This year will be a huge one for the MacBook Pro, which could see the return of better port selection and a brand-new chassis design.
The MacBook Pro has gained a renewed lease on life since Apple outfitted it with the superb M1 chip in 2020. It seems to have an exciting future ahead of it, and with plenty of interesting rumors doing the rounds, there is a lot of debate as to what the next version of Apple’s Pro laptops might contain. There has been a recent flurry of information, with respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and prominent reporter Mark Gurman both shedding light on an all-new 14-inch version, as well as sharing updates to the current MacBook Pro 16. We have broken down their thoughts, as well as other rumors from the industry, to summarize what you can expect from the 2021 MacBook Pro models. Here is everything you need to know, from the price and design to battery life and more. When Apple last redesigned its professional laptop range with the MacBook Pro 16 in 2019, it kept the price exactly the same as that of the previous MacBook Pro 15 despite introducing a raft of new features and an overhauled design. The company did the same thing when it outfitted the MacBook Pro 13 with the brand-new M1 chip despite the massive uptick in performance that the upgrade offered. We expect the same will be true of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models due out this year. Apple seems to be happy with its current MacBook Pro pricing structure, and we do not expect that to change any time soon. Ultimately, that could mean more bang for your buck. So, when might you be able to get your hands on one of these new models? There were claims that Apple would unveil revamped MacBook Pro models (both 14-inch and 16-inch) at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 7. In late May and early June, reports from leaker Jon Prosser and industry analysts Wedbush stated Apple was planning to launch the new MacBook Pro models at WWDC. However, those proved incorrect, and we were left with no MacBook Pros at WWDC. That does not mean we will have a long wait on our hands, though. Ming-Chi Kuo expects the devices to be released in the third quarter of 2021 (July 1 to September 30). Mark Gurman has offered a similar timeline, although there is a little uncertainty surrounding it. He has previously said the MacBook Pros should make an appearance “around the middle of the year,” but in a June newsletter, he claimed there would be little Apple product news for the next few weeks but that MacBook Pros were coming later in 2021. That could mean they are still on for a summer launch — summer officially lasts until September 21, after all — or it could mean they have been delayed until the fall. But if you thought that was a long time to wait, we have some bad news — the delay could be even longer. That idea comes from a Nikkei Asia report from March 2021, which claimed that Apple had pushed back the production of two MacBook Pro models from May or June until later in the year. If true, this would delay the release date, perhaps to the more traditional October or November window that usually sees major MacBook launches. In recent years, Apple has started to revert many of its products back to the square-edge design last seen in the iPhone SE in 2016 — first the iPad Pro and then the iPhone 12 range. According to reports, the MacBook Pro will soon join them. Kuo believes the MacBook Pro 2021’s design will feature squared-off sides on both the top and bottom sections, rather than the slightly curved back found on the current MacBook Pro models. This may only be a minor change, as the bottom half of the existing MacBook Pro could already be thought of as “squared-off.” Mark Gurman agrees that any design changes will be minor, but he nonetheless believes that there will be some outward changes compared to the current models. Aside from that, you may be wondering if the MacBook Pro 16’s thermal architecture will make the leap across to the MacBook Pro 14. Given the superb thermal efficiency of the M1 chip in the current MacBook Pro 13 and MacBook Air, you might think this is unnecessary — the new MacBook Air, after all, does not even need a fan, such is its chip’s ability to keep cool under pressure. That said, the current MacBook Pro 16 comes with discrete, powerful graphics cards that need more vigorous cooling. If Apple is going to match that power with its own system-on-a-chip with a beefy built-in GPU, it might need an equally brutish cooling system to keep everything under control. With that in mind, we would not rule out the thermal system being retained in the MacBook Pro 16.
