This means landscape orientation when Facetiming in tablet mode, but this is a price worth paying – it will be more useful to Facetime in laptop mode anyway. The front-facing camera would have to be situated on the top-right of the outer case of the lid (like on an iPad), with the Facetime camera top-centre (like on a MacBook). It's beginning to look like a MacPad Pro will either have to be underpowered as a pro laptop (think more like standard MacBook, which is still comfortably able to run Adobe CC software, for example) or Apple will require a new chipset for it to become reality… Neither of these are fatal blows to our imagined Mac mashup, so let's plough on. How about a second A10X processor in the base unit, working in tandem with the one in the lid to create a multiprocessor setup? This has no precedent with Apple machines and would require fantasy-level changes in the way Apple constructs its logic board. The processors will not necessarily have to work in tandem, but the idea that an Intel chip and ARM chip could reside in the same computer is fanciful so some compromise will have to be made.Ĭould a separate GPU and RAM expansion live in the base? Not as things stand – Apple's mobile chipset contains its own graphics capabilities built-in. It would contain a larger, laptop-sized battery which could share its charge with the docked touchscreen, and it too will have a processor to power the latest macOS in laptop mode, as the A10X will not be adequate for processor-hungry professional design applications.īut here is where the first fudge will have to appear (not literally). Meanwhile, the base station would look like the keyboard half of a 2016 MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar version). The detachable touchscreen would contain its own battery, A10X chip, flash storage, and would run iOS – to all intents and purposes, it would be just like an iPad Pro 12.9 when detached from the base station. Press the eject button and voila: an iPad Pro The iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) has a 2732x2048 resolution, 264 ppi touchscreen in a 4:3 ratio, which is squarer than the latest MacBook Pro's 16x10 ratio screen, but would allow the MacPad Pro to contain a much larger trackpad (more on that later) or even a recess for the Apple Pencil in the base above the function keys. With a 13-inch MacBook Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro in existence, it is a no-brainer that the MacPad Pro would be available in something around that size – perhaps the overall unit would be a touch larger than the MacBook Pro 13-inch due to the need for a larger screen bezel to house the removable iPad. What we'll do is draw up a wish list based on what Apple produces now or has plans for. This is a fantastical product mockup we're talking about, and technological progress ensures unforeseen possibilities in terms of screen tech, processors, interface and beyond. We're not going to go mad picking apart what is possible and impossible, likely or unlikely, here. MacOS's Launchpad already closely resembles the iOS home screen Spec foresight A hinge lock will have to be included, and this could see the return of the eject button next to the function keys (not seen since the death of the optical drive) to release the screen/iPad. However, iPads are extremely light, so perhaps with some clever magnetic hinges and connectors (the return of Magsafe, perhaps, to charge the 'iPad' from the base?) and a tilt-stop to ensure the angle is not too perilous, the dreaded topple will be avoided. Plus, Apple's obsession with the light and slender means it would NEVER counterweight one of its products. Microsoft's solution for the Surface Book is ingenious but ugly, and Apple has no truck with the ungainly. Tablets are heavier than screens, so something clever is required in the hinge department to stop your MacPad toppling over in laptop mode. We'd love to see some sort of e-ink logo that automatically rotates from MacBook-style landscape orientation to iPad-style portrait once detached from the base, but it is more reasonable to expect that Apple would favour the logo's laptop orientation.Īnother problem is the hinge. The detachable screen/iPad presents many design issues, one being the orientation of the Apple symbol on the rear. Closed, the MacPad Pro would closely resemble a MacBook
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