Apple's Planning a 16" MacBook Pro, 31" Display - Report

Apple is reportedly planning to release a redesigned MacBook Pro with a 16 to 16.5-inch display sometime in 2019. The report arrives courtesy of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who also said the company plans to release a 31-inch display with a 6K resolution.

Kuo didn't offer many details about the new MacBook Pro; the larger display and undefined redesign were pretty much it. The last major redesign of the MacBook Pro saw the addition of a Touch Bar above the keyboard in 2016, but in the years since, Apple has mostly focused on iterative changes to its high-end offerings.

Not that many professionals will need to hear more than "it has a larger display" to be excited by a 16-inch MacBook Pro. Apple used to offer a 17-inch model, but it got the axe when OS X Mountain Lion debuted in 2012. Right now, there are 13- and 15-inch models--it makes sense for Apple to experiment with larger displays again.

It would also make sense for the company to address concerns about its laptop keyboards. Apple introduced a new butterfly mechanism in 2015, and even though it's responded to widespread criticism of the mechanism since then, many still complain that MacBook keyboards were better before the butterfly flapped its wings.

Hopefully, this redesign will also let Apple move away from its thin-and-light obsession so it can refocus on build quality. Recent MacBook Pro models have fallen prey to display issues that, according to iFixIt, are caused by design compromises made to allow the devices to become more and more compact each year.

Those compromises make sense in cheap products; they're harder to explain away in professional laptops. It would be nice to see Apple respond to those concerns and improve the MacBook Pro's function as well as its form with a redesign. (But, hey, it's not like people won't buy a 16-inch model no matter what Apple does.)

Kuo also said that Apple plans to introduce a 31.6-inch display boasting a 6K resolution and mini-LED backlighting. This would be the first display Apple has sold since it discontinued the Thunderbolt Display in mid-2016, and would likely be meant to accompany the completely redesigned Mac Pro it teased in 2017.