With the surprising announcement of the M4 chip for the new OLED iPad Pro, Apple declares the end of the M3 processor family by focusing on this new era. However, it means Cupertino needs to start updating all its MacBook and Mac models with the M4 chip. Here’s when these devices might get a refresh.
Is the M4 chip any good? How will it impact a new MacBook?
So far, the only Apple device you can get the M4 chip is the new OLED iPad Pro. Unlike the M3 processor, this new one uses the second-generation 3nm technology, which is more power efficient and solves an overheating problem iPhone users experience with the A17 Pro while improving CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine power.
According to Apple, the M4 chip has a powerful new CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, with next-gen ML generators. Up to 50% faster CPU compared to M2. With a 10-core GPU, it offers Dynamic Caching and hardware ray tracing. M4 can deliver the same performance as the M2 with just half the power. The Neural Engine comes with a 16-core design, with up to 38 trillion operations per second. It’s 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine.
M4 MacBook and Mac models’ release date
Knowing that the M4 MacBook will be a huge improvement, especially for those with an M1 Mac or older models, expect a release date for M4 Macs starting later this year, more specifically around November. Although it’s unclear if Apple will hold a keynote, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is the only talking about Apple’s new Mac calendar. Here’s what we know.
- MacBook Pro: Later this year, Apple will unveil the variants of the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max for its low-end and high-end MacBook Pro models
- Mac mini: Later this year, with M4 and M4 Pro variants, and a redesign, more similar to an Apple TV
- iMac: Later this year, with the M4 chip
- MacBook Air: Similar to the M3 models, the release date for the M4 MacBook Air, in 13-inch and 15-inch options, is expected for spring of 2025
- Mac Studio: While it seems Apple will skip the M3 Ultra, it means a new Mac Studio might not be announced during WWDC 2024; that said, expect an M4 Max and M4 Ultra options in mid-2025
- Mac Pro: Gurman thinks the release date for the M4 Mac Pro will be in late 2025.
The journalist says Apple plans to “highlight the AI processing capabilities of the components and how they’ll integrate with the next version of macOS” 15.
Gurman also reports that Apple plans to “beef up” the Mac mini as customers complain about the specifications available on current models. It seems 16GB of RAM might be the minimum for all M4 Macs. On the other hand, high-end Mac desktops could support up to 512GB of memory, while current Mac Studio and Mac Pro top out at 192GB.
Apple Intelligence will be key for M4 Macs
Apple plans to release its Apple Intelligence platform with macOS Sequoia 15.1. So far, these are the features available with the beta:
- Clean Up: This Photos app feature can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject
- Summarization: Apple Intelligence can now summarize more than just Messages and Mail notifications
- Writing Tools: Users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps
- Improved Siri: With a new design, Siri can maintain context between requests. Even if you stumble over words or shift what you’re saying mid-sentence, Siri can understand what you actually want.
- Priority notifications: They appear at the top of the stack, letting you know what to pay attention to at a glance. Notifications are summarized, so you can scan them faster.
- Priority messages in Mail: Elevate time-sensitive messages to the top of your inbox, like an invitation that has a deadline today or a check-in reminder for your flight this afternoon.
- Reduce interruptions: With iOS 18.1 beta 1, an all-new Focus Mode understands the content of your notifications and shows you the ones that might need immediate attention, like a text about picking up your child from daycare later today.
- Email summarization: Tap to reveal a summary of a long email in the Mail app and cut to the chase.
- Record and transcribe calls in the Notes app: Just hit record in the Notes or Phone apps to capture audio recordings and transcripts. Apple Intelligence generates summaries of your transcripts, so you can get to the most important information at a glance.
- Smart Reply in Mail: Quickly draft an email response with all the right details. Apple Intelligence can identify the question you were asked in an email and offer relevant selections to include in your response.
