Last week, Apple dropped a seriously heavy hint that new Macs are indeed about to arrive – multiple Mac-related revelations are expected over the course of this week, likely consecutive launches over the next few days, starting today – and we’ve heard more about the spec of the purported M4-toting machines that are inbound.
Mark Gurman brings fresh rumors about the M4 Macs in the leaker’s latest newsletter for Bloomberg, and there’s exciting news about the entry-level MacBook Pro.
Firstly, we’re told that of the two M4 chips currently powering the iPad Pro (launched earlier this year), only the 10-core CPU (with 10-core GPU) will be in the base-level MacBook Pro models. So, the other CPU (a slightly weaker spin with a 9-core CPU, plus 10-core GPU) may be in the (also rumored) Mac mini or iMac, but not Apple’s new laptops (take all of this with seasoning, but Gurman seems fairly confident in his assertions at this point).
The even better news the leaker imparts is that “at least some low-end Macs” will likely come with 16GB of Unified Memory as minimum, and our guess – as previous churning from the rumor mill indicates – is that this means the MacBook Pro 14-inch will have 16GB with the entry-level model. We can expect low and high-end MacBook Pro 14-inch models, and a new MacBook Pro 16-inch, Gurman notes (as the leaker has previously said), including ‘higher-end’ M4 flavors (M4 Pro and presumably M4 Max).
Gurman also tells us that we’re getting an iMac 24-inch with vanilla M4, and two spins on a redesigned Mac mini (featuring a choice of the vanilla M4 and M4 Pro chips). As already rumored, it’s going to be an even more compact Mac mini, with two ports on the front, and with some versions there’ll be three connectors on the back (five ports in total).
The leaker further notes that the iMac 24-inch getting a relatively swift refresh to the M4 – compared to the gap between the M1 and M3 versions of the all-in-one – shows how important the new chip is to Apple. Mainly because the M4 is key in complementing Apple Intelligence, with its AI prowess being considerably peppier (the M4 sports 38 TOPS – a measurement of AI acceleration power – compared to 18 TOPS in the M3 chip).
Analysis: M4 for all Macs as part of the big AI drive
All Macs are getting the M4 treatment because of this focus on AI and driving ahead with Apple Intelligence, and that does make sense. (Early in 2025, probably in Q1 Gurman believes, we’ll see a MacBook Air with M4, and Mac Studio and Mac Pro M4 models will purportedly follow later next year – maybe in Q2, then Q3 of 2025 respectively).
The M4 will clearly be a significant leap for AI processing power, and also for gaming, Gurman says, even though the gains over the M3 will be “noticeable but not stunning” on an overall level. In other words, an upgrade from the M3 may not be hugely compelling, but coming from the M1, the performance boost will be as significant as when Apple first switched to its M series CPUs from Intel machines, Gurman observes.
It all sounds quite promising then, especially if Apple can load up the MacBook Pro 14-inch entry-level with 16GB of RAM – though Gurman appears to pour cold water on the idea of all Macs having 16GB as a baseline for Unified Memory.
Apple Intelligence can run with 8GB of memory, the leaker notes (as seen with the iPad Pro), but given that the AI feature uses up a fair bit of RAM, that could leave a Mac lean for other apps – and it’s also lacking for future-proofing to boot – so surely 16GB at this point is a bare minimum for a Pro-targeted laptop? The question is: will this make the entry-level MacBook Pro 14-inch considerably more expensive? We hope not.
We might see new Macs as early as later today, and the most high-profile reveal is surely the MacBook Pro M4, so it’d make some sense to either start – or finish – with those laptops. In just a number of hours, then, we might know everything about the new MacBook Pros – or perhaps the new iMac 24-inch if Apple goes in reverse order of importance.
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