Preps for new 13-inch MacBook Pro charged through China's holiday celebrations

A new report claims that Chinese component suppliers worked though the country's Lunar New Year holiday in order to meet a March release for a new MacBook Pro.

Apple is expected to release an entry-level MacBook Pro with a new "M2" chip, and it is believed to be planning an event for March 8. Previously, however, the March 8 Apple event was thought to be for the iPhone SE, iPad Air, and only potentially a new Mac.

Now according to Digitimes, the forthcoming MacBook Pro is likely to be unveiled at the March event.

"Notebook supply chain players had kept their production lines running during the Lunar New Year holiday reportedly for new MacBook Pro," says Digitimes, "which is set for launch in early March, according to industry sources."

The sources are not named or specified, but Digitimes does have a strong track record over the information it gets from the supply chain. Significantly, however, the publication has a far poorer reputation for the conclusions it draws over Apple's plans.

Whenever it launches, the new entry-level MacBook Pro is expected to eliminate the Touch Bar. It may not, though, gain the same ProMotion display as the recent new 14-inch MacBook Pro, or revised 16-inch MacBook Pro.

7 Comments

mpw_amherst 359 comments · 23 Years

About 2 years ago

Is there any reason why we’re erring towards this March launch being for a MacBook Pro with M2 rather than the Air redesign that was mooted for March at one point?

commentzilla 777 comments · 10 Years

mpw_amherst said:

Is there any reason why we’re erring towards this March launch being for a MacBook Pro with M2 rather than the Air redesign that was mooted for March at one point?

The MacBook Air is redundant. It looks thinner but it really isn't, the weight difference is negligible and it has one less fan, but that's about it. I suspect they are going to have just a MacBook with various configurations that stretch up to the 14" or maybe it will be 14" but with a thinner case. No way to really eliminate the bezel without going smaller to 12" or larger to 14" with the screen and maintain the resolution.

tht 5654 comments · 23 Years

This has been a strange rumor. They have been vague on whether it will have a 13.3” display (old MBP13 size) or a 14.2” display (MPB14 size).

If the former, it’s basically going to be a poorest price to feature ratio in the laptop lineup. If it is the latter, it could be a machine for all the folks who want a larger screen but don’t need the performance.

charlesn 1193 comments · 11 Years

commentzilla said:

mpw_amherst said:

Is there any reason why we’re erring towards this March launch being for a MacBook Pro with M2 rather than the Air redesign that was mooted for March at one point?

The MacBook Air is redundant.

Yeah, except it's Apple's best selling laptop by orders of magnitude. So if you consider sales and profits to be needless redundancies, it makes lots of sense to kill off the Air. Where you are correct is that the current Air offers negligible savings in size and weight vs entry level MacBook Pro. But the M1 upgrade cycle turned the Air into a workhorse for most people that it never was. Now all it needs is a ground-up redesign of a form factor that just turned 14 years old--the oldest, essentially unchanged Apple design by far--and upgrades to the processor and other systems that will go along with that. Hopefully, it loses some weight in the process and becomes worthy of the Air name again.

wood1208 2938 comments · 10 Years

Knowing Apple, M2 Macbook Pro will be 13.3" screen design. Apple should make the screen size same as current 14.1" MBP but entry level specs. Why sacrifice screen size because it is entry level. Just put the same last generation retina screen keeping 14.1" size screen.