Unibody MacBooks — Time For A Refresh?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
by Charles W. Moore
The rumor mills have been feverishly cranking out speculation about the next-generation iPhone and an anticipated Apple tablet/netbook/e-book/thingie type computer for the past several months, but I’ve encountered very little scuttlebutt beyond some forum conjecture about an update of the unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro, even though it’s now more than seven months since they were introduced, which by historical precedent makes them overdue for revision.
In fact, some of the most iconic Apple laptops of the PowerBook era, such as the G3 series Lombard and Pismo, only had entire production lives of eight and nine months respectively.
On the other hand, more recently Apple has been stretching out the intervals between laptop updates. For example, after its introduction at MacWorld Expo 2008, the MacBook Air went nine months before getting its first, and so far only refresh.
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Traditionally, a Mac laptop introduced or last speed-bumped in October or November could expect an/another update the following April or May, but that hasn’t happened with the unibodies. In some respects, that’s good news, as it indicates Apple got it right out of the blocks, and there have been no serious deficiencies or shortcomings needing address. Indeed, the unibody MacBook Pro, and especially the MacBook, have proved to be pretty solid pieces of work.
Taking their time about a refresh is a bonus for those of us who have invested in revision A examples of these machines. When I bought my 2.0 GHz unibody MacBook back in February, I didn’t expect to be still running the latest MacBook hardware come June, but it looks like I’m going to be. Woo-Hoo! — Still surfing the cutting edge, a circumstance I don’t find myself in very often with my computer systems.
Still, it’s definitely not unreasonable to imagine that some sort of unibody refresh is in the offing, and it won’t surprise me a bit if a MacBook speed bump is announced at or around the time of the worldwide developers conference. Failing that, it’s not totally unprecedented for Apple to make major laptop announcements in the summer. The original clamshell iBook was unveiled in July, 1999, and it got its last revision at MacWorld Expo Paris in September, 2000. The G4 iBook also got its last speed bump and feature refresh in August, 2005. The 15 inch aluminum PowerBook G4 was announced, along with the 17 inch and 12 inch PowerBooks’ first revision updates, at Paris in September, 2003. However, summer revisions have been relatively uncommon, and if we don’t see one by September, we will have had a full-year cycle from the unibodies’ initial roll out last October.
I think it will be sooner than that, but what do I know?
Whenever it comes, what can we expect in a unibody refresh?
I don’t anticipate anything dramatic. Some mild speed bumps are probably in order, although at presently offered clock speeds, these babies are no slouch -- even the base 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo model I have. That said, I think there’s a good chance Apple will bump the entry level unibody MacBook to 2.4 GHz and take the higher-end one to 2.53 GHz or even 2.8 GHz, possibly leaving the price-leader white plastic MacBook at 2.0 GHz, thus opening up a bit more distance between it and the cheapest unibody specs. and performance-wise.
We shouldn’t expect anything dramatic in processor or video chipset updates until Intel and Nvidia roll out some new product, and even then there’s usually a lag before Apple brings it on stream.
I would love it if Apple repented of its unfortunate decision to drop FireWire support from the MacBook and found a way to shoehorn in a FireWire port, but I’m not expecting that to happen.
Upgrades of standard hard drive capacity sizes, however, would be no surprise, although I don’t imagine standard RAM capacity will be moved up from the current 2 GB in the MacBook.
The unibody MacBook is already a sublimely nice package, and in my three months of using one I haven’t identified anything in particular I’d like to see changed or added other than the aforementioned FireWire, and more power/RAM/HD capacity is always welcome.
Turning to the unibody MacBook Pro, my inference is that it’s been somewhat more prone to troubles than its smaller sibling, perhaps due to its greater complexity, higher running temperatures and so forth, so getting the bugs out should be priority number one.
As with the MacBook, some mild speed-bumping would seem likely, perhaps with the base model upgraded from the current 2.4 GHz to 2.53 GHz, and maybe a Mac laptop cracking the 3 GHz threshold for the first time ever for the top model.
A 500 GHz hard drive option is not unlikely, and maybe some larger-capacity SSD alternatives as well, and Apple might also match the more generous standard RAM specs. offered by the PC competition.
The 17” unibody MacBook Pro only debuted in January, so it’s relatively fresher than the 13” and 15” models, but one could reasonably expect that it would receive commensurate spec. tweaks along with the other two models. The MacBook Air’s last refresh was announced at the unibody rollout last October, so it’s getting overdue as well.
Something nobody should be expecting is any major form factor redesign of these machines for a long time yet -- I would say at least until 2011.
One wild card in all this is scheduling of the OS 10.6 Snow Leopard release. There had been some speculation that Snow Leopard would be launched at WWDC 2009, but I’m almost positive that’s not going to happen. However, if there is some new functionality planned for the laptops that will require Snow Leopard, Apple might be inclined to hold off until the new OS is ready (I’m provisionally guessing this fall -- about two years after OS 1.5 Leopard was released). Some prospective buyers may also be inclined to delay purchasing until that can get Snow Leopard preinstalled, which is a factior that will increase with every month’s delay, so a hardware refresh would be a way to goose sales before 10.6 is ready for release.
As always, the anticipation is part of the fun, and we’ll have to wait and see.
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