We’re still getting to know the 2016 MacBook Pro, yet people are already fantasising about what a 2018 MacBook Pro refresh might look like.
One early concept worth ogling comes to us from designer Daniel Brunsteiner of Yanko Design, who has taken the idea of the Touch Bar to an extreme and imagined a MacBook Pro that features no physical keys at all.
Rather, this mythical MacBook replaces the traditional keyboard with a giant touchpad that utilises Apple’s Taptic Engine to “give the user the feel of physical buttons.”
The main benefit of abolishing physical keys, Brunsteiner says, is that such a feature would make the Apple Pencil compatible with the MacBook, effectively giving designers a powerful on-the-go studio complete with turbo-charged versions of popular apps like Photoshop.
As a feature, it isn’t actually that out of the question, given Apple’s popularity with creative types.
Could Apple really launch such a radically redesigned MacBook in 2018? As we’ve said, the ‘killer feature’ here makes a whole lot of sense, but next year might be just a bit too soon, given the Pro line got such a major reboot in 2016.
Sоurсе: trustedreviews.com
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This would be amazing in some ways, but typing on a screen (like an iPad) doesn’t match typing on a physical keyboard, taptic engine or not. The ‘MacBook One’, and to some extent the 2016 MBP, have been criticised for insufficient key travel and the fixed trackpad. Perhaps OLED screens could be flexible enough to enable mechanical switches under the screen, ‘Speak and Spell’ style? Though it really needs to be glass to have a quality, long-lived feel.
This design would also be poor value for those who primarily need to type, rather than paint / retouch. A giant second screen in front of the keyboard, acting as a trackpad / ‘iPad’ could be pretty cool, as long as the palm rejection was effective. Though being all-screen is conceptually purer.
Yes! With an 18″ screen and decent stereo speakers. That would make this designers dreams come true. Sign me up!
For the 2016 model, I don’t know why they decided to replace the function keys with a tiny touch panel instead of putting a touch screen into the enormous trackpad: you know, the part that’s much bigger, shaped like a normal screen, has Taptic feedback and which you spend all your time touching anyway. They could have added much more useful and interesting functions with that approach.
more fan fiction. hurrah. any solid news?!