New 15-Inch MacBook Pro Will Have Retina Display, Ultra-Thin Design [RUMOR]

The new, 15-inch MacBook Pro will be a significant departure from the current design, with a retina display and an ultra-thin profile, 9to5Mac claims citing sources from Apple‘s supply chain. It will be so thin, in fact, that it won’t have room for an optical drive, just like its lightweight cousin MacBook Air. Other design changes include a power button on the keyboard itself (replacing the eject button) and, possibly, the lack of an Ethernet port (replaced by an extra Thunderbolt port). The MacBook Pro’s new Retina display is described as “definitely the most important Mac innovation in years” by the sources who’ve handled a prototype of the device. The specifics are unknown, but users should be able to choose between several Retina resolution modes.

Finally, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro will have USB 3.0 support, and the latest Ivy Bridge processors from Intel are a safe bet, too.

If these rumors are true, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro might be one of the most important MacBook devices to see the light of day in recent years.

How do you like these specifications? What do you think about a 15-inch MacBook Pro without an optical drive? Share your opinions in the comments.