This year, Apple will replace the last MacBook laptop it still sells with Touch Bar with a model without the OLED strip above the keyboard. This would put an end to the attempt to replace the function keys after six years.
The laptop, the cheaper version of the MacBook Pro, will get regular function keys just like the most expensive MacBook Pros last year, 9to5Mac reports, based on a closed section of the newsletter from Bloomberg editor Mark Gurman. The current version of the laptop, from November 2020 and equipped with an M1 soc, does have a Touch Bar.
Apple wants to differentiate the cheaper MacBook Pro from the more expensive versions by applying downgrades in the area of screen, storage and processor. The processor will be the M2, which will probably be less powerful than the M1 Pro and M1 Max from last year’s MacBook Pros. The M2 is probably more powerful than the M1 from two years ago. According to Gurman, the M2 processor will not only come in the new cheaper MacBook Pro, but also in a 24 “iMac, the MacBook Air and the Mac mini.
Nothing is known about the storage yet, but the screen does not have a 120Hz refresh rate, according to Gurman. It will also not be a mini LED, but a regular LCD. Gurman previously said the laptop would be released in the fall. Apple has not responded to this rumor.
Apple MacBook Pro 2020 with Touch Bar