
Apple Rumors Point to 31.6-inch 6K Display, All-New 16-inch MacBook Pro for 2019 - rbanffy
https://hothardware.com/news/2019-mac-display-and-new-macbook-pro-rumor
======
JTTR
I work in the live events industry, and like many of my colleagues I use my
old 15" Pro every day, often in some pretty wildly varying conditions. Within
the past few months I've used it on beaches, in underground tunnels, and in
the roof of dusty old church. I take it to client meetings to talk about
graphic design work, it's running presentations when people forget their own,
it's with me underneath outdoor festival stages configuring show-control
networks. It's simultaneously standardised enough that I never have to worry
about device drivers when an artist needs to replace their own on stage at the
last minute, but with enough flexibility to make it an enjoyable programming
experience in my spare time.

It's over five years old now, and starting to feel the strain, but I'll get a
few years out of it yet. Some colleagues deeply regret "upgrading" to the
newer MBPs. The keyboard and the constant dongle switching are the main
bugbears, but there's other build quality issues as well.

Either Apple gets it right with this revision, or ours is one industry that
will inevitably move to other machines. There's not that many of us, but
Apples dominance of the creative industries has been a huge part of it's
marketing appeal to a more general audience. It'll be interesting to see if
they'll regret alienating it down the line.

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geophile
An improved MBP would be great, but they've lost me. Those ridiculous
keyboards (butterfly keys, touchbar), the general falloff in quality, and the
insane prices sent me searching elsewhere. My main machine is now a System76
Darter. $2100 buys an 8-core i7, 32GB, 1TB SSD, running Pop OS (a very good-
looking variant of Ubuntu). The hardware is not quite as stunning as a Mac,
but it's nice, and the keyboard is excellent.

~~~
metaphyze
How's the trackpad compared to the Mac's? I don't need force touch. Just
smooth precise scrolling. The trackpad is actually one of my top
considerations when buying a laptop because I rarely use a mouse any more.

~~~
geophile
I think it's very good. It feels very slightly less glassy than the MBP.

Actually, I first bought a Galago, just before the Darter came out. They have
a 30-day return policy, and the Darter was a better match for what I was
looking for, so I traded. In a progression of "glassiness", I would put the
Darter between the Galago and the MBP.

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azhenley
I've yet to find a monitor that "just works" with my MBP. I'll take whatever
they release.

My LG is nice, but often gets confused about when my laptop is plugged in.
Both of my Dells are ok, but randomly lose signal and can't control the volume
from the Apple keyboard or from the OS. It would also be nice to not need a
docking station and or adapter anymore.

~~~
fredley
This is something I cannot stand. I have two external monitors, and each time
it wakes from display sleep they switch around - so the desktops are reversed.
It's _infuriating_. I have tried and tried to find a solution but so far have
nothing.

~~~
kitsunesoba
IIRC this happens because some monitor companies are cheap/lazy and assign the
same EDID to all monitors of a particular model (EDIDs are supposed to be
unique), making it difficult for operating systems to distinguish between
them.

~~~
fredley
This does not appear to be the case, the serial numbers reported in System
Information are different.

~~~
benologist
Are you all using TB3 monitors? My experience with an eGPU using TB3 has been
that TB is an awkward technology in any operating system so far, I have to
routinely power down in specific order all the way to disconnecting from the
wall to ensure the device is detached correctly and will attach correctly next
time.

~~~
fredley
Not for the monitor, but for the dock that's connected to all the monitors
(belkin thing)

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dimillian
I really don't care about USB-A port. USB-C is the future, and all my cable
connect natively to USB-C now. The only thing I have is a 10€ dongle for my
screen.

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bluedino
The 16.5" screen I would have never seen coming. I wonder what the target is
or if they are just going edge to edge on a smilar size to what we have now in
the 15

The 6K screen I predicted. It's the most data you can send over ThunderBolt 3.
It does however, gimp any dock you could be able to use.

Now, will other manufacturers be quick to copy the 16" laptop?

~~~
seltzered_
You already have the Asus StudioBook:
[https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/1/7/18171395/as...](https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/1/7/18171395/asus-
studiobook-fits-17-inch-screen-15-inch-macbook-pro-rival-ces-2019) , though
it’s not a retina screen

Also the LG gram: [https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-17Z990-RAAS8U1-ultra-
slim-l...](https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-17Z990-RAAS8U1-ultra-slim-laptop)

~~~
Dirlewanger
Oh wow...and they said 16:10 was dead! What a surprise to behold for all 10 of
us that prefer it over 16:9.

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highace
Finger's crossed for Magic Keyboard-style keys and no butterfly nonsense.

~~~
jeron
Fingers crossed but don't bet on it

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benologist
Our best case scenario is such a laptop came out with an optional touch bar,
but really Cook's probably shaking his head laughing while the only thing
they're working on is quadrupling their bet on MRR from services people are
going to use for decades.

[https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/22/explosive-
apple-s...](https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/22/explosive-apple-
services-revenue-expected-to-be-main-engine-for-apples-revenue-growth)

------
hartator
Excited for the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Hopefully they will bump the pixel density and keep the 15” footprint by just
using the black bezels around the screen. It’s kind of a shame that’s the
current 15” doesn’t have a pixel density high enought to support 1:4 pixel
matching in their default resolution. It results in blurry text.

~~~
thebigspacefuck
Just need to add a notch for the Webcam

~~~
zakk
Don't give them ideas, please!

~~~
ianhowson
I think it's a great idea. There's dead space between the menu bar and the
icon area. Why not use it for the webcam and shrink that top bezel?

~~~
efrafa
Full screen apps?

~~~
warrenm
I'm on one of my Macs pretty much every day

Only thing I ever fullscreen is Netflix/Hulu/etc

can't imagine a miniscule dark spot at the top of the image bothering me

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butler14
Working keyboard would be sweet

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jseliger
At CES, "Samsung Unveil[ed a] 15.6-Inch Ultra-HD OLED Display for Laptops,"
[https://www.anandtech.com/show/13896/samsung-
unveils-15-6-in...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/13896/samsung-
unveils-15-6-inch-ultra-hd-oled-display-for-laptops). I wonder if Apple is
going to round 15.6 inches up and call it 16".

~~~
votepaunchy
> I wonder if Apple is going to round 15.6 inches up and call it 16".

The current MacBook Pros are 15.4” and 13.3”.

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imandride
The last two claims of the article are deceptive in my opinion. Starting Apple
"could" fix the flex cable, and has "addressed" the keyboard issue. Apple
technically "could" , but will they? Also even though they have addressed the
keyboard problem, they have not actually fixed it yet.

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Spooky23
Sweet. Sounds like a $200 monitor cable is in our future.

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qaq
can someone do e-ink 24" monitor

~~~
berbec
Eink looks great, but the refresh rate puts it out of the useful zone for a
main display. People want more than 60hz and I don't think Eink can do 6

~~~
qaq
It would be ok for the code editor if you primarily reading

~~~
jeron
Would be a really niche monitor

~~~
qaq
could be priced accordingly

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nakedrobot2
I want my ports back.

I want the same ports on the iphone as on the macbook.

No one cares about the damn touch bar. No one cares to have another few tenths
of a mm shaved off the thickness.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _No one cares to have another few tenths of a mm shaved off the thickness_

I do. (To be fair, it's why I use a MacBook Air.)

Apple's R&D department also does. Miniaturization is still a trend. By pushing
the envelope on the iPhone they were well positioned for watches.

~~~
neonhomer
That's a good example though: they should have the Air focus on thinness and
portability. But have the Pro focus on a workstation-like setup.

~~~
davnicwil
What about people who want a workstation-like setup and also portability?

The technology is there to allow us to have both without too much compromise
either way. That's great!

Yes, there are a minority of people who want to fully optimise for one at the
expense of the other, but Apple are serving the majority of the market, and
the majority of market wants both in one machine, compromises included.

~~~
marcinzm
>The technology is there to allow us to have both without too much compromise
either way. That's great!

Except it's not there, there are compromises, mainly around durability and
repair costs. In my experience modern macs laptops are more fragile than older
ones and cost a lot of money to fix when they break. Sometimes they break due
to design compromises and even more design compromises up the repair cost
through the roof (see complaints about the display cable for an example).

~~~
berbec
> there are compromises, mainly around durability and repair costs.

Apple has proven that they will trade repair cost & repair-ability away for
anything. Even nothing.

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FrojoS
But does it have a USB port?

~~~
chrisseaton
All Apple laptops come with multiple standard USB ports.

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metaphyze
I think you must mean USB-C ports. There are no standard USB-A ports on the
MacBook Pro any longer. [https://www.apple.com/macbook-
pro/specs/](https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/)

~~~
chrisseaton
But USB C ports are standard USB ports. They’re not some proprietary thing.
They’re standard USB.

