Apple is expected to begin unveiling their M4 Mac lineup as soon as October, with updates to the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini to start off the new M4 transition. Although the event will probably be held in October, the new Macs might not ship until November.
16GB RAM as standard
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is likely to start shipping at least 16GB RAM on the new M4 Macs, including the base model 14” MacBook Pro, the new Mac mini, and the new iMac.
Apple has been shipping 8GB of RAM on its base model Macs for the past 8 years, so this is a pleasant change. It definitely makes sense with Apple Intelligence being more memory intensive on our devices.
Mac mini redesign
Recent reports have suggested that Apple’s upcoming Mac mini will be the biggest redesign in the computers 14 year history, with the upcoming model expected to shrink significantly. In the process, it’ll also likely lose support for USB-A, although it should gain some additional USB-C ports to make up for it.
While we don’t know a ton about what it’ll look like, it sure should be exciting, especially given the fact that it’s Apples cheapest Mac.
USB-C Magic Mouse, Keyboard, and Trackpad
Rumors point to there being a new iMac this fall, which opens the door to Apple finally refreshing all of the Magic accessories. Given the fact that Apple has to comply with the European Union’s USB-C mandate by the end of this year, it’s almost certain that we’ll be seeing goodbye to lightning on Apple’s desktop accessories with the new M4 iMac refresh.
Space Black on the cheapest MacBook Pro
Currently, Space Black is exclusive to the higher end M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros, and isn’t available on the base model M3 MacBook Pro. That computer unfortunately still comes in Space Gray. While this might seem like a deliberate choice, it could just be a matter of convenience.
Last year, when the new M3 MacBook Pro was released, it was discovered that they were running macOS Ventura out of the box, rather than the latest macOS Sonoma. This might not seem like much, but the M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros did run macOS Sonoma.
The fact that the base model M3 ran Ventura might suggest that the MacBooks were ready to ship earlier than the higher end models, but Apple just simply didn’t release them. This could explain why the base model still comes with the older Space Gray color, rather than being consistent.
Hopefully, that means we’ll see Space Black come to Apple’s cheapest M4 MacBook Pro.
Brand new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
Although we already saw the base model M4 chip debut in the iPad Pro back in May, we still haven’t seen Apple’s higher end chips, the M4 Pro and the M4 Max. Those chips should be making their debut for the very first time in the new higher end MacBook Pros later this year.
We don’t have concrete leaks on the M4 Pro and Max chips, other than the fact that they should be based on TSMC’s more efficient 3nm process, shared by the A18 and M4 chips. They’ll be faster as per usual, although there’s no word on the core counts at the moment.
Does the upcoming M4 Mac lineup excite you? Will you be buying one? Let us know in the comments.
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