MacBook Pro leak hints at redesigned keyboard, OLED function keys

MacBook Pro

There's been some more spillage on the MacBook Pro front with some leaked photos hitting the net, purportedly showing the incoming laptop's keyboard, and that it will have an OLED touchpad as previously rumored.

If you cast your eyes down a couple of paragraphs to gaze at the leaked snap which shows a top-down view of the keyboard, you'll see that there's a space above the keyboard which could potentially house the OLED touchpad (replacing the usual function keys which would normally be housed here).

The new touchpad will theoretically make life easier for MacBook Pro users, allowing them to customize different functions to various keys, so you could for example define one key to open a particular app you use a great deal.

The leaked images, which have apparently been sent to Cult of Mac by an employee of one of Apple's manufacturing partners over in China, also show that the laptop will have four USB Type-C ports, no less. These will be the only connectors present save for a headphone jack, at least assuming that these pictures are kosher.

MacBook Pro keyboard leak

Major changes

Apple is rumored to be making big changes to the next incarnation of the MacBook Pro, as KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (a solid source of Cupertino rumors) has previously suggested, including the introduction of Apple's new butterfly key switches (as seen in the 12-inch MacBook).

Ming-Chi Kuo also said that this year's laptop will benefit from Touch ID for extra security, although it's not clear where that could fit in looking at these images.

Kuo further stated that there would be a thinner design for the incoming MacBook Pro, although looking at Cult of Mac's pictures, it's not as thin as we were expecting (and indeed others, judging from the comments we've seen online today).

Still, this leak certainly seems authentic on the face of it, but as ever only time will tell.

Image Credit: Cult of Mac

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).