When Apple released its revamped MacBook Pro lineup in late 2016, the reaction was something of a mixed bag. Though many were curiously optimistic about the Touch Bar and impressed with the machine’s display and svelte form factor, many power users couldn’t come to grips with the fact that the machine maxed out on 16GB of RAM. While 16GB of RAM is certainly enough for everyday users, developers and creative professionals were left disappointed.
Since then, we’ve seen a number of rumors regarding a seemingly impending MacBook Pro refresh that would include an upgrade option for 32GB of memory. Alas, we’re almost half-way through 2018 and Apple has yet to address what many have categorized as a glaring shortcoming in its pro-level machine.
Now comes word via AppleInsider that Apple may not release a MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM until 2019 on account of Intel delaying volume shipments of its Cannon Lake CPU.
From an Apple perspective, “Cannon Lake” has support for LPDDR4 memory, which can be used to help produce MacBooks and MacBook Pros with up to 32 gigabytes of memory without having to resort to DDR4 memory. The two technologies are not the same, despite the similar name.
Indeed, you may recall that Apple executive Phil Schiller many months ago explained that RAM upgradability on the current MacBook Pro is limited by the machine’s use of LPDDR 3 memory which can only go up to 16GB.
“The MacBook Pro uses 16GB of very fast LPDDR memory, up to 2133MHz,” Schiller said back in November of 2016. “To support 32GB of memory would require using DDR memory that is not low power and also require a different design of the logic board which might reduce space for batteries. Both factors would reduce battery life.”
