Redesigned MacBook Pro 2016, 13-inch MacBook Air Confirmed for Imminent Release Date with Intel Skylake? (Photo : Martin Hajek)
As rumored, both the MacBook Pro 2016 and a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Air are set for revelation by Apple in an event scheduled before the end of October. The tech giant is said to take the stage on the 24th and 27th of the month but the latest report from Japan stopped short of providing the exact date of the anticipated new product intro.
According to 9to5Mac, picking up on the latest report by Japanese blog MacOtakara, the MacBook Pro 2016 and an upgraded MacBook Air will hit the market shortly after their grand introduction that likely will happen next week. Speculations are rife that Apple will hold two news briefings in the coming days - purportedly for the company's earnings report and new laptops unveiling.
The new MacBook Pro will be immediately available following its introduction, the report said. "Apple plans to both announce the new MacBook Pro this month, as well as to ship it to retailers," 9to5Mac said on its report, adding that the MacOtakara blog post pointed to "reliable Chinese suppliers," as source of the latest information.
It should be noted too that MacOtakara has in the past shared advanced information on Apple products that mostly turned out as accurate.
It remains unclear though if the new MacBook Air will ship at the same time with the 2016 MacBook Pros.
The report also claimed that Apple will unpack the MacBook Pro 2016 in two variants - the 13-inch and 15-inch editions that well-known Apple watcher Ming-chi Kuo had earlier predicted. Kuo forecasted too that the MBP 2016 will be slimmer and lighter than the past versions, which the new MacOtakara report appears to support.
Alongside the new MacBook Pros will be the 13-inch MacBook Air and nothing was mentioned about a 2016 version of the 11-inch MacBook Air. "The 11-inch MacBook Air is expected to be discontinued when the new MacBook Pros are announced," 9to5Mac said.
As for the specs and feature upgrades packed with the MacOS Sierra-powered notebooks, the new MacOtakara report said that USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 will be on board but is largely silent on the rumors that Touch ID sensor on the power button, OLED touch bar and dynamic Magic Keyboard will be part of the package.
Under hood, the MacBook Pro is said pack Intel's Kaby Lake or Skylake processing chip with the likelihood of the 15-inch MBP 2016 equipped with AMD's Polaris 11 GPU.
As mentioned, it highly likely that the MacBook Pro 2016 release date will happen November this year and for the rest of the expected feature upgrades the clip below by MacRumors listed of the things to expect:
