18 inch MBP?

[Onimusha370]

Hey everyone, I was thinking today whether there would still be appetite for a bigger MacBook Pro, i.e. an updated 17 inch like the one from 2006-2011. I personally never owned that monster, but having recently bought an M1 Pro 16 inch MBP, I can't help but think that an even bigger MBP with apple silicon would be amazing. Obviously quite a niche product, but personally I hardly move the laptop around so having a "mobile desktop" would be amazing. I wonder whether the extra few inches would allow an M1 Ultra to squeeze in as well (maybe wishful thinking and would obviously eat through battery!)

Cool to get peoples thoughts on whether they'd consider it in 2022.

 

[HappyInCalgary]

I would certainly consider an 18" Macbook Pro. I have the 17" and love it. I would be happy with the M2 Pro or whatever iteration is next.

 

[Falhófnir]

A portable-in-a-pinch desktop replacement 18" would be quite something, but I don't see it happening. Maybe they will eventually edge up the MBP models from 14.2 and 16.2 to 15.0 and 17.0 inch sizes? The 14" currently seems to be right on the edge of being able to handle the Max chip, and with ever more cores and higher clocks, a bit more room inside might be welcome. A 17" with minimal footprint would be some people's ideal machine, but it's whether it could attract the sales numbers it'd need to. The possibility of an M1 Ultra in a slightly bigger 17" would be interesting, considering the 16" already easily handles the Max chip. That might just provide the justification for doing it.

 

[JahBoolean]

Seeing how apple handled the iPhone mini's success, considering the size of that niche as opposed to this one and add to that the fact that one such device would warrant significant rnd and tooling, not going to happen.

As for the practicals of it, I recently chose to rock a 14'' down from my 15.6'' . I do a lot of my computing on a sofa nowadays, the size of the latter model started to prove itself to be unwieldy. I've also embraced the whole external monitor schtick. It represents the better of both worlds for me. And I'm feeling that most of the power users that would warrant such a setup also adopted this mantra.

 

[JPack]

Such a size would be so niche and far too heavy to carry. Apple would probably make a portable display with internal battery before considering an 18-inch MacBook Pro. It would attract far more MacBook customers than a gigantic notebook.

 

[pshufd]

I don't see it happening. They deliberately dropped the 17. If you need more screen space, you can bring along an iPad and use it as a second screen.

 

[Sterkenburg]

The classic Unibody 17" was fantastic, I have been missing that big screen ever since Apple retired it, but I found the new 16" to fill that niche just fine for me. I don't mind the added size and weight compared to the old models and it sits right on the edge of what I consider a good specs/portability tradeoff. But more than that would be excessive.

 

[Appletoni]

Hey everyone, I was thinking today whether there would still be appetite for a bigger MacBook Pro, i.e. an updated 17 inch like the one from 2006-2011. I personally never owned that monster, but having recently bought an M1 Pro 16 inch MBP, I can't help but think that an even bigger MBP with apple silicon would be amazing. Obviously quite a niche product, but personally I hardly move the laptop around so having a "mobile desktop" would be amazing. I wonder whether the extra few inches would allow an M1 Ultra to squeeze in as well (maybe wishful thinking and would obviously eat through battery!)

Cool to get peoples thoughts on whether they'd consider it in 2022.

16-inch has a very little screen.
I know a lot people which have 18-inch laptops.
You can buy a 20-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Ultra chip for the Ultra professional user.

 

[MajorFubar]

It won't happen. 18" would sell in such small numbers because of its size and weight that its ROI probably wouldn't even balance the books. Also an 18" screen of that quality would add at least as much to its price compared to the 16" as the current difference between the 14" and 16", may be more. So for most people that same money could be better spent buying a better-specified Macbook and plugging it into an external display when they need to. The 14" and 16" marked a return to Apple including ports that make it really simple for Macbook owners to use them with an external display, heck even with most TVs made in the last 20 years, if all you need is a bigger screen and not the ultra high resolution.

I'm seeing zero sustainable market for this product, so as the Dragons would say, sorry but I'm out.

 

[Bug-Creator]

i.e. an updated 17 inch like the one from 2006-2011. I personally never owned that monster,

I used to carry around a lastgen PowerBook and while it was heavy and bulky it was for sure no "monster".

It won't happen. 18" would sell in such small numbers because of its size and weight that its ROI probably wouldn't even balance the books.

Depends on what the would put into it. Just the same SoCs as in the 14 and 16"? Source a bigger screen, tool a case and extend the motherboard. No magic involved and the break even point would be low. If they put something like a M1Ultra in it, it would cost a lot more but it would also cost a lot more.

The real issue is if those 18" profits are additional profits or just eating away 16" profits. On top of that keeping the logistic chains feed with even more SKUs isn't really what they would want.

 

[DHagan4755]

Oooo this is a tough one. I'd be tempted. Though I can see both sides of Apple making something like this. But is the juice worth the squeeze? With a footprint that large, Apple would need to balance that out somehow & the current design would make it feel bulky.

 

[xxray]

I would be interested, but I’d likely be too priced out to justify.

 

[Appletoni]

It won't happen. 18" would sell in such small numbers because of its size and weight that its ROI probably wouldn't even balance the books. Also an 18" screen of that quality would add at least as much to its price compared to the 16" as the current difference

Interesting I heard exactly the same thing about the 16-inch Macbook Pro before and also about the 11-inch iPad Pro and later about the 13-inch iPad Pro.
We know the results.
= We have more than enough people which will buy it.

 

[pshufd]

If you need more screen space, you can use a program like EasyRes to increase the resolution. I do that sometimes on my MBP 16 changing the resolution to 2,560 x 1,600 or sometimes native resolution. That is one thing that you couldn't do with the old 17 inch MacBook Pros as the max resolution was WUXGA.

 

[MajorFubar]

Interesting I heard exactly the same thing about the 16-inch Macbook Pro before and also about the 11-inch iPad Pro and later about the 13-inch iPad Pro.
We know the results.
= We have more than enough people which will buy it.

I didn't hear any negativity about the 16" MBP. However the general shift from 13"->14" and from 15"->16" was achieved by narrowing the bezels, giving us devices which were physically no bigger than the models they replaced.

I'm struggling to see who would buy it in big numbers. Too heavy, too big, awful battery life unless Apple breaches the limit you can take on a plane. Mainly would be bought by people who would use it as a desktop solution. And they'd be better served by a Mini/Studio + monitor or the existing 24" iMac. An 18" MBP is going to be probably at least the size of the old 17", and we all know that was discontinued because it didn't sell enough.

I can't comment on the iPads.

 

[Onimusha370]

I used to carry around a lastgen PowerBook and while it was heavy and bulky it was for sure no "monster".



Depends on what the would put into it. Just the same SoCs as in the 14 and 16"? Source a bigger screen, tool a case and extend the motherboard. No magic involved and the break even point would be low. If they put something like a M1Ultra in it, it would cost a lot more but it would also cost a lot more.

The real issue is if those 18" profits are additional profits or just eating away 16" profits. On top of that keeping the logistic chains feed with even more SKUs isn't really what they would want.

Agree - I don’t think it would require too much effort to put the guts of the 16 inch into an 18 inch with a bigger battery. They could even keep the battery size the same and make the design a bit thinner/lighter to offset the bigger size. Apple always seem happy to cannibalise their own sales so I’m hopeful that isn’t the reason they’re not making a bigger MacBook.

The more I think about it, the more I think they’d only release an 18 inch if they could offer something different to the 14 and 16 inch, i.e. additional ports (extra thunderbolt, maybe even Ethernet?). An M1 Ultra would really set it apart and I personally would love this setup, even if it had to be a bit thicker than the current 14/16 inch or required being plugged in to get 100% of the Ultra’s potential. Fun to think about

 

[pshufd]

Example of external 17.3 inch 4k portable external monitor. If you really want more screen space, then just get a second display and you really solve the problem of more screen space as you have a whole extra display.

UPERFECT Portable Monitor 4K, 17.3'' UHD FreeSync 100% Adob-e RGB 500 Nits Brightness HDR IPS 2 Speakers Eye Care Game Display Type-C HDMI for X-Box PS-4 Switch Laptop PC Phone, VESA & Smart Case

1

www.amazon.com

 

[Onimusha370]

I didn't hear any negativity about the 16" MBP. However the general shift from 13"->14" and from 15"->16" was achieved by narrowing the bezels and giving us devices which were physically no bigger than the models they replaced. An 18" device is going to have to be some mammoth sized machine where the increase in screen size can no longer be achieved by thinning-down the bezels.

I'm struggling to see who would buy it in big numbers. Too heavy, too big, awful battery life unless Apple breaches the 160WH limit you can take on a plane. Mainly would be bought by people who would use it as a desktop solution. And they'd be better served by a Mini/Studio + monitor.

I can't comment on the iPads. I tend not to follow iPad rumours.

Agree it would be niche, but there was still a healthy market for the old 17 inch PowerBook/MBP.

Interesting point on battery life, I wouldn’t have thought the extra 2 inches of screen would make a dramatic difference to battery life though? Maybe 1 hour less in real world use? I think at the 18 inch size you’d struggle to find space on a plane to use it - so maybe they’d be happy to breach that magic number and give us even better battery life than the 16 inch?

For me an 18 inch MBP would be a much better portable desktop than a Studio+external monitor. That setup feels clunky in comparison.

 

[MajorFubar]

Be interesting to know, of those manufacturers who do sell laptops with screens bigger than 16", what percentage of their sales do those machines represent and who is the target demographic. It's sure not people who lug them around very much.

 

[darngooddesign]

Hey everyone, I was thinking today whether there would still be appetite for a bigger MacBook Pro, i.e. an updated 17 inch like the one from 2006-2011. I personally never owned that monster, but having recently bought an M1 Pro 16 inch MBP, I can't help but think that an even bigger MBP with apple silicon would be amazing. Obviously quite a niche product, but personally I hardly move the laptop around so having a "mobile desktop" would be amazing. I wonder whether the extra few inches would allow an M1 Ultra to squeeze in as well (maybe wishful thinking and would obviously eat through battery!)

Cool to get peoples thoughts on whether they'd consider it in 2022.

An 18" MBP would be cool but I don't see Apple putting the Ultra in it due to insufficient cooling. The Ultra Studio's heatsink is two pounds heavier than the Max Studio's heatsink, and that's with a massive fan sitting on top of it, so the Ultra MBP would be a lot heavier and thicker to accommodate that chip.

But think about the wicked battery-life the M1Max would get from it.

 

[Falhófnir]

Be interesting to know, of those manufacturers who do sell laptops with screens bigger than 16", what percentage of their sales do those machines represent and who is the target demographic. It's sure not people who lug them around very much.

17" laptops have made a real resurgence since the small bezel trend has allowed them to be smaller. In the middle of last decade they'd almost died out apart from a few gaming laptops, now you have the likes of the LG gram 17, HP envy 17 and Dell XPS 17. In general people seem to want bigger screened devices across the board.

 

[TracerAnalog]

Such a size would be so niche and far too heavy to carry. Apple would probably make a portable display with internal battery before considering an 18-inch MacBook Pro. It would attract far more MacBook customers than a gigantic notebook.

You mean an iMac with a battery. Excellent idea 😊

 

[Nbd1790]

I'm not sure it would sell well. I know the 17 inch MBP had its users, sure. But very few people in the bigger picture of things actually bought that thing. The current 16 inch MBP really treads a fine line of being "portable". I feel like an 18 inch model would be way too big for a laptop. A that point, the user is most likely better off considering a desktop model or an external monitor when they want more screen real estate.

I was a 15 inch user for several years and do a lot of Photoshop and Audio Editing and switched to the 14 inch model when it came out. I most likely wouldn't consider getting a larger laptop than this again and appreciate the portability aspect tremendously. (I use a 27inch monitor at home which I do a lot of my longer sessions on)

Not to mention the endless amount of options that exist in the portable PC world, and yet I can't remember when I saw anything larger than a 15 inch model in the wild.

 

[mreg376]

I used to carry around a lastgen PowerBook and while it was heavy and bulky it was for sure no "monster".



Depends on what the would put into it. Just the same SoCs as in the 14 and 16"? Source a bigger screen, tool a case and extend the motherboard. No magic involved and the break even point would be low.

I disagree. I think an 18" XDR-type screen with Pro Motion and the same proportional specs would be very expensive.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

Before switching to Apple devices, I used to own a 17” laptop that I had bought for some game dev and gaming needs.
Not a monster hardware-wise - but the weight was awful.

As a desktop replacement I would maybe consider something like that again but not as a device I actually take with me.
For a device to take with me, I don’t think I’ll ever buy anything bigger than 14” again.