Leaked MacBook Pro Logic Board Indicates No Redesign This Year

Apple is either waiting for the next refresh to redesign the MacBook Pro, or the company is introducing new computer altogether this year, if we are to continue to believe the rumors that there will be a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a super-slim body and a Retina display.

Leaked on the same Chinese forum that posted the currently-inactive download links for iOS 6, these images depict an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics chip and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The photos indicate that Apple is giving the current MacBook Pro line a speed bump, not a major redesign, as previously rumored. The reasoning behind this assumption is that logic board is almost identical to the one found in current-generation Apple Pro laptops.

Should the company have excluded the optical disc drive to slim-down the chassis, the logic board would have been the first component to see a redesign.

However, financial analysts checking with Apple’s supply chain to give valuable advice to investors regarding Apple’s future plans with the notebook business indicate that Tim Cook may well unveil a completely new MacBook Pro this year.

There have been a lot of leaks pointing out to redesigned MacBook Pros with Retina displays this year. For the MacBook Pro to become thinner, the optical disc drive must be phased out. Apple made considerable efforts to streamline its notebook family, but the Pro is yet to adopt the ultra-thin design of the MacBook Air.

Leaving the design aside, Apple is still expected to include an entry level MacBook Pro with 2.3 GHz Core i7-3610QM or Core i7-3615QM processors.

For the 2.5 GHz spec, Apple can have the Ivy Bridge dual-core Core i5-3210M, which is also regarded as a low-end chip. At the high end, MacRumors speculates Apple will be going for the Core i7-3820QM, according to the leaked benchmarks we reported on last month.