Apple is rumored to release a new MacBook Pro model featuring a 16-inch display, and now research firm IHS Markit has it that the notebook is slated to launch this fall.
Jeff Lin, Associate Director, Consumer Electronics at IHS Markit, said the following in an email to Forbes this morning, referring to the 16-inch MacBook Pro:
We foresee that Apple will release a new product at the September 2019 event if there’s no unexpected development issue. The future MacBook Pro will have a new display size (16 inch), new macOS (Catalina) and CPU.
IHS claims the new notebook will use a display based on LCD technology rather than move to OLEDs like large laptops from Hewlett-Packard and Dell. If the IHS Markit data is accurate, Forbes speculates that Apple will opt for a 3,072-by-1,920 resolution Retina screen.
The largest Mac laptop has a 15.4-inch display with a 2,880-by-1,800 pixel resolution.
But which CPU and GPU model would this machine run?
A MacBook that size could tap Intel’s fastest mobile chips. As of summer 2019, that would be the ninth-generation H-series mobile chips, like the 8-core Core i9-9980HK which is now available on the May 2019 refresh of the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
The more interesting question is, what graphics horsepower it will get. The May refresh of the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro is still using the same graphics configurable up to Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics with 4GB of HBM2 memory.
It’s not clear what future AMD Radeon RDNA (formerly codenamed Navi) graphics Apple could use in a mega MacBook Pro, as AMD hasn’t specified what’s coming yet.
The report added that the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and the latest MacBook Air with Retina display should be getting a processor refresh in September.
A brand new Mac notebook rocking a 16-inch screen was first mentioned a few months ago by reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities. He predicted a machine coming later this year aimed at gamers and creative pros featuring a 16 to 16.5-inch display.
The analyst said it would mark the first Apple notebook with an OLED display.
Apple is currently using OLED technology in the Apple Watch and iPhone X/XS models.
According to a recent supply chain report, the Cupertino company will most likely source OLED panels for the upcoming machine from Samsung Display. The 16-inch MacBook Pro is said to debut with an all-new design, filing as Apple’s largest-screened notebook following the removal of the seventeen-inch MacBook Pro from the lineup back in 2012.
MacBook Pro concept via Hungarian 3D artist Viktor Kádár