Mini LED 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro production begins
Apple's rumored mini LED-equipped 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are getting closer to launch, with suppliers said to be starting volume production.

Rumors have put forward the idea that Apple will be bringing out a version of the MacBook Pro with a mini LED-backlit display, incorporating the technology used in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro screen. In a supply chain report, it seems the rumors are coming true.
According to supply chain sources of Digitimes, volume production for the new MacBook Pro has commenced, and in high quantities. Monthly shipments of the notebooks are anticipated to be between 600,000 and 800,000 units per month between August and November.
Mini LED is likely to be beneficial to Mac users as a backlighting system, with a number of benefits. By using thousands of mini LED backlights instead of a smaller number of LEDs, Apple can have more control over the backlight's illumination patterns, enabling contrast ratios of up to 1 million to 1, better HDR support, and improved color representation.
The start of volume production in August certainly coincides with Apple's usual fall product launches, as releases usually arrive a few months after production commences.
While Digitimes has a good track record when it comes to the supply chain and production scheduling, it's weaker on product feature reports. However, the quantity of rumors about mini LED certainly lends weight to mini LED arriving in new MacBook Pro models.
In June, it was believed that there were shortages in mini LED production that could impact MacBook Pro production, but it seems that it has been resolved.
Depending on the rumors, Apple is believed to be bringing out a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a 16-inch MacBook Pro before the end of 2021. Along with mini LED backlighting, the models could include features like an M1 or M1X chip, an improved 1080p webcam, MagSafe, and even a return of previously-removed ports.
Read on AppleInsider

Rumors have put forward the idea that Apple will be bringing out a version of the MacBook Pro with a mini LED-backlit display, incorporating the technology used in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro screen. In a supply chain report, it seems the rumors are coming true.
According to supply chain sources of Digitimes, volume production for the new MacBook Pro has commenced, and in high quantities. Monthly shipments of the notebooks are anticipated to be between 600,000 and 800,000 units per month between August and November.
Mini LED is likely to be beneficial to Mac users as a backlighting system, with a number of benefits. By using thousands of mini LED backlights instead of a smaller number of LEDs, Apple can have more control over the backlight's illumination patterns, enabling contrast ratios of up to 1 million to 1, better HDR support, and improved color representation.
The start of volume production in August certainly coincides with Apple's usual fall product launches, as releases usually arrive a few months after production commences.
While Digitimes has a good track record when it comes to the supply chain and production scheduling, it's weaker on product feature reports. However, the quantity of rumors about mini LED certainly lends weight to mini LED arriving in new MacBook Pro models.
In June, it was believed that there were shortages in mini LED production that could impact MacBook Pro production, but it seems that it has been resolved.
Depending on the rumors, Apple is believed to be bringing out a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a 16-inch MacBook Pro before the end of 2021. Along with mini LED backlighting, the models could include features like an M1 or M1X chip, an improved 1080p webcam, MagSafe, and even a return of previously-removed ports.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
might be hard to do M2 if the next iPhone chip isn’t released yet. It is interesting that we haven’t heard any rumours about that SOC yet.
I'm thinking the M1x units should be pretty kick ass, especially when equipped with up to 32 GPU cores.
TBH, I could live with even an M1 based unit with 16GB with mini-LED since I'm doing my heavy lifting with a loaded 2020 iMac 5K - but if rumors are true, I'd want a 16" with 32 GPU cores, 32 GB RAM, and 2 TB SSD.
A lot of the RAM of an x86 model is used for buffering between the CPU and GPU, and a unified memory model should be much more efficient in processing graphics with no need to shuttle data between the CPU and GPU where x86 models burn up a lot of their resources.
A production run of 600-800K units per month with release expected a few months later?
Just how many of these puppies will they need to have stockpiled before release - and just what do they expect pent up demand to be?
Apple silicon is already exceeding most of the competition with only their first generation SOC. They are going to be leaving the others way behind with subsequent generations. Intel must be panicking.
I’m really hoping these rumors are true - there’s a 16” MBP in my future this fall if they are!
Current slate of products coming: iPhone 13, new AirPods, Watch S7, Mackbook Pro line, ?new iPad Mini?, big OS updates. That's a lot to deliver within a couple months when they are reporting shortages.
But if (a big if) Apple can deliver higher performance MBPs with mini LEDs and M1X/M2 performance? My guess is they'll want to have very substantial build numbers, as well as on Watch and on iPhone 13. The potential for a monster Q1 if spec rumors are true and build numbers can meet demand.
I only seem to get these surveys close to new product releases I think they are trying to tease me.
You can quote TFLOPS numbers all day, but the x86 graphics subsystem runs on memory copies between the CPU and a graphics coprocessor memory partitions for integrated graphics - or compressing and transferring data across the PCIe bus for a discrete GPU. Those block transfers really eat away at your graphics subsystem efficiency. If the M1x units run with unified memory, the graphics subsystem can dispatch work units to graphics cores where they can do rendering steps in tile memory, and will not have to pass data back and forth because both CPU and GPU cores share unified memory - that's why the eight measly cores in the M1 can perform so well even against some dedicated GPUs.
According to rumor, M1x boosts the number of GPU cores from 8 to 16 or 32, which doubles or quadruples the graphics processing power.
Chances are Apple will stick with PCIe SSD - hopefully on a daughter card so if it goes bad it can be replaced without need for a mother board replacement.
That's why I got 4 TB SSD on my 2020 iMac 5K - because it was rumored to live on a daughter card.
It'll be interesting to see what battery life is like - mini-LED will probably eat more power, but the M1x SoC should use a lot less power than an x86 CPU and discrete GPU.
I wonder if Apple will play with the clocks since the 16" should have more cooling capacity.
All in all, I think this kind of individuals and real criminals might already be prepared to go around this kind of steps, so it’s the rest of us who suffer the loss of privacy. Even if it’s an automatic process. There might still be false positives which leads to someone seeing something that is private and trust their discretion.
I will research more into this and will make a more informed decision, their next MacBook Pros are what I’ve been looking to upgrade to. This was not a thing I wanted to consider when buying, and it sucks.
PS: could you please provide links to places you’ve used to familiarize yourself on this?