CHANGES AHEAD
New MacBook Pros could come out this summer, followed by slew of others
Overhaul is in the works for a mix of Mac laptops and desktops.
Apple is preparing to release several new Mac laptops and desktops with faster processors, new designs and improved connectivity to external devices, accelerating the company’s effort to replace Intel chips and leapfrog rival PC makers.
The overhaul encompasses a broad range of Macs, including Apple’s higherend laptop, the MacBook Pro; the laptop aimed at the mass market, the MacBook Air; and its desktop computers, the Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini, according to people familiar with the matter.
Redesigned MacBook Pros are expected to debut as soon as early this summer, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter, followed by a revamped MacBook Air, a new low-end MacBook Pro and an allnew Mac Pro workstation. The company is also working on a higher-end Mac mini desktop and larger iMac. The machines will feature processors designed in-house that will greatly outpace the performance and capabilities of the current M1 chips, the people said.
Apple plans to launch the redesigned MacBook Pros in 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes. They’ll have a redesigned chassis, magnetic MagSafe charger and more ports for connecting external drives and devices. Apple is also bringing back the HDMI port and SD card slot, which it nixed in previous versions.
The Mac line of products has been a growing contributor to the company’s revenue, generating $9.1 billion in Apple’s January-March quarter.
Apple last fall started replacing Intel processors with M1 chips, based on the same technology in the iPhone and iPad. Those eat less power and let the Mac run the same apps as the mobile devices. Now more powerful iterations of the company’s silicon are coming to the Mac line. They’ll have more graphics and computing cores, boosting speeds for everyday tasks and such intensive work as video editing and programming.
For the new MacBook Pros, Apple is planning two different chips: Both include eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores but will be offered in either 16 or 32 graphics core variations.
The high-performance cores kick in for more complex jobs, while the energy-efficient cores operate at slower speeds for more basic needs such as web browsing, preserving battery life. The new chips differ from the M1’s design, which has four high-performance cores, four energy-efficient cores and eight graphics cores in the current 13inch MacBook Pro.
The chips also include up to 64 gigabytes of memory, versus a maximum of 16 on the M1. They’ll have an improved Neural Engine, which processes machine-learning tasks, and enable the addition of more Thunderbolt ports, which let users sync data and connect to external devices, than the two on the current M1 MacBook Pro.
This will be the first time professional Macs get in-house main processors; eventually the company will stop selling the high-end Intel MacBook Pros.
Apple has also been working on a more powerful version of the Mac mini with the same chip as the next MacBook Pro. It’s expected to have four ports versus the pair available on the current low-end version and to sit above the current entry-level M1 Mac Mini. Apple could delay or cancel the new mini’s launch — as it has in the past — but eventually the company will likely replace the Intel-equipped version it now sells.