Cult of Mac has gotten their hands on some leaked pictures which they claim show the bottom portion of an upcoming MacBook Pro which is part of a total refresh of the computer, complete with a slimmer form factor and a cutout for the rumored OLED touch display bar.
This bar in question is supposedly going to replace the function keys at the top of the keyboard of the MacBook Pro and reportedly feature the different operations you can make on said keys as buttons and shortcuts which could be interchangeable and rearrangeable. According to the pictures, this seems to be true as there’s a big rectangle cut out where the function keys should be on the computer. Different publications from around the web suggest that different shortcuts assigned to different applications may pop up on this bar and be accessible via a flex of your arm to make multitasking more snappier. I’d like to see OS X’s dock be accessible via this touch bar. That would make more applications more reachable much faster. But hey, that’s just me…
Not much else can be found in the new photos, however all three sides of the MacBook Pro frame can be seen and give us a glimpse at what the next generation MacBook Pros will be bringing to the table feature-wise. These shots seem to indicate that four USB-C ports and a headphone jack will be built into the new laptop for data transfer and listening to media, however no USB Type-A ports are cut out in this leaked frame or even an SD card reader. This indicates that Apple must have their heart set on USB-C and want to flick that magical switch on more of their products much like they did first with the 2015 MacBook.
A slimmer form factor is hard to rule out in these leaks. It appears that this new frame shares the same (if not very similar) thickness to the current MacBook Pro’s, so don’t expect a very big difference between the dimensions between the 2016 MacBook Pro and previous models.
The speakers of the 13-inch MacBook Pro seem to be repositioned to either side of the keyboard like the 15-inch model has featured for quite some time. Previously, the speakers of the 13-inch model were hidden behind the keyboard, so now that the sound will be facing the user, the experience using the new MacBook Pro will be much more immersive.
Skeptics will most certainly criticize these leaks as being fakes or just simple mockups according to the latest rumors. However, I believe that these are most likely genuine photos of the upcoming MacBook Pros. Of course, they do oddly line up with recent reports almost perfectly, however I’ve got a feeling that you can expect these same looks and features at WWDC when everyone expects these new computers to go live.
Source: Cult of Mac via 9to5Mac
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