Minor MacBook Pro Retina update possible Tuesday -- report

Apple's MacBook Pro Retina, which was last updated last year, may be getting a small refresh, an image out of China suggests.

Over the weekend, someone apparently snapped a photo of a promotional board at an Apple store in China showing updated specs on the company's MacBook Pro Retina model. After the photo surfaced and was subsequently posted to Apple rumor sites, there was speculation that the update, if real, would come on Monday.

France-based site MacG.co, however, is reporting that the refresh is now coming on Tuesday. The site claims to have confirmed that Apple will update the MacBook Pro on Tuesday, but it did not say how the updates were confirmed.

Apple's MacBook Pro Retina line was updated last year and comes in 13- and 15-inch models. The standard models feature 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processors. The high end offers 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7s. Prices range from $1,299 for the low-end 13-inch version to $2,599 for the high-end 15-inch model.

If the MacBook Pro Retinas are updated on Tuesday, the upgrades would be modest. According to the image and the report from MacG, there would be only a 200MHz clock speed boost and an increase in RAM across the range. Apple would also upgrade the highest-end model to 1TB of storage.

Whether Apple will actually update the MacBook Pro Retina on Tuesday remains to be seen. The company often starts to dwindle its stock, and online retailers often show computers as out of stock around the time Apple gets ready to release new hardware. As of this writing, CNET has confirmed that the MacBook Pro Retina is still widely available in its current form. It's also worth noting that the image has yet to be verified, and it's not clear whether the information in it is true. In other words, take everything we've heard so far with a grain of salt.

CNET has contacted Apple for comment on the report. We will update this story when we have more information.

(Via Macrumors)