While new product announcements from Apple are typically greeted with a certain amount of fanfare, the company’s recently unveiled MacBook Pro hasn’t exactly engendered a positive response. On the contrary, Apple’s new MacBook Pro models have been blasted from all angles, with the overarching theme being that Apple has completely abandoned its core base of creative professionals. More specifically, Apple’s new laptops have been criticized for being overpriced and for limiting the amount of RAM to 16GB.
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If you count yourself among one of the many folks who find Apple’s new Pro notebooks underwhelming, there’s good news lurking on the horizon. According to a new research note from reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is already planning a MacBook Pro refresh during the second half of 2017 that will include a price reduction and support for 32GB of RAM.
Originally published by MacRumors, Kuo’s note indicates that Apple’s revamped MacBook Pros will employ Intel’s Cannonlake processors, assuming of course that they are ready to ship in time.
… the new MacBook to be launched in 2H17 may support 32GB DRAM, eventually attracting more core users; this depends on whether or not Intel ships Cannonlake CPU on time in 2017, which features 15-25% less power consumption of LPDDR 4, versus the existing LPDDR 3. If Cannonlake doesn’t enter mass production as expected, the new models launched in 2H17 will adopt Coffee Lake, which continues to adopt LPDDR 3, and maximum DRAM support will also remain unchanged at 16GB.
Indeed, the current MacBook Pros limit of 16GB of RAM has been a sticking point for many pro-oriented users who have been patiently awaiting new Pro laptops from Apple for some time. Addressing these RAM concerns, Apple executive Phil Schiller said that support for 32GB of RAM would “require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn’t be efficient enough for a notebook.”
Delving further into the matter, the following comment from user Exploding_m1 on Reddit is worth highlighting.
The true reason behind the lack of 32 GB or DDR4 is Intel. Skylake does not support LPDDR4 (LP for low power) RAM. Kabylake is set to include support, but only for the U category of chips. So no LPDDR4 support for mobile until 2018 I think.
One example is the Dell XPS 13. On the Dell XPS 13 version, you cannot go for 32 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the 15 inches does give you that option, but you have to sacrifice battery life for it.
Another example is the surface book, they can’t include 32gb. Only goes up to 16gb.
These computers use LPDDR3 which is supported. Many mite make the argument that apple could have used the LPDDR3 version, but how would they look if they did that for the 15 inch MBP only?
Regardless, it should at the very least be encouraging to see that Apple doesn’t have plans to let the MacBook Pro stagnate any longer given that welcome updates to pricing and RAM support are reportedly on the horizon.
