clear the shelves in anticipation of the new arrivals. Speculation is that we could see the new models arrive any time between now and the end of October, possibly to coincide with the release of the new Mavericks (OSX 10.9) operating system.
Some of the updates insiders are speculating we could see in the new models:
- Haswell chip with significantly better power consumption–translates to increases in battery life of up to 80%–and support for 4K video
- Thunderbolt 2–faster version of the already lighting quick Thunderbolt. Intel claims Thunderbolt 2 will be able to transfer a 4K video while simultaneously displaying it on a discrete monitor.
- Fusion drive option (combination of hard drive and Flash drive presented as a single logical volume and managed by the OS so that most used files are placed on the Flash storage). While Apple will undoubtedly continue to offer solid state drives, this option would provide the benefits of SSD-like speed with much greater capacity
- PCIe flash storage
- Intel Iris Pro 5200 integrated GPU
Given the beginnings of 4K support we could see in this release, insiders are speculating that Apple may coordinate the new Macbook refresh with the release of a 4k Thunderbolt display.
Sweet. I’ll be looking for one for Thanksgiving. Anything to make this 4K thing more manageable.
Sounds very powerful and lightning fast. Awesome! Can’t wait ’till my system needs replacing.
I’m unlikely to move to full blown post-production onto a laptop. I need dual monitors, tons of RAM, and the best processor I can get for heavy AE work. The new Mac Pro has me interested though!