The biggest highlight of the upcoming WWDC 2012 being held in June is expected to be the unveiling of the Revamped Macbook Pro range and Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Apple is apparently putting finishing touches on its new Macbook Pros which is the result of years of research and development in ultra thin design and high-res display. The new Macbook Pros are currently undergoing tests production rounds and are expected to host an ultra-thin chassis , USB 3.0 and Retina Display.
The New Design Language
There have been many rumors that the new Macbook will follow the design language of Macbook Air. But sources close to production put them aside. According to them they are ultrathin design of the current model. This mean that there won’t be any tapering like the Airs. The new design apparently solves the problem Apple faced with the hinge in the cancelled ultrathin 15-in Macbook for late 2010.
Apple has sacrificed the optical drive to reach their new standard of notebook thinness. Apple claims that professionals can use the Mac App Store to download their software making an optical drive redundant. But Apple still will continue to provide USB Superdrives.
One design queue that Apple has borrowed from the Macbook Air is the keyboard layout. Currently the power button is placed on the top
right corner and is an aluminum cutout. It has now been incorporated into the Keyboard and replaces the Eject Key. Rest of the design remains same – Magsafe Charge slot, SD card slot, USB ports, Thunderbolt and the large multi touch trackpad.
The current prototype unibody casings going through test production have spaces for a charging port, two USB ports, two audio in/out-sized ports, and the battery meter on the left side. The right side is said to have cutouts for two Thunderbolt-sized ports, an SD card slot, and another USB port. Notably, these prototypes lack room for Ethernet (Apple sells adapters since the MacBook Air lacks an Ethernet port). We’re unsure about FireWire but that could also be gone.
USB 3.0 Finally makes way to the Mac:
As per reports MacBooks will be the first to have incorporated the latest generation USB connectivity. Sources in Apple’s supply chain says that the aforementioned USB ports on the left and right sides of the prototype unibody casings have slightly different component cables that attach the ports to the computing components housed inside of the internal structure.
Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors come with USB 3 support out of the box, a major upgrade over the aging USB 2.0 technology. USB 3.0 measures in at an average of 5Gbps (gigabytes per second) transfer speeds, which is more than ten times faster than USB 2.0’s 480Mbps transfer speeds. Users won’t often find 10X faster than USB 2.0 speeds, but will often find the speed improvements notable.
While much faster than USB 2.0, USB 3.0 still trails Thunderbolt’s maximum of twenty-times better performance than USB 2.0. While no details are available regarding the Graphics card, there are fairly chances of Apple choosing NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics card.
The GPU offers incredible gaming performance and other tasks while providing good battery backup. Ivy Bridge and the aforementioned GeForce 650 graphics chip are coupled together in recent PC hardware releases, so seeing the two chips together in the new MacBook Pro is sensible.
Precise release information such as launch dates (other than summer) and pricing were not available from these supply chain sources. With WWDC nearing, though, and Apple promising very exciting products for 2012, we hope to see these notebooks in June. In any case, with an ultra-thin design, Retina Display, and new USB 3 port, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro is going to be one of the most exciting mobile computer launches of the year.
Are you excited? Let’s know your thoughts in the comment section.