Apple's new MacBooks are displayed following an Apple event in San Francisco, California March 9, 2015.
Apple's new MacBooks are displayed following an Apple event in San Francisco, California March 9, 2015. Reuters/Robert Galbraith

The much awaited Apple MacBook Pro 2016 is rumoured to be released in September along with iPhone 7, while Surface Pro 5 is rumoured to be available in 2017. Both devices highlight new processors: MacBook Pro’s next generation of Skylake and Surface Pro’s Kaby Lake. Intel has confirmed Kaby Lake processors will be released around the end of 2016, leading to Surface Pro’s 2017 release speculation.

Physical design and display

Apple MacBook Pro 2016 is expected to be available in either a 13in or 15in screen model, similar to the current availability. The screens will feature a retina display with 2304 x 1440 resolution with the Skylake processor. The new MacBook is rumoured to have a much thinner and lighter design compared to the previous MacBook.

The butterfly mechanism physical function keys are reported to be replaced with an OLED display touch bar. MacBook Pro 2016 may also ditch the headphone jack like iPhone 7. This encouraged the speculations that the new Apple devices unveiled this year will all be featuring wireless capabilities.

Surface Pro 5 is expected to be available in a 13in screen model to compete with MacBook’s 13in screen size. There are no reports of Surface Pro 5 releasing a 15in screen model, but it is already ahead in terms of screen resolution.

Surface Pro 4 has already bumped up the Surface Pro’s 2160 x 1440 resolution to 2736 x 1824. Continuing this trend, Microsoft may increase Surface Pro 5’s resolution to the 3k or even 4k mark with the new Kaby Lake processor.

Specs and performance

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 already utilises the Skylake processors, which run at 2.2GHz up to 3.4Ghz when in Turbo Boost. Apple MacBook Pro 2016 will most likely feature the Skylake m3-powered fanless model.

However, the Skylake m3 runs at 2.2 GHz at peak, placing the new MacBook Pro behind in processor speed. Speculations are that a new gen Skylake processor will feature high processing speed while keeping it fanless.

Surface Pro 5’s featured Kaby Lake processor will outperform the current Skylake by a good margin. The only downside is that the Surface Pro 5 will only be released following the processor’s release.

The Kaby Lake processor was reported to feature improved 3D graphics and 4k video playback. The processor also removes the need for a third party chip to provide USB 3.1 ports. Microsoft confirmed on Jan. 15 that the new processors will only be supported by Windows 10 OS.

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