Apple's latest MacBook Pro Retina is expected to ship just after the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and recent rumors suggest that the Broadwell processor will be scrapped in favor of an even more powerful and efficient successor.
The MacBook Pro Retina is already a popular line of laptops for the Cupertino, California tech company, but the latest version for 2015 is expected to sport both a 13- and 15-inch display and feature a much beefier processing chip. Originally thought to be Intel's Broadwell line, which includes the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and fanless Core M, new rumors suggest that Apple was holding off on releasing the latest MacBook Pro Retina to be the first to feature Intel's brand new Skylake 14 nm processor.
The Skylake is the first 14 nm (nanometer) chip that is a vast upgrade from the current 22 nm/20 nm chips you see in all the latest CPUs. While the Core M is technically the first to be manufactured using 14 nm tech, the Skylake is the first series of Intel chips with the ultra-thin technology.
So why is a lower nanometer number better when it comes to processing chips? "Intel's 14 nm technology provides good dimensional scaling from 22 nm," Intel's website states. "The transistor fins are taller, thinner, and more closely spaced for improved density and lower capacitance. Improved transistors require fewer fins further improving density, and the SRAM cell size is almost half the area of that in 22 nm."
But it may still be a little too early for us to see the Skylake chips this year as the Broadwells are just now debuting in the latest high-end devices. Either way, the Broadwell or the Skylake will be a significant improvement over the MacBook Pro's current Haswell processor that some Apple fans already don't like. Apple took the feedback from 2014 and realized that a significant improvement had to be made to the processors in the MacBook Pros, and 2015 should reinvigorate the line.
The 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro Retina is said to include 8 GB of RAM while the 15-inch model will have 16 GB, but both displays are said to feature 4K resolution with TouchID sensors and an improved TrackPad over 2014's model.
It was originally believed that the latest MacBook Pro Retina would be announced during a February 24 event, but that information turned out to not be true. The reasons for this delay range from a not-ready-for-prime-time iPad Pro that's rumored to be shown off, and the MacBook Pro Retina itself. Of course, the Apple Watch may also be a culprit if it's not yet ready for pre-orders.
This brings us to the next big event expected from Apple: the WWDC 2015. The June developer's event in San Francisco is held each year at the Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco, and a little slip on the schedule from last year showed what may be the exact dates of the event.
Just after the 2014 WWDC, the Moscone Center released 2015's schedule which included a "Corporate Event" from June 8th through the 12th. Keen observes took note, realizing that Apple has used this terminology before, and the Moscone Center quickly removed the listing, leaving a gaping hole in the schedule for those dates.
As MacWorld points out, "Whether this is to quash press speculation (or to further hype it up, cynicism fans!) or because Apple has changed its plans, we don't know. But 8-12 June 2015 remains a wholly plausible set of dates: a Monday to Friday in early to mid June, Apple's traditional timing for WWDC events."
Although this annual event has traditionally revealed more software than hardware, it's not entirely out of the question for Apple to reveal the MacBook Pro Retina, or even that rumored iPad Pro, at this year's event.
