With Apple’s October 18th event having been officially announced, a flurry of last minute rumors as to the 2021 MacBook Pro have surfaced, the general consensus being that this year’s models will represent the first major redesign for Apple’s pro notebooks since the disastrous 2016 butterfly-keyboard generation.
Various sources indicate that these new machines will feature a boxier chassis design, a HDMI port and SD card slot, and a ‘M1X’ Apple-designed SoC, aimed at replacing the current 16-inch Intel configs with superior performance and power efficiency. The reliable leaker @dylandkt has stated that these notebooks will also feature a higher-quality 1080p webcam.
In his tweet, Dylan also stated that the M1X MacBook Pro units will boast 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD as standard for both the 16-inch and the new 14-inch units. This is identical to the current 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro offering.
Apple is also thought to be removing the 16GB maximum RAM configuration that was supported with the M1-based MacBook Pros. The M1X generation notebooks are thought to have resolved this issue, with Apple offering 32GB of RAM as a build-to-order option.
In terms of design change, Dylan says that the ‘MacBook Pro’ text in the bottom display bezel has been removed in favor of an overall slimmer bezel design. The display is mini-LED, just like the 2021 iPad Pro.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.