[ad_1]
Bloomberg reported on Monday Apple is planning to overhaul its entire laptop line. This is exactly the kind of rumor you don’t want to spread during the week between the announcement of the new MacBook Pro and its launch. A deeper dive reveals that the planned renovation is coming sometime in 2026.
This is still just a rumor/early report, which means it may not happen in this time frame – if it actually happens at all. A lot can change in a year and a half, especially in the world of consumer electronics. But not much has changed since Apple’s premium laptop launched this time last year.
In fact, the MacBook Pro versions now look a bit like a watch. It’s an annual ritual centered around the arrival of a new chipset, not unlike the iPhone release schedule. There’s no guarantee that Apple will continue the current release cadence of the M series chips, but it seems to be working well for the company so far.
Apple has a lot to do for itself if it plans to deliver iPhones and MacBooks that are “the thinnest and lightest in their category across the entire tech industry,” the report notes. The M series provided a much-needed shot in the arm, making the last few generations of MacBooks not just the most powerful, but the best the company has ever offered.
Efficiency delivered via Apple Silicon is at the heart of the new Mac Mini overall, allowing the company to significantly shrink the size of its desktop. The question isn’t whether the M Series will actually thin the line; This seems obvious. But what is less clear is whether sacrifices will be required.
For one thing, the processing power in Apple’s Pro line has thus far required the inclusion of a fan — something now absent from the Air. On the other hand, battery life is now a feature. I’m old enough to remember when live blogging an event required me to transport an external battery. These days, I don’t even need to think about plugging in my MacBook Air during a cross-country flight — which is great, because Delta’s seatback power outlets are, and always will be, a disaster.
Apple evaluates new professionals 24 hours a day for a fee. If Apple wanted to sacrifice a full day of battery life in order to make the laptop thinner, it would have to rip it out of my cold, dead hands.
The question of buy now or wait for the next upgrade will forever loom large in major consumer electronics purchases; That’s just the nature of the annual release cycle. However, early rumors of a big upgrade arriving sometime in 2026 shouldn’t move the compass too much for those wondering whether to pull the trigger today. This time next year it may be a different story.
MacBook Pro vs Air
For now, buying advice remains largely unchanged compared to the past several years. If you’ve budgeted for a MacBook Pro, now is a good time to get it. The updated M4 chipset delivers good performance gains over last year, as the line continues to evolve and improve.
The MacBook Air is still the best choice for the vast majority of users. They’re less expensive, lightweight, and the performance differences are largely negligible for most non-professional tasks. The Air’s base RAM has been increased to 16GB, but the line remains the same.
They’re still using the M3 chip, and that’s unlikely to change this year. If Apple Intelligence is a key factor in your purchasing decisions, know that the new features will be compatible with any M-series Mac, which now covers four years of laptops.
There’s a reason that a lot of the press around Pro involves things like 3D animation, music production, and resource-intensive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) endeavors. At a certain point, the improved performance on the top end has little impact on most users. This does not mean that such updates are not welcome, of course. For those who work in the field of video editing or science, for example, such achievements can significantly reduce the time required to perform such tasks.
“There’s never been a better time to upgrade,” Apple’s website notes. This may be true in the sense that these devices are constantly improving. But it is less important when assessing how dramatically the line has transformed from generation to generation. From this perspective, the switch from Intel to M1 was much more significant.
It’s also true that upgrade cycles are generally longer for laptops than for smartphones, averaging five and three years respectively. Obviously Apple, like any other hardware company, would love for you to upgrade more often, but you’re a good guy who’s interested in e-waste, not money.
M4 win
By default, Apple compares the performance of the new M4 with the latest generation of Intel Mac processors, released in 2019. With dropdown Which also features M1 models. That’s fair enough, given the laptop’s record-breaking lifespan — in fact, it may be overly optimistic on Apple’s part.
The company says the new M4 line is up to 9.8x faster than Intel models and up to 3.5x faster than the M1 Pro and M1 Max. For its own purposes, Apple used an M4 chip with a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, and 32GB of RAM. Testing involved using the scene editing detection feature in Adobe Premier 2024 on a 3.5-minute clip. Your results will almost certainly vary based on your hardware configuration, system settings, and the specific task.
The model Apple sent to TechCrunch for review purposes is a 16-inch M4 Pro with a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 48GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage. The laptop is priced at $3,649 as configured. That’s $1,150 more than the base 16-inch M4 Pro model and $2,050 more than the base 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro model. However, this puts the review model in the middle of the pack, price-wise. If you really want to go all-in, the 16-inch Pro with nano-texture display, M4 Max with 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 128GB of memory, and 8TB of storage will set you back $7,379.
Some things to keep in mind when selecting your system. First, the 14-inch MacBook Pro is available in M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. The 16-inch model only comes in M4 Pro and M4 Max flavours. At the moment, these are the only MacBooks that have the M4 chipset at the moment. The iPad Pro was the first model to have the processor, and the MacBook Air probably wasn’t will No – get the upgrade in 2024.
You can find the full list of differences between M4 models here. The long and short of it is the number of available CPU and GPU cores (the AI-focused Neural Engine is 16 cores across all modes) and memory bandwidth speeds. Memory bandwidth is more or less what it sounds like: the speed at which data can be read or written to memory by the processor. The range here is 120 GB/s up to 410 GB/s.
Another major difference between the chips is Thunderbolt support. The M4 supports Thunderbolt 4, with speeds up to 40 Gbps. The M4 Pro and Max are the first Apple chipsets to support Thunderbolt 5 at up to three times the speed. For most, this will serve as protection for the future. The simple fact is that if you don’t know which generation Thunderbolt cables and accessories support, it’s almost certainly not 5.
All three chips are more than capable of doing everything the vast majority of us do on our systems, day in and day out. Aside from the improved graphics processing for gaming, it’s hard to recommend the price increase that comes with the Pro and Max models for most users. In fact, it’s also difficult to recommend the MacBook Pro over the Air for most of us. Even without the upgrade to the M4, the Air is still the best MacBook for most people.
The one upgrade option I’m surprised I haven’t seen more people mention is adding a nano-textured display for the first time ever on a MacBook. apple notes,
The new MacBook Pro introduces an all-new nano-texture display option that dramatically reduces glare and distortion caused by reflections. In bright conditions, the new MacBook Pro can now display SDR content at up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness and still display HDR content at up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness. Together, it’s a game-changing experience for outdoor users.
Simply put: If you’re buying a new Pro and plan to never leave the house, spend the extra $150. I currently have two studio displays on my desktop. One is made of nano material, the other is not. It makes a huge difference, even indoors. In fact, at one point I rearranged the two screens in such a way as to reduce glare from the single window in the room.
The glossy displays on Macs are one of those things we’ve complained about for years, but at some point, many of us felt jaded by Apple’s refusal to offer an alternative over the years. I gave up on the idea years ago. Now that it’s available, I plan on getting it for any MacBook I get from now on. Working outside a few times a week is a great way to break up the monotony of office work.
MacBook tank
Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been carrying the 15-inch Air since my review back in March, but the 16-inch Pro is a strange tank. At 4.7 pounds, it’s 1.3 pounds heavier than the 14-inch Pro and 1.4 pounds heavier than the 15-inch Air. The overall footprint is naturally larger, given the difference in screen sizes, but the 16-inch is noticeably thicker too, at 0.66 inches thick, 0.05 inches thicker than the 14-inch Pro, and 0.21 inches thicker than the Air Size 15 inches.
That last part is thanks, in large part, to the Air’s somewhat lack of a cooling fan. Because of this, the air will stifle performance. Some people may find themselves turning on the fan while gaming. Otherwise it won’t make much difference for most users.
Ultimately, the 16-inch Pro is spiritually in line with what were previously referred to as “desktop alternatives.” If you often find yourself working outside the office, it can be difficult to move around. However, if you’re looking for something with near-desktop specs and a bit of flexibility, the Pro is closer to that sweet spot.
Ports continue to be a differentiator between classes. The Pro has three Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and an SD slot, while the Air only has a pair of USB-C ports. More ports are generally better, and it’s great to see Apple continuing to include an SD reader on the laptop.
Both the M4 and M4 Pro chips support two external displays with up to 6K at 60Hz, one 8K at 60Hz or one 4K at 240Hz. Upgrading to the M4 Max provides support for up to three 6K at 60Hz displays or one 6K at 60Hz display plus one 4K at 240Hz display.
Time to upgrade?
The annual MacBook upgrade cycle means there’s not a lot of daylight between this year’s model and the previous one. There’s little reason to have FOMO if you have any of the M-series models. The models released over the past four years have been among the best laptops Apple has ever released, due to a combination of first-party silicon, product design, and overall responsiveness. For consumer requests and complaints.
It’s unclear what an update to the 2026 line might bring, but for now, the M3 Air is still the best MacBook for most people. If money and back pain are no object, the M4 or Pros series are a beast.
[ad_2]