16-Inch MacBook Pro render by Ben Geskin.
[UPDATE] The 16-inch MacBook Pro will begin production next month and could mean the end of the longstanding 15.4-inch MBP, IHS Markit said.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro will start production in September, IHS Market's Jeff Lin said in an email on Saturday.
The 16-inch MBP will use the Intel Coffee Lake-H Refresh, he said. The latest Coffee Lake H mobile series was released in the second quarter of this year and is Intel's fastest 45-watt mobile processor to date boasting as many as 8 cores. Those processors are currently used on the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro.
The "15.4 [inch] MacBook [Pro] will...end production...Nov’19," Lin said in his note. "We think 15.4 [inch] MacBook volumes will shift to 16 [inch]," he added.
Update: Lin had been tentative about the end of 15.4-inch MacBook production in his first email. In a second email he said that "it is confirmed from OEM & panel supplier" that 15.4-inch MacBook Pro production will end in November. "I am pretty sure that MacBook 15.4” will be EOL [End-of-Life]," he added.
The switch to a 16-inch-class display may not affect the size of the MacBook Pro, however, according to a report in Digitimes. So, consumers could be getting essentially the current 15.4-inch chassis but with a larger display.
Other 16-inch MBP details include a display with a resolution of 227 pixels per inch, the same as 13.3-inch MacBook Pro.
12-inch MacBook ending production
The 12-inch MacBook will end production in August, Lin said.
The 2-pound MacBook, introduced in 2015, was Apple's attempt to reinvent the original MacBook Air introduced by Steve Jobs in 2008. But it was discontinued when Apple revamped the 13-inch MacBook Air in 2018.
The 12-inch MacBook was getting the fire sale treatment this weekend at retailers like Best Buy, where it was discounted by $500.
End of the line for the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro?
