Taiwanese IT newspaper, Digitimes, has reported that Apple’s 2020 MacBooks could come with 5G connectivity support, with the California-based company possibly considering a ceramic antenna which will supposedly improve 5G reception and transmission speed.
This might just be pure speculation at this point, given that there isn’t any solid evidence supporting Digitimes’ claims as of yet—especially for such a short timeframe, 2020. At the moment, what is seems more likely is that only the iPhone will come with 5G in 2020.
According to the report, the ceramic antenna that Apple is supposedly considering over conventional metal materials will double standard 5G speeds, although they will also cost 6 times as much. This would probably skyrocket the already expensive MacBook lineup, which is saying something.
This comes after more reports from Forbes and IHS Markit that Apple is planning to release a larger 16″ MacBook Pro later this year, with the laptop to feature a new scissor-switch-mechanism keyboard. This wouldn’t be terrible news—Apple’s notorious butterfly keyboard has certainly drawn a fair amount of flak in recent years for its unreliability.
The 16″ panel would push a resolution of 3072×1920, which would mark an increase from the 2880×1800 resolution that Apple’s current 15″ laptops have featured since they introduced Retina displays in 2012. The larger MacBook would probably take up a new slot in Apple’s Mac lineup, given that the 15″ Macbook Pro has already been refreshed in 2019. The suggested price would be US$3,000 (around RM12,465).
