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16-inch MacBook Pro release date: Apple could unveil new MacBook Pro this October

Leak suggests the 16-inch MacBook Pro will be with us soon

This autumn will see the arrival of Apple’s new “supersize” MacBook Pro, a new leak has suggested. The 16in beauty will arrive alongside a spate of other MacBooks – but all eyes are on the hotly anticipated larger version of its popular MacBook Pro. If the laptop does make an appearance in October, it will mark the largest MacBook since Apple rolled out its 17in MacBook Pro way back in 2011.

The October release date rumour comes from Taiwanese website Economic Daily News (EDN), which cites a supply chain source for the leak. If you’re looking to get your hands on a bountifully large MacBook Pro for work, play and sheer admiration alike, you might not have to wait long.

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16-inch MacBook Pro: Design

The new MacBook Pro’s arrival date isn’t all we’ve learned, either: EDN also suggests that the largest iteration yet of the MacBook Pro will come equipped with a 3,072 x 1,920 LCD display provided by LG, with the device being co-produced by Apple’s manufacturing partners Foxconn and Quanta.

Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities has published a report claiming that the new 16in MacBook Pro will move away from Apple’s butterfly keyboard design, in favour of a design based on scissor switches. This will be the first of Apple’s new MacBooks to make the change, with others following suit in 2020.  

Despite being iterated in the last few generations of MacBook, Apple’s butterfly keys have been criticised for making too much noise. It is thought that the switch to the scissor switches, which were used in older MacBook models, could make typing a quieter affair. 

16-inch MacBook Pro: Specs

There’s no official word yet on the internals of the latest MacBook, but an educated guesser would look towards the current 15in MacBook Pro. That machine has a 6-core 9th-generation Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB of RAM, and its likely that the 16in varient will boast similar specs. There are rumours that Apple may move away from Intel in favour of homegrown processors, but that isn’t thought to be on the cards just yet. 

16-inch MacBook Pro: Release date and price

A bigger display means a bigger price, and the 16in MacBook Pro is expected to carve out a higher tier for Apple’s laptop lineup. There are murmurings of a starting price of $3,000, which sounds astronomical but isn’t that far fetched when you consider the $2,399 starting price for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Apple has its iPhone event on 10 September, although that’s likely to centre on the company’s new handheld offering. Rumour still has it that the 16in MacBook Pro will make its debut in an October event, so we’ll keep our eyed peels for more news on that front. 

Of course, until confirmed the 16in MacBook Pro is technically just a figment of our imagination. But with Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo hinting at a bigger MacBook release earlier this year, the rumours seem reputable.

Meanwhile, Apple’s other MacBooks appear to be getting an update, too: the more compact 13in MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are also tipped for improvements, despite both models having seen a refresh this year already. If true, this would mark the first time in six years that Apple has updated its Pro lineup twice in a year; the last time being the Retina era of 2013.

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It looks like 2019 is a big year for the company, which is trying not to let iPhone designer Jonathan Ive’s much-publicised departure sully its reputation for fresh and pioneering design.

We will update this page as and when we hear more about Apple’s 16in MacBook Pro, so be sure to check back in.

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