A few months ago, Apple replaced its 15.6 inch MacBook Pro with a new MacBook Pro with a 16 inch display.
Now it looks like the company could be preparing a similar screen size spec bump for its smaller MacBook Pro models. According to an investor note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is planning to launch a 14.1 inch MacBook Pro sometime in the next year or two.
The news concerning the larger display is actually buried in a report about Apple’s development of Mini LED displays for 6 upcoming products:
- 12.9 inch iPad Pro
- 10.2 inch iPad
- 7.9 inch iPad
- 27 inch iMac Pro
- 16 inch MacBook Pro
- 14.1 inch MacBook Pro
Mini LED displays are designed to offer many of the benefits of OLED screens such as high contrast ratios, deep blacks, and energy efficiency. But they’re also less prone to burn-in and some other issues that affect some OLED displays.
All of the new products mentioned in Ming-Chi Kuo’s guidance are updated versions of existing devices — and that includes the 14.1 inch MacBook Pro. While this is a new screen size for Apple, the new model will replace the 13.3 inch MacBook Pro in Apple’s lineup.
And that’s… about all we iknow for now. While the new iMac Pro is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the new 7.9 inch iPad mini with a mini LED display is said to be coming this year, there’s not even an educated guess for the other products.
Ming-Chi Kuo does state that development of Apple’s mini LED technology has not been affected by the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and has been spreading across the world in recent weeks.
Yep, this was pretty much expected. Larger bezellesser screens fitted into almost the same chassis as older sizes, this is going to become the industry standard amongst Windows OEMs as well, as it should.
I believe Huawei was actually the first one to do a 16″ laptop, several months before Apple did it.
The new standards will be 14″ and 16″ for laptops, 11″ and 13″ for Pro tablets. Surface Pro X is already 13″, and Surface Pro 8 could be as well, MS just needs to release a bezelless 11″ Surface Go.
Apple needs to make the iPad mini at least 8″ if not 8.5″ and make the base iPad 10.5″
Well, at more than 8″ an iPad Mini begins ceasing to be a “mini”…
More important than size, is the aspect ratio.
I think at the minimum it should be (4:3) 1.33 to 1.6 (16:10) at maximum. And for smaller sizes and tablet forms, a smaller (is Square-ish) aspect ratio is preferred. So for larger sizes and laptop forms, a higher (ie Rectangular) aspect ratio is fine.
Start Rant:
I think the BEST aspect ratio is Root2. Based on the International Standards ISO for A4 paper. It’s roughly 1:1.4142 (99:70). The Landscape length when halved is equal to the Portrait length, so that when the size is doubles it maintains the same aspect ratio. In other words, folding an A4 paper in half produces an A5 paper, where both papers have the same aspect ratio. It’s the original Golden Ratio.
And since it’s effectively doubling at each stage, it means it follows the Powers of 2, ie Binary. That means resolution can be increased gradually, alongside things like Shader Cores or Transistor count. You can even name the resolutions, and make things easy for engineers and consumers.
End Rant.
Example:
e1 == 2 x 1
e1+ = 3 x 2
e2 == 4 x 3
e2+ = 6 x 4
e3 == 8 x 6
e3+ = 11 x 8
e4 == 16 x 11
e4+ = 23 x 16
e5 == 32 x 23
e5+ = 45 x 32
e6 == 64 x 45
e6+ = 90 x 64
e7 == 128 x 90 (think Nokia 5110 / Game Boy)
e7+ = 180 x 128 (think Nokia 3315 / )
e8 == 256 x 180 (think Nokia 6610 / GBA)
e8+ = 362 x 256 (think Nokia N90 / )
e9 == 512 x 362 (think iPhone 3G / PSP)
e9+ = 724 x 512 (think Samsung S2 / PS Vita)
e10 == 1024 x 724 (think iPhone 5 / )
e10+ = 1448 x 1024 (think iPhone 6 / Nintendo Switch)
e11 == 2048 x 1448 (think iPhone 6+ / )
e11+ = 2896 x 2048 (think iPhone X / )
e12 == 4096 x 2896 (think 4K resolution)
e12+ = 5792 x 4096 (think 6K resolution)
e13 == 8192 x 5792 (think 8K resolution)
e13+ = 11584 x 8192 (think VR)