There is no confirmation yet about the possible refresh of the MacBook Pro this year. Nevertheless, the rumors are rife that Apple will introduce a brand-new design for its high-level MacBook laptop. It appears that the company will continue its streak of unveiling radical hardware updates, if the latest leaked patent for the MacBook Pro 2018 is anything to go by. The patent shows that a major redesign of the Mac Pro can be expected, with a secondary organic light-emitting diode (OLED) taking the place of the physical keyboard and trackpad.
Apple has already begun shifting away from traditional design, starting with its iPhone lineup. Per Patently Apple, the Cupertino-based tech giant seems to be doing the same thing with the MacBook Pro this year. A patent filing for a certain MacBook reveals that the premium laptop will make use of a dual OLED display. The twist here is that the secondary touch-sensitive OLED panel will replace the keyboard an trackpad. If this turns out to be correct, it will be the most radical update yet not just for Apple's MacBook series but also for laptops in general.
Forbes speculates that Apple might be bold enough to introduce such drastic change in the MacBook Pro. The company did not hold back when it removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7 back in 2016. Likewise, Apple might have already laid the groundwork for a more radical MacBook Pro design when it included the Touch Bar to replace the function keys. In 2018, all other physical keys might be completely gone with OLED touchscreen taking their stead.
The suspected MacBook Pro 2018 patent has two possible designs for the laptop. The first design shows a dual-display panel separated by a hinge, with the secondary display functioning as the keyboard. The second design, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated as the secondary OLED panel serves as an accessory that can be attached to the laptop through a magnetic hinge. To avoid the glaring effect coming from the primary OLED display, the MacBook Pro 2018 is shown to have polariser layers on the secondary display.
