Apple’s MacBook Pro has some good news and bad news in store for 2018: Foxconn gets the good news because Apple is sending it more laptop production, and the bad news is for users who were hoping for a major laptop redesign this year.
Supply chain sources tell DigiTimes Apple is moving a large portion of its MacBook Pro production from Quanta to Foxconn this year. Both companies declined to comment.
Sources say Apple can shift a substantial part of its MacBook Pro production from Quanta to Foxconn this year because there isn’t a major redesign coming in 2018. Apple gave the MacBook Pro its most recent redesign in 2016 with the Touch Bar model.
That doesn’t, however, mean an update for the laptop this year is off the table. Apple could roll out a refresh with faster processors, more RAM, or more powerful graphics. Odds are we won’t see a case redesign, additional external ports, or a return to user-upgradable components.
While it’s possible the DigiTimes sources got the big redesign part wrong, it fits with Apple’s product cycle. The company tends to stick with the same body design for several years.
As far as more production headed to Foxconn goes, odds are that information is right. Parts suppliers know where they’re sending component orders and if that’s shifting from Quanta to Foxconn, they’d know.
RAM, RAM, RAM and Face ID, please.
With support for eCPU (in addition to eGPU).
RAM will all depend if they update the CPU and chipset. AFAIK that’s doable.
I’d don’t think we’ll see FaceID. That would require a lot of changes. A second camera and the dot projector. I suspect that would be a problem due to how thin the edge of the case is in that area.