MacBook Pro 2016 Has a Maximum of 16GB RAM for Better Battery Life, Apple Says

As expected, the new MacBook Pro includes significant improvements. It sports an innovative Touch Bar, faster Skylake processors and SSDs, new thermal ecosystem, thinner form srtucture, and much more. However, the memory on the MacBook Pro 2016 again maxes out at 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM. Many users were questioning why this ceiling limit was not raised, and marketing Phil Schiller himself provided clarity on the subject.

A MacRumours reader mailed Apple about this, and was surprised to receive a reply from Schiller himself. He reasoned that an increase in RAM size on a notebook design would adversely affect battery life and cause overall inefficiency. "Thank you for the email. It is a good question. To put more than 16GB of fast RAM into a notebook design at this time would require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn't be efficient enough for a notebook. I hope you check out this new generation MacBook Pro, it really is an incredible system," Schiller replied on the mail, referring to the performance-energy ratio.

(Also see: MacBook Pro 2016 Is the Touchscreen Mac You've Always Wanted)

Notably, none of Apple's laptop range offers 32GB RAM option. Only the 27-inch iMac offers a 32GB RAM upgrade option on the high-end. The MacBook Pro comes with more horsepower than the original MacBook, and is aimed at thorough professionals who look for a little more in laptops. While average users should not have a problem from the MacBook Pro's 16GB RAM, the professional heavy-users may sometimes miss the absence of 32GB RAM during memory intensive tasks like 4K video encoding.

All the variants of the MacBook Pro are going to be available in India, however exact availability is not yet known. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is priced at Rs. 1,29,900, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID will be priced starting at Rs. 1,55,900 while the 15-inch model will start at Rs. 2,05,900.