New MacBook Pro to ditch touch bar and bring back MagSafe: Kuo

San Fransisco:  Apple is planning a significant MacBook Pro redesign for the third quarter of 2021. According to TF International Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo’s research note, it is the first significant MacBook Pro redesign since the current generation’s introduction in 2016.

The redesigned MacBook Pro will have squared-off sides like Apple’s latest iPhone 12; as the current laptop already has sharp edges but the upcoming model is likely to have the top and bottom panels to be flatter than before.

Apple will launch the upcoming model in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, featuring Apple-designed Arm processors, with no Intel options.

Kuo says the laptops will use a similar heat pipe system to the current 16-inch MacBook Pro, giving more thermal headroom and enabling higher performance.

Notably, Kuo believes the new Pro laptops will backtrack some of Apple’s controversial changes with the current generation. The OLED Touch Bar, for example, is said to have been replaced altogether by physical function keys. Kuo also says that there’ll be a broader range of ports reducing the need for dongles, though he doesn’t get specific. And a MagSafe magnetic charging connector is also set to return. (It’s not clear whether it’ll have anything in common with the new MagSafe accessory system for the iPhone 12.)

A new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M1 processor was just released in November, but that model otherwise had near-identical hardware to the existing Intel version. If Kuo is to be believed — and his track record suggests that he is — the next models could be a considerable improvement.