Thinner Apple MacBook Pro With Retina Display Coming

A mockup of the new MacBook Pro. Image credit: 9to5Mac

Right now would not be the best time to buy a new MacBook Pro from Apple.

Why? Because it most certainly looks like a new version is on the way.

Apple has been rumored for quite a while to be trimming down its 15-inch MacBook Pro, and a few new details give us an idea about what the new laptop might look like. 9to5Mac has heard from its own sources in Apple's supply chain that the new laptop will have a "jaw-dropping" Retina Display, USB 3.0, and a thinner build. Think some place in between the current MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

"Instead, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro is described as being an ultra-thin version of the current MacBook Pro. Basically, the prototype design is a thinner, yet more robust, version of the late-2008 design," 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman says the laptop will be thinner because it will no longer have a CD / DVD drive. It will keep the unibody aluminum case that the current MacBook Pros and the MacBook Air have.

While the design of the laptop might be similar (though thinner), the part of the laptop you spend the most time looking at is getting a major overhaul - the screen. The laptop will see the introduction of the "Mac Retina Display," which is said to have a very high resolution. ABC News has similarly heard from its own sources that both the next MacBook Pro and the iMac would be getting very, very high resolution displays. Apple refreshed its new iPad with a Retina Display in March.

The new laptops are expected to be powered by Intel's latest processors, called Ivy Bridge. Those processors will be faster than the current generation of Intel processors and improve graphics. However, the laptops will also get a graphics boost  from Nvidia's latest graphics, the GeForce GT 650M card.  ABC News has heard the same from its sources, which say Apple will move from AMD to Nvidia graphics chips in this version of the MacBook Pro.

Of course everything is just hearsay until Apple pulls the curtain off its new products. But something tells us the upcoming World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC), which begins on June 11, would be a great time for Tim Cook to tell us a bit about this new "jaw-dropping" laptop display. Either way, we'd hold off on buying a MacBook Pro for a month or so.