The 2017 MacBook Pro update will be pegged to one thing: processors. But even that change will be more of a ripple than a wave.
Intel's Kaby Lake processors will be the one change that matters. Remember, the big design change has already happened. As of late 2016, the design of all MacBooks has been overhauled -- save the MacBook Air, which will likely do a slow fade.*
Don't hold your breath
So, don't hold your breath this year for something that looks any different from what you see today at the Apple Store.
And I wouldn't hold my breath for huge performance gains either. Despite the fact that all of the new MacBooks are equipped with Intel's older Skylake processor (i.e., the chip most PC laptop vendors were already using in new high-end models by the spring of 2016), the jump to Kaby Lake won't blow you away.
As MobileTechReview points out when comparing the performance of Dell's Skylake-based XPS 13 with the Kaby Lake XPS 13: "This isn't much different than the last generation," the reviewer said, referring to the Kaby Lake XPS 13.
And remember, Apple isn't stupid just cautious. What matters the most is that Apple made the jump to Intel's next micro-architecture, bringing with it Intel's Speed Shift technology and improved thermals.
Of course with new Kaby Lake models we can expect Apple to boost the performance of the solid-state drive (SSD) but I'm seeing diminishing returns. I have a couple of Skylake laptops (including a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and 12-inch MacBook) as well as a couple of new Kaby Lake laptops. In day-to-day real-world use, both processor and SSD performance improvement is incremental. Translation: I don't notice the difference in 90 percent of the stuff I do every day. (Though if you do things that involve a lot of video decoding, it can make a difference.)
And the processor half of that equation is pretty easy to explain. Intel has been on a crusade to make its processors more power efficient. So battery life and heat (or reduction thereof) are what it's aiming at -- not sustained speed.
Release Date, New Specs
Apple could launch next-generation MacBook Pro models at any point following the release of macOS 10.12.4, as indicated by MacRumors. But, as MacRumors (and I) would emphasize, the late 2016 models are still pretty fresh. WWDC 2017 in June is always possible but fall is just as likely.
And KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently said that Kaby Lake-based MacBook Pros will enter mass production early in the third quarter. Kuo also mentioned a 15-inch MacBook with 32GB of RAM (Skylake 15-inch MBP tops off at 16GB), with mass production expected to begin early in the fourth quarter, i.e., fall time frame.
*NOTE: The 13-inch MacBook Air is in the process of being replaced by the 13-inch MacBook Pro sans-Touch-Bar model (which is already seeing lots of $100-$200 discounts, making its price effectively $1,299 - $1,399 instead of the list $1,499).
