Apple unveiled the 16” MacBook Pro in November 2019, as part of its plan to reverse the mistakes it had made with the previous generation models. The company removed the troubled butterfly keyboard, increased the thickness of the machine for proper airflow, added the “Esc” button, and separated the TouchID sensor from the TouchBar. Apart from fixing some of the issues, the company also added some new improvements such as a slightly larger screen (up from the 15” MacBook Pro), higher quality speakers, new webcam hardware, high quality microphones, and a larger battery.
Since 2019, Apple has only tweaked the 16” MacBook Pro slightly by offering newer GPU options but hasn’t changed much of anything else (of the 16” MacBook Pro). However, it is due for a very big upgrade with the inclusion of new powerful chips (rumoured to be the M1X) from Apple and likely a new display technology. Last year, the company announced that the Mac would transition from Intel to using its own chips and as part of the transition, it has released the MacBook Air, the 13” base MacBook Pro, the Mac mini, and a new 24” iMac. To complete the whole range, it is expected that the 16” MacBook Pro will also be updated sometime this year and it has been rumoured that the 13” MacBook Pro will be replaced with a new 14” MacBook Pro.
The design of the upcoming MacBook Pros is also expected to be slightly different. According to various people familiar with the matter, the upcoming MacBook Pros will feature a completely flat design and will have minimal bezels around the display. Also, people frustrated with the TouchBar on their current MacBook Pro can rejoice, as Apple is expected to replace the TouchBar with traditional function keys on the upcoming MacBook Pro models.
The upcoming MacBook Pro models will also have more ports compared to the current generation models. The SD card reader, the HDMI port, and the MagSafe port are all expected to make a return.
