Rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro might not arrive until 2020 (or 2021)

MacBook Pro
Image credit: TechRadar

Remember that back in February, an analyst floated the rumor that Apple was preparing to launch a 16-inch MacBook Pro this year? Well, prolific Apple leaker Ming-Chi Kuo has revised that prediction, and now believes said notebook won’t be out until next year – at the earliest.

Previously, Kuo said Apple would launch a 16-inch (to 16.5-inch) MacBook Pro later in 2019, but as MacRumors spotted, he now believes that this larger model isn’t likely to emerge until either 2020 or even 2021.

Confusion around the exact translation is why there is some doubt as to whether it might be next year or the following one, but either way, don’t expect to see this major refresh of Apple’s laptops any time soon.

Of course, we still have to bear in mind that this is all chatter from the laptop grapevine, and the purported 16-inch MacBook Pro may indeed never turn up, and could just be an idea Apple toyed with.

As ever, we need to treat any rumor with caution – as indeed the original timeframe has clearly proved rather off the mark – but Kuo has got things right before and is a respected source.

Obviously, this will be disappointing to hear for many Apple fans, who might have been hoping for a major change with the MacBook Pro sooner rather than later. And a 16-inch model, which will supposedly carry an all-new design, would certainly have represented a major overhaul.

Getting it right?

That said, if it is a big change which is incoming, it isn’t surprising that Apple would take its time with the design and implementation, given the many grumblings about niggles with MacBooks in recent times, including so-called ‘flexgate’ problems with the MacBook Pro display, audio issues, and of course the well-documented keyboard woes.

Apple will surely want to get every element of the hardware design right to avoid the emergence of fresh complaints along these lines. And that, of course, would be no bad thing: we’d get a bigger and better MacBook Pro.

Kuo did also say that he still expects a 31.6-inch 6K resolution Apple Display to appear either in the second or third quarters of 2019, so theoretically, that could be imminent, and it’s at least something to potentially look forward to – again if he’s on the money.

Furthermore, the analyst also believes that a new 10-inch to 12-inch iPad will be out at the end of 2020, possibly alongside that MacBook Pro.

Back in February, Kuo also said that Apple will add an option to specify 32GB of system memory for the smaller 13-inch MacBook Pro (the current maximum is 16GB).

Via The Verge

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).