Apple is ‘listening,’ but won’t release a major MacBook Pro upgrade this year

By Jon Martindale January 16, 2018

A MacBook Pro sitting on a table. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although Apple’s usual hardware refresh of the MacBook Pro line is expected to take place in 2018, a new report suggests that it won’t make any major changes to the platform. This, despite the fact that the chief design officer at Apple, Jony Ive, recently stated that Apple was “listening” to fans’ concerns over various elements of its Mac hardware lines.

Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops are far from poor. In our review of the latest 13-inch model, we found it to look and feel exquisite, with a beautiful screen, loud speakers, and a great touchpad. However, the keyboard was rather disappointing, battery life leaves a lot to be desired, and that Touch bar addition felt pretty redundant. Apple fans have also previously criticized the range for underpowered internal hardware and a lack of ports.

Recommended Videos

While the hardware may continue to improve in 2018, it doesn’t seem like this year will see anything in the way of a design overhaul. In a discussion with anonymous sources from the upstream supply chain, DigiTimes discovered that Foxconn will have a greater hand in manufacturing 2018 MacBooks. The report also claims that Apple has no plans for a major upgrade to any of the MacBook or MacBook Pro models in 2018, despite the last refresh happening in 2016.

One potential change which could come about though is more favorable pricing. Although it would require Apple to pass on the savings, Foxconn is said to be a slightly more affordable manufacturer than its traditional partner, Quanta. Quanta will still manufacture the majority of 2018 MacBooks, but having Foxconn pick up a larger portion of the supply could open up the door for price cuts.

If all of this (lack of) news leaves you a little despondent about your next upgrade, don’t forget that there are many great alternatives to the MacBook Pro out there. We even put together a guide to the best options for traditional MacBook fans, many of them much cheaper and more powerful to boot.

If you had to ask us what our favorite laptops available today are though, the list is slightly different. Have a look at our guide to see the best laptops to buy right now.

Topics

Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

Computing

I’m worried Apple will skip its October event – here’s what that means for the M4 MacBook Pro

For months now, we’ve been hearing that Apple is set to announce a boatload of new products -- including the M4 MacBook Pro range, fresh iPads, and more -- at an event this October. Yet a new report suggests that things might not be quite so simple after all.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman says that Apple is set to reveal these new products “around the end of October,” with the devices going on sale on Friday, November 1. So far, so expected.

Computing

An all-glass MacBook? Here’s what Apple thinks it would look like

Bladur's Gate 3 being played on the M3 MacBook Air.

Patents and clues pointing to all-glass MacBooks and iMacs have been floating around since 2011, and this week, another patent has appeared on Patently Apple -- a "glass housing" for a MacBook-like device. It has a virtual keyboard and trackpad, and there's even a separate patent for "finger devices" that would decrease the strain of typing on a glass surface.

One of the most interesting things about the glass housing is that it "provides I/O functionality." This means, that instead of inserting a separate trackpad or keyboard keys into the housing for users to interact with, the housing itself would provide a method of input and output. In some areas and contexts, the surface would function simply as housing to protect internal components, and in others, it would display information and react to user input.

Computing

The M4 MacBook Pro is apparently listed for sale on Facebook — but I don’t buy it

An open MacBook Pro on a table.

According to analysts and industry experts like Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is expected to announce an M4 refresh of the MacBook Pro possibly this month and most likely before the end of the year. No event announcements have come yet, though Apple has historically held an October Mac event. But now, an online leak discovered by Wccftech claims the new model is up for sale on a private Facebook group. The claim is backed up by alleged images of the retail box, but there's plenty to be suspicious about.

While the images were posted by known leaker ShrimpApplePro, the information was sent to them from an unknown source. There are two posts so far, one with an image of the back of the retail box -- with comments from AppleShrimpPro saying to take it with asome skepticism -- and one showing additional images and claiming it's for sale on Facebook.