A while back, we reported that a 15″ MacBook Air could possibly be in the works. Now, however, it’s looking more like Apple will soon be releasing a much slimmer version of the MBP – complete with USB 3.0 ports, Retina Display and Intel Ivy Bridge Chipsets.
Mockup of rumored MBP via 9to5Mac
According to 9to5Mac, this new MacBook is based around the late-2008 models, but considerably thinner. This means no optical drive – which is no surprise; Apple no longer sells OS X or many of its popular programs on discs anyway. It’s nice to be able to burn/watch DVDs and CDs, but they’ve been moving away from the optical drive for quite a while.
It was also noted that the power button has been moved to the keyboard – where the eject button would have been, had it an optical drive.
The Retina Display should go over well. It’s crazy enough on an iPad or iPhone, but I can’t wait to see what a resolution of 2048×1536 can do for a laptop – this is really one of Apple’s strong points, it’s what they have over everyone else in the mobile market.
USB 3.0 is on the rise as well, and it looks like this will be the first Mac to implement the next-generation technologies.
[9to5Mac]
