It’s been over a year since we first heard about Apple’s plans for a total redesign of the MacBook Pro, and we’re expecting to see the results later this year.
While the Cupertino company is predictably expected to head even further down the path of thinner and sleeker laptops, it’s interesting to note that several PC brands are headed in the opposite direction …
Apple’s quest for slimmer MacBooks
While Apple Silicon MacBooks offered dramatically better performance and power efficiency in a significantly sleeker form factor, the integrated nature of the chips and circuit boards meant the end to easy DIY upgrades of RAM and SSDs.
And as my colleague Ryan Christoffel recently noted, that wasn’t the only drawback to Apple’s quest to make the machines as thin as possible.
Apple launched a MacBook Pro in 2016 that became infamous for prioritizing form over function. It was thinner and lighter than the previous model, but with two major drawbacks: all ports except USB-C were dropped to achieve the thin body, and the new butterfly keyboard proved unreliable due to sticking keys.
2026 MacBook Pro expectations
Top comment by Fats
PCs are inherently more unreliable, notorious for being made with cheaper commodity components that fail much earlier than a well built and designed Mac (I’ve never had a Mac battery, display or keyboard die before the computer was obsolete - usually at about 7-8 years). So unless you can swap out the motherboard/CPU, being able to swap out other components doesn’t matter. I would not invest in replacing any components in an 8 year old computer, since even the bus, I/O, networking components are unable to support the latest much faster tech.
While Apple reversed course on the keyboard, and made the replacement model slightly thicker to accommodate it, we’re now expecting a thinner model later this year incorporating an OLED screen.
Other possibilities include a touchscreen display and cellular data support.
But Dell, HP, and Lenovo taking a different path
As CNET reports, however, three PC brands are headed in the opposite direction.
Dell, HP and Lenovo have each announced new laptop designs that make it easier to repair or replace individual components to help extend the lifespan of the product. This approach is a throwback to the days before everything inside a laptop was soldered to the motherboard or otherwise difficult to access and remove.
These computer makers have heard from the customers […] that they want to be able to replace the keyboard, battery and other parts when they break or get too worn out instead of needing to spend a lot more money on a full system replacement. This trend also showed up in […] a gaming laptop from MSI that’s easier to service and upgrade the RAM and SSD.
What’s your view? Is Apple’s constant push to make MacBooks ever slimmer and lighter worth the repair and upgrade sacrifices? Or would you like to see the company follow the examples of the PC brands named? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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