Many Apple fans are waiting for the company to launch its new batch of products. Aside from the iPhone, they are also looking forward to the new MacBook 2017 models. Apple is still tight-lipped about its new devices, but the upcoming MacBooks are said to be worth the wait.
New Apple laptops will not be available on the market anytime soon as last year's laptops are still fresh. However, rumors suggest that Apple will launch the new MacBook Pro 2017 by the third quarter of this year. There are speculations that production of the MacBook Pro production will not start until September. Since the innovative Touch Bar technology was added to the MacBook Pro 2016 models, the MacBook Pro 2017 will likely not get a major design change. It is likely to come with a 15-inch display, 32 GB of RAM, and the Kaby Lake processor or AMD Ryzen.
The AMD Ryzen has taken the tech world by storm, and it is said to have the potential to put Intel out of the game. AMD Ryzen reportedly puts the most performance per dollar at a lower TDP than its rival Intel processors. Currently, the $499 USD AMD Ryzen 1800X is the top of the line model, and its benchmarking is short of the $1,000 USD i7 6900K. Because of this, there are talks that high-end devices released this year may come with the AMD Ryzen instead of Intel's chipset. For instance, the Apple MacBook Pro 2017 was expected to feature the Intel i7, but there are rumors that it would sport the AMD Ryzen.
If the next-generation MacBook comes with an ARM-based chip, it will mark the start of a new era where Apple significantly reduces its dependence on Intel processors. The chip reportedly went into development last year, and it could be similar to the one used in the latest MacBook Pro. The internal part codenamed T310 is being optimized to handle specific low-power mode functionalities which will be used in the upcoming MacBook Pro 2017. The T310 chip will be used for Power Nap which allows the MacBook Pro 2017 to wake up silently when it is sleeping to sync the iCloud data and upload images to iCloud or fetch emails and calendar events. It eases small Time Machine back ups as well.
The MacBook Pro 2016 comes with the new Touch Bar and is priced at $1,749 USD for the 13-inch model and $2,399 USD for the 15-inch variant. It now sells for $2,799 USD and the MacBook Pro 2017 price is not expected to be much different.