“Intel has announced plans to release a laptop version of its Xeon processor,” Dennis Sellers reports for Apple World Today. “It’s possible we’ll see them pop up in the most powerful MacBook Pros ever, though Apple would have to make some compromises in regards to battery power.”
“Intel says the Xeon Processor E3-1500M v5 Product Family is “designed for the professional who needs workstation-class capabilities in a portable device.” This sounds like a perfect fit for creative pros who use Mac laptops for tasks like rendering 3D models or doing heavy duty video editing. What’s more, this family of processors is based on the next gen Skylake architecture that MacBook Pro users have been anxiously awaiting,” Sellers reports. “Sounds great, right? Just one caveat: the Xeon processor has higher power demands and produces more heat than other Intel processors.”
“Perhaps Intel has worked out all these issues — and the company hasn’t said exactly when the new Xeon chips will arrive. When they do, we could see them in MacBook Pros,” Sellers writes. “However, if that means noisier, heftier laptops (even ‘pro’ laptops) I imagine Apple will pass.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, neither diminished battery life or thicker cases with more fan activity sound like directions Apple would like to go in when it comes to portable computing.
SEE ALSO:
Intel’s Xeon: Coming soon to laptops, and what this means for Apple’s MacBook Pro – August 11, 2015
Apple may not go that way, but some of their customers might.
I guess the vast majority of tech-customers still heavily underestimate the power they have by choosing what for and where to spend money.
And imho way too many still do not really know the value of their digital profile.
But the times they are ‘changing.
Fair enough. That’s part of the free market system. If people want a 1″ thick laptop with a battery life of 2 hours that occasionally sounds like it has a wind tunnel integrated into the chassis, then fine.
The current MBPs are already quite powerful and will continue to improve with additional refinements over time. One possibility for people who really need major computing horsepower is to establish a link with a supercomputer cluster and run those tasks remotely. Depending on the task, using that approach with a “typical” laptop would probably be far more attractive to most people than lugging around a “PC Junior”-sized laptop. But each to his/her own.
Pure hyperbole on your part.
The MacBook Pro line is where Apple should provide the highest feasible performance, memory and storage and plenty of external interfaces, and power and size be damned.
In fact, there is probably a market for portables with NO battery. Mine either sits on my office desk or my home desk plugged into the wall outlet. I’d rather not lug a battery around. But I do want the capabilities of a desktop in a portable form factor.
I’d like to see these processors in MacMini’s also. Nice little rendering farms.
It’s not all about cute kids, music and watches Apple. Don’t be the next Sony. Some people actually still use your products to get work done.
Building a real Mac Pro with a lower power Xeon might make for a nice fit in the lineup.
My Mac Pro 4,1 is still chugging along and I would like to replace it. However, the stuff Apple is currently offering is in no way a good replacement. The Trashcan is overpriced and hardly upgradeable- a waste of engineering resources so Jony could make a fashion statement. The new Mac minis have vampire video- not even good vampire video- and are no longer user upgradeable for memory.
The laptops may suit Buffy, Biff and the Panhellenic Council but not anyone who needs a computer for heavy lifting. The iMac is a nice idea that is not for me- I want a discrete setup.
I’d like to see people stop putting apostrophes where they don’t belong. I don’t think either of us are gonna get what we want.
Apple might not do it because of margins. Either they will sell them and jack the price up even though it looks like there isn’t THAT much of a price difference between the chips, or they won’t do it so they won’t have to jack the price up and get into the consumer backlash of the MacBook Pro’s becoming way more expensive. Apple is in the margins game – that’s what dictates most of their decisions.
Heavier.
Less battery life.
Hotter.
Noisier.
Yup, that ought to sell like hot cakes. Maybe Apple will throw in a free Apple Watch to entice consumers.
Sounds like your perfect laptop would perform no useful work, but run forever on one battery charge.
No, my perfect laptop would perform as well as an desktop and require charging less than once daily. Does that clarfy things for you? I really can’t express myself to you in monosyllables, so please consult an adult to explain this to you.
Unless it forces you to use iCloud, Apple isn’t interested in giving you the best technology.
I would urge Apple to design a whole new system on a chip exactly the way they want it and have some unknown make it. That would burst a few paradigms. I’d love to see Wall Street shit its pants. Upper class fertilizer makes everything grow.
To get an idea of the specs other OEMs are going for, I saw yesterday a Lenovo notebook with the mobile Xeons and 64 GB (!!) of RAM. Mind you, pretty thick and the battery probably lasts long enough to move from one desk to another.