Report: Lighter, Cheaper, Longer-Lasting & LiquidMetal MacBook Pros Incoming

John Brownlee (8:02 am PDT, Feb 16 2011)

Report: Lighter, Cheaper, Longer-Lasting & LiquidMetal MacBook Pros Incoming

Last year, Apple signed an exclusive agreement to use Liquidmetal — a high-strength metal that is light and can be processed like plastic — in their future products.

An ex Liquidmetal exec thought Apple would make iPhones out of it. A source speaking to MacTrast, though, says that Apple’s Liquidmetal investment won’t debut in the iOS line, but instead in March’s MacBook Pro refresh… which looks like a far more radical redesign than previously suspected.

Since Liquidmetal is both stronger and lighter than aluminum, a Liquidmetal MacBook Pro could be up to 20% lighter than current models. That means the 13-inch Pro will weigh only 3.7 pounds (down from 4.5),while the 15-inch will slim down to 4.6 pounds (from 5.8) and the 17-inch to 5.3 pounds (from 6.6).

Additionally, the report says that Apple has managed to improve battery life by up to 20% over current models, while simultaneously lowering power consumption thanks to a new type of display. Combined, this might drastically increase the already impressive battery life of the MacBook Pro line.

Hardware-wise, all MacBook Pros will be updated to Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, which we’ve heard before. All around, the new Pros will receive the higher-res, build-to-order displays of the current models as stock, bumping the 13-inch Pro to a base res of 1440 x 900 in both glossy and matte finish.

Intriguingly, though, the 15- and 17-inch models are said to be gaining a modular bay for the optical drive, which will allow it to be easily swapped with a secondary hard drive or other SATA device. Although MacTrast doesn’t specifically say so, this strongly implies ubiquitous SSDs to me, with users allowed to swap out an optical drive or larger external hard drive as needed.

Finally, MacTrast’s sources say the prices of the new MacBook Pros will be more aggressive than ever, with the 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1099, the 15-inch costing $1549 and the 17-inch starting at $2099.

This is the most exciting rumor we’ve seen about the new MacBook Pros yet. It’s a major revision of the current line. We have mixed feelings on the accuracy of the report — it seems too early in the partnership for Apple to be rolling out Liquidmetal in such quantities, for one; it’s a big jump from iPhone SIM ejection tool to a full laptop chassis — but a modular optical drive / HDD bay makes a lot of sense as a “missing link” mutation as Apple laptops evolve away from physical media and towards solid state flash memory.

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40 comments »

  • http://www.wirtzfeldvalley.com Hubert Savelberg

    Liquidmetal is also being described as much more scratch resistant…

    “… Because of the alloys’ high strength cases could be super thin and very light. They would be scatch-proof and corrosion-resistant….”

    • Tommy

      LQMT recieves no royalties from APPLE.

      Apple clearly wasn’t interested in inheriting this mess so Liquidmetal’s IP was transferred to a wholly owned subsidiary which then licensed it to Apple for use in consumer electronics and to Liquidmetal for use in all other fields. The intent was likely to hold the IP bankruptcy remote from the declining company to protect Apple’s license in the worst case.

      The license is “perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive” “in the field of consumer electronic products”. So they got a one-time payment without royalties for these privileges. But they didn’t announce how much they received.

  • wemac.se

    Don’t forget that Apple probably did use Liquid Metal in the ejector tool for the iPhone!

    http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/17/liquidmetal_created_sim_ejector_tool_for_apples_iphone_ipad.html

    Hope to see this one in macbook pros soon!

  • nacra

    My pants are soiled.

  • Actionable Mango

    If it’s cheaper, let’s hope they pass on the savings to the consumer.

    • Apple Turnover

      Nope, they’ll just take more profit. Can’t be throwing good money down the drain. They’re making the product last longer for you, so you still come out ahead.

      • Mark Thompson

        If you read any article about the pricing… even this one, it says that apple plans on lowering the pricing “the prices of the new MacBook Pros will be more aggressive than ever”

    • Gazoobee

      Liquid metal is actually more expensive than any other metal they could use. There might be savings in volume production as with the unibody thing, but technically it’s a move to a more expensive material, not a cheaper one.

      • Colin

        You are only thinking about material and missing out on the manufacturing. The current MacBook Pro cases are milled on expensive machines that take time. Liquid metal raw materials may cost more, but you are missing the whole “a high-strength metal that is light and can be processed like plastic”.

        Sounds like Apple can produce any shape it would like by making a mold.
        If you look at the video below around the 3:09 mark, you see the solid block of metal that is cut by the machine behind the guy talking.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0fe800C2CU

  • Jared Millies

    Holy cow this is awesome! I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us! This is awesome news!

    • Michael H.

      Calm down, and don’t get your hopes up. This is just a rumor — and according to the article we all just read, it’s not a particularly reliable rumor at that. Don’t blame Apple if the new MBP doesn’t have Liquid Metal inside and unicorn sprinkles on top.

  • http://www.about.me/deepak.selvaraj Deepak Selvaraj

    WOW! The most exciting MacBook Pro rumor heard so far…Liquidmetal seems too early but I really hope they kick out the SuperDrive in the 13″ Pro atleast

  • Durvivor

    So… It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that Apple may cast the iPad 2 out of LiquidMetal right?

  • Michelle

    Unbelievable!

  • Silster

    I’d like to put a question mark regarding those weight reductions mentioned in the article. They seem to be based on just taking 80% of the entire (current) MPB weight. This would be justified if the chassis made up the entirety of the weight of the machine. However, my assumption is that, although it’s a major contributing factor to the overall weight, the chassis is but one of many. I imagine the screen, optical drive and hard drive, not to mention the battery would make up a lot more of the overall weight, Those would (I imagine) be unaffected by the use of liquid metal.

  • Nick

    Seems a little too good to be true. Liquidmetal has been an expensive alloy using zirconium and other precious metals. I would think Liquidmetal is far more likely to come to the iPhone before Macbook Pro’s. More aggressive price points- definitely. With computers and laptops getting cheaper and cheaper, Apple has got to drop prices and increase specs to remain competitive. It is totally reasonable for them to cost more money than a standard laptop, but not by a large margin. Looking forward to the new refresh!

  • Colin

    I am very interested in the Liquid Metal, and comparing it to other rumors sound plausible.
    Apple made a radicle change to it MacBook Pro’s a little while back with the uni-body design they currently use. The uni-body is a great leap in laptop case design, but must have a drawback regarding cost. The case is milled from a block of aluminum, which from what I understand is expensive since the machines that mill the blocks cost allot to purchase and maintain.
    Apple ran a little manufacturing test with Liquid Metal and the iPhone 3Gs. That little poker that ejects the SIM is not just a little paperclip, but a test by Apple to see if the company had the resources to pump out millions of these things in the time Apple demanded. Judging from what we hear in the press, the company was able to produce on par with Apple’s demands, so Apple invested in the company.
    Apple is not going to revert back to the old laptop case design since they have been so successful with the uni-body design and introducing a new technology is not needed since has yet too fully exploit the technology and other manufactures have yet to follow suit.
    My prediction is that Apple is going to build the uni-body out of Liquid Metal and skip the milling process. The cost savings on the milling should then get converted into savings on the overall product cost to the customer.
    Question for the smart people out there, is liquid metal capable of taking the role of the milled aluminum when you take into account weight, strength and heat transfer?

  • Apple Turnover

    It looks like I may finally retire my 2006 C2D 2.33 15″ MacBook Pro that has served me well over the years. I like the sound of LiquidMetal and a swappable drive is terrific. I changed my MacBook Pro’s hard drive for a larger capacity drive and it was easy enough, but a swappable drive makes the changeover much easier. Keep ‘em coming, Apple.

    • Michael H.

      I have the same machine — and you call swapping the drive easy enough? There were 42 screws, I counted!

      My C2D 2.33 / 3 GB / 320 GB disk machine has served me well enough, but I’d really like something beefier to deal with near-HD baby movies. A Sandy Bridge MBP — without Liquid Metal, that’s fine — is what I’m looking for. If they let me swap the optical drive for a physical HDD, that’s bonus, but I’m not counting on it.

  • ninja

    I’m most definitely buying one of these bad boys. I was previously going to invest in a 15 inch a couple months ago, but realized that a Macbook Pro upgrade was probably on it’s way. Glad I waited.

  • The Lorax

    You had me at “cheaper”. Need to stretch every dollar the way the economy is right now :).

  • trendtracker

    I’m not sure why speculation is running toward liquid metal for the case. Platinum is as expensive as gold and is the primary component in the resulting product.

    Smaller, interior parts parts? Sure.

    The whole CASE? Not unless you want to pay several hundred dollars more for your next MacBook.

  • dxr

    I couldn’t care less about liquidmetal. But the optional HDD drive has me very excited.

  • Reivax

    No liquid metal for me! I’ve seen T2, and the last thing I need is my laptop shooting a metal spike through my midriff.

    • minifi

      Haha, nice one. :D

  • .: taya :.

    Meh on the liquid metal casing. I don’t live in a thicket nor do I do my typing in the Amazon rain forest. Just give me a better resolution & OEM matte screen and the better battery on the 13″ MBP please. Ciao.

    p.s. Don’t forget the pentalobe screws Apple and do something about the cheapo cable rubber you switched to on all your Magsafe and white connector cables! Haha.

  • ben

    isn’t the liquidmetal mentioned in the article really expensive?

  • Gazoobee

    It’s worth noting that the only patent Apple has that specifically mentions liquid metal, (AFAIK) has them using it in a *battery* because of it’s specific chemical properties. Liquid metal is also (at least up till now if this is true), prohibitively expensive and thus only really used for teeny tiny things.

    Liquid metal is also not really lighter than any other metal, it’s only *stronger* than other metals for a given thickness. The idea is you can make really thin things out of it that are lighter because they are thin, but just as strong as they would be if they were thicker. So unless they can use injection moulding to get a *thinner* chassis than they can achieve through milling the aluminium as they currently do, it won’t be any lighter at all, in fact it will be somewhat heavier.

    I find it dubious that they could mould something thinner than the current aluminium parts. Liquid metal is more suited for organic shapes with some thickness to them and injection moulding is overall, less precise than milling.

    It seems like it would make more sense if this is a garbled rumour about new battery technology.

  • Slayer

    Swappable HD seems great, not sure about the liquid metal though. I know I’m not too excited about the Sandy Bridge processors either :/

    • Michael H.

      If you’re not too excited about the new processors, then you haven’t been reading the benchmarks I’ve been reading. Quoting Tom’s Hardware:

      “If this reference build that Intel sent us is representative of what we can expect to see from the entire mobile Sandy Bridge lineup, then we’re super stoked about what those low voltage and ultra-low voltage Core i7s should be able to deliver. If you’re in the market for a full-sized notebook, hold off until you can get your hands on a Sandy Bridge-based platform. You are going to get better performance, along with a substantial increase in battery life compared to Clarksfield/Arrandale-class processors.”

  • http://www.marioyohanes.com Mario

    Liquid metal? That’s a complete BS for full unibody laptop case.
    Swap-able optical? Yes please…
    Sandy Bridge? If they’re going to launch the new line up this March, I know i’m not going to buy it… Because the technology is defect, and launching on March also means Apple already produced all new MBP since like 6 months ago… So, you’re going ended up with defect SB.

    • http://www.patrickbregman.eu PatrickB

      You know this only affects the SATA300 ports? The 2 SATA600 ports are not affected by this, and there are only 2 connections used in (at least today’s) MacBook Pros. So this could very well work perfectly.

  • ScS

    I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a Liquidmetal laptop case. It is not only expensive, it’s very expensive. One of its components is platinum (@ $1380/oz). A 13″ laptop @ $1099….. do the math. Why do you think most of the products that contain Liquidmetal contain tiny components made of Liquidmetal? Do a search on the net and you will find the term “cost prohibitive” very closely associated with the material.

    • ScS

      Sorry, platinum @ $1830/oz.

  • Rohan

    I’m a fan of the current aluminium lineup. but this is what my dream machine would be:
    15 inch mbp
    core i7 sandy bridge
    8gb ram
    500gb flash memory or more
    thin casing, with a similar wedge shape as the macbook air. lighter aswell.
    no superdrive, dump it for more memory/ram/battery whatever. just hate the disc drive.
    nvidia discreete graphics, 512 – 1gb vram. all for around $2100.

    • Holly

      Sold!!

  • Nitesh

    “Since Liquidmetal is both stronger and lighter than aluminum, a Liquidmetal MacBook Pro could be up to 20% lighter than current models. That means the 13-inch Pro will weigh only 3.7 pounds (down from 4.5),while the 15-inch will slim down to 4.6 pounds (from 5.8) and the 17-inch to 5.3 pounds (from 6.6)”

    This is silly, its assuming 100% of the macbooks weight currently comes from the aluminum which is obviously false.

  • Ben

    “the 15- and 17-inch models are said to be gaining a modular bay for the optical drive, ”

    that’s not possible. Apple has been trying to shrink the macbook’s internals. Making the optical drive modular will only make it larger.

  • Troller

    lol fail!

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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