MacBook Pro 2017 Rumors: Intel Kaby Lake With New Apple Processors To Increase Battery Life?

By Edwin Kee
13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
Consumer Reports has not given the new MacBook Pros a "recommended" rating. Based on the evaluation done by the non-profit organization, the latest Apple laptops suffered on its "highly" inconsistent battery life based on the three consecutive they conducted. salchuiwt via Flickr

When it comes to the MacBook Pro, that is the gold standard in Apple’s stable of laptops for the consumer. However, we do know very little about what the next generation MacBook Pro will be like, having to survive on nothing more but rumors at the moment. Let us take a closer look at the kind of rumors that have surrounded the MacBook Pro 2017 and see whether they are actually worth having around or not. It was in October last year that Apple rolled out a brand new MacBook Pro with a totally new Touch Bar which certainly changed the way that one used a MacBook Pro, but thankfully, it seems that the waiting period in between MacBook Pro updates for the 2017 model need not be that long. It seems that this year’s model will be arriving with Intel’s Kaby Lake processors, which would be a slight improvement over its predecessor which makes it easier to roll out compared to a totally new method of usage with a Touch Bar inside.

According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who has been pretty accurate all this while when it comes to sharing information on the latest Apple device leaks, his prediction for 2017 points to a MacBook Pro that will run on the Intel Kaby Lake processor some time later this year. According to Kuo, there will be 12-inch MacBooks that will shift to a high gear some time in Q2 2017 where mass production is concerned, with a very real possibility of seeing a model with 16GB of RAM introduced.

Apart from that, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros will also enter mass production in Q3 2017 (from July onward), while in September, we might be able to look forward to a 15-inch MacBook Pro accompanied by 32GB of RAM, and Kuo has claimed this to be "the most significantly redesigned product this year".

These are just not wishful thinking by Kuo, as a recent Bloomberg report also does back up these rumors by quite a fair bit. It seems that the upcoming MacBook Pro 2017 models will also make a move away from relying too much on Intel’s processors. Those who have ears that are close to the ground claim that there is also a new Apple chip known as the T310 and built using ARM technology will be able to do all of the grunt work involving low-power functionality while assisting the main Intel (presumably Kaby Lake) processor.

This would result in an even better battery life, as one takes into consideration how transferring the 'Power Nap' feature to the new chip will take up even less amount of juice than ever before. It is said that this chip is the same kind that currently sees action in powering the MacBook Pro 2016’s Touch Bar feature.

It would certainly be interesting to see how Apple work things out with the MacBook Pro 2017, and whether the above rumors will turn out to be true or not. We shall continue to be patient and wait for the months to pan out ahead of us.