Will Next MacBook Pros Take Apple Laptops Back To Black With Carbon Fiber Cases?

The latest rumor buzz du jour is that completely new MacBook Pro case designs are in the works, and what with Apple recently advertising for and hiring a carbon-composite engineering materials constructon expert, it’s not hard to draw the inference that Apple is fixing to use carbon fiber as an enclosure material to replace the aluminum used in the current MacBook Pros.

PC Mag’s Cisco Cheng observes that at 4.5 pounds the 13″ MacBook Pro is one of the heaviest 13-inch laptops on the market. Some of us consider that a tolerable trade-off for the 13″ Pro’s tank-like ruggedness and case rigidity, but competitors like the Sony Vaio VPC-Z1390X cited by Cheng which uses carbon fiber in its construction, weighs just 3 lbs with a built-in optical drive.

On the other hand, while carbon fiber is light and strong, the proverbial jury is still out as to whether it’s more durable than a solid slab of aluminum, and then there’s the cost issue. Carbon fiber is nothing if not astronomically expensive.

Apple Gazette says that the design for an all-new MacBook Pro product family is already under development at Apple’s longtime laptop manufacturing subcontractor and engineering collaborator Quanta in Taiwan, and suggests that the next generation Pros may lose their internal optical drive, substituting spacious flash storage which would facilitate a thinner enclosure, and that while Apple may retain unibody case/chassis design it could turn to be made from a different material like carbon fiber.

AppleBitch’s Lucy riffs on the new rumors suggesting that the MacBook Pro will get a dramatic makeover with its next generation design expected to debut sometime in 2012. Lucy agrees that it’s it possible Apple will go with carbon fiber for the new MacBook Pro, which would reduce weight whilst retaining durability and toughness.

I dunno. Carbon fiber sound plausible, but aluminum unibody has a lot to recommend it too, and the MacBook Air proves that you can make light laptops in aluminum. We await more information on this one